Module structure
Three case studies on confectionery industry - are structured along the same model as RESO: "Looking for Investors" (6 texts), "Financial Strategies" (8 texts), "Perspective and Analysis" (4 texts). Each text is accompanied by three tasks, which include:- pre-reading activity (designed to activate lexical, content, and structural schemata)
- reading activity that focuses on understanding the meaning of complex professional texts and undertaking different levels of its analysis;
- listening activity that aims at comparing the information gained from the reading texts with the new information that comes from the multiple perspectives provided in the comments (micro-dialogs) by different participants in the case study.
At the end of each case study the learners are asked to develop an analytic essay in which they synthesize and evaluate the knowledge and understanding of the case and of the business management issues it has served to clarify. Because the target-level for the case study is near-native professional proficiency, a sample essay produced by a native professional on the same case is provided for the learner for comparison.
The case study examining the Russian insurance company RESO-Garantiya takes a close look at the insurance industry in Russia. This case study is divided into eight units.
Unit 1
Brief introduction of the company followed by carefully targeted knowledge-development activities.
Unit 2
Focus on the development of essential professional terminology from the insurance field.
Unit 3
Reading text concerning the history and operations of the RESO-Garantiya followed by activities designed to help the learner check for understanding of the issues and specific business and regulatory issues affecting the field.
Unit 4.
Reading and listening activities and tasks based on articles about RESO-Garantiya, the company's PR materials and commercial offerings, as well as interviews of the company's officials.
Unit 5.
Reading and listening activities and tasks based on transcriptions of discussions between representatives of the company and it's potential clients, as well as internal discussions on the same topics involving members of the company.
Unit 6.
Source materials from the company reflecting detailed descriptions of different programs and policies offered by the company to the public, accompanied by tasks designed to develop professional language in this domain and use it to analyze related professional issues.
Unit 7
Text of the insurance contract itself. Reading comprehension tasks following each section of the contract designed to help the learner understand the purpose of each section of the document, the underlying legal issues, and the ability to discuss and analyze similar documents in the future.
Unit 8
Concise review of the acronyms and lexicon used in the field of insurance business.
Acknowledgement
ACTR is grateful to Professor Irina V. Mikhalkina of Moscow State University and Dr. Elena N. Soboleva of the Russian National Training Foundation for their contributions of current, authentic source materials on Russian business. In particular, ACTR is pleased to acknowledge permission granted to Russnet to adopt and reprint in this format selected material from "Rossijskij management: uchebnye konktretnye situatsii", NTF, Moscow, 1997; and "Russskij jazyka v delovom obscenii, (Klobukova, Mikhalkina, Khavronina, Soltanovskaja; ed. Davidson), ACTR, Moscow/Washington, 1997. In addition, Prof. Mikhalkina also created reading and audio comprehension tasks that accompany each text.
This project is sponsored in part by the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), U.S. Department of Education.