The Cactus Course Outlines provide a learning framework for the Cactus Foreign Language Evening Courses. They are designed to provide you with a good idea of what you might cover during the course and include typical themes, vocabulary fields, grammar, cultural content and skills work for the language and the level. The Outlines are flexible rather than prescriptive, in that our teachers always plan their lessons with the specific abilities, aims and interests of the students in their classes in mind.

• Russian Level 1
• Russian Level 2
• Russian Level 3
• Russian Level 4
• Russian Level 5
• Russian Level 6
• Russian Level 7

Themes/Lexical Fields can include the following:

• Introduction: introducing yourself, greeting, parting and professions
• What is your name? What are you doing? How are you?
• People and everyday objects: What is this? Who is this?
• Getting around a city: arriving at the airport, going through the customs, checking in the hotel, getting to places, simple directions;
• Family and where people live
• Weather and climate, geography, countries and nationalities
• Key prepositions
• Key conversational structures: invitation, taking and giving, refusal and enquiry
• Key verbs (imperfective infinitives)
• Numbers 1-100
• Polite words: please, thank you etc.
• Time: hours, days of the week, months
• My day: work and recreation, doing things, likes and dislikes and hobbies
• Transport
• Shopping and going to a restaurant

Grammar and vocabulary:

• Personal and possessive pronouns
• Questions and answers
• Cases, gender and number of nouns and adjective pronouns
• Verbs aspects: infinitive; imperative; present tense (1 and 2 group conjugation); past imperfective and future
imperfective (the compound future aspect)
• Verbs of motion “to go”(by foot and by car) in the present tense
• Basic adjectives and adverbs
• How to express “to have” in the present, past and future

Cultural content:

• People in Russia

Skills Work:

• Alphabet
• Pronunciation: key sounds and intonation
• Reading rules
• Speaking and understanding
• Writing simple words

Themes/Lexical Fields can include the following:

• Talking about self & others, inc. family – key personal info
• Review of ‘beginner’ level vocabulary
• Work: professions, jobs and work activities
• Travel: hotel enquiries on the phone, business trips and holidays
• Getting around a city: main places of interest and where to go
• Moving around: to go by foot, car, air and sea
• Cardinal and ordinal numbers Prepositions of place
• Numbers from 100
• Time: questions, adverbs of frequency
• Question words (как, где, что, etc.)
• Common feelings & emotions
• Food and drinks
• Daily routine
• Leisure time and hobbies
• Entertainment: theatre, concerts, sports and games
• Home: facilities, rooms and furniture

Grammar and vocabulary:

• Revision of the ‘beginner’ level grammar
• Conjugation of some irregular verbs ( вставать, давать, продавать, etc)
• Intransitive verb ‘нравиться’(to like)
• Modal verbs: can, may, must, should not
• The Prepositional Case (about who, about what)
• The Dative Case
• Verbs of Motion (ехать – ездить)
• The Instrumental Case
• Plural of Adjectives
• Impersonal sentences

Cultural content:

• Russia: geography and history

And:

• Reading and listening
• Speaking and understanding (dialogues and role plays)
• Writing

Themes/Lexical Fields can include the following:

• Revision of ‘beginner plus’ level vocabulary
• Prepositions of movement, time and place
• Conjunction words in subordinate clauses
• Expressing time
• How to write business letters and emails
• Colours and sizes
• My day
• Time (minutes to and from the hour)
• Making phone calls
• Meetings and making business arrangements
• Lifetyle: everyday activities
• Free time: where to go and what to do
• Adverbs of time
• Travel
• Describing people
• Eating/drinking
• Shopping and money changing
• Foreign countries: weather, climate and traditions
• Health/illness, describing symptoms, at the doctors
• Comparisons

Grammar and vocabulary:

• Revision of the ‘beginner plus’ level grammar
• Revision of the declension of nouns in the singular
• Verb aspects- Future Perfective
• Instrumental Case
• Reflexive verbs
• Comparative/superlative degrees of adjectives
• Declension of nouns in the plural and adjectives

Cultural content:

• Russian holidays / festivals and traditions

Four skills:

• Reading and listening
• Speaking and understanding (dialogues and role plays)
• Writing

Themes/Lexical Fields can include the following:

• Revision of the ‘beginner/elementary’ level vocabulary
• More verbs of motion
• Animals
• Number & quantity
• Common linking words
• Writing business letters
• Russian cities and towns: places of interest
• Russian standard of living
• Problems: expressing them and finding a solution
• Travelling in Russia: plane, train and boat
• Describing people
• Work and qualifications
• Stories and anecdotes

Grammar and vocabulary:

• Revision of Levels 1, 2 and 3 grammar
• Present/Past perfect
• Use of prefixes to form perfective verbs with different meanings
• Conditional sentences with the particle ‘бы’
• Declension of pronouns
• Subordinate clauses
• Particle ‘ли’ used in indirect (reported) speech

Cultural content:

• Reading papers and magazines
• Common idioms and proverbs

Skills Work:

• Reading and listening
• Speaking and understanding
• Writing
• Discussing

Themes/Lexical Fields include the following:

Key conversational topics:

• My family
• Health
• Vacation
• My hobbies
• Grammar and vocabulary

Grammar and vocabulary:

• Practicing and improving vocabulary and functional grammar necessary for communication in everyday life

Cultural content:

• The world of work and leisure

Skills Work:

• Reading and listening
• Speaking and understanding
• Writing
• Discussing

Themes/Lexical Fields can include the following:

Key conversational topics:

• Family and family values
• Education in Russia and abroad
• The formula of success: professions and jobs leading to success
• Emigration and immigration
• Russia’s role in the world economy

Grammar and vocabulary:

• Mastering vocabulary and functional grammar necessary for communication and skills
• Verbs of Motion, all aspects
• Verbs of Motion with prefixes such as “идти, прийти, пойти, войти, выйти, зайти, подойти, перейти”
• Other verbs with prefixes such as “читать, прочитать, перечитать, зачитаться, вчитаться”, etc.,
• Participles and Gerund

Cultural content:

• Russia in the World

Skills Work:

• Reading and listening
• Speaking and understanding
• Writing
• Discussing

Themes/Lexical Fields can include the following:

Key conversational topics:

• The role of mass media in a society
• Climate change: myths and reality
• Russian history and modern politics
• Russian literature: Russian writers in emigration, classical and modern writers

Grammarand vocabulary:

• Activation of vocabulary and conversational topics
• Full knowledge of grammar
• Practicing special irregular grammar cases

Cultural content:

• The subjects of Russian cultural and ‘business’ sphere are included in conversations and discussions

Skills Work:

• Reading and listening
• Speaking and understanding
• Writing
• Discussing