In 2020, the L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University once again strengthened its cooperation with the US Embassy in Kazakhstan by participating in contests for US grant programs to develop joint teaching activities at the university.
This year, the Foreign Languages Theory and Practice Department, the Faculty of Philology won a grant from the Embassy for the Online English Fellow Program.
In this regard, on October 2, 2020, representatives of the two parties held an online meeting. The online meeting was chaired by ENU Vice-Rector for International Relations Akbota N. Zholdabekova, Anastasia V. Karmelyuk, Head of the International Cooperation Department, and Dina S. Saparova, Deputy Head. The Faculty of Philology was represented by its Dean Ardak B. Beisenbai, Head of the Foreign Languages Theory and Practice Department Zhanna A. Beisembaeva and the department teachers Akzhan M. Abdykhalykova and Raisa U. Latanova.
The US Embassy in the online meeting was represented by:
– Mr. John Silver, the Regional English Language Officer (for Central Asia), U.S. Embassy, Nur-Sultan;
– Ms. Olga Paterova, Coordinator of EL programs, Regional English Language Office, U.S. Embassy, Nur-Sultan;
– Mr. August Garnsey, English Language Fellow.
The two delegations discussed details of the Online English Fellow Program implementation, presented their vision of further development of close cooperation and wished their colleagues successful co-teaching of English to students and undergraduates of the L.N. Gumilyov ENU.
Under the terms of the English Fellow Program, where universities from more than 80 countries take part annually, a professional English teacher, whose candidacy is selected as a result of a long competition of one of the leading universities in America, comes to a Kazakhstani university for one academic year and teaches courses on various aspects of English in a binary method – together with local university teachers.
The L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University has already twice become the winner of this grant: lecturers from leading US universities were invited to the Foreign Languages Theory and Practice Department – Lauren Whitaker in the 2015-2016 academic year and Benjamin R. Taylor in the 2016-2017 academic year came to ENU to co-teach.
This academic year, the terms of the program are adapted to the quarantine regime, which has been announced in many countries around the world with regard to the spread of the COVID-2020 pandemic. In this concern, the English Fellow program has acquired a virtual form and is conducted online in the first semester of the 2020-2021 academic year (from October 10, 2020 to January 08, 2021).
As part of the program, the US Embassy in Kazakhstan, in cooperation with the George Town University (USA), sent M.A. August Garnsey as an English teacher. August Garnsey is a graduate of the TESOL program at Northeastern Illinois University (Chicago, USA) and is a Certified Instructor in courses such as CELTA, CLIL and TKT.
At the Foreign Languages Theory and Practice Department of the Philological Faculty, headed by Candidate of Philology Zhannd A. Beisembayeva, August Garnsey will be co-teaching with the department teachers such courses as “Profession-Oriented English” (senior lecturer Raissa U Latanova.), “Innovative Technologies in FLT” (Prof. Akzhan M. Abdykhalykova), “Multimedia Technologies in FLT” (Prof. Akzhan M. Abdykhalykova).
