FOREIGN LANGUAGE FOR ART HISTORIANS: SOME ASPECTS OF TEACHING RENAISSANCE ART IN ENGLISH

The present article discusses issues related to the analysis of the Renaissance study while developing students’ language proficiency at Art History Department. The diversity of the topic dictates the need to search for new developments of the course in order to achieve better results in acquiring a professionally oriented foreign language. The study of the Renaissance heritage takes place within the framework of a methodically sound and logically structured course, which includes particular language tools. These are the creation of a period’s “mental map”; studying videos; reading, analyzing and critically comprehending various texts’ types; translating, abstracting and summarizing articles; conducting a formal and historical analysis of the masterpieces of the studied era; discussing the global heritage of the Renaissance in the round table sessions. The combination of traditional methods of studying a foreign language and creative innovations in the development of the Renaissance theme makes the course interesting and productive. Employing the toolkit aimed at studying Renaissance in a foreign language tends to create favorable conditions that motivate students to obtain both a professionally oriented language and in-depth knowledge of art history enabling universities to train experts who will be able to respond to the challenges of the time.