Additional educational program for preparatory courses “Getting ready for education in Russia”. Form of education: extramural, using Distant Learning Technologies. Academic program “Getting ready for education in Russia” is based on the standard educational program for foreign students of preparatory faculties and departments of higher educational institutions and the RF Ministry of Education and Science Order No. 1304 of October 3, 2014 “On approving the requirements for completing additional professional educational programs ensuring preparation of foreign citizens and stateless persons for the completion of professional educational programs in the Russian Language”. It includes materials which meet the requirements of the initial period of the module of the general language command at the minimum level of communicational adequacy.

The model of developing the foreign student’s verbal aptitude according to the educational program includes:

• using the Russian language as a means of communication on the communicative level in the area of everyday communication;
• teaching language activities (listening, dialogical and monologic speech, reading, writing and speaking) and forming corresponding skills;
• using the lexical minimum of the level of communicational adequacy which consists of 5,100 units from everyday, sociocultural, business, and academic areas of communication.

Total workload of learning – 220 hours.

This educational program includes the following aspects: vocabulary and grammar, syntax, reading, speaking, listening and writing.

Goals and objectives of the program

The goal of this course is to build knowledge, ability and skills of the language which form the necessary basis for successful communication within the Russian language environment and allow students to prepare for professional activity in the Russian language.

The main objectives of this course are to:

1. Form phonetic comprehension and develop correct pronunciation.
2. Master foundational lexical minimum and communicational models on topics which are defined by the program.
3. Learn about essential grammatical rules in the section “Morphology”, ways of expressing semantical-grammatical dependence in the Russian language and types of sentences in the section “Syntax”.
4. Build knowledge about the language system.
5. Develop students' verbal and communicational skills of speaking, reading and writing.

Content of the program:

Phonetics. Sounds. Letters. Graphics. Stress. Sounds formation. Alphabet. Syllables and syllabic division. Concept of a syllable. Lexis. Vocabulary of the language. Synonyms. Antonyms. Homonyms. Lexical meaning of words. Dictionaries. Grammar. Noun. Gender. Meaning and functions of cases. Adjective. Degrees of comparison. Verb. Aspect, tense. Functions of verbs. Verb conjugation. Numeral. Types of numerals by meaning. Functions of numerals. Adverb. Functions, types by meaning. Auxiliary parts of speech: preposition, conjunction, particle.

Sentence. Text. Types of sentences by intonations, purpose of speech. Simple and complex sentence. Types of complex sentences: compound, complex, conjunctionless sentences. Sentences with direct speech. Types of text.

Reading. The ability to read focusing on the general content of the text; find the topic of the text; understand fully and accurately the main information of the text as well as some details bearing important meaning. Type of reading: reading focusing on the general content of the text, reading for detail. Types of text: specifically composed or adapted narrative texts (based on lexical-grammatical material corresponding to the elementary level). Themes of text: relevant for everyday, sociocultural and educational areas of communication.

Writing. The ability to make a written text of a reproductive-productive type on a suggested topic according to the communicative aim and based on questions.; written text of a reproductive type based on the read text in accordance with the communicative aim. Type of text: specifically composed or adapted narrative texts based on lexical-grammatical material corresponding to the elementary level). Presented text volume: up to 200 words.

Speaking. Monologic speech. The ability to produce connected utterances according to the suggested topic and communicative aim; to build monologic utterance of a reproductive type based on the previously read text. Volume of an utterance on the topic: not less than 7 phrases. Type of text: specifically composed or adapted narrative texts built based on the lexical-grammatical material corresponding to the elementary level. Text volume: 150-200 words.

Dialogical speech. The ability to understand utterances of the interlocutor, identify communicative intentions within the minimal amount of communicative situations; to adequately react to interlocutor’s utterances; to initiate a dialogue, express communicative intentions within the minimal amount of communicative situations. Utterances must be arranged according to the norms of the modern Russian language including the accepted, socially induced norms of speaking etiquette.