IITU experts commented on three levels on the Akelius platform

On December 13, 2021, a meeting was held with the developers of Akelius to organize commenting on Russian language lessons intended for children who moved to Kazakhstan and found themselves in a difficult situation.

Project coordinator Zhannura Manapbayeva said that three meetings of language and methodological experts were held in December to comment on the lessons of levels A0 and A1 (12/09/2021, 12/20/2021, 12/27/2021), as well as a separate meeting with platform developers uploading content.

“Together with pilot schools, comments on levels A0, A1 and A1.1 for children aged 5-17 were identified and prepared for developers. The process of commenting has been organized, and the experts also give recommendations in the Trello Dashboard for each lesson for working in a blended learning format,” explained Zhannura Zharkanbekovna.

While commenting, IITU experts advise replacing poorly chosen words with ones more suitable for our region and realities, in particular, “томат” with “помидор”, “джем” with “варенье”, “евро” with “тенге”. Sometimes comments refer to the replacement of pictures that accompany the text.

“Since the Akelius platform is based on the direct method of language learning, that is, students are immersed in the language without memorizing grammar, the category of gender, which is very important for the Russian language, is not explained. Accordingly, students memorize some forms only due to their repetition. Therefore, it seems reasonable if different forms, for example, “двЕ девочки / двА мальчика”, are more often placed on the same slide for greater visibility. Now these forms are scattered on different slides, which can cause difficulties for students to memorize this material,” says Assistant Professor Yevgeniy Medvedev.

The identification of stylistic, grammatical, cultural errors and technical bugs and will continue as new levels appear on the Akelius platform. This platform is used to educate children in 9 pilot schools in Kazakhstan. Teachers who conduct classes in groups of different levels are systematically provided with methodological support by the IITU. By the end of the project (February 2023), at least 250 children are expected to complete this course.