IITU Experts Held Training Lessons in the Cities of Kazakhstan

From April 21 to April 29, IITU language and methodological experts visited schools in Nur-Sultan and Shymkent, involved in a project to improve the literacy of children who do not speak Russian. Observation of the lessons and live communication allowed them to outline the next steps in organizing trainings for teachers and creating a methodological guide for assessing students.

Language expert, Associate Professor of the Department of Languages ​​of IITU Dinara Aliyeva noted that classes are held in a favorable atmosphere in all schools. According to her, it is felt that these are optional lessons or additional lessons. All teachers have different lessons, but they use various tools to achieve a common goal - to help children adapt to a new environment through the Russian language.

“Nur-Sultan teachers seem more successful to me. Perhaps this is due to the equipment of schools, and the general preparedness of children and teachers. Nur-Sultan teachers have created an algorithm for working with a tablet - 25 minutes per lesson in 3 sets. At the beginning of the lesson they give an exercise; in the middle - a song or games; and at the end - a quiz,” Dinara Asylkhanovna says.

Assistant Professor Oksana Bublikova noted the technical equipment and professional readiness of the teachers at school-lyceum No. 60, which they visited during the trip. According to her, Nur-Sultan has a high level of schools: both teachers and directors are actively involved in the project, which is why children, despite the fact that they are of different levels and of different ages, cope with the tasks.

“The school has bright classrooms, there is office equipment everywhere, each teacher has, in addition to an individual computer, his/her own printer. Everywhere there are recreation facilities for a comfortable stay. There are two libraries and a dance class. The teacher involved in the project methodology of Russian as a foreign language. Her lesson impressed us and even somewhat changed our plans: instead of showing our training lesson, we only analyzed the lesson of Anar Serikovna,” Oksana Vasiliyevna said.

In Shymkent, the situation was more complicated. Experts attribute this to the fact that teachers use the traditional approach instead of RFL methods.

“Our main task was to show that the traditional approach is not always a good solution in this matter, because children need to be taught according to a different methodology - Russian as a foreign language for children. Our efforts were directed primarily to the methodology,” Oksana Vasilievna emphasized.

As Dinara Aliyeva notes, teachers lack experience in working in a foreign-language classroom. Such conclusions are made both by IITU experts and the school staff themselves.

“Teachers work according to the methodology of elementary school, the texts and assignments are complex, which do not contribute to the achievement of the expected results. They need materials for teaching Russian as a foreign language, which we give at trainings,” Dinara Asylkhanovna says.

These trainings are held monthly online. During a trip to Shymkent, IITU experts conducted a training lesson on the topic "Journey" in an offline game form. During the lesson, they showed the students pictures of transport and were surprised to find that the children did not know what a trolleybus is. It became an interesting moment to talk with the children. Good practice was given in exercises with interdisciplinary connections: drawing, singing. All exercises and assignments were of a group nature; in the practice of Russian as a foreign language, this approach makes it possible to overcome the fear of a public answer in the language being studied. Everyone also liked the phonetic warm-up game, which allows immediate live communication.

During the lesson, the children assessed themselves with the help of chips, and at the end of the lesson they conducted self-reflection using the interactive exercise “Tree of Success”.

“Only one student noted that he was worried and felt insecure (he hung a sticker in the form of a heart on a tree). The rest were satisfied with their achievements and results,” Dinara Asylkhanovna recalls.

Teachers were surveyed before and after the training. They noted that it became clearer to them how to work without explaining grammar, avoiding difficult topics. In addition, the project participants came to a common decision on the need to develop descriptors.

“Based on the results of meetings with teachers, we have developed the descriptors with the help of which each teacher will be able to evaluate and analyze the achievements of the students,” Oksana Vasiliyevna concluded.

These descriptors will form part of the guidance for monitoring progress and evaluating student learning. This will allow to track the effectiveness of each lesson in particular and the entire project as a whole.