Pushkin Institute Research and Education Centre of the SUSU Institute of Linguistics and International Communications is to hold a webinar dedicated to the use of visual aids in teaching Russian as a foreign language. The event is oriented towards Russian teachers from the People’s Republic of China.
The webinar will be held by Yulia Kazakova, Candidate of Sciences (Philology), Associate Professor of the Department of Russian as a Foreign Language. The event implies live streaming. Participants will discuss what aspects deserve special attention while using flowcharts, tables and other visual aids when teaching Russian to Chinese students.
To prepare a webinar, psychological studies and developments in the field of linguodidactics and ethno-specific methods of teaching were analysed. In addition, recommendations included in the material are the result of generalising the long experience of lecturers of the Department of Russian as a Foreign Language of the SUSU Institute of Linguistics and International Communications:
Yulia Kazakova commented: “The Chinese audience, which perceives the world with the help of images and symbols, requires a special data presentation. Specialists of the Department have conducted a research study based on an experiment. We showed Chinese students, who are studying at SUSU, different ways of conveying new for them grammatical information. After that they assessed what forms are more accessible to them. The most comprehensible ways of data presentation are used in the webinar”.
Noteworthy the webinar is an accompanying element of the professional development course “Creating a Unique Electronic Course” developed by the Pushkin Institute Centre and the SUSU Institute of Open and Distance Education. The webinar gives participants an opportunity to learn the benefits of the programme and join it. The course is a convenient platform for sharing best practices and establishing communication with teachers of Russian as a foreign language who work in different countries. Furthermore, the webinar will be recorded and used in the advanced training course on electronic technologies, which means that students who have just started the programme could access it whenever it’s convenient for them.
The events of the Pushkin Institute Centre, oriented towards Russian teachers from China, cover all the most challenging aspects for Chinese speakers and help them master Russian at a whole new level.
It should be noted that the webinar is held within the Action Plan on the support of Russian and education in the Russian language, for implementation of which South Ural State University received a grant in 2018. The work is being carried out in the framework of the project “Establishment and Development of a Network of Pushkin Institute Centres (no less than 8) in the PRC on the basis of Institutions Providing Education in the Russian Language” in the context of the event “Grants for Realisation of Events Aimed at the Full Functioning and Development of the Russian Language” of the main initiative “Development of Open Education in Russian and Russian Language Teaching”. The Pushkin Institute Centre carries out an active work in this direction in the People’s Republic of China, where SUSU has recently launched two centres of the partner network.