Описание:"The World of Britain and the USA" is an intensive course consisting of 2 parts, each including 5 modules (lectures).
Modules 1-5 provide a fairly comprehensive picture of contemporary British society, concentrating mostly on its culture, meaning first of all the “human dimension”: people’s national identity and attitudes, likes and dislikes, customs and traditions, and also other factors and realia which shape the British as a nation and thus can help understand the uniqueness of the country and its people.
Modules 6-10 are concerned with British history, emphasising mainly those events and developments which contributed to the process of shaping the nation, the echo of which is still heard in the life of "modern" British society.
History and culture of the USA are offered for self-studying in the final research projects on the basis of the cultural-anthropological approach used in studying part of the course on Britain.
The whole course is aimed at providing substantial background knowledge necessary for the successful cross-cultural communication, the avoidance of clashes of cultures through the understanding of British way of life and British mentality. Such knowledge is vital for those who are going to deal with translating concepts and notions of a foreign “picture of the world” into their own.
An integral part of the course is students’ participation in discussions of topical questions, suggested by the teacher and students themselves, their involvement in self-study on the site of the course (preparations for the discussions, presented in "Comments"), performing the tests on the learned material and the final project (presented in "Final Projects").