October 23, 20202 the Department of Foreign Languages of the Philological Faculty at the L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University held online seminar entitled «The use of digital resources in teaching foreign languages».
The seminar was devoted to the problems of effective methods of using digital resources in teaching foreign languages of higher education, in particular, its theoretical and practical aspects, the development of effective online programs, recommendations for improving the directions of online teaching and learning foreign languages were considered.
The following teachers presented their topics of speeches:
1. The use of learning platforms in teaching English: challenges and opportunities – Chulakova Z.U.
2. Flipped classroom pri obuchenii inostrannomu yazyku studentov neyazykovykh spezialnostei [Flipped classroom при обучении иностранному языку студентов неязыковых специальностей] – Mussina S.K.
3. Agylshyn tilin kashyktyktan okytudyn keibir tiimder adistery [Ағылшын тілін қашықтықтан оқытудың кейбір тиімді әдістері] – Zhuztayev Zh.B.
Seniour lecturer Chulakova Z.U. dwelled on issues of learning platforms in teaching English: their challenges and opportunities. The main emphasis was made on the Microsoft Teams platform, because all teaching staff of ENU conduct their classes on this platform. The difficulties and opportunities that this platform provides for distance learning have been identified. The speaker expressed her own point of view on distance learning during the pandemic. The most popular educational platforms were listed used by her during distance teaching.
She focused her attention on analysis and comparison between the platforms Moodle, Zoom and Microsoft Teams. In her analysis of the Microsoft Teams platform, she listed issues that were making it difficult to operate. Most of the advantages of the Microsoft Teams platform were demonstrated by Chulakova Z.U. when demonstrating her work with the group Tur-13: Aсtivity, Chat, Teams, and Files.
At the end of the presentation feedback from her students was offered. These are the results of a short questionnaire about what students think about foreign languages distance learning.
Associate professor Tussupbekova M.Zh. and senior lecturer Zagorulya O.L. asked questions about the challenges of digital resources, about the survey participants and about the video signals used with this platform, to which detailed answers were given.
The second speaker senior lecturer Mussina S.K. presented the speech entitled “Flipped classroom pri obuchenii inostrannomu yazyku studentov neyazykovykh spezialnostei [Flipped classroom при обучении иностранному языку студентов неязыковых специальностей]”.
She considered the peculiarities of the effectiveness teaching process based on Flipped classroom (flipped classroom, inverted classroom) that has become very popular in studying foreign languages.
According to Mussina S.K. students master theoretical material on their own, mainly with the help of video lectures, and in the classroom they can practice it. A detailed analysis of the use of an inverted/flipped classroom’s form in English classes among students of non-linguistic specialties was presented: the model of an inverted/flipped classroom in a university was revealed and problems that could be encountered during its implementation were identified.
To the question of senoiur teacher Khamitova A.G. about what interactive teaching methods can be used in the format of an flipped classroom, a detailed answer was given by Musina S.K.
The third speaker Zhuztayev Zh.B. presented his speech in kazakh entitled Agylshyn tilin kashyktyktan okytudyn keibir tiimder adistery [Ағылшын тілін қашықтықтан оқытудың кейбір тиімді әдістері].
He highlighted in his speech the issues of the Hot Potatoes program, which consists of 5 structures, the tasks of which are carried out through the World Wide Web. It includes structures: JCloze, JCross, JMatch, JMix, and JQuiz.
He elaborated on the Masher structure, the function of which is to group tasks from the previous 5 structures into 1 group, select tasks and group tasks for students. In this program, electronic exercises, assignments are processed on a web page on the Internet and delivered to students in the form of assignments. This program is very simple, very easy to create, at the same time it is simple and affordable and free program. The program was organized by the University of Victoria's Humanities Computing and Media Center Research and Development Team. The Hot Potatoes Program is funded by Half-Baked Software Inc. and has been providing free content since October 2009.
Summing up the results of the seminar, the participants expressed a unique positive opinion about the relevance of the issues considered, their novelty and the value of the information received for further practice.
