Biography
Svetlana Abramova was born and raised in Moscow, Russia. She received her Ph.D. in Russian Language and Methodology from Moscow State Pedagogical University in 2007. She is an experienced language instructor, who has been teaching Russian to native, heritage, and second-language learners in Russia and the United States. Her teaching practice, as well as her research interests, is specifically oriented to learner-centered pedagogical techniques, such as student research-based projects in Russian language, which were the main subject of her Ph.D. dissertation and a monograph. In 2011 she was a student of the STARTALK Teacher Program at the University of Washington and applied her teaching experience in the STARTALK Student Program lessons related to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). In 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015, she was the Lead Instructor for the STARTALK Russian Student Program, where she successfully taught STEM lessons and facilitated a Linguistics Project. As an Affiliate Instructor in the UW Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Svetlana is involved in teaching Russian to UW students as well as in world languages curriculum development and teacher training in public and community schools.