2020/2021

English for Specific Purposes. History of Art - 1

Type: Optional course

Delivered by: School of Foreign Languages

When: 1, 2 module

Instructors: Marina Chashko

Language: English

ECTS credits: 3

Contact hours: 56

Course Syllabus

Abstract

The discipline refers to the variable educational tracks offered to students of the curricula for bachelor's and master's degree at choice while mastering the optional course of English in accordance with the Concept of developing English-speaking communicative competence of students of Higher School of Economics — National Research University https://www.hse.ru/docs/381549301.html The course “English for Specific Purposes (History of Art)”-1 is designed for the 1st year Undergraduate (BA) students that study History of Art. The course adheres to the "Regulations for Interim and Ongoing Assessments of Students at National Research University Higher School of Economics and the "Conception of the development of students’ English communicative competence". The main goal of this course is to develop students’ professional intercultural communicative competence (PICC) that is referred to as the “integrative ability of solving professional tasks with the help of foreign language”. The types of learning activities, methods of instruction and the materials of the course enable to model social and professional context of the future graduates’ career paths in the field of Art and engage students into the process of using English as a tool of solving professional tasks while developing their hard and transferrable skills, cultivating ability to analyze and think critically, work with different types of information autonomously, cooperate with others, set goals, create new products, work on projects and reflect on their own experience. The course supports guided and autonomous learning engaging on-line/distance learning sources, develops professionally valuable skills and competences and provides tools for undertaking life-long learning activities. Pre-requisites: • intermediate level of the English language (B2 level / Independent user according to CEFR): According to the HSE unified “Conception of the development of students’ English communicative competence” students should either successfully pass the Placement Test with not lower than B2 level result or possess a Certificate for the appropriate level of one of the international English language tests listed in the Annex 3 to the HSE Conception to be able to take this course.

Learning Objectives

• The course is aimed at developing BA History of Art students’ professional intercultural communicative competence (PICC) that is referred to as the “integrative ability of solving professional tasks with the help of foreign language” . Development of the PICC, as an integrative goal of this course, ensures plunging students as active participants into the process of solving a variety of professionally-oriented tasks with the help of the English language that model a broad diverse social and (quasi-)professional context of their future career paths.
• • provides an opportunity to discover various genres, formats, strategies, purposes and means of learning and narrating about the History of Art, as well as describing and interpreting art works of different styles and periods, creating and presenting art-related projects in English using Information and Communications technology (ICT);
• • gives a chance to work with different sources and types of information for finding new solutions to the existing problems and designing innovative creative and personally meaningful research, educational and professional projects related to their future professional field;
• • practices analytical and critical thinking skills;
• • helps acquire an ability to cooperate in a team and work autonomously;
• • enables to reflect on their own and their team work and experience;
• • develops problem solving skills and creativity.

Expected Learning Outcomes

• Students should be prepared: • to work with ideas and concepts related to the art field individually and in a team using the brainstorming, formulating, refining, adapting, arguing, debating, supporting, transforming etc. strategies;
• • to work with sources and different types of information about art: - searching and finding relevant info; - identifying, analyzing and evaluating the sources (including e-sources);
• - extracting, organizing and completing the information according to the given task using the strategies of predicting, prioritizing, identifying the general and specific (detailed), key and additional info, recognizing relevant/irrelevant, major and supporting facts, opinions, arguments etc., differentiating between narration, description and reasoning;
• • to formulate and express the ideas based on the analysis of the facts / concepts / ideas / opinions etc. about art in oral and written form;
• • to integrate smartly the learned theories, concepts, terms and definitions from the professional context into the speech.
• Students should be prepared: • to find, read, analyse and explain different formats and structures of the descriptions of art objects and apply them according to the given quasiprofessional task;
• • to create description of the main characteristics of an art object (an element of the subject-matter, a formal element, a principle of design, the medium used for a work of art, the style or “ism” (period), the purpose of creating the work etc.) in written and oral formats according to the given quasiprofessional task;
• • to produce descriptions of art objects and speculate about them in written and oral formats using summarizing, emphasizing, quoting, comparing and contrasting, paraphrasing etc. techniques and making appropriate linguistic choices (style, lexical units, grammar constructions, means of expression etc.);
• • to show the skills of presenting and speculating about ideas and debating while participating in discussions, Q/A sessions and giving the presentation;
• Students are expected to produce in speaking: - monologue (informative/descriptive/argumentative/persuasive speech) - dialogue on general, academic and professional topics (active listening, questioning, responding to questions, emphasizing, discussion strategies) - presentation (informative/descriptive/argumentative/persuasive speech)
• Students are expected to develop listening skills: - to improve understanding of dialogues and polylogues on both familiar and unfamiliar topics; - to develop understanding of lectures and learning context; - to develop skills of using basic listening techniques (predicting, understanding main ideas and details); - to form skills of note-taking.
• Students are expected to produce in writing: - summary - essay (opinion, discussion) - e-mail
• Students are expected to develop reading skills: - understanding of articles, reports, straightforward and specialised texts concerned with contemporary problems at the threshold/vantage/effective operational proficiency level - understanding of text structure - skills of using basic reading techniques skimming and scanning (predicting, understanding main ideas, understanding details)

Course Contents

• Speculating about Art: Defining Concepts and Refining Ideas.
• Describing Art: “Explaining texts”.

Assessment Elements

• Written assessment
  SUMMARY ASSESSMENT CRITERIA max 10 points TASK RESPONSE: 3 - All key points are mentioned; 2 - Most key points are mentioned and/or some crucial supporting information is omitted and/or the author’s ideas are partly reflected; 1- Very few key points are mentioned and/or little supporting information is provided and/or very few of the author’s ideas are mentioned, 0 - Only the topic is mentioned and/or no supporting information is provided and/or the author’s ideas are not reflected. VOCABULARY: 3 – Without mistakes; 2 - The original expressions are paraphrased. A wide range of vocabulary is used. 1-2 lexical mistakes are made; 1 - The original expressions are partly paraphrased and/or an adequate range of vocabulary is used and/or 3-4 lexical mistakes are made; 0 - The original expressions are copied and/or a limited range of vocabulary is used and/or more than 4 lexical mistakes are made. GRAMMAR: 3 – Without mistakes; 2 - A variety of complex grammar structures is used. No more than 1 punctuation and/or 1-2 grammar mistakes are made; 1 - An attempt to use complex grammar structures is made and/or 3-4 grammar mistakes are made; 0 - Elementary grammar structures are used and/or more than 4 grammar mistakes are made. STRUCTURE: 3 - The text is logically organized. A wide range of transitions is used appropriately; 2 - The text is mostly logically organized and/or an adequate range of transitions is used; 1 - The text may have serious breaches in logic and/or transitions may be over- or underused; 0 - There is no sequence of ideas and/or transitions are used inappropriately or not used at all.
• Oral assessment
  Grading Scale According to the "Regulations for Interim and Ongoing Assessments of Students at National Research University Higher School of Economics” the grades for all assessment elements are assigned using 10-points scale, while the grades for particular elements (e.g. tests, quizzes etc.) can be determined using the following scale: % of the completed work Grade 0-30% - 1 31-40% - 2 41-49% - 3 50-57% - 4 58-65% - 5 66-73% - 6 74-80% - 7 81-87% - 8 88-94% - 9 95-100% - 10
• Independent work assessment
  Students are expected to turn in assignments on the due date. In case of any problems with submitting the assignments, giving presentations etc. on the due date, despite officially proven reasonable excuses, students must inform the instructor about the occurred issue in advance or no later than in 24-hour period after the deadline. If the instructor is informed, assignments (besides listening, group work tasks and the final test) can be accepted after the deadline and presentations can be rescheduled according to the decision of the instructor. All course participants are expected to interact in a respectful manner, be fully engaged with the groupmates, the instructor and the course content. Students must adhere to generally accepted standards of academic honesty, including but not limited to refraining from cheating, plagiarizing, inappropriately collaborating, mispresenting one’s work.
• Final assessment
  1. The exam is located on Zoom platform. The student must show an ID document for identification before starting the exam. Students must log in using their first name and surname. The student agrees not to transfer the login information for his\her proctoring system account to third parties. 2. The exam is conducted in written form online without proctoring. The exam consists of 2 parts: Listening and Writing. The total time of the exam – 70 minutes. Taking a break during the Exam is not allowed. 3. The language of the exam is English. 4. To take the exam, a student should: • prepare an ID document (original passport, the page with the name and photo) for identification before starting the exam; • check the operation of the webcam, microphone, headphones or speakers, the speed of the Internet (for the best results, it is recommended to connect the computer to the network via a cable); • prepare the necessary items for the exam tasks (pens, blank A4 paper for a draft); If one of the necessary conditions for the exam participation cannot be met, the student should inform the Manager of the Program about this to make a decision on the student's participation in the exam. 5. The student adheres to the technical requirements for the student’s PC, conducts a final check of the student’s PC no later than 24 hours before the exam. The exam can be taken on a desktop computer or laptop (mobile phones and tablets do not meet the technical requirements). If any problems with video or audio connection occur before the exam, the student must warn the teacher and the Manager of the Program manager by corporate email (in one email). In this email the student should describe the problem and to attach supporting material (a screenshot of the entire screen so that the time is visible/photo/video, etc.) (part 3 of annex 16 to Regulations for Interim and Ongoing Assessments of Students at National Research University Higher School of Economics) 6. During the exam, the student is allowed to use a pen and a blank A4 paper for a draft. 7. During the exam it is prohibited to: • turn off the webcam and microphone, reduce its level of sensitivity to sound; • use auto-correct functions, notes, textbooks, other educational materials; • leave the desk area during the Exam (leave the visibility zone of the webcam); • use headphones, headsets for any other reason than to complete the Listening section of the exam; • use “smart” gadgets (smartphone, tablet, etc.); • involve another person to help with the Exam, talk with another person during the Exam; • read tasks out loud; • listen to the audio file more than once, except for the case of a short-term communication failure while listening to the audio file for the first time. 8. Communication failures during the exam. A short-term communication failure during the exam is considered to be a loss of a student’s network connection with the platform for up to 5 minutes. It is not possible to complete the exam in case of a long-term communication failure (for more than 5 minutes). In the event of a long-term communication failure with the platform during the exam, the student must record the fact of the loss of communication with the platform (take a screenshot/photograph of the entire screen so that the time and the application/web browser window are visible, get a response from the Internet provider) and report the problem to the office of the student’s Program and to the teacher. Note: According to part33 of Regulations for Interim and Ongoing Assessments of Students at National Research University Higher School of Economics «…. The use of materials not permitted by this list, attempts to communicate with other students or other individuals and other violations of examination procedure constitute ground for the end of exam for the particular student (student’s removal from the examination room, disconnection from the video conference, etc.) with a subsequent “0” grade as the examination grade

Interim Assessment

• Interim assessment (2 module)
  0.3 * Final assessment + 0.25 * Independent work assessment + 0.2 * Oral assessment + 0.25 * Written assessment

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

• How to write about contemporary art : with 34 illustrations and 64 source texts, Williams, G., 2015

Recommended Additional Bibliography

• History of Art. Western Europe and Russia : учеб. пособие, Миньяр-Белоручева А.П., 2009
• Review of: Aruz, Joan; Benzel, Kim & Evans, Jean M. (eds.): Beyond Babylon: Art, Trade, and Diplomacy in the Second Millennium B.C. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2008. (2013). Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsbas&AN=edsbas.891DF540