“Russian School Abroad” – cycle of events for teachers of Russian schools in the USA

The National Research University Higher School of Economics, together with Rossotrudnichestvo organized a series of events for teachers of Russian schools in the United States.

The first round of events was held on October 9 and 10 at the Russian Cultural Center in Washington.

Russian Cultural Center in Washington meets specialists from the Higher School of Economics and teachers of Russian schools

From the very beginning, the seminar declared itself as a major, landmark event in the international educational sphere. Director of the Russian Cultural Center Moroz Natalia Sidorovna opened the round table. An honorary president and director of the Center for the Study of American Councils for International Education, Dan Davidson, made a keynote speech on the state of teaching foreign languages in the US and the place of the Russian language in the US educational system.

Dan Davidson – An honorary president and director of the of the American Councils for International Education

He noted that the Russian language does not lose its position in the system of school and higher education in the United States. This thesis was the main subject of discussion of the Round Table, which was attended by leaders and teachers of Russian-speaking schools and experts working in the field of education.

Within the framework of the events, specialists of the Higher School of Economics presented the new methods of teaching Russian language for schoolchildren. Collegues discussed the formation of adolescents’ motivation in order to study in a more complex educational environment. They held a series of workshops on usage of new electronic educational, informational and game resources in teaching Russian as a foreign language.

The second round of events took place at the Midland Library in Portland.

Natalya Gronskaya and Marina Tsvetkova hold a presentation lesson on the latest Russian educational technologies in the field of supporting the Russian language abroad

Teachers of Russian schools in the northwestern states of the United States received certificates from the Higher School of Economics – the end of the event in Portland

Traditionally, lectures and workshops on the use of electronic information and gaming resources in teaching Russian as a foreign language, as well as a presentation lesson on the latest educational resources in the field of supporting the Russian language abroad, have attracted particular interest.

In Sacramento, the third cycle of events took place at the Community Outreach Academy with the support of the Gateway Community Charters.

Opening events in Sacramento – representatives of the Gateway Community Charters, specialists from the Higher School of Economics and teachers of Russian schools in Northern California

Colleagues from Russian schools in Northern California with great interest studied the latest trends in teaching Russian language abroad, learned about methodological approaches that use various cinema opportunities for fascinating, motivating students to dive into various cultural and historical layers of Russian life.

Anastasia Bonch-Osmolovskaya presents new techniques for using the Russian National Corpus (a corpus of the modern Russian language incorporating over 300 million words) to compile assignments and exercises in teaching Russian to bilingual students

Lectures and master classes of the entire cycle of events were conducted by leading specialists of the Higher School of Economics (Nizhny Novgorod branch):

– Natalya Gronskaya – Doctor of Political Science, Ph.D. (specializes in Russian language), Professor, Department of Applied Linguistics and Foreign Languages, HSE – Nizhny Novgorod;

– Marina Tsvetkova – Doctor of Philology, Professor, Department of Literature and Intercultural Communication, HSE – Nizhny Novgorod;

– Anastasiya Bonch-Osmalovskaya – Ph.D., Associate Professor, School of Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, HSE – Moscow.

Comprehensive events for Russian language teachers abroad are the most important means of enhancing the professional competence of teachers, getting to know the new, most effective approaches and technologies in teaching Russian language and literature, the possibility of personal communication with leading Russian scientists and experts. At the end of the seminar, participants received Certificates of the Higher School of Economics.

Teachers of Russian schools on the east coast of the United States received certificates from the Higher School of Economics at the events of the Russian School Abroad series at the Russian Cultural Center in Washington