The English Language Department for Science Faculties

• Department Staff

The English Language Department for Science Faculties has been part of the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Area Studies since I988 when the latter was established. Initially, the Department taught students of biology and soil sciences; then it began working with newly-opened Faculties of Fundamental Medicine (1992) and Physical and Chemical Engineering (2009).

The faculties are currently going through a transition period from second-generation educational standards to Moscow University’s internal standards of the third generation. It presupposes equal allocation of teaching hours for foreign languages at MSU faculties to make it no less than 20 credits (or 720 academic hours).

The introduction of the B2 exams in according with the Common European Framework required profound restructuring of language teaching and learning, specifically:

• More intense self-learning (including on-line and mobile technologies), especially for studying Grammar and general English;
• Giving those who have successfully passed the B2 exam an opportunity to learn another foreign language;
• Changing the Bachelor Degree exam in line with international certification examinations;
• For Master of Science degree in 2013/2014 - delivering a course of lectures Intercultural communication in general, academic and professional spheres.

The Department also conducts entrance and PhD exams for postgraduates and delivers a course of English for them (1st year, 100 academic hours). On request from a faculty or department, an optional course may be taught, for example, for senior students. In this case a field-specific program is developed, with regard to their future work.

The Department has been constantly updating its curricular for students and postgraduates of science faculties to address their ever-growing demand for good command of English with the relatively limited number of academic hours allocated for English in the students' curriculum.

Teaching priorifies at the Department include the following:

1. ESP and general English
2. Reading of original texts as well as developing English speaking and listening skills
3. Time-proven, up-to-date communicative methods of teaching
4. Classwork and self-studies.

Textbooks prepared by the Department include:

• Афанасова В.В., Долтмурзиев Д.О., Черезова Т.Л. Английский язык для студентов-медиков. (Учебное пособие для студентов второго курса ФФМ). М.: изд-во Academia, 2005.
• Elena Kozharskaya, Kevin McNicholas, Angela Bandis et al. Macmillan Guide to Science. M.: Macmillan, 2008
• Бугрова А.С., Вихрова Е.Н. Английский язык для биологических специальностей. М.: Академия, 2008
• Попова М.Г. Biochemical Reading. Учебное пособие для студентов 3 курса биологического факультета. М.:изд-во ФИЯР МГУ, 2010.
• Попова М.Г. Future Tense. Методические указания по работе с одноименным документальным фильмом. М.:изд-во ФИЯР МГУ, 2010.
• Шевырдяева Л.Н. Naturally Speaking. Учебное пособие по развитию навыков чтения и устной речи. М.:изд-во ФИЯР МГУ, 2010.
• Кожарская Е.Э., Даурова Ю.А. Английский язык для студентов естественнонаучных факультетов. Учебное пособие. «Академия», 2011.
• Егорова О.А., Козлова О.Н., Кожарская Е.Э., Вельштейн А.М. Учебное пособие для студентов экологов и почвоведов. М.:изд-во ФИЯР МГУ, 2013.
• Долтмурзиев Д.О., Колесников Б.М., Попова М.Г. Учебное пособие по английскому языку для биофизиков. М.:изд-во ФИЯР МГУ, 2014.

The Department provides internship opportunities for teachers from other faculties and also from other universities. Within the framework of teacher-training practice, during the winter term the fifth year students from the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Area Studies attend classes of English at science faculties and deliver their own open classes under the supervision of the Department's teachers.

However, professional interests of many members of the Department extend far beyond teaching English to science students – the teachers also support other projects of the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Area Studies. Thus, a few years ago they designed a core training course for interpreting/translation, and some of its modules are still taught under the program of supplementary education Translation in the Sphere of Professional Communication (Field-Specific Translation) launched in 2000.

Teachers of the Department are engaged in research and take part in national and international conferences on linguistics, culture studies and teaching methods. They also support joint projects as well as the work of the National Association of Applied Linguistics, Russian Translators' Union, and other professional associations.

Associate Professor Nelly Glinskaya is writing a doctoral thesis on terminology, Associate Professor Olga Yegorova is studying the role of folklore in modern culture. A few teachers are taking a post-graduate course at the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Area Studies or work on their PhD theses by correspondence and report their results to their colleagues on a regular basis.

Head of the Department is Prof. Lydia V. Polubichenko, Doctor of Philology.

Address: MSU, Faculty of Biology, Russia, 119991, Moscow, 1-12 Leninskie Gory room 273

Telephone: 8 (495) 939 30 96

e-mail: bioenglish@yandex.ru