Epoch – a new faculty (from the history of Faculty of Foreign Languages and Area Studies of Lomonosov Moscow State University)

Abstract

In the genre of a scientific essay, memoirs from the history of Faculty of Foreign Languages of Lomonosov Moscow State University (later the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Regional Studies) and innovations in the field of teaching foreign languages. We describe a fundamental revolution in the field of learning and teaching foreign languages, or foreign language education in post-Soviet Russia, which required the development of a completely new program for teaching foreign languages, meeting new social requirements and tasks and paying special attention to the language training of non-philologists. Information is provided on the subject “The World of the Language Being Learned”, which was the first step towards the introduction and development of the academic discipline “Intercultural Communication”, which still occupies its place in the curriculum of the faculty, unique training courses: “England and English”, “Italy and Italians”, “Russia and the Russians”. Information about the emergence of a new specialty in Russia “Linguistics and Intercultural Communication” and the first textbook “Language and Intercultural Communication”, which was repeatedly retaken and published in Georgian and Kazakh, are presented. It is substantiated that the emergence of the specialization “Area Studies of Russia” allowed Lomonosov Moscow State University to play the role of the flagship of Russian education again.