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When a foreign language is learnt for business purposes, knowledge of specific vocabulary for the industry is required, and a series of role plays are created to model typical situations of communication at work. Even when you wish to teach staff only the foundation skills, your course can be tailored to the needs of your business Read more
What if you were to learn a foreign language and discovered that you already know between four and seven thousand words?
For example, coffee, taxi, machine, park, passport, visa, airport, problem, telephone, computer, interest, concert, museum, ballet, prospect, object, subject, contract, document, business, manager and many, many more words are the same in English and Russian. You can even say Russian sentences that consist entirely of English vocabulary, only slightly modified to fit Russian grammar.
Over centuries, Russian has been absorbing foreign words to collaborate with the world and to learn from it. 7000 English words in the Russian language presents the full account of vocabulary shared by the two languages. The lists of words are organised according to a set of borrowing patterns. The etymological anecdotes incorporated in the book entertain the readers, feed their curiosity, and reveal the influence of some important cultural and political affairs on the Russian language.
This book may save you the cost of many tutored lessons. It will be of interest to students of Russian from beginner to higher intermediate levels, and to their teachers. It will also be stimulating for enthusiasts of etymology and of Russian history and culture.
Extracts from the book (PDF)
The suffix -ist in agent nouns
Morphological models of verb adaptation in Russian grammar
Paronyms: Two Russian options of adjectives with the suffix ‑ic(al)
GLOSSARY: linguistic terms made accessible
Watch the book trailer
FAO Russian teachers
7000 Engish words in the Russian language is a powerful teaching resource that stands close to the method of Intercomprehension Didactics.
The book is aimed to advance the Russian vocabulary of your students at the intermediate level and facilitate the acquisition of beginners' reading skills in a time-efficient manner. You may also infer some ideas for approaching teaching other foreign languages from this source.
My research is focused on patterns of linguistic borrowing, which in practice means teaching learners the formulae, by which familiar English words can be transformed into Russian. This strategy makes learning fun, enhances motivation and created a sense of achievement in my own tutees, which is why I decided to explore vocabulary shared by the English and Russian languages in the first place.
A Russian learner's feedback
I wish you the best of luck at the noble effort
to restore
the Babel Tower!