Dr Olga Sobolev C614 and Mrs Irina Forbes C614

De Olga Sobolev and Mrs Irina Forbes

This course is available on the Language Centre Extra-curricular Student. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

No previous knowledge of Russian required, but students should: demonstrate commitment to regular attendance, completion of homework and all assessments; dedicate at least two hours per week for coursework in addition to classes.

Admission into the course upon tutor’s approval during the information sessions. Students are expected to be experienced language learners and/or to have a good command in two languages.

Course Aim:

• To bring students’ knowledge of written and spoken Russian up to low intermediate level, corresponding to A1/A2 of CEFR
• To develop an ability to use Russian effectively for the purposes of practical communication in familiar work and social contexts.
• To deal with a variety of predictable simple language tasks (using limited vocabulary and linguistic structures) to meet the needs of everyday situations and topics.
• To establish linguistic skills and attitudes required for promoting and facilitating further study of Russian.

Communicative Content: The course is focused on the following aspects:

• Exchanging personal information, including studies, daily routine and outside interests;
• Interpreting documents and data, containing some topical facts and figures of a country/place;
• Expressing preferences and intentions;
• Giving advice; giving simple descriptions of people, objects places and weather;
• Demonstrating awareness and ability to use formal and informal registers in a limited social context; handling a variety of survival situations at a elementary linguistic level.

Structural Content: The course covers elementary vocabulary required for communicative functions and focuses on the following linguistic structures (the command in these areas is expected to be appropriate to the level and task with the emphasis on active usage):

• Gender of nouns; nouns & personal pronouns;
• Adjectives & possessive adjectives in singular in all cases;
• Formation of plural; expression of possession;
• Basic usage of short adjectives;
• Present, past & future tense of the verbs;
• Imperative; reflexive verbs; basic verbs of motion;
• Cardinal & basic ordinal numerals;
• Wider range of adverbs;
• Simple impersonal constructions;
• Expressions of time.

16 hours of classes in the MT. 22 hours of classes in the LT. 2 hours of classes in the ST.

This is a 40 hour-course. Please refer to the LSE timetable for course teaching arrangements.

• Course Book - Svetlana Le Fleming & Susan Kay, Colloquial Russian, London: Routledge, 2010, ISBN-13: 978-0415469951
• Optional - N. Bitekhina et al, Living Russian Grammar, Moscow: CREF, 2003, ISBN-13: 978-0954433307

Continuous assessment (50%) in the MT and LT.
Oral examination (30%) and in class assessment (20%) in the LT.