Lexical minimum for elementary level learning of Russian as a foreign language

Statement of the problem. Because of constantly changing reality, the issue of refreshing the lexical minimum is cruicial as the lexical minimum is the basis for the development of course books and testing materials. Among specialists there is an opinion that the words магнитофон (tape recorder), милиция (the word for the police before 2011) and some other words are outdated and not necessary anymore for being included in the lexical minimum for the elementary level. Meanwhile, some words important for the communication are missing in the current lexical minimum, such as привет! (Hi) and пока (bye). The purpose of the article is to develop recommendations and an updated version of the lexical minimum for the Russian language as a foreign language for the elementary level. The research methodology consists of the analysis of works by Russian and international researchers on the issue of developing the lexical minimum for learning a foreign language at A1 level, Russian State Standard of the elementary level of acquisition of the Russian language as a foreign language, Lexical minimum for A1 level, and results received from the analysis of the National Corpus of the Russian Language. Research results. This article explains the necessity of adding some lexical units into the lexical minimum, on one hand, and excluding some units, on the other. Based on this argumentation a new updated lexical minimum consisting of 735 lexical units was developed. Conclusion. The proposed lexical minimum matches the modern reality which will make the process of developing teaching and testing materials more effective and modern.