Goals of the UCLA Russian Flagship

The UCLA Russian Flagship's goals, objectives, and expected outcomes.

The principal goal for the domestic portion of the program, (e.g., completing coursework through 102 and 107) is to prepare students to function at the 2 (ILR) / Advanced (ACTFL) proficiency level in speaking, listening, and reading. Flagship students will also develop an understanding of many socio-linguistic and cultural references as well as a variety of styles and forms pertinent to professional needs. In addition to core classes, Flagship students will study Russian history, culture, literature, and subjects related to their major/s.

The goal for the Flagship year abroad is for students to function at the 3 (ILR) / Superior (ACTFL) proficiency level in speaking, listening, and reading. Students will be able to carry out professional-level interactions and tasks in the areas of their major/s.

Here is a short description of the ACTFL proficiency levels relevant to Flagship students; the complete guidelines for all proficiency levels are here.

OBJECTIVES IN LANGUAGE LEARNING SKILLS

  • Vocabulary development and expansion: language-, culture-, and society-specific native words, including onomatopoeic and mimetic words and classifiers; vocabulary on general intellectual and professional topics; new vocabulary.
  • Grammar: complex sentences.
  • Discourse competence: discourse strategies including indirectness, interruption, topic-raising, turn-taking, and politeness, narrative, informative, argumentative, and persuasive discourse patterns in various texts and settings such as interviews, reports, conversations, discussions, and meetings.

GLOBAL OBJECTIVES

Students will be able to:

  • Communicate and share ideas, participate in a general or professional discussion, using appropriate discourse strategies with ease, both one-on-one or as part of a group.
  • Deliver extended informative monologues, such as briefings and presentations.
  • Understand non-interactive speech such as radio, TV, and lectures.
  • Read a broad scope of general literature and other material in their field of specialization/interest at the Superior level, i.e., novels, popular magazines, informational and editorial articles on business, economics, fashion, finances, foods, health, politics, science, social issues, technology, personal and professional correspondence, and reports.
  • Interact with native speakers of Russian living in the former Soviet Union on the Superior level.

EXPECTED OUTCOMES

By the end of the domestic program, expected outcomes are as follows:

Speaking:

  • support opinions;
  • hypothesize;
  • state and defend and/or criticize policy;
  • clarify points and justify decisions;
  • conduct meetings;
  • deliver briefings or other extended and elaborate informative monologues

Listening:

  • understand hypotheses, supported opinions, argumentation, statements and defense of policy, and other forms of elaboration;
  • get the gist of both explicit and implicit information and to distinguish among various stylistic levels, recognizing humor, irony, emotional overtones and subtleties.

Reading:

  • understand various forms of elaboration, such as hypothesis, supported opinion, argumentation, and clarification;
  • relate ideas;
  • understand implicit information;
  • distinguish between stylistic levels and recognize humor, irony, emotional overtones, and subtleties.

Writing:

  • write on a variety of topics with precision and detail;
  • handle formal and informal correspondence;
  • write summaries, reports, précis, and research papers.