LN775     
Russian: Level Three (Standard)

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

Course Convenor

Requisites

Assumed prior knowledge:

Language skills and knowledge of Russian at A2 level of the Common European Reference Framework for Languages are required.

Additional requisites:

For all students who aim to reach the Advanced level of proficiency in Russian.

Language skills and command of Russian at the A2/B1 level of the Common European Reference Framework for Languages (CEFR); 180 hours of language learning (including self-study).

All students must gain permission from the tutor in the Needs Analysis Interview to take this course.

Course Aim:

• To bring students’ command of written and spoken Russian up to a higher intermediate/advanced level of proficiency, corresponding to the B1/B2 level defined by the CEFR.
• To develop an ability to communicate effectively in Russian (using high-frequency vocabulary and structures) in a variety of social situations.
• To enable students to follow and discuss social, political, and economic issues related to Russian-speaking countries at an intermediate to advanced language level
• 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:

• linguistic implications and use of the subjunctive and conditional modes;
• mastering a broader range of vocabulary; performing a variety of tasks in a wider range of factual, persuasive, and expressive language contexts;
• combining and recombining language elements to accomplish tasks; reviewing and analysing key issues within a topic studied;
• summarising the main ideas of a short document in a target language.

Structural Content: The course covers a wide range of 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):

• aspects of verbs;
• comparative and superlative adjectives and adverbs;
• negative and indefinite adverbs; subjunctive mood; participles and gerunds;
• compound sentences & syntactic structures.

2 hours of classes and 22 hours of classes in the Winter Term.
16 hours of classes in the Autumn Term.

This is a 40 hour-course. 

Please refer to the LSE timetable for course teaching arrangements.

16 hours of classes in the AT. 22 hours of classes in the WT. 2 hours of group tutorial time, as arranged by the teacher during the AT, WT.

• Olga Sobolev, Natasha Bershadski et al,  Colloquial Russian 2, Routledge, 2018, ISBN-13: 978-1138098015

Additional:

• Terence Wade, A Comprehensive Russian Grammar, Blackwell, 2010, ISBN-13: 978-1138098015
• T.R. Beyer, 501 Russian Verbs, 2008, ISBN: 978-0764137433

Oral examination (30%)

Continuous assessment (70%)