Placing language learning within a cultural framework enlivens the learning process and jumpstarts contextual conversations in the classroom. Experienced instructor Dr. Alla Nedashkivska has crafted a textbook that presents a modern version of Ukrainian, one that will encourage students' interest in learning, with the goal of building proficiency in the language and knowledge of Ukrainian culture and society. This text is excellent for studies over a longer period, using the intermediate exercises to start, then progressing to the advanced exercises to cement comprehension. An absolute must for anyone teaching or learning Ukrainian at senior levels.
Alla Nedashkivska is an Associate Professor at the University of Alberta in the department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies, where she teaches several Ukrainian language and Slavic Linguistics courses. She lives in Edmonton, Alberta.
Teaching a language through its culture is not a new idea in language pedagogy, but this textbook uses this principle particularly intensively and effectively
. This book effectively brings the real-life information and the atmosphere of immersion to the classroom. In addition, the book has a video supplement available from the author on request
. Ukrainian Through its Living Culture, with its unique material and stimulating choice of task-based activities, is a most welcome addition to the existing Ukrainian textbooks. Elena Boudavskaia, Georgetown University, Slavic and East European Journal, Summer 2012
"This textbook is designed primarily for intermediate-high learners of Ukrainian. Its goal is to build proficiency in all four language skills (reading, speaking, writing, and listening), to enhance the students' knowledge of contemporary Ukrainian culture and society, and to develop critical-thinking skills through communication. Well organized and user-friendly, the book contains nine thematic units... There are almost no typographical errors, and the inaccuracies are few... All things considered, Ukrainian Through Its Living Culture is an efficient tool for those eager to master Ukrainian. Undoubtedly, those of us who have faced a shortage of Ukrainian textbooks have looked forward for some time to such a publication." Rostyslav Bilous, Canadian Slavonic Papers, September-December 2010
"An advanced-level textbook of the Ukrainian language in English has long been overdue. Indeed, for over two decades no such book was published in North America. [Ukrainian through its Living Culture] is the most visually attractive of all the textbooks of Ukrainian published in English thus far... It offers what none of its forerunners did-a wealth of pictures in colour and well-spaced, easy-to-read print in black and occasionally in red.... Any path-blazing work, and this surely is one, is bound to leave some bases uncovered." Yuri Shevchuk, Journal of Ukrainian Studies, 2010-2011
