Russian OER Textbook

Principal investigators

Sponsor and grant funding

LCTL and Indigenous Languages Partnership, Michigan State University, funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, 2023-24 project award, $30,000

Textbook

Diverse Russian, a Multicultural Exploration

About the project

This project developed an online Russian language textbook, Diverse Russian, a Multicultural Exploration, that was released in August 2024 as an open educational resource (OER). The focus of the textbook is on countries other than Russia that have Russian-speaking populations, as well as on minority groups within the Russian Federation. The project diversifies the voices available to students studying Russian, addressing a lack of representation in diversity in current Russian language textbooks. The urgency of the project has been heightened by the war in Ukraine and the increasing number of students studying Russian in Russian-speaking countries outside of Russia.

The textbook is designed to help students attain or solidify Intermediate-level proficiency based on the ACTFL scale, or move to a higher sublevel within the Intermediate range (i.e. from Intermediate Low to Intermediate Mid or from Intermediate Mid to Intermediate High). It can used to supplement existing Intermediate-level textbooks or as a main textbook in a listening, reading, and conversation course. Students will be exposed to a wide range of cultural information, gaining a deeper understanding and appreciation of the diversity within the Russian-speaking world. As a result, the textbook will help develop students’ intercultural competency, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to engage with Russian speakers from different backgrounds and cultures and navigate cross-cultural interactions with confidence and sensitivity.