SYLLABUS OF THE ADMISSIONS TEST for the foreign applicants to main educational master programmes "Master in Management (MiM)", "Master in Corporate Finance (MCF)", main field of study 38.04.02 "Management" for the applicants to main educational master program "Master of Public Administration", main field of study 38.04.04 " Public Administration " in the following subject: ‘THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE’ (TOEFL-based model) Section 1. THE CONTENT OF THE MAIN TOPICS 1. The basic principles 1.1 The entrance examination in English for applicants to be enrolled in Master's programs in Management and Corporate Finance (38.04.02 Management) and Public Administration (38.04.04 Public Administration) offered at the Graduate School of Management, Saint Petersburg State University (hereinafter referred to as Master's programs) is held as a test which purpose is to assess the applicants’ level of academic English language proficiency. The test involves the use of comprehensive competency-building approach to language-related material used during testing. Obtained results will help to select the applicants for Master's programs with upper-intermediate level of foreign language communicative competence (B2-level according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages). 2. The content of the entrance examination: communicative competence and language skills assessment 2.1 In the course of entrance examination the following types of communicative competence are subject to testing: 2.1.1 Linguistic competence, i.e. command of a certain amount of knowledge, skills and experience in the field of vocabulary, grammar and phonetics necessary for foreign language communication. 2.1.2 Language competence, i.e. knowledge of language units and rules of their putting together and linking. 2.1.3 Speech competence, i.e. command of ways how to form and to frame thoughts by means of language and the ability to use the ways in the course of speech perception. 2.1.4 Social and cultural competence, i.e. knowledge of national and cultural identity of foreign language speech behavior, familiarity with items of social and cultural environment such as customs, rules, standards of social conventionality and cross-cultural knowledge. 2.1.5 Social and linguistic competence, i.e. ability to select and to use appropriate language patterns and means depending on the purpose and surroundings of particular communication, as well as social roles of participants in communication. 2.1.6. Compensatory competence, i.e. ability to solve various-complexity communication tasks using limited linguistic resources. 2.1.7 Information competence, i.e. ability to search, to analyze, to transform and to apply information to solve problems. 2.2 The following is an approximate list of language skills (within the framework of communicative competence) which become subject to testing during the entrance exam: 2.2.1 The ability to identify the most important information and to avoid ambiguity. 1 2.2.2 An extensive vocabulary command. The testee rarely experiences difficulties in choosing an adequate expression noticed by others. The testee has good command of idiomatic and colloquial vocabulary. 2.2.3 The ability to choose the most appropriate way of expressing thoughts from a wide variety of linguistic resources. 2.2.4 The ability to present any text about real and fictional events. 2.2.5 The ability to piece together an appropriate phrase to obtain the necessary linguistic information from the available set of functional discourse. 2.2.6 Understanding of complex information and the ability to make recommendations on a wide range of issues either related or unrelated to the future professional activity. 2.2.7 The ability to easily understand and to participate in complex discussions between third parties in group discussion of abstract, sophisticated and unfamiliar topics. 2.2.8 The ability to determine the further course of the narrative and the text logic anticipating the further flow of the presentation based on the context, grammar and vocabulary. 2.3 The grammar knowledge which is subject to testing covers all grammar phenomena consistent with B2+ level according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. The following is the list of grammar phenomena which become subject to testing since that are considered to be difficult for Russian native speakers: 2.3.1 Irregular verbs (cost, spread, cast, lie, lay etc). 2.3.2 V-ing - to V. 2.3.3. Used to, be used to, get used to. 2.3.4. Tense following after, as soon as, before, by the time etc. 2.3.5. Lexical difficulties (conscious, consciousness, conscience, conscientious etc). 2.3.6. Countable – uncountable nouns (advice, knowledge, permission etc). 2.3.7. Adverbs - adjectives (lovely, likely, cowardly etc). 2.3.8. Inversion (e.g., following rarely, not once, not until, never etc). 2.3.9. Degrees of comparison (Father-further, easier etc). 2.3.10. Conditionals. 2 Section 2: LITERATURE AND DATABASES Main literature: 1. Cracking the TOEFL iBT with CD, 2013 Edition (College Test Preparation); Princeton Review; 1 Pap/MP3 edition, 2012 2. Barron's TOEFL iBT with Audio CDs and CD-ROM, 14th Edition; Barron's Educational Series; 2013 3. Kaplan TOEFL iBT with CD-ROM; Kaplan Publishing; PAP/CDR edition, 2009 Supplementary literature: Official Guide to the TOEFL Test With CD-ROM, 4th Edition (Official Guide to the TOEFL iBT), McGraw-Hill; 2012 Databases Libraries The Russian State Library www.rsl.ru The National Library of Russia www.nlr.ru The Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences www.rasl.ru The Library for Natural Sciences of RAS www.benran.ru The Scientific Library of St. Petersburg State University www.bio.spbu.ru/library The Scientific Electronic Library ELIBRARY.RU www.elibrary.ru The entrance exam format and length: The written TOEFL-based test consists of three parts and lasts for two hours. It comprises the following sections: Listening Comprehension: 25 minutes; Structure and Written Expression: 25 minutes; Reading Comprehension: 55 minutes. Section 3. THE ENTRANCE EXAM STRUCTURE AND CONTENT 3.1 The test consists of three sections: Listening Comprehension, Structure and Written Expression and Reading Comprehension. 3.2 The Listening Comprehension section is designed to test the following skills: to comprehend spoken conversations, infer the correct conclusion from conversations, answer the questions based on the information given in conversations. The Listening Comprehension section, which lasts for 25 minutes, comprises three parts. In the first part the applicants will hear short conversations between two people and have to get the gist of it. The next part consists of two longer conversations. After each of them, the applicants will have to answer several questions. The last part comprises three passages from academic lectures or discussions followed by questions. Each of the listening passages lasts for about 2 minutes. Most of the tasks use multiple-choice questions with 3-4 choices in them. 3.3 The Structure and Written Expression section is designed to test the applicants’ skills in English grammar. This section lasts for 25 minutes and comprises two tasks. The first one consists of the sentences in which part of each sentence has been replaced with a blank. Each sentence is followed by four answer choices. The second one consists of the sentences in which four words or groups of words have been underlined. The applicants will have to underline word or group of words that contains grammar or lexical mistake. 3 3.4 The Reading Comprehension section lasts for 55 minutes and comprises five texts (of approximately 2000 characters). It is designed to test reading skills, extent of vocabulary, ability to deal with synonymy, knowledge of stylistic features of language, ability to guess the meaning of occasional unknown words from the context. All the texts are based on academic English. The applicants for Master’s degree program in management (Master in International Business, Master in Corporate Finance, Master in Information Technologies and Innovation Management) should demonstrate the following components of communicative competence: Linguistic competence Language competence Speech competence Social and cultural competence Social and linguistic competence Compensatory competence Information competence command of a certain amount of knowledge, skills and experience in the field of vocabulary, grammar and phonetics necessary for foreign language communication. knowledge of language units and rules of their putting together and linking. command of ways how to form and to frame thoughts by means of language and the ability to use the ways in the course of speech perception knowledge of national and cultural identity of foreign language speech behavior, familiarity with items of social and cultural environment such as customs, rules, standards of social conventionality and cross-cultural knowledge. ability to select and to use appropriate language patterns and means depending on the purpose and surroundings of particular communication, as well as social roles of participants in communication. ability to solve various-complexity communication tasks using limited linguistic resources. ability to search, to analyze, to transform and Section 4. ENTRANCE EXAM ASSESSMENT SCORES 4.1 Rules of test assessment 4.1.1 The applicants have to complete the test tasks which are grouped in three sections. The total number of tasks in a test is 140. Each task carries equal weight. The test is scored on a 1-100 point basis. 4.1.2 Each question of the entrance test is scored in the following way: - correct answer – 0,71 point; - incorrect answer – 0 point. 4.1.3 To reach the pass mark, a applicant has to get at least 50 points. 4.2 The results of some international language proficiency tests which confirm that the applicant masters the language at B2 level could be regarded as a pass of an entrance test (in case a corresponding application from an applicant is provided). The exams which are taken into consideration are the following: Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), International English Language Testing System (IELTS), Certificate in Advanced English (CAE), Business 4 English Certificate (BEC) Vantage (Grade A, B), Business English Certificate (BEC) Higher and other certification tests of UCLES (Cambridge English). For the Cambridge English exams the Statement of Results is submitted together with the Certificate. 4.3 Score comparison for English levels. 4.3.1 A score comparison chart below gives an idea of correlation between the results of TOEFL and other alternative tests (IELTS, САЕ и ВЕС Higher), if the latter are confirmed with the certificates from the organizations which have the right to administer the tests given to them directly or indirectly by the Educational Testing Service (USA), British Council, IDP: IELTS Australia, the University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations (Cambridge English). 4.3.2 The following score comparison chart is accepted: Cambridge English Score 100points scale 1 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 Cambridge English Score IELTS Score TOEFL Score Paperbased Computerbased Internetbased 2 550 3 213 4 79–80 553 217 81–82 557 – 220 83 563 223 84–85 567 227 86–87 570 – 573 230 88–89 577 233 90–91 Common European Framewor k of Reference for Languages Интернетверсия FСE/b BEC V/b 5 6 B2 FСE/a BEC V/a 6,5 B2-C1 The number of correct answers (entrance exam (GSOM SPbU)) 6 70 71–72 73 74 75–76 77 78–79 80 81 82–83 84 85–86 87 88 89–90 91 92–93 94 95 96–97 98 99–100 101 102 103–104 105 106–107 108 109 5 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 580 – 583 237 92–93 587 240 94–95 590 – 593 243 96–97 597 247 98-99 600–603 607–610 613 617–620 250 253 257 260 100 101–102 103–104 105 623–637 640–677 263–270 273–300 106–110 111–120 CAE/c BEC H/c 7 C1 7,5 C1 CAE/b BEC H/b 8 C1 CAE/a BEC H/a 8,5–9 С1-С2 110–111 112 113–114 115 116 117–118 119 120–121 122 123 124–125 126 127–128 129 130 131–132 133 134–135 136 137 138–139 140 6
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