First year student Daniel Esson studied Russian with CEWL in addition to his BA in Politics and International Relations.
“This year I had the pleasure of taking modules LA309: Russian Beginners and LA310: Russian Post-Beginners in the autumn and spring terms. Russian is widely known as one of the hardest languages in the world, with the US foreign service institute ranking it in the highest category of difficulty for English speakers to learn. Despite this, studying the language at Kent was great fun.
The language is hard but the style of teaching on the modules makes this irrelevant. The modules force students to learn fairly fast and they are intensive, but I didn’t feel that this compromised my enjoyment of the module. The fact we are given sheets to explain new grammatical concepts and regular exercises to practice made the language far more accessible and also facilitated easier revision when exam time came about.
The mix of topics taught is both broad and helpful, covering a wide array of grammatical constructions as well as vocabulary. A proper understanding of everything taught in these modules will definitely prepare a student to spend time in the Russophone world and communicate effectively in a variety of situations.
Moodle is used well in the modules; it is a helpful tool for feedback on assessments and a massive help for accessing revision materials. Furthermore, the modules use videos and textbook activities to provide an education in Russian culture, history and geography that is necessary for a proper understanding of the language.
To summarise, these modules are fantastically well taught, challenging without being frustrating and hugely helpful for those new to the Russian language. I would highly recommend them to anybody interested in the Russian language”.
Find out more about the World Language modules at Kent!