Georgian II

Course - first cycle - 16-30 credits

Overview

Admission requirements

Prerequisite courses for this course are: Passed courses: IM202E-Georgian I.

Description

The follow-up course provides opportunities for students to extend their knowledge of the Georgian language and culture. It will improve students’ communicative skills, extend and activate their knowledge of vocabulary and grammatical patterns. The course consists of audio and written texts on various topics. It includes both interactive and non-interactive translation exercises and audio exercises. A short overview of Georgian literature and English translations of selected Georgian writers are also included.

Content

What is Georgian II about?

Georgian language course is an internet based course. Students have opportunity to learn the language without leaving their home or computer. No obligatory meetings are included. Examination is also conducted on the internet.
The course lasts 18 weeks. Lessons are published every week. Each lesson contains information regarding the Georgian language, as well as regarding the history of the Georgian literature. 

Students are required to have passed Georgian I.

Lessons combine grammar, dialogues, exercises and other materials. Students have access to a large number of audio files and interactive exercises. The course also contains texts with a translation and detailed explanations of each word and grammatical affixes.  Texts are written as a story about one family and their friends in various situations. Vocabulary on the topics of travelling, introducing, shopping, diseases, birthday party, computer, etc. is presented in connection of these situations.
Grammar sections are focused on verbs.  

The course is time flexible. Published lessons are available to the end of the semester.
Obligatory assignments that should be completed and submitted are published every second week. The students receive individual feedback on assignments.
In addition, non compulsory live sessions for interested students are offered.

Students are not required to buy course literature. All necessary materials are offered online within a virtual classroom where students have access to the course material, to the teacher and to each other.

Why choose Georgian II at Malmö University?

Students who have already taken the course can explain it. Let us listen to their voices from anonymous course evaluation:

  • The course is wonderfully structured, and is an excellent, comprehensive introduction to Georgian language and culture.  The materials are very well written and graded, and, if sufficient time is devoted to completing the exercises and to assimilating the material, noticeable progress can be made in the language.
  • The interactive exercises, complete with answers, are extremely effective, and the exercises are sufficiently varied to test progress in different areas (e.g., translating into the language, translating from the language, grammatical constructions, etc.).  
  • Something I was especially impressed by was the "Colloquial Georgian" section of each lesson in Georgian II: this introduced students to the way the language is actually spoken by native Georgians, and highlighted the differences between colloquial and literary usage.  Indeed, Georgian II was excellent in the way it presented colloquial and more formal language side by side, giving students a very good background in the language on which to build further.
  • The audio material was carefully chosen to complement this colloquial element of the course, and helped enormously in perfecting pronunciation and intonation, something so difficult to achieve in an online course, and in facilitating aural comprehension.  The dual speed of some of the audio recordings - normal and slow - was very beneficial, especially in the early stages, in attuning the ear to the rhythms of natural Georgian speech.
  • The examination was a very fair assessment of the work and structures presented, and was both stimulating and challenging.  I felt a real sense of achievement when I had successfully completed the examination.
  • The grammar lessons, texts with audio, and interactive exercises worked very well together and were all extremely useful. The literature readings were very engaging. I also made extensive use of the verb lists (posted in the "students' contribution") and would have liked even more such materials!
  • The grammatical analyses provided for large parts of the sentences in the Texts were invaluable for an in-depth understanding of the way Georgian works and is built up. The grammatical tables and paradigms were invaluable, setting out forms of the verb not available in any textbook.
  • The cultural part of the course was extremely useful, as it built up into a comprehensive picture of Georgian culture, and gave students a very good insight into the modern Georgian nation.  The additional links to other sites (e.g., You Tube films, audio recordings of Georgian folk music, original texts of mediaeval Georgian literature, together with a number of contrasting translations) were cleverly constructed, and enabled students to broaden their horizons in many aspects of Georgian history and culture.

Syllabus

Course Code: IM205L

Institution:
Department of Language and Linguistics
Revision:
1
For students admitted fall 2013   fall 2012  

Approval

The course was established 09 February 2012.
This course syllabus (version 1) was approved 01 March 2012 by the Board of Studies at Faculty of Culture and Society (SMS).
The syllabus is valid from 03 September 2012.

Education level

First cycle

Advancement in relation to the degree requirements

Independent course.

Entry requirements

Prerequisite courses for this course are: Passed courses: IM202E-Georgian I.

Learning outcomes

Knowledge and understanding

After finishing the course, the student are expected to have obtained knowledge of
- main syntactic and morphological patterns of Georgian;
- basic vocabulary and most common idiomatic expressions;


Applying knowledge and understanding

After finishing the course, the student are expected to be able to
- read, analyse and understand texts in Georgian independently or by means of a dictionary;
- understand discussions on fairly demanding topics in Georgian.
- independently identify and search relevant information concerning the Georgian language and culture.

Making judgments and communication skills

After finishing the course, the student are expected to be able to critically reflect over and make judgments in respect to
- own need of further studies for improving the communication and reading skills;
- main tendencies of the Georgian language and literature development

Assessments

Individual and compulsory exercises given to students throughout the term, as well as examination, focus on the assessment of knowledge of main morphological and syntactic patterns and basic vocabulary, as well as on the students’ ability to read and produce simple texts in Georgian. Audio questions are used for assessment of listening comprehension.

A project paper is aimed at the development of the ability to independently search and analyze relevant information concerning the Georgian language and culture.
Examination is conducted online.

Re-sit examinations

Students who do not pass the regular course exams have the minimum of two re-sit opportunities. Re-sits follow the same form as the original exams.

Course content

The follow-up course provides opportunities for students to extend their knowledge of the Georgian language and culture. It will improve students’ communicative skills, extend and activate their knowledge of vocabulary and grammatical patterns. The course consists of audio and written texts on various topics. It includes both interactive and non-interactive translation exercises and audio exercises. A short overview of Georgian literature and English translations of selected Georgian writers are also included.

Learning activities

The course is offered as an IT-based distance learning course. The course presupposes active participation of the students.Lectures published on the course website combine literature and language issues. The main attention is paid to activation of basic vocabulary, verb patterns, and communicative skills. Translation- and free-text exercises play an important role in the course.
Compulsory exercises and an individual project work are included. Non-compulsory live sessions on the Internet are also offered. All activities are conducted online.

Grading system

A,B,C,D,E,U.

Reading list and other media

Internet based course material includes all the necessary literature for the course, including texts, grammar, dictionary, exercises, audio files.

External links are also included.

Additional material may be introduced in the course, but no more than 100 pages.

Course evaluation

All students are offered an opportunity to give oral or written feedback at the end of the course. A summary of the results will be made available on the school’s web-pages. The students are also given a possibility to offer feedback for each module/unit.

Students have an opportunity for discussions and suggestions concerning the course during the term both in Forum and through e-mail correspondence with the teacher. Student can also take contact to the student union.

Contact

Further information

Kathryn Peacock, student services assistant
Phone: 040-66 57165
E-mail: kathryn.peacock@mah.se

Manana Kock Kobaidze, course responsible
Phone: 040-66 57587
E-mail: manana.kock.kobaidze@mah.se