In June 2021, 30 students of Jiangsu Second Normal University (JSSNU, Nanjing, China) completed language practice at the Institute of Technologies for Humanity of the Russian New University (RosNOU).
The practice was arranged in the online mode and it lasted from 19 March to 18 June 2021.
The Chinese students had classes in the Practical Course of Speaking and Writing Skills and classes in the Russian Culture with the assistant professor at RosNOU’s Chair of the Russian Language and Publishing Business Marina Antropova. This year, for the first time master students of RosNOU’s Institute of Technologies for Humanities undergoing the training program “Theory and Methodology of Teaching Russian as a Foreign Language within the System of Digital Education” got involved in the work with Chinese students. Four master students did a teaching internship working with JSSNU students: Irina Rukavishnikova, Polina Kotegova, Mariya Volkova, and Nika Rybalka.
“From 23 May to 18 June, I underwent a teaching internship at RosNOU’s Center for Education of Foreign Citizens. I visited and gave classes in the second group of third-year students from Jiangsu Second Normal University, China.
The group consisted of 12 philology students, their level of Russian was B2. The Chinese students from this group had already been in Moscow. In the fall of 2019, they came to RosNOU as exchange students. Their teacher was the assistant professor at RosNOU’s Chair of the Russian Language and Publishing Business Marina Antropova. The students had classes in Russian History and Literature, Regional Studies, and Russian as a Foreign Language (RFL). Apart from that, they visited museums and other places of interest in Moscow. Upon completion of the program, the students successfully passed exams and pass-or-fail exams in the studied disciplines.
In 2021, the Chinese students met their teacher Marina Antropova again, but this time in the online mode. The classes were organized at the Microsoft Teams platform. Experience has proven that even the online mode of study allows sharing impressions and conveying emotions.
<…> to learn to speak is only possible in the process of speaking, and that is why in class, the students focused on developing speaking skills: they made up monologues and dialogues on such topics as people and nature, sports, friendship, love, leisure time, etc.; they read texts about Russian poets and their works and answered questions; they declaimed poems of famous Russian poets and expressed their opinions. In Russian Language classes, we discussed Russian poesy a lot, Yevgeny Yevtushenko’s poems, and modern Russian popular music. In their feedback, the students noted that they had learned a lot about Russian culture and that they wanted to continue their studies at our university.
<…> All Chinese students from this group liked classes of the Russian language as the learning materials were interesting and easy to understand and the teachers of Russian were encouraging and patient. The students also pointed out that the discipline in classes was always good and that the teachers made sure everyone understood the new material. Many of the surveyed students noted that they liked learning new information on the Russian language, Russian people, their culture, and perspectives on life.
<…> My fellow students and I tried to make our classes emotional, vibrant, and gripping. That is why we did not just give the students texts to read but supplemented them with thematic pictures, videos, translations of some difficult Russian words to Chinese. We controlled our gestures and facial expressions and made sure that our tone of voice was not monotonous as such a tone makes classes dull. At the end of our lessons, the students were in high spirits and eager to come to the next one.
<…> I learned how to draw up a lesson plan, elaborate the content of a lesson, explain the material to students clearly and coherently, think all the stages of a lesson through, and put on a brave face in front of students not showing them my nervousness. The teaching internship has given me good experience and helped me develop professional observation skills of a teacher and self-analysis skills.
<…> The Chinese say that interest is the best teacher. And indeed, the primary goal of a teacher of Russian as a Foreign Language is to excite students’ interest in learning the Russian language because that way you boost learning efficiency and the quality of forming knowledge and skills. And therefore the abbreviation RFL stands not only for Russian as a Foreign Language but also for Russian as a Fascinating Language.”
