PUSHKIN INSTITUTE RESEARCH, EDUCATION AND COORDINATION CENTRE
One of the key areas for development of South Ural State University is the intensification of international cooperation. As a result, by the order of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, the University launched the Pushkin Institute Research, Education and Coordination Centre in 2014.
THE MAIN GOALS OF PUSHKIN INSTITUTE CENTRE ARE:
1. Formation of a network of the Research, Education and Coordination Centre for the support of Russian and education in Russian.
The Pushkin Institute Centre carries out work on establishing a network of partners based on the partner universities, where instruction is given in Russian. The project is aimed at promoting the Russian language in the global educational space, forming a positive image of our country, and strengthening its internationally recognised authority. The Pushkin Institute network of partners, formed by SUSU on the basis of Chinese educational institutions, has its own specific character. It reflects SUSU’s peculiar features and fits in with the university’s development strategy, which is associated with the introduction of information technology to the education and science.
2. Organisation and running of continuing professional development courses (including in a distance mode) for lecturers teaching Russian and other subjects, giving classes in Russian abroad.
From 2014 to 2018, the Pushkin Institute offered continuing professional development courses and workshops (full- and part-time) for Russian teachers and lecturers of other subjects from China and Kazakhstan. In particular, 192 specialists from three Chinese educational institutions (Harbin Pedagogical University, Heihe University, Zhengzhou Railway Vocational and Technical College) completed the courses.
As part of its activities, the Centre holds events designed to identify the best educational practices, strengthen international cooperation in the field of teaching Russian as a foreign language, and enhance the prestige of a lecturer teaching Russian as a foreign language on the education market. In the course of webinars on the methods for teaching Russian as a foreign language, methods of developing students’ communicative competence are discussed, effective ways of giving classes for teaching productive types of speech activity are searched. The Centre holds round-table discussions involving both novices and experienced Russian teachers, initiates an interesting and fruitful discussion and the exchange of best practices between native and foreign teachers of Russian as a foreign language.
3. Elaboration and development of educational resources for distance learning of foreign nationals in Russian with the elements of virtual reality and game formats.
In the framework of its functioning, the Centre has developed a robotic dialogue system which includes: 1) a virtual cabinet with the speech processing system; 2) massive open online courses; 3) a humanoid robot operating programme. This complex is designed for Chinese and Arab students. The specialists from the Department of Russian as a Foreign Language, Department of International Relations and Foreign Regional Studies of the Institute of Linguistics and International Communications, the Institute of Open and Distance Education, Department of Informational and Measuring Technology of the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science work on the phonetics complex for international students. The created products receive practical approval in the partner universities in China.
During the project implementation, a database of speech samples containing 39,000 audio files has been created. 4 certificates of state registration were received.
4. Organisation and carrying out of academic and other creative competitions in the knowledge of Russian language and culture, including distance learning technologies.
In the framework of the project, the Centre holds a number of events that should kindle pupils’ and students’ interest in the Russian language and culture. Contests are not only of educational, but also of entertaining nature. In the process of preparing and completing the tasks, students have an opportunity to learn more about difficult issues of the Russian language, immerse themselves in the Russian culture, and discover the secrets of Russian calligraphy.
COMPETITIONS:
- Competition of projects on popularization of Russian
- Contest of Russian calligraphy
- Video contest of Russian songs
- Russian language and culture skills contest
- Workshops on Russian phonetics for students
In 2015, the Pushkin Institute Centre together with the Department of Russian as a Foreign Language and the Institute of Open and Distance Education held a competition of essays on the topic “Russian language and education in Russia. What does it mean for my career?”. Following the contest results, a collection of best works was published.
Among the Centre’s responsibilities is the organisation of international Internet-based Russian language and culture skills contest. In 2018, it is expected to include the units in different fields of not only liberal, but also engineering sciences, following the University’s development strategy.
5. Organisation of educational events and actions: Days of Russian language and education in Russia; international forums and exchange, exhibitions, congresses.
The participation of SUSU in the international action “Total Dictation” has already become a tradition. In 2016, the staff of the Pushkin Institute Centre organised for the first time in Chelyabinsk a special venue for international students. This year, not only foreign nationals living in our city (in terms of foreigners Chelyabinsk took the third place in Russia), but also students from our partner universities demonstrated interest in this event.