Mastering Russian through Musical Culture

Mastering Russian through Musical Culture bridges language and culture by tracing how music has interwoven with people’s lives across ages, genders, and social groups throughout historical epochs.

This student-centred comprehensive book contains authentic texts, inquiry-based tasks, grammar examples and exercises, exploratory assignments, and a Teacher’s Manual. It assists students in interpreting and producing discourse at an advanced level of language proficiency while enhancing their cultural knowledge and intercultural competence. The book demonstrates to language instructors and learners that music can be successfully incorporated into language studies in a meaningful and enjoyable way. The book’s materials will improve students’ understanding of the role of musical culture and its value from a historical perspective in Russia and the former Soviet countries. They cover features of Russia’s musical cultures and mindsets reflected in pieces of music in detail, examine commonalities and differences, and analyze imagery of musical works compared to features of their native culture and mindset. Students will engage in learning about and discussing trends in Russia’s folk, modern, and classical music and masterpieces by renowned Russian and Soviet composers. Supplementary audio passages corresponding to the ten texts in the book can be found at www.routledge.com/9781032842684.

This innovative educational book encourages the exploration of various music-related topics by high-intermediate to advanced Russian language learners in the target language.

Author Biography

Olga Butyrskaya Scarborough has developed and taught various Russian language, literature, culture, and interdisciplinary courses in the Department of Languages & Cultures at the U.S. Air Force Academy, USA, since the summer of 2012. She holds a Ph.D. from the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia, and has been teaching Russian as a foreign language for over two decades. Dr. Scarborough gave multiple presentations at scholarly conferences in Russia, Latvia, and the USA and published articles and educational materials on her research. Her professional interests include the methodology and practice of Russian language teaching, second language acquisition and pedagogy, the world’s cultural heritage, and intercultural competence development.