Russian Through Music

This content-based language course is designed for students who already have an equivalent of five semesters of college-level Russian. The course aims to explore various types of Russian music that have been popular since the 1960s. Popular music expresses widely-shared trends and interests of society and evokes emotions and associations via memories. Sharing these musical associations will enhance students’ knowledge of Russian values and beliefs, and help them understand how and why these values and beliefs have changed since the thaw period, as well as how they continue to change in the 21st century in response to social mood. Students will learn how to interpret popular music and work on the development of the language skills needed to be an engaged listener of Russian music as well as an engaged partner in conversations on related topics. Learners will use language in meaningful interactions and negotiate meaning in real-life contexts. Through engagement with authentic sources, students will solidify and further develop their knowledge of the case and verbal systems as well as cause-and-effect relationships within sentences and paragraphs. They will learn how to interpret music from a cultural perspective that implies the ability to read between the lines. Conducted entirely in Russian.