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Introduction to Country Studies.doc
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Introduction to Country Studies & Culture-oriented Linguistics

11 lectures, 6 – USA, 5 – Great Britain

Examination: 2 questions, 1 – theory, 2 – practice (cultural points, show knowledge on the cultural points). A bonus – all the lectures & seminars, answers on each seminar.

Plan

  1. country studies is an interdisciplinary dealing with the study of a country. It incorporates the study of economics, education, culture, history, literature, art, the media, film, urban studies.

The main aims:

  1. teaching a language together with teaching culture, studying it thought analyzing the language;

  2. ensuring communicative competence in intellectual communication;

  3. considering vocabulary items reflecting national peculiarities of the TL culture & people.

Realia – words, denoting objects & phenomena, characteristic of one particular but absent in another (also objects). (субботник, book maker)

Background vocabulary – words denoting objects & phenomena, existing in both compared cultures, but having national peculiarities (австрал. Station – овцеводческая ферма).

In foreign language instruction as well as translation, the term realia refers to objects from the target culture, which can range from the traditional clothes or musical instruments to newspapers or ticket stubs, & the names of those objects such as The Times in English, a term which cannot be translated without further explanation.

Geography of the usa

  1. General characteristics

  2. The relief of the country

  3. Cultural regions

  4. Climate

  5. Extreme points of the country

  6. Natural disasters

  7. Natural resources

General characteristics

Area – 9, 826, 630 sq km. Population – 295, 734, 130 (2005)

Borders on: Canada, Mexico. Russia, Bahamas – water borders.

3rd/4th in the world by its size.

3rd by its population after China & India in the world.

  • Slightly smaller then Canada

  • Slightly more than one & a quarter times the size of Australia.

  • Half size of Russia

  • 347 times the size of Haiti

  • 2,5 times the size of Western Europe.

48 contiguous states + Alaska & Hawaii

The USA some outlying areas: the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Samoa & Guan. More independent that States, but the USA is responsible for economic help, protection.

Alaska – the largest state – 1.717.854 sq km

The smallest – Rhode Island – 4.002 sq km

The largest population – California (35,893,799. 2004 estimate)

The least populous state – Wyoming (506,529. 2004 estimate)

The relief of the country

  • the highest ponts in North America – mounts McKinley, Alaska 20, 320 ft (6, 194 m)

  • the Appalachian Mountains

  • the Mississippi Basin

  • the Great Lakes (all of them, except Michigan are situated on the border with Canada) (Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, Ontario)

  • mangrove wetlands

  • the Mississippi River

  • tributaries: the Ohio River & Tenessee River

  • tallgrass prairie

  • shortgrass steppe

  • the western High Plains

The Grand Canyon from Moran Point

  • the Four Corners region

  • the Colorado Plateau

  • Grand Canyon, Arches & Bryce Canyon

  • Mount Whitney (the Sierra Nevada)

The highest peak of the Cascade Range, Mount Rainier rises to 4, 392 m.

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