Multilingual Education during COVID-19: University Teachers from Several Continents and 18 Countries Explored Common and Specific Features of Remote Training
The results of the project are presented in the collective monograph "The world universities’ response to COVID-19: remote online language teaching»". The Issue compiled research reports on universities’ experiences in foreign language training for language and non-language-students during the 2020 period of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The presentation of the research project findings was hosted by the European Confederation of Language Centers in Higher Education (CercleS). Its distinguished President Dr. Sabina Schaffner kindly agreed to write the foreword and introduce the book at its webinar-mode launch. The event attracted about 150 participants from over 30 countries, including the RUDN language teachers from different departments, institutes, and faculties.
The research project was initiated, and the monograph publication was co-sponsored by the RUDN University and the Cambridge University Language Center. The monograph with the results of the project was published in the publishing house Research-publishing.net (France, Voillans) owing to the financial support of the two universities, with the involvement of interested specialists-representatives of universities in different countries.
Doctor Nebojša Radić, the Director of Cambridge University Language Programme (CULP), Professor Anastasia Atabekova, the RUDN Vice Rector for Multilingual Development, Professor Maria Freddi (University of Pavia, Italy), and Professor Josef Schmied (Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany) integrated their efforts as co-editors of the monograph and gatherers of external reviewers’ pool, once a lucky search of the mentioned team for university colleagues passionate for language training resulted in a collection of 23 chapters from 18 countries and several continents, including Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania.
The chapters explore a number of research questions. Including decision-making process in shifting to remote on-line teaching; driving forces for change in terms of technology, administration, and pedagogy combination; issues of tailoring traditional pedagogical approaches (interactivity, task-based and learner -centered background) to remote online teaching; on-line remote teaching capacity to cater for the diversity of student body; emerging methodological developments, their common and specific patterns.
RUDN University contributed to the data with the chapter under the title Tracks for Russian university students’ multilingual development within remote education during the pandemic, written by Anastasia Atabekova, Alexander Belousov, and Oleg Yastrebov. The chapter provides a comprehensive picture of Russian higher education prompt response and thoughtful polices during the current pandemic through the lenses of RUDN Law institute language education activities.
The project data reveals a societal relevance of the remote on-line foreign language teaching during the pandemic. Examples of practices from different countries presented in the monograph chapters confirm that respective activities contribute to ensuring and fostering academic community resilience and adaptability in case of health-care emergency.
"This collection of case studies is special for several reasons. Firstly, because of the geographical and institutional diversity of the authors, bringing together experiences of teaching under COVID-19 restrictions in the university language classroom from 18 countries and five continents. Secondly, the publication is interesting because of the variety of case studies that testify to different strategies and emphases in dealing with pandemic-related challenges. Finally, the case studies collected strikingly demonstrate the creative responses of language teachers in a variety of contexts to meet the challenges of the pandemic crisis," said Dr Sabina Schaffner, president of CercleS, Director of the University of Zurich and ET Zurich Language Centre
"The research data confirms that the global networking of enthusiastic language professionals contributes to awareness raising and dissemination of education promising practices, fosters multilingual and intercultural collaboration among university leadership, administration, faculty, and students at times of the pandemic uncertainty," added Prof. Anastasia Atabekova, RUDN Vice-rector for Multilingual Development.
On November 23, 2022, at the invitation of the Department of Foreign Languages of Agrarian and Technological Institute, within the framework of the scientific and methodological seminar “Linguistic methodological foundations of the formation of a translator’s ‘secondary language personality’ and the creation of modern educational complexes,” Mario Pace, Resident Associate Professor of Italian at the Department of Languages and Humanities in Education within the Faculty of Education of the University of Malta, language consultant to the Minister of Education and Employment on foreign language teaching & learning. Delivered an online lecture “Languages and translation in the context of interlanguage communication” (“Languages and translation in the context of intercultural communication”). More than 80 RUDN and the Russian-Armenian University (RAU, Yerevan) participants joined the online lecture on the Microsoft Teams platform. The working language — English.
Zurab Khabadze, Head of the Department of Therapeutic Dentistry at RUDN University, improved his qualifications with Dr. Lorenzo Vanini. It was Lorenzo Vanini who founded the anatomical stratification method and created the ENAMEL Plus HRi dental material system. The topic of the course is “Stratification and osteopathic approach to patients”.
A scientific seminar “Toward Sustainable Development: Modern Tools and Approaches” was held at RUDN University. The participants were representatives and scientists of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), the University of Sri Jayawardenepura (Sri Lanka), the Eurasian National University named after L. N. Gumilyov (Kazakhstan) and RUDN.
On November 23, 2022, at the invitation of the Department of Foreign Languages of Agrarian and Technological Institute, within the framework of the scientific and methodological seminar “Linguistic methodological foundations of the formation of a translator’s ‘secondary language personality’ and the creation of modern educational complexes,” Mario Pace, Resident Associate Professor of Italian at the Department of Languages and Humanities in Education within the Faculty of Education of the University of Malta, language consultant to the Minister of Education and Employment on foreign language teaching & learning. Delivered an online lecture “Languages and translation in the context of interlanguage communication” (“Languages and translation in the context of intercultural communication”). More than 80 RUDN and the Russian-Armenian University (RAU, Yerevan) participants joined the online lecture on the Microsoft Teams platform. The working language — English.
Zurab Khabadze, Head of the Department of Therapeutic Dentistry at RUDN University, improved his qualifications with Dr. Lorenzo Vanini. It was Lorenzo Vanini who founded the anatomical stratification method and created the ENAMEL Plus HRi dental material system. The topic of the course is “Stratification and osteopathic approach to patients”.
A scientific seminar “Toward Sustainable Development: Modern Tools and Approaches” was held at RUDN University. The participants were representatives and scientists of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), the University of Sri Jayawardenepura (Sri Lanka), the Eurasian National University named after L. N. Gumilyov (Kazakhstan) and RUDN.