Study Guide

Objective

On completion of the course you can pronounce, read and write (by hand) Russian and cope orally with simple and routine situations: introduce yourself and others, shortly describe your own background and immediate needs. You can answer simple questions about yourself and ask similar questions of others using polite language appropriate to the language culture. You can write short, simple messages: a small personal biography, a description of the day's activities, a postcard from your travels and a short description of the services available in the locality. You will understand short, simple written messages on the topics of the course. You can understand the core content of short dialogues presented in a clear manner.

Content

You will study and learn the basics of Russian both in class and independently.

In class, you will practise speaking about yourself and simulate small everyday situations with a partner, in small groups and independently. The activities will strengthen your speaking and listening skills. In addition to face-to-face learning, you will complete weekly reading, writing and information retrieval tasks, where you will apply the skills acquired in face-to-face learning. You will also reflect on your own studying and learning.

Communication activities
- Giving and asking personal details: names, nationality, occupation, age, family, language skills, hobbies, opinions and preferences.
- Asking about and describing services and products: availability, location, opening hours, features, prices.
- Basic telephone phrases
- Going to the café and making small purchases.
- Characteristics of Russian communication culture: using ты/вы, addressing people and using names.

Grammar
- Russian alphabet: pronunciation and intonation,
- Reading and writing (by hand)
- Gender of nouns and adjectives
- Personal pronouns, possessive pronouns and possessive structure
- Prepositional and accusative singular of nouns
- Singular and plural nominative forms of nouns and adjectives
- Adverbs
- Verb infinitives and present tense
- Verbs of motion идти, ехать
- Numbers 1-199
- Expressions of time: times (official usage) and days of the week