Russian in Plain English

Russian in Plain English enables complete beginners to acquire the skill of reading words written in Cyrillic independently, with no English transcription or imitated pronunciation, within a short period of time.
This book introduces the Cyrillic alphabet gradually, feeding in the letters and their various pronunciation aspects one by one over its ten units, thus building a complete picture of the Russian sound and writing systems. It also highlights the interrelationship of the two systems and helps learners to see the logic behind the use of the Cyrillic alphabet. In addition, the book teaches learners to produce Russian word stress on a marked syllable, contributing to stress acquisition.
Furthermore, the book explains the basic grammatical features of Russian words and the rules of how to put them into sentences, enabling learners to start saying things in Russian from Unit 1. It employs some findings of research in language processing, helping learners to start building their speaking and reading skills.
This book is an essential guide for all beginners, including students and independent learners.

Natalia V. Parker is a keen educator and language practitioner. Trained in foreign language teaching in Russia, she held a full-time teaching post at Tula University, which she left to set up one of the first non-state, non-profit schools implementing more up-to-date teaching. At the age of 27, she became a head of school. After moving to the UK, Natalia taught Russian for several years, developing a new teaching methodology. She returned to higher education in 2016, doing an MA in Applied Linguistics at the University of Sheffield. Her teaching experiment produced extremely successful results which enabled her to secure an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Studentship, awarded by the White Rose College of Arts and Humanities (WRoCAH) for her PhD at the University of Leeds. In 2019 she presented the results of her research at the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages (AATSEEL) Conference and at the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies (BASEES) Conference, among other forums. Currently, Natalia is running another pedagogical experiment on teaching Russian grammar.