April 19-20 UdSU is receiving the delegation of the Kazan Federal University consisting of the representatives of the Faculty of Pre-University Training for KFU International Students: Dariia Ivanova, the Chair of the Russian Department, Elena Shimkovich, the Chair of the General Disciplines Department. The delegation also includes two KFU international students: Aslam Hannan (India) and El-Bayum Mohand El-Saeed Ibrahim (Egypt).
The visit was organized with the purpose of exchanging experience of teaching Russian as a foreign language and pre-university training of international students. These are today’s burning issues both teachers and students as, with shift to online learning necessitated by COVID-19 pandemic, they face many new challenges.
The highlight of the first day was the Round Table “Special methodological aspects of international students’ pre-university training: present-day challenges and solutions”. The attendees were representing universities entering the Consortium of the Higher Educational Institutions of the Udmurt Republic – the Udmurt State University and the Izhevsk State Medical Academy. The specialists involved in pre-university training of international students discussed with their colleagues from Kazan such challenges of COVID era as students’ decreased motivation, technical support of the learning process, students’ cheating and the resulting assessment problems. According to the KFU representatives, the biggest challenge brought about by the online format is teaching Russian pronunciation. To answer it they developed an application which not just provide correct pronunciation but also evaluates student’s performance by analyzing self-recorded words. Numerous teaching tools, applications, learning platforms, conference software were mentioned in the Round Table meaning that they have become an integral part of the learning process in the past year. This, in turn, implies that COVID restrictions are also a driving force behind new methodological developments, use of new information technologies in teaching.
Another important mission of Kazan delegation is participation of KFU international students in the UdSU Week of Student Research. In the yesterday’s opening meeting Aslam Hannan made a report about Kazan linguistic school. Today El-Bayum Mohand El-Saeed Ibrahim shared the history of Kazan chemical scientific school with students of the Natural Sciences Institute.
Our guests will be visiting the memorial estate of P.I. Tchaikovsky in Votkinsk today. We wish them a pleasant trip and hope for fruitful cooperation in future!
