Foreign Language

The Head of the Chair, Associate Professor T.Yu.Safyannikova

The Foreign Language Chair of the Faculty of Geology of MSU was established in 1998. It replaced the former English Language Chair.

The Chair includes the sections of English, German, French and Spanish as well as the sections for student, candidate for a master's degree, postgraduate and foreign student affairs. Many of the Chair staff have been abroad to brush up their foreign language skills.

Within the limits of the obligatory and optional programs the Chair offers the following courses: English for Special Purposes (ESP) - a basic language course obligatory for all students of the faculty, Foreign Language for Special Purposes, Foreign Language for Communication, Second Foreign Language for candidates for a master's degree, Foreign Language for Postgraduates, Foreign Language for Foreign Students.

The main lines of scientific and methodological work of the Chair are the development of linguistic and methodological footings and devising efficient methods of teaching foreign languages in the context of modern requirements that young scientists and specialists in different fields of geology should meet. The Chair has created a number of teaching courses and manuals which enable students to acquire all linguistic skills necessary for their specialty within a limited period of time. A series of textbooks "English for Geostudents" (by L.D. Dolinskaya, N.G. Kitkova, T.Y. Safiannikova) has been issued. For convenience some teaching materials have computer versions.

Associate Professor N.G.Kitkova at the exam

The Chair maintains close contacts with language departments of other institutes of higher education in Russia as well as with a number of universities in the USA, Great Britain and the Netherlands.

The Chair collaborates successfully with the main scientific Chairs of the Faculty of Geology. Thus, as a result of mutual efforts of the Chair of Foreign Languages and the Chair of Dynamic Geology of MSU in selecting and classifying geologic terms a new "Concise Explanatory Student's Dictionary of Main Geologic Concepts and Terms" was created. The authors are N.G. Kitkova, associate professor, PhD in philology and M.A. Rpmanovskaya, associate professor, PhD in geology and mineralogy.