This is the very first occasion the center has launched this novel initiative, and both its teachers and native-speaking foreign lecturers will be participating in the instruction during the course of the current academic year.
“The gratis Russian language course for beginners, using English as a medium of instruction, launched in this semester at the Russian Cultural and Language Center, is an important and innovative initiative for the University of Debrecen (UD) because it makes it possible for students who do not speak Hungarian but are interested in Russian culture and language to participate in language learning,” said Okszána Kiszil.
The director of the Russian Cultural and Language Center of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Debrecen underlined that this current initiative is unique because it functions as a bridge between international students and the Russian language, while enhancing the multicultural character and international appeal of our university.
“The novelty of this chance to learn Russian for free lies in the fact that it is taught with the help of English as an intermediary language used in the classroom, which provides wider access and opens up a new perspective in language teaching,” said Okszána Kiszil.
The target audience is primarily international students at the University of Debrecen who do not speak Hungarian. The Russian Cultural and Language Center has been offering Russian language courses at all levels for quite a few years, however, classroom instruction has been offered exclusively in Hungarian until now.
“In the past couple of years, we have been approached by a growing number of students from a variety of countries, which is the reason why we are now launching Russian language courses with English as an instructional language. As a result, we expect the course to become more easily accessible to a lot more students, as we are delighted to be able to teach Russian to even more interested learners. This course starts at the basic level of fluency, and our plan is to reach the CEFR level A2 by the end of the current academic year,” said Zsófia Mazalevszkaja-Makádi, a teacher at the center.
As regards the courses advertised for high school students and other Hungarian citizens, they are scheduled to start with up to 15 students. Classes will be held twice every week, on Tuesdays from 12 noon and Thursdays from 2 p.m. in the Russian Center located at Egyetem téri campus [University Square Campus].
“This program is based on a gradual, step-by-step language acquisition and it covers all the basic areas of the target language, including speaking, listening comprehension, reading and writing. This way, English as an international language of instruction comes in handy to offer students of various nationalities the opportunity to get acquainted with the Russian language and culture,” said Dmitry Mazalevsky, native-language lector at Szlavisztikai Intézet [Institute of Slavic Studies] of the University of Debrecen.
For those interested, it is important to note that these courses are not only accessible to students of the University of Debrecen. Citizens and residents of our city can also attend the language courses free of charge.
For further (and more detailed) information about the center, visit the following webpage: https://oroszkozpont.unideb.hu/hu/node/210.
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