At the Department of Foreign Languages, undergraduate instruction is delivered in four languages: English, Russian, German, and French. Each semester consists of 18 instructional weeks, with 5–7 hours of practical classes per week. The total annual teaching load across all language subjects (English, Russian, German, and French) is 245 hours.

Teaching work programs (syllabi) have been developed in accordance with the curriculum of each language course (English, German, Russian, and French). Electronic versions of these syllabi are available in the Department’s library section.

At the Department of Foreign Languages, innovative methods in modern language teaching are implemented as follows:

Listening and Speaking

Listening activities are based on predicting content, identifying the main idea and specific details, recognizing supporting details, and determining the author’s assumptions. Tasks are designed to develop critical thinking and to strengthen the skills that are important for students’ respective specializations.

Classes follow a structured approach that develops creative oral practice. Students are given opportunities to improve their speaking skills through presentations, debates, simulations, and role-plays. The overall and thematic organization of lessons promotes both intellectual and emotional stimulation. The topics included in the coursebooks are based on engaging content that encourages critical thinking.

In addition to the textbook materials, instructors use thematically relevant TED Talks, original YouTube listening materials, and supplementary texts for each unit. Based on these authentic listening materials, instructors design listening tasks.

The level of comprehension of listening materials is assessed through the following tasks:

a) Students record their voices while answering listening-based questions, and instructors evaluate their performance based on these recordings; b) Students critically analyze the listening materials based on the given questions; c) Students summarize the main arguments and draw conclusions from the listening tasks.

Authentic materials also address students’ professional needs. Special tasks based on students’ fields of study are assigned weekly.

Reading and Writing

Writing tasks include essential strategies such as academic writing, establishing interaction with peers and instructors, and editing documents.

Students develop their writing skills by learning to identify the audience, construct strong arguments, formulate thesis statements and topic sentences appropriate to the subject, write argumentative texts, describe supporting details to justify their arguments, compose well-structured paragraphs, use parallel structures, prepare outlines, write well-organized essays, and summarize causes and effects.

The practical component of the lesson is based on developing rhetorical and critical reading skills integrated into the writing section. The writing component focuses on academic skills and includes theme-based writing tasks.

Reading tasks are based on predicting meaning, identifying the main idea and specific details, determining the author’s assumptions, and identifying explicitly emphasized messages.

Vocabulary and Grammar

Vocabulary and grammar are integrated into context rather than taught or practiced separately. By the end of each unit, students are able to express complex ideas using grammatically accurate and advanced language knowledge. Students learn to use grammatical structures appropriately and in accordance with the topic within context. All grammar components are covered thematically.