How to Use Your Russian in Communication Effectively

The main focus of this book is on an overarching principle in foreign language use that the authors of this book call Adherence to the Known - using the level of language you control in order to say what you want. The book presents 1) more than 350 lexico-grammatical models of the Russian language at four communicative levels, 2) examples of texts expressing the same ideas written at four different levels, 3) special exercises designed to help students to use what they know and also written at four different levels. All the lexico-grammatical models are introduced as examples of the rules that govern the sentence structure and can be repeated and cloned using new vocabulary. For convenience these models are translated from Russian to English. The texts expressing the same ideas help students immediately identify the level they are at and give them an understanding of more sophisticated levels. The goal of the exercises is not only to help students use the level of the language they know but also to assist them to reach the next language level. The book is written for self-study of the Russian language students but can be used by Russian instructors as well. The students in fact are encouraged to share the book with their teachers and tutors.