History and Culture of Great Britain

2024/2025

Academic Year

ENG

Instruction in English

4

ECTS credits

Delivered at:

School of Foreign Languages

Course type:

Compulsory course

When:

5 year, 1, 2 module

Course Syllabus

Abstract

The course encourages students to develop lifelong knowledge and skills, including but not limited to a balanced understanding of the heritage and history of countries which constitute the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (that is, England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland), their cultural settings, geography, society, political system, holidays, and everyday life in general. The course combines various activities, including discussions, presentations, quizzes, etc. It also envisages various research projects conducted in small groups on a wide range of topics related to its subject matter. This syllabus sets minimal requirements for the knowledge and skills of students and determines the contents of the course.

Learning Objectives

• Among the main learning objectives of the «History and Culture of Great Britain» are: - knowledge and understanding of the British culture in the context of historical, political and cultural shifts and influences; - understanding of contemporary historic, cultural, political and social trends and aspects of life in the UK.

Expected Learning Outcomes

• Знание основных британских политических деятелей, их влияния на ход истории, политику и культуру Великобритании. Умение определять причинно-следственные связи между наиболее значительными историческими событиями
• Знание основных сведений о физической и политической географии Великобритании, а также политического строя современной Великобритании. Умение анализировать причины и следствия политических событий современной Великобритании.
• Знание основных сведений о быте современных британцев. Умение анализировать основные культурные явления современной Великобритании в историко-социальном и политическом контексте.
• The knowledge of main British political, historical and cultural figures and their role in the history of the UK. The ability to trace cause-and-effect relationships between historical events.
• The knowledge of physical and political geography of the UK, as well as contemporary British politics. The ability to analyse causes and consequences of political events in contemporary Britain.
• The knowledge of basic facts of contemporary British social life. The ability to analyse cultural phenomena of the UK in the contemporary social and political context.

Course Contents

• Unit 1. History of Great Britain.
• Unit 2. British geography and politics.
• Unit 3. Contemporary British ways of life.

Assessment Elements

• Экзамен
  Interim assessment takes place in the format of a written examination, an essay in English. The essay is an answer to the questions on the materials covered over the semester. The questions are determined by the lecturer and sent to students before the examination. At the examination, each student receives a card with a question and 80 minutes to complete the essay in accordance with the question received. The course does not presuppose any blocking elements of assessment.
• Самостоятельная работа
  Continuous assessment of the course includes: written tests in English of the material of the course (3 tests per semester), independent work in the form of group presentations in English on the topics allocated to the groups by the lecturer (each student should participate in 1 group presentation per semester), the examination in the form of an essay in English on the topics provided by the (end of semester).
• Контрольные работы
  Written tests take place during 3 seminars over the course of the semester. The schedule for the tests as well as the content of the knowledge tested are provided by the lecturer at the beginning of the course. A written test comprises 5 open-ended or closed questions on the materials from the previous lectures and seminars. Closed questions are multiple choice questions with 3-4 answer options or matching questions or choosing the odd option questions. The recommended time of the test is 5-7 minutes, but is subject to change if found necessary by the lecturer. The lecturer announces the time limits before the test begins. The written test takes place at the beginning of the class and cannot be done at any other time. If the student, for any reason, is late for the test and does not have enough time to write the test with the rest of the group, s/he gets 0 points for the test. No re-tests are allowed.

Interim Assessment

• 2024/2025 2nd module
  0.4 * Контрольные работы + 0.2 * Самостоятельная работа + 0.4 * Экзамен

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

• Oakland, J. (2003). British Civilization : A Student’s Dictionary (Vol. Second edition). London: Routledge. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=658663

Recommended Additional Bibliography

• История, литература и культура Великобритании [Электронный ресурс] : учебник / Рос. гос. гуманитарн. ун-т. — 3-е изд. (эл.). - 978-5-7281-2235-7 - Ковалевская Т. В., Вагизова Ф. А., Семенюк Е. В. - 2019 - Москва: Российский государственный гуманитарный университет - https://ibooks.ru/bookshelf/362647 - 362647 - iBOOKS

Authors

• SHEVELEVA MARINA SERGEEVNA
• Барклянская Надежда Владимировна
• TARASOVA NATALYA SERGEEVNA