How can I effectively expand my Russian vocabulary at B1 level

To effectively expand Russian vocabulary at the B1 level, focus on methods that combine active use and contextual learning:

• Engage with authentic and semi-authentic texts suitable for B1 learners, such as adapted reading materials, simple literary or poetry texts, and thematic content related to everyday life and professional fields. This exposes learners to practical and specialized vocabulary while improving comprehension skills.
• Use multimedia resources like Russian animation or videos tailored to the B1 level to immerse in a natural language context, increase motivation, reduce learning stress, and reinforce vocabulary retention through listening and visual cues.
• Practice vocabulary actively with exercises that involve use in speaking and writing, including translating phrases, working with new words in varied grammatical forms, and semantic tasks (e.g., understanding synonyms, polysemy, and idiomatic expressions).
• Group vocabulary thematically (e.g., food service, cosmetology, or music) to build both general and specialized lexicons, which helps make vocabulary learning relevant and contextually anchored.
• Supplement vocabulary study with grammatical training that uses vocabulary items in real communication, helping vocabulary stick better due to the binding with grammar patterns and usage practice.
• Incorporate digital tools and pedagogical dictionaries that provide definitions, usage examples, and thematic groupings, making vocabulary learning structured and efficient.

Such approaches maximize vocabulary acquisition by balancing receptive (reading, listening) and productive (speaking, writing) skills at the intermediate level, fostering communicative competence in Russian.

References

• Ways of teaching Russian vocabulary to foreign students at the B1+ level.

• Использование мультипликационных фильмов на занятиях по практике русской речи в польскоязычной аудитории

• POETIC TEXTS IN TEACHING OF RUSSIAN ON B1 LEVEL (ON THE EXAMPLE OF WORKING WITH VOCABULARY DENOTING PERCEPTION IN THE POEMS OF O. BŘEZINA AND V. S. SOLOVYOV)

• Vocabulary Analysis of Russian TORFL (Level B1) and Pedagogical Usage of AntConc

• Public Food Service Field Vocabulary in the Content of Teaching Russian Language to Chinese Students

• Using polycode texts in preparatory materials for language testing at the First and Second Level Certificate in Russian as a foreign language

• Textbook on Reading Cosmetology and Cosmetics Texts (On Material From Russian)

• Professionally-Oriented Teaching Russian as a Foreign Language to Uzbek Music Students in the Context of the Communicative Method.

• Work on Grammatical Properties of Russian Anthronyms in a Foreign Audience

• Features of teaching Russian in educational institutions in Sri Lanka: the linguistic and cultural aspect

• Vikhr: Constructing a State-of-the-art Bilingual Open-Source Instruction-Following Large Language Model for Russian

• RUSSE’2020: Findings of the First Taxonomy Enrichment Task for the Russian language

• METHODS AND TECHNIQUES FOR MEMORIZING VOCABULARY IN THE EFL CLASSROOM

• RuSemShift: a dataset of historical lexical semantic change in Russian

• A New Methodology for Teaching the Course “Russian as a Foreign Language” in the Digital Environment: Development, Results and Prospects

• Teaching russian as a foreign language in the modern educational paradigm: training dictionaries

• WAYS TO REPLENISH THE VOCABULARY OF THE RUSSIAN LANGUAGE WITH GERMAN BORROWINGS

• Working with Scientific Text in Russian Lessons as a Basis for Forming Communicative Competence Students

• On the Issue of Optimization of the Russian Language Study in a Foreign Audience

• Lexico-Grammatical Principle of Verbal Lexemes Description (on the Material of the Russian Language)