“At the core of the book are twenty-two lessons, each beginning with situational polylogs and communicative exercises and followed by grammatical explanations with further exercises for practice” – state its authors at the back cover of the book. Mostly 4 authors achieve this goal. The material the most situations are based on is taken from contemporary Ukrainian examples/sources. Slowly and definitely learning the language, the learner acquires certain knowledge of Ukraine’s culture, customs and traditions. The authors can not overcome typical temptation facing the Ukrainian textbook compiler, that is to include extensive political, historical, geographic background/development information (Among the Further English-language reading on the Ukrainian language, history, and politics (p. 10) we find Dmytro Chyzhevs’kyi’s “A History of Ukrainian Literature”, George Grabowicz’s “Toward a History of Ukrainian Literature”, etc.). Sometimes the authors sound very categorical recommending certain dictionaries and it is easy to doubt their choice/selection. The Ukrainian alphabet (its cursive type, pp. 5, 15) could be better and more neatly presented.
The book consists of Foreword and Acknowledgments; Preface: For the Classroom Student and the Self Learner – Tips and Reference Guide; Introduction; 22 Lessons; Ukrainian for Russian Speakers (including 14 Conversation Lessons; English Translations of the Rozmovnyky; Reference Appendices; English-Ukrainian Grammar Terms; Rozmovljajmo Glossary; and Index of Grammatical Concepts.
The textbook can be recommended for the instructors of Ukrainian at an advanced level.