Absolutely. The course was specifically designed to support instruction in university and high school Russian programs, as well as for independent learners.

That’s entirely up to you.
You can be completely hands-off, or you can take an active role in giving feedback and guiding pronunciation work. The course is flexible and built to support a range of teaching styles and time constraints.

No — the course is entirely self-contained and taught in English. No prep, background in linguistics, or pronunciation training is required.

Nope! The course is designed to work independently. You don’t need to learn anything in advance. You can simply point your students to the course and let it enhance their pronunciation without any additional work on your part.

Almost none.

All you have to do is let your students know where and how to submit:

• their video/audio recordings

• any written work you'd like to collect

You can choose to grade these assignments for completion only — no feedback required.

That’s great too! If you’d like to offer feedback or integrate certain lessons more deeply into your curriculum, the materials are designed to support that. A teacher’s guide with answer keys is included to make things easier.

If you teach Russian at an accredited institution, I will provide you with free access to the course – just follow the directions in the blue box above. A quick request: please refrain from sharing full course materials with students in class – occasional clips are fine! – unless they’ve been enrolled. 

Just follow the directions in the blue box above, confirming your faculty presence at an accredited institution and providing a few course details and estimated total number of students. I'll email you with next steps so that your students will have access when the course launches in the fall of 2025. As their instructor, you will receive immediate access so that you can build the course into your syllabus.

It would take about 28 days if you completed one lesson a day. However, the course is very comprehensive, and I recommend working with it over the course of months or even years.

No! You can learn the alphabet right from this course and go on from there.

You’ll need internet access and a method of recording yourself.

Yes. However, you may wish to access the course on a computer so that you can record yourself working with the exercises using the voice memos app on a phone.

The course is fully asynchronous.

Yes — you can watch my Sample Lesson above; it is included in the course and is a good representation of my teaching style.

If you are enrolling via an instructor (i.e. your teacher has requested free access for you as a beta tester), then you should follow the directions they will provide. If you are enrolling as an independent learner (i.e. you do not have a teacher who has requested access on your behalf), then you can sign up to be notified when the course launches in Fall 2025 using the "Notify Me" button at the top of this page. I'll email you when it launches!

Independent learners are taught to develop agency and skill in the learning process by recording themselves, listening back, and reflecting on what they hear. Students enrolled in classes that utilize this course may receive feedback from their own instructors if feedback is built into the structure of the class, but it’s not necessary in order for learning to take place. The primary benefit comes from learning to listen carefully to your own speech and to make adjustments accordingly.

Yes! You will be prompted to record yourself, listen back, and reflect so that you can develop agency and skill in the learning process. "Before" and "After" snapshots will help you hear your own improvement.

I am always happy to help you troubleshoot access to the course – you can reach me at kiradimattia@gmail.com. I won’t be able to provide ongoing personal support, but occasionally I may be able to answer isolated questions by email. I may also consider offering "office hours" via Zoom from time to time – let me know if you would take advantage of this opportunity and I may create it!

There are so many reasons! Here are just four to get you started.

• Intelligibility: Good pronunciation helps people understand us

• Accelerated Learning: We make faster progress learning Russian when feel confident about our speech

• Relationships: Good pronunciation opens doors for new relationships with individual native speakers

• Global Citizenship: We build bridges between cultures when we invest in learning how other languages actually sound

Yes, most students of Russian can learn to produce many, most, or even all of the sounds in the Russian language, especially if they are given explicit, expert-level instruction and if they close their eyes, which helps them focus on sound.

To avoid confusing learners, I’ve chosen to focus on a single target: standard Moscow pronunciation. This variety has historically been promoted by the state as the ideal — and, for a time, as the only officially acceptable variant. That said, natural variation occurs across regions, social groups, and even between individuals within the same area. If you plan to study Russian somewhere outside Moscow, it’s entirely appropriate to adopt the local pronunciation as your target.

The problem is that most students don't have the knowledge or skills that would yield authentically Russian-sounding speech.

Your progress will largely depend on your willingness to take an active role in this course.

1. Choose a good location

2. Be active, not passive

3. Record yourself

4. Use your brain to its max

5. Evaluate your own speech

I hold a Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr College in Russian Language and Second Language Acquisition and I have been teaching pronunciation in US university settings and independently since 1991, bringing 30+ years of experience teaching Russian pronunciation to my signature approach.

I can also offers insights from my experience as a non-native speaker of Russian who has travelled the same path our students will travel as second language learners. I am very proud that when I had the chance to speak with renowned Russian phoneticist Еле́на Андре́евна Брызгуно́ва in 2002 or so, she commented that it seemed that I had indeed acquired the “articulation foundation” (артикуляцио́нная ба́за) of contemporary spoken Russian.  I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my amazing phonetics teachers – especially Светла́на Бори́совна Степа́нова at St. Petersburg State University and Ири́на Влади́мировна Одинцо́ва at Moscow State University, with whom I had the opportunity to study thanks to funding from the American Council of Teachers of Russian.

The course focuses on standard Moscow pronunciation. I discuss this choice in the questions above that explain my use of the term "target-like".

Yes, they have been invited to participate and will be added over time.

My signature method of teaching pronunciation addresses:

• The psychology of learning to sound different

• The mechanics of producing Russian speech

• The process by which learners acquire foreign pronunciation and incorporate it into their speech

$12/month or $45/year for the general public. Free access is available for students as beta testers through instructors at accredited institutions in 2025-2026; see the blue box above for more information.

The exceptionally low price of the course is intended to make it available to a wide audience.

There is no refund policy. If you're unsure whether this course is something you’ll enjoy, I recommend signing up for one month of access to start.

Payment by credit card may make it possible to apply a month's payment to the cost of the annual plan if you choose to upgrade; PayPal does not support the application of credit in this way.