Dr Olga Sobolev PEL 6.01a and Mrs Natalia Bershadski

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. Students are expected to be experienced language learners and/or to have a good command in at least two foreign languages.

Course Aim:

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

24 hours of classes in the AT. 33 hours of classes in the WT. 3 hours of classes in the ST.

This is a 60 hour-course. Please refer to the LSE timetable for course teaching arrangements.

• Course Book - Colloquial Russian, by Svetlana Le Fleming, Susan Kay & Mikhail Vodopyanov, London: Routledge, 2023, ISBN 9781032417486
• Optional -  A Living Russian Grammar, Part 1 Level A1-A2, by L. Grushevskaia et al, Moscow: CREF, 2019, ISBN-13: 978-5924302867

Continuous assessment (70%) in the AT and WT.
Oral examination (30%) in the WT.