{"id":104575,"date":"2020-11-13T12:00:49","date_gmt":"2020-11-13T17:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=104575"},"modified":"2025-06-17T16:46:39","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T20:46:39","slug":"ucf-russian-professor-celebrates-culture-beyond-classroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-russian-professor-celebrates-culture-beyond-classroom\/","title":{"rendered":"UCF Russian Professor Celebrates Culture Beyond Classroom"},"content":{"rendered":"

Associate Professor Alla Kourova was a fifth grader in Moscow when she heard a song that sparked her love for languages \u00ad\u2013 Yesterday<\/em> by the Beatles.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom then I wanted to learn English so I could learn to sing it and play on the piano,\u201d says Kourova, who grew up in Russia, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Germany and Hungary.<\/p>\n

Now a speaker of five languages \u2014 English, French, German, Russian and Ukrainian \u2014 Kourova has been an associate professor of Teaching English Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)<\/a> at UCF for 13 years. She also has been teaching Russian<\/a> for the past decade.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really love teaching and my students. Teaching is in my blood since my mom was a home economics teacher,\u201d says Kourova, who received an Excellence in Teaching Award from the Central Association of Russian Teachers of America.<\/p>\n

As International Education Week takes place Nov. 16 to 20<\/a>, she reflects on her passion and profession for the past 30 years. While the general focus of Kourova\u2019s courses is language, she incorporates culture into her lesson plans because she knows it is essential for retention of the language.<\/p>\n