Russian 4

The overall goal of this intermediate Russian subject is to enable students to move from the private to the public sphere of discourse, so that they begin to engage with more sophisticated cultural and social topics through listening, reading, writing and speaking. The subject is based on topics and texts, into which the grammar and vocabulary are fully integrated. Instead of the traditional approach to language instruction that is structured around a sequence of grammatical topics, this subject relies on the texts themselves to provide the textual, informational and lexico-grammatical features that serve as the basis for developing students' language abilities. The subject's emphasis on improving students' ability to narrate, compare and contrast, express opinions and establish causal relationships in speaking and writing lays the groundwork for the texts used in Russian 5 and the independent research work in Contemporary Russia (capstone).