Colloquial Russian

Colloquial Russian is intended for students working on their own or with
a teacher. It covers the situations, vocabulary and grammar required to
take students up to GCSE level, and in the later units, it also includes
some of the additional structures required at a more advanced level, for
example participles and verbal adverbs (gerunds).
Units begin with dialogues and short texts. These introduce all the
new structures dealt with in that unit and are followed by lists of new
vocabulary. Only the new vocabulary is explained in each unit. There
is a cumulative Russian–English vocabulary at the back of the book,
but it is important to try to master the vocabulary for each unit before
moving on to the next. Each unit, as well as introducing new gram-
matical structures, also has a theme and teaches the student how to
deal with a particular situation or situations in Russian. The English–
Russian vocabulary does not contain all the words used in the book. It
is intended for use with exercises in the book where you are required
to translate into Russian, principally the improvisation exercises and
English–Russian translations.
After the dialogue there are communicative and situation-based
exercises, which give practice in using and understanding the new
vocabulary: multiple-choice questions, questions on the text and
related questions directed at the student. Additional short pieces are
associated with the theme of the unit, such as forms and question-
naires to complete, advertisements, menus and maps. There are also
vocabulary-building exercises. This section is particularly useful for stu-
dents working towards GCSE, and teachers will find plenty of material
for oral and group work. It includes ‘Russian realia’, which are docu-
ments drawn from Russian daily life; these may be used as practice

Introduction