Voices of (Dis)agreement: Russian Cultur

This content-based course is designed for heritage learners of Russian who have an intermediate level of reading and writing proficiency. In continuation of UN3430-3431 Russian for Heritage Speakers--that was identified by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in its report Investing in Language Education for the 21st Century as a pedagogical model that can be adopted elsewhere in the US and applied to the teaching of other heritage languages—this course is designed to develop heritage learners’ language skills beyond interpersonal mode of communication and to advance their interpretive (reading, listening, viewing) and presentational (speaking) modes of communication through engagement with a range of authentic cultural content, from contemporary short stories to today’s media, documentary films and pop-culture, enabling students to explore diverse tapestry of today’s Russian cultural works and to cultivate their critical thinking and analytical skills. This course targets significant improvement of student speaking skills and substantial enrichment of active and passive vocabularies as well as strengthening their understanding of the language system.

This course is taught in Russian. All readings, documentary films, discussions, and assignments are in Russian.