Teaching Portfolio

About Me

I am Daria Ponomareva, a Russian language instructor and a PhD student in Slavic Studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. I teach Russian and BCS languages courses at multiple levels and am deeply invested in student-centered, communicative language education.

As an international instructor, I have taught and worked with students from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. My experience teaching abroad — including in the US, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam — and working with international student populations has strongly shaped my approach to teaching. It has taught me to be attentive to students’ varied learning histories, cultural expectations, and emotional experiences in the language classroom.

Alongside teaching, I actively mentor students, support them in preparing essays, presentations, and competition submissions, and help them pursue academic and professional opportunities. I take particular pride in guiding students toward confidence, recognition, and meaningful engagement with the language and culture.