The Faculty of Philosophy traditionally attaches great importance to foreign language study and offers LSP courses in English, Russian, French, German, Italian and Spanish, thus giving the opportunity to students of all departments to pursue the chosen language study within the context of their academic area or focus. Modern Foreign Language is a compulsory subject in the first and second years of undergraduate studies. The LSP curriculum aims to equip students to use the foreign language for specific academic purposes, with special focus on the following: acquainting students with the structure and stylistic features of general academic language; enhancing students' field-specific vocabulary; developing students' reading skills (essential for using academic and professional literature and reference resources, searching for relevant information etc.); improving students' oral and written communication skills (presentations, discussions, debates, note-taking, writing reports and summaries etc.); helping students to acquire specialized translation skills. In 1995, in cooperation with the British Council, the Faculty of Philosophy introduced British Cultural Studies, initially as an extra optional subject, which, two years later, became a regular elective subject. There are currently two one-semester courses: Introduction to British Cultural Studies and British Cultural Studies.