Professors from the IITU Department of Languages commented on a set of lessons of a course aimed at improving the literacy of foreign-language children (level B1.1) on the Akelius platform. These lessons are posted on the Swedish educational platform Akelius and are designed for repatriated children aged 5 to 17. This literacy project has been implemented in Kazakhstan since September 2021 and is jointly developed by the Akelius Foundation, UNICEF and IITU. The Akelius educational platform has 5 step-by-step levels. Zhannura Manapbayeva, the head of the Department of Languages of IITU JSC explained exactly what level the experts commented on. “We find technical errors, propose to methodically and technically improve the Russian language course, and write down methodological recommendations for conducting each lesson on the platform. In general, in October and November 2023 we, together with IITU language experts commented on level B1.1.” - said Zhannura Manapbayeva, the head of the Department of Languages of IITU JSC.
Yevgeniy Medvedev, Candidate of Philological Sciences and Assistant Professor of the Department of Languages told what types of errors occur most often on the platform and what this is connected with. “The verification of educational materials on the Akelius platform was carried out in order to detect technical, factual, and grammatical errors and evaluate the material proposed for study. During verification the following technical errors were discovered: in the proposed answer options there were two identical options; the picture contains one word, but the speaker pronounces another; a letter is missing in the word (to inite instead of inVite),” said Yevgeniy Yuryevich. According to him, a gross factual error was also discovered: the time period between 1900 and 2000 was called the nineteenth century, although it is the twentieth century.
Yevgeniy Medvedev also gave several examples of incorrect use of words in context: “The word strengthened instead of fixed (these words have different meanings, and in this context it is the word fixed that is needed) and erroneous confusion of the words be confident and hope in one context, which are mutually exclusive. Here "We can also include an incorrectly composed sentence: The ground is also a surface. Therefore, you need to either clarify “from the surface of the floor or the ground,” or simply say: “from the surface of the ground" (without or)," he explained.
“The expression “from the surface or the ground” is incorrect,” emphasized Yevgeniy Medvedev. At the same time, he added that in the explanation of the grammatical material, an incorrect explanation of the rules regarding the spelling of verbs and verbal nouns was discovered.
His colleague, Dinara Aliyeva, Associate Professor and Candidate of Philological Sciences noted that the lessons are quite interesting, especially the topics – Professions and Hobbies - are relevant and entertaining, while pointing out that most often there are speech errors such as tautology, which can be acceptable in colloquial speech. “I felt that lessons 71-73 (hobbies) were easier in terms of topics, content and assignments than the previous 61-63 (professions), which I pointed out in Trello. They could be swapped, since the Trello board is convenient for interaction and commenting,” added Dinara Asylkhanovna. Oksana Bublikova, Associate Professor, and Candidate of Philological Sciences gave her comments on the lessons, identifying stylistic, spelling and technical errors. "She's pretending to be a ballerina." is not a completely correct example. In this subsection it is used several times. The word “pretend” has a different meaning. You can pretend to be sick or caring," noted Oksana Vasilyevna.
According to the project participants the technical disadvantages include the fact that there is no explanation for the fact that in some tasks there is the possibility of choosing two correct answers, but as a rule, only one option is selected, and navigation still remains very inconvenient because you cannot go back to the previous answers. To do this, you need to go through all the tasks from a certain section from the very beginning. "Arrow" returns you only to the beginning of the task which you are currently doing. They also felt that some topics, such as sheet music and scores seemed difficult to understand. But during visits to schools, experts noted that children perceive new information well and cope successfully with such tasks.
IITU language experts indicated that the most important thing when compiling and commenting on lessons is to assess whether the mastered material will allow students to enter into real language practice with Russian speakers.