2025/2026
Английский язык для специальных целей. История искусств - 1
Лучший по критерию «Полезность курса для Вашей будущей карьеры»
Статус:
Факультатив
Когда читается:
1, 2 модуль
Охват аудитории:
для своего кампуса
Язык:
английский
Кредиты:
3
Контактные часы:
48
Course Syllabus
Abstract
This elective course is designed for first-year undergraduates majoring in History of Art. The syllabus and assessment methods adhere to HSE University's Concept of Developing Foreign Language Communicative Competence and comply with the University's Regulations on Current Control and Interim Assessment.
The course provides a comprehensive linguistic and historical foundation, tracing the origins of artistic expression from prehistoric cultures to the ancient civilizations of Egypt and the Near East. Students investigate the emergence of primitive art, examining the lifestyle, everyday practices, and cultural heritage of the Old and New Stone Ages while exploring both ancient and modern interpretations of the concept of art. The curriculum then advances to the ancient world, analyzing how specific cults, beliefs, and historical contexts shaped the monumental architecture and portable art objects of the Egyptian Kingdoms, as well as the Sumerian, Akkadian, Assyrian, and Persian empires.
Through its instructional design, the course integrates language acquisition with art historical inquiry. Students enhance core receptive and productive skills by engaging with diverse reading and listening assignments. The linguistic focus progresses logically from speculating about abstract concepts and refining ideas to describing artifacts and constructing explanatory texts. Furthermore, students hone their professional voice through structured monologues, collaborative group discussions, and formal presentations. Written competencies are systematically built through the production of summaries, short descriptive texts, and academic essays, while continuous reading and listening assignments, alongside thematic quizzes and lexicogrammatical tests, ensure the precise mastery of specialized terminology.
Prerequisites: English at the Independent User level (Upper-Intermediate). To enroll in this course, students must achieve a minimum score of 70 points on the university Placement Test.
Course Assessment: Attendance* 0.1 + English Grammar and Vocabulary Test* 0.1 + Home Assignments* 0.1 + Written Assessment (WA)* 0.2 + Oral Assessment (OA)* 0.2 + Final Assessment (FA): * 0.3
No blocking elements
Learning Objectives
- To advance English language proficiency by building a robust linguistic foundation for effective communication across the socio-cultural, professional, academic, and scholarly spheres of art history.
- To foster critical intercultural awareness and actively engage with the dialogue of cultures by examining diverse historical contexts, belief systems, and material heritage of early civilizations, thereby developing the capacity to critically interpret and articulate cross-cultural artistic narratives.
- To develop Professional Intercultural Communicative Competence (PICC) by participating in simulated academic and professional scenarios, producing discipline-specific texts, delivering structured presentations, and collaboratively executing art-historical projects through the strategic application of digital archives and AI tools.
Expected Learning Outcomes
- 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 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)
- 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 produce in writing: - summary - e-mail - small descriptive texts about art objects
- 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 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.
- • to show the skills of presenting and speculating about ideas and debating while participating in discussions, Q/A sessions and giving the presentation; • 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);
- • 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.
Course Contents
- English for Specific Purposes. History of Art - 1 (Section 1)
- English for Specific Purposes. History of Art - 1 (Section 2)
Assessment Elements
- Classroom Written Assessment (CWA)
- Classroom Oral Assessment (COA)
- Home Assignment (HA)
- Final Assessment
Interim Assessment
- 2025/2026 2nd module0.25 * Classroom Written Assessment (CWA) + 0.3 * Final Assessment + 0.25 * Home Assignment (HA) + 0.2 * Classroom Oral Assessment (COA)
Bibliography
Recommended Core Bibliography
- History of Art. Western Europe and Russia : учеб. пособие, Миньяр-Белоручева А.П., 2009
- Williams, G. (2014). “Art writing in the Second Machine Age: from Andy Warhol to Kenneth Goldsmith” —— How to Write about Contemporary Art, talks and workshops. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsbas&AN=edsbas.45F9BA9C
Recommended Additional Bibliography
- Pointon, M. R. (2014). History of Art : A Student’s Handbook (Vol. 5th edition). New York: Routledge. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=733711
- The illustrated history of art, Piper, D., 2005