Evgeny Dengub
University of Southern California
I am Professor (Teaching) of Russian at USC and Director of the Center for Languages and Cultures. I also serve as Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures. I received my Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr College, where my dissertation looked at the writing of heritage speakers of Russian.
I have co-authored several textbooks for learners of Russian and spent many summers training teachers through the STARTALK program at Middlebury. I have been an OPI tester since 2011. These days I think a lot about ungrading and about what helps learners take risks in a new language.
Publications
My research asks how learners of Russian move toward higher levels of proficiency and what teachers can do to support them. I am especially curious about expressive risk-taking, the moments when learners reach for language they are not yet sure of. Years of rating oral proficiency interviews keep bringing me back to one question: what really separates Advanced speakers from Superior ones? A second line of work connects second language acquisition theory with ungrading.
Learning materials
Beyond the textbooks, I have created a few resources that teachers and learners use on their own.
- teachrussian.org, a resource center for teachers of Russian that I have directed since 2007. CALICO Access to Language Education Award, 2014.
- Foreign Language Teaching Podcast, which I created in 2018. Listen here.
- Ok Story Cards, a set of illustrated storytelling cards that get learners talking in any language. Available on Amazon.
- Collection of online tutorials for students
Recent talks and workshops
- 2025. Ungrading in the Language Classroom and Beyond (with L. Mesrobian). International Conference on Learning, University of Granada.
- 2025. Feedback & Ungrading. Symposium on the Assessment of Russian and Other Slavic Languages, Harvard University.
- 2025. Imagine. Inspire. Engage: Creative Teaching Strategies for Language Educators. Stanford World Language Project.
- 2024. Meaning-Making in Today’s Language Classroom. Keynote, Stanford World Language Project.
- 2024. Humanistic Teaching and Learning through Ungrading. Middlebury Language Schools Curriculum Retreat.
Off duty
When I am not in the classroom, I am most likely on a trail somewhere in California or in a swimming pool. I often travel on my own and rarely go anywhere without a camera, so a few of my favorite shots are below. At home I love to cook, and in the evenings I usually reach for a novel. Crime fiction is my weakness, and I will read anything Donna Tartt writes.