Liudmila's Page

I grew up a small town in Siberia, Russia. Currently I live in two countries, in Canada and in the United States

I teach undergraduate and graduate level courses in Russian language, teaching methods and discourse analysis at the University of Arizona.

One thing you should know about me is that my research interests focus on social technologies, online communication and e-tandem learning, in particular. I have administrative experience directing language programs and I am an ACTFL-certified language tester and rater.

A key idea that has significantly influenced my understanding of language learning comes from the seminal works of Lave & Wenger (1991) and Wenger (1998) on communities of practice and social pedagogies. I believe that language learners learn better when they interact with other learners, more or less knowledgeable. In my current research I delve into the notions of translanguaging, digital literacies, identity enactment, multimodal discourses, and experience viewed as a unit of learning.

Among the key experiences that have significantly influenced my view on language teaching ​include my administrative work as language program coordinator and my work as co-director of LinguaExchange, a telecollaborative partnership program for Russian learners in North America.