Practical Belarusian V 3221-S1-FBA-NJBV31

Classes are devoted to learning Belarusian language at the advanced level. Main attention is paid on teaching students the ability to express themselves freely on subjects more complex, related to the organization and status of the state, as well as improving reading skills of an analytical texts, speaking on topics related to the state political system, political parties, etc. Students analyze texts at the level of linguistic and problematic. They paraphrase official texts, discuss the main issues they contain (working on the arguments individually or in groups) and prepare their ownstatements or essay on the problems.
The structure of classes based on the lexical-grammatical analysis of spoken and written texts and performance exercises based on the texts devoted to the proper construction of complex sentence structures (including modal words, intervening words, compound words, etc.). Attention is paid on the correct word order in a sentence, and in general on the correct use of Belarusian language at the level of syntactic.
The basic material used for learning are analytical papers (including newspaper articles, analysis, journalism, manifestos and statements of various organizations, etc.) on such subjects as the system of state institutions and state bodies (including the structure of organs and their characteristics), national symbols, social structure, political parties (ruling and opposition) and social movements, the nature of a multicultural society, national and ethnic minorities, culture and national minority organizations, etc. Students are obliged to search the texts in the Internet themselves in the issues related to selected problems or to prepare an oral presentation of the problems in Belarusian language.

Examples of thematic blocks:

Society
A multicultural society.
National identity. Tolerance and xenophobia.
Belarusians in Poland: a minority and emigration.
History and the present-day life of Belarusians in Podlasie.
National and ethnic minorities in Belarus.
Belarusian and Belarusian-speaking media around the world.
Negative phenomena in contemporary media: propaganda, disinformation, fake news.
Environmental problems (environmental pollution, climate change, smog).
Sensitive social issues.

Culture
National and state holidays in Belarus.
Cultural life in Belarus.
Music festivals.
Contemporary culture.
Contemporary lifestyles.

The State.
State - offices, state institutions.
The system of governance. An authoritarian and democratic system.
State administration bodies in Poland and Belarus.
Parliament (lower chamber, upper chamber). The term of the Parliament.
The governing parties and the parliamentary and non-parliamentary opposition.
Elections.
Parliamentary clubs and committees.
Historical and contemporary national symbols (national flag, national anthem).

Geography
Geography. Basic geographical concepts.
Continents and parts of the world. Time zones. The most important countries on particular continents.
Main processes of shaping the Earth's surface. Mountain ranges, oceans, major rivers, seas, peaks, deserts, forests and others.
Natural and artificial water bodies.
Forested and desert areas.
The geography of Belarus (nature reserves, rivers, lakes, swamps and others).
Climate (types of climates, climatic zones).

Difficult cases of orthoepy.
Difficult cases of female nouns of the III declination type.
Difficult cases of the infinitive.
Difficult cases of verb conjugation in the present tense: second person plural I and II of conjugation, consonants' alternations in the first person singular and others.
Reflexive verbs.
Difficult cases of verb conjugation in the past tense.
The past tense.

Difficult cases of creating the future tense.
Analytical and synthetic imperatives.
Difficult cases of the conjecture mode.
Difficult cases of negative pronoun declension.
Case government of selected verbs.
Elements of youth slang.

Verb constructions + noun related to the subject.
Spelling of complex words.
Characteristics of undefined pronouns and adverbs and their variation.
Punctuation in subordinate clauses.
Declension of simple, complex and sequential numerals.
Reported speech.
Use of upper and lower case letters.
Creating adjectives from nouns.
Difficult spelling cases of complex adjectives.
Spelling and declension of names and geographical terms. Indeclinable nouns.
Passives.
Punctuation in compound sentences. Coordinating conjunctions.
Comparative constructions.
Rules for using colons and hyphens.

History and present day of Belarusians of Podlasie.
Belarusians around the world.
The most popular newspapers, websites, radio and TV programmes/stations in Belarus.
National and ethnic minorities in Belarus.
Belarusian environmental organisations.

National and state holidays in Belarus.
Cultural life in Belarus.
Festivals in Belarus.

Political parties and social movements in Poland and Belarus.
Administrative bodies in Belarus.
Political life in Belarus.
Historical and contemporary national symbols of Belarusians.

Geography of Belarus (nature reserves, rivers, lakes, swamps and others).
Climate of Belarus.
(P)NJB VI, level: C1, number of hours: 60.
Examples of thematic blocks
lexical issues grammatical issues real-world issues
Law
The most important legal acts. The legal system.
The Constitution.
Crime and its types. Types of penalties.
Courts of various instances. Judicial hearings, parties in court.
Code of offences.
Penal code.
Official legal documents: application, complaint, request, suit, power of attorney and others.
Current legal problems (human rights, death penalty, Internet piracy, copyright, abortion, euthanasia and others).

Economy
The national economy. The budget, GDP, the Treasury.
Currency. Inflation, deflation, redenomination.
Economic sectors: agriculture, industry, services.
Trade - export, import, internal, international, wholesale, retail.
Construction / real estate.
Banking system and banking services.
Finance - income, income after tax, types of taxes for natural and legal persons.
Current economic topics.
Legal abbreviations and acronyms.
Structures related to the topic.
Aspect of the verb with particular emphasis on two-sided verbs.
Polish-Belarusian inter-language homonyms.
Legal practices and lost phrases.
Adjective participle.
Punctuation in sentences with an adjective participle.
Difficult cases complementing nouns of all declensions.

Types of words borrowed.
Difficult cases of prosody.
Difficult cases of numerals.

Set phrases and lost phrases.
Abbreviations related to economics and finance: WTO, GDP, VAT and others.
The adverb participle. Punctuation in sentences with an adverb participle.
The Constitution of the Republic of Belarus.
The Judicial system of the Republic of Belarus.
The Belarusian legal system.
The Criminal Code and the Code of Offences of the Republic of Belarus.
Migration law in Belarus.
The death penalty in Belarus.

The economy of Belarus.
The Development of economic sectors in Belarus.
Private and public sectors in Belarus.
Trade in Belarus, the most important enterprises in Belarus.
Import and export of goods in Belarus.
Types of business activities in Belarus: companies, sole proprietorships, craftspeople and others.
Analysis of genuine real estate purchase/sale adverts in Belarus.
Banking and currency exchange.

Student workload:

120 hours – in class, 4 ECTS;
15 hours - preparing for class assignments, 0.5 ECTS;
15 hours - preparing for the exam, 0.5 ECTS.

Total: 5 ECTS