On April 29, 2020 an international scientific seminar entitled "Becoming a Better Teacher: Exploring Professional Development" was organized and held by the Philology Faculty’s Foreign Languages Department of the L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University (Head of the Department – Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor J.E. Sagimbayeva) on the Microsoft Teams platform.
Practitioners, involved with improving their professional development, exchanged the best practices and made presentations. Scientists from Romania, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan were among the participants as well.
The Head of the Foreign Languages Department, associate professor J. Sagimbayeva opened the international seminar with a welcoming speech and noted that due to the specifics of the Department’s activity and its main research aimed at strengthening foreign languages teaching, challenges, approaches and technologies, there were following key aspects to be discussed:
- Ongoing self-improvement opportunities for teachers in the current day conditions;
- English teaching improvement;
- Recommendations within the issue discussed.
The foreign colleagues shared the present-day trends in methodical self-improvement and self-development. Specifically, Dr. Gabriel Dan Barbulet Universitatea "1 Decembrie 1918" din Alba Iulia (Alba Iulia, Romania) reviewed the important concepts and principles of professional skills that are necessary for a high school foreign languages teacher.
Professor of the High School Pedagogy Department at the J. Balasagyna Kyrgyz National University (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan), G.T. Karabalaeyva talked about self-education and raised the topical issue of the long-live learning. She focused on the levels of pedagogues’ personal, socio-psychological, specially-professional, methodological professional development.
Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor, Head of the Pedagogy, Psychology and Philology Department at O.A. Baikonurov Zhezkazgan University, Z. Zh. Kashkinbayeva devoted her speech to the creative approach to teaching and learning process, analyzed the main ways of enhancing learning motivation and developing creative abilities in teaching and learning foreign languages.
The event organizers, Foreign Languages Department Lecturers, presented no less relevant cases, one of which was devoted to some methods of intensive foreign language teaching (Zh.P. Vatutina - Master, Senior Lecturer of the Department). Intensive methods aimed at verbal communicative competence development were considered, some techniques contributing to the results consolidation were proposed.
Young lecturers of the Department, Masters, Zh.A. Zhanayeva and A.M. Zhandildinova presented another case - the use of ICTs by foreign languages teachers. In the presentation of the upgrading EFL Teachers’ professional skills via developing ICT competence, they focused on some practical methods of using ICTs in English teaching and extracurricular activities.
The seminar outcome was summed up by participants' recommendations on creating single methodological platforms, using educational apps and platforms for improving learning process and teaching foreign languages to non-linguistic specialties students in the context of professionalism, globalization and digitalization.
