Ternopil Ivan Puluj National Technical University

The international cooperation of TNTU with one of the most prestigious Ivy League universities, Dartmouth College (USA), began in September 2023. The goal of the project is to create a language environment that promotes communication between students from Ukraine and the USA. The initiator is Professor Viktoriya SOMOVA of Dartmouth College, and the coordinator of TNTU is Associate Professor of the Department of Ukrainian and Foreign Languages ​​Lesya NAZAREVICH.

The tandem partnership project involves not only studying the alphabet / grammar / spelling, but also immersion in Ukrainian culture. This is an opportunity to tell foreigners about the russian-Ukrainian war. Students discuss the history of Ukraine, the crimes of russian troops against our cultural heritage, and personal stories.

Victoria Somova’s idea to study Ukrainian in a linguocultural way is yielding results: in 2023, the team helped 7 foreigners immerse themselves in Ukrainian. This year, 12 people have already chosen Ukrainian!

In the first stream, Dartmouth students studied the textbook “Travels.UA”, acted out funny dialogues, and were not afraid to speak with mistakes. 4 times a week, they worked in the auditorium with Prof. Victoria SOMOVA. Once a week, they had “phonetic minutes” with Assoc. Prof. Lesya NAZAREVICH and 2 meetings with Ukrainian tandem partners. The classes used flashcards, mind maps, online exercises, etc.