Sussex Centre for Language Studies
Open courses in modern languages
Russian Language and Culture – Stage 3
20 weekly meetings, 1.5 hours each
A course for those who have completed a stage 2 class or at least two years
of part-time study.
You are should be reasonably confident in writing and reading Russian as
well as being familiar with the grammar system of Russian, especially with the
Locative and Accusative cases of nouns and with the present and past tense
of the verb and the reflexive verb. You should be able to give basic
information about yourself, your family, your town and house, your daily
routines and your Russian studies.
The course will revise and consolidate the areas mentioned above but the
syllabus will introduce new topics and new structures. The following activities
and topics will be included:
Activities: Following & giving explanations  Individual work  Role plays
 Presentations Written tasks  Reading  Short essays 
Audio/video materials
Topics:  Eating & drinking; in the buffet, In the restaurant  In the Library 
My flat and its equipment  Colours  Cinema & theatre; In the theatre
Grammar:  Expressing Place & Direction  Imperative of the Verb Verbs of
Motion  Modal verbs  Perfect & Imperfect Aspect of the Verb
Reading and translating strategies
You will be given an insight into the culture and history of the country within
the framework of your language studies. You will have the opportunity to
pursue your own personal research into a topic of cultural interests, which
contains some analysis or debate.
Course learning outcomes
By the end of the course you will be able to express opinions in simple
language and to communicate about the syllabus topic areas with reasonable
ease. You will develop translation and text analysis techniques which will help
you to understand longer texts. You should be able to direct your own
language learning and self study techniques to a greater extent.
Teaching and learning methods
Your knowledge of the language will be revised and developed via the four
skills, listening, reading, speaking and writing, usually in tutor-led group
situations. Texts, audio and written materials will be selected and used to
enable you to master new structures and to allow you to broaden your
vocabulary and communicate more freely in the topics areas of the syllabus.
Although many activities will be tutor led, you will be encouraged to take
responsibility for group learning situations. Preparation work will be set and
some of written tasks assigned which may be taken from the course book.
Built into the course will be a number of assignments to allow you and your
tutor to gauge progress made. These assignments naturally form part of the
course and will usually be multi-skilled, involving some reading, writing,
speaking and listening. It will be important to complete a learning/study plan
and take an active part in the classes by completing the assignments set.
Certificate of Completion
At the end of the course you will receive an individual Record of Learning,
giving details of the course and your achievement of the aims and objectives.
If the tutor considers that you have gained as much as possible from the
course, have achieved the learning outcomes and have participated in the
assessed activities, a Certificate of Completion of the course will subsequently
be issued.
Bibliography
This course is based on lessons from 8 to 12 of
 “Russian for Beginners” by Y.G.Ovsiyenko, 12th edition, Russky Yazyk
Publishers, Moscow 2005
Suggested supplementary books:


“501 Russian Verbs “ by Thomas R.Beyer, Jr, Barron’s USA 1992
“Russian in Exercises” by Khavronina & Shirochenskaya, Russky
Yazyk Publishers, Moscow, 10th edition 2002
Self Study:

“Russian 1+2” by Langran & Veshnyeva, Russlan, Birmingham