Учебное пособие 1351

gender stereotypes. The overall result however demonstrates that more than 60% of teachers are not gender-neutral. As for the coursebooks, most of them seem to be gender-neutral in terms of grammar, and half of them seem to be gender-neutral in terms of vocabulary. At the same time, 60% of coursebooks contain gender stereotypes and 90% do not represent males and females equally (with male superiority in number).

The findings of the research demonstrate that, first, the issue of gender neutrality is still an emerging concept that has not become a universal part of the classroom language of English teachers in Russia. This might be due to the fact that little attention is given to the phenomenon of gender neutrality in the English language both at school and at university because of its ambiguity and obscurity to the English learners in Russia. Thus, although the language has changed, teachers tend to present it the way they were taught, possibly trying to avoid an uneasy topic to discuss with their students, or just being unaware of any changes because most of the professional development courses for language teachers focus on pedagogy rather than language. Besides, the coursebook analysis demonstrated that even if teachers fully rely on coursebook materials, they still cannot avoid gender stereotyping and sexist language completely because even coursebooks created for an international classroom happen to contain some of it.

Therefore, there seems to be a need for special guidelines on gender-neutral English in the classroom for English teachers in Russia that will include some recommendations on the use of it and adaptation of the coursebooks that contain some gender-specific language or gender stereotypes. These guidelines should be created with a focus on the Russian socio-cultural context and contain all the necessary footnotes for teachers first, to explain to them the importance of gender neutrality in the English language and second, to help them to explain the phenomenon to the students, who might experience certain challenges while acquiring the concept of gender neutrality that is only minimally represented in the Russian language.

Certain limitations of the study should be mentioned. First of all, the research analyses lessons of the English teachers in Russia and has no data on the English teachers abroad. Secondly, the teachers are not subdivided into groups by level of education, teaching experience, or level of proficiency in English. Moreover, the research analyses only one lesson conducted by each teacher. In addition, the material (including the coursebooks) is selected on the basis of accessibility. At last, not all of the material could be analysed according to all selected criteria as most of the lessons lack information about the characters, personalities and case names mentioned in the class.

Nevertheless, the study underscores the necessity of further research in the area of gender neutrality in the classroom and gender-neutral language use. Being an essential part of the modern English language, it should be reflected both in the course materials and in the classroom language that is used by the teachers. In order to achieve this, it seems necessary to introduce gender-neutral language use in language teachers' education at universities and continuous professional development programmes for in-service teachers.

References

[1]Litosseliti L. Gender and language: theory and practice. Routledge, 2013. 200 p.

[2]Ashmore R. D., Boca F. K. D. Sex Stereotypes and Implicit Personality Theory: Toward a Cognitive-Social Psychological Conceptualization // Sex Roles, 1979, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 219–248. Available at: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ202508 (Accessed 25 September 2021).

[3]Basow S. A. Gender: Stereotypes and Roles (3rd ed.). Brooks/Cole, 1992. Available at: https://archive.org/details/genderstereotype00baso (Accessed 25 September 2021).

[4]Koenig A. M. Comparing Prescriptive and Descriptive Gender Stereotypes About Children, Adults, and the Elderly // Frontiers in Psychology, 2018, vol. 9. Available at:

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https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01086/full (Accessed 25 September 2021).

[5]Hentschel T., Heilman M. E., Peus C. V. The Multiple Dimensions of Gender Stereotypes: A Current Look at Men's and Women's Characterizations of Others and Themselves // Frontiers in Psychology, 2019, vol. 10. Available at: https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00011 (Accessed 25 September 2021).

[6]Davis B. G. Tools for teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2009. 608 p.

[7]Pugsley J. Language and Gender in the EFL Classroom // The Учитель Trainer Journal, 1991, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 27–29. Available at: https://www.tttjournal.co.uk/back-articles/ (Accessed 25 September 2021).

[8]Sunderland J. Gender in the EFL classroom // ELT Journal, 1992, vol. 46, no. 1, pp. 81–

91.

[9]Egbo B. Gender in Language Education. In M. Berns (Ed.) Concise Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. Elsevier, 2010. Pp. 450–453.

[10]Sudo J. Teaching new tendencies in gender usage in modern English // ELT Jour-

nal, 2007, vol. 61, no. 1, pp. 12–19.

[11]Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Available at: https://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/waitron (Accessed 30 October 2021).

[12]«Romir»/GlobalNR. Available at: https://romir.ru/studies/romirglobalnr-gendernye- roli-detey (Accessed 30 October 2021).

Analysed sources

[1*] Matveev S.A. Angliiskii iazyk dlia detei: bol'shoi samouchitel'. [English for Kids: A Big Self-Help Guide]. M.: Izdatel'stvo AST, 2015.

[2*] Verbitskaia M.V., Ebbs B. i dr. Angliiskii iazyk: 2 klass: uchebnik dlia uchashchikhsia obshcheobrazovatel'nykh organizatsii: v 2 ch. Ch. 1. [Forward 2]. M.: Ventana-Graf: Pearson Education Limited, 2015.

[3*] Baranova K.M., Dooley D. i dr. Angliiskii iazyk. 7 klass: ucheb. dlia obshcheobrazovatel'nykh organizatsii i shkol s uglublennym izucheniem angliiskogo iazyka. [Starlight 7]. M.: Express Publishing: Prosveshchenie, 2014.

[4*] Afanas'eva O.V., Mikheeva I.V., Baranova K.M. Angliiskii iazyk. Bazovyi uroven'. 10 kl.: uchebnik. [Rainbow English 10]. M.: Drofa, 2014.

[5*] Arakin V.D., Selianina L.I. i dr. Prakticheskii kurs angliiskogo iazyka. 1 kurs: uchebnik dlia studentov vuzov. [Practical English Course: First University Year]. M.: VLADOS, 2012.

[6*] Nakata R., Fraizer K., Hoskins B., Graham C. Let’s Go (Let’s Begin). Pupil’s Book.

Oxford University Press, 2016.

[7*] Cant A., Charrington M. Macmillan Next Move: Level 1. Pupil’s Book. Macmillan ELT,

2014.

[8*] Kosta J., Williams M. Prepare! Level 2. Student’s Book. Cambridge University Press,

2015.

[9*] Brook-Hart G. Complete First. Student’s Book. 2nd Edition. Cambridge University Press,

2014.

[10*] Cunningham S., Moor P., Bygrave J., Williams D. Cutting Edge Advanced. Student’s Book. 3rd Edition. Pearson Education Limited, 2014.

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DOI 10.36622/MLMDR.2021.44.37.004

UDC 81’25:378.147

‘POLYLINGUAL METHODOLOGICAL RESOURCE’

FEDERAL INNOVATION PLATFORM

I.Yu. Zinovieva, A.S. Leonova, M.B. Chikov

Vega Regional Centre of Children and Youth Talents Identifying, Support, and Development, Director

Dobrolyubov Linguistics University of Nizhny Novgorod, Associate Professor of the Department of German, Translation and Interpreting

PhD,

Irina Yu. Zinovieva

e-mail: izinovieva3575@mail.ru

Dobrolyubov Linguistics University of Nizhny Novgorod,

Head of the Department of German, Translation and Interpreting PhD,

Anastasiya S. Leonova e-mail: asta-L@yandex.ru

Dobrolyubov Linguistics University of Nizhny Novgorod, Deputy Director of the Institute of Life Long Learning PhD,

Maxim B. Chikov

e-mail: maxim.chikov@gmail.com

The research was carried out in the framework of the federal innovation platform the status of which LUNN was awarded in 2020 with its project of polylingual methodological resource as a repository of text, multimedia, and interactive materials combined with an online constructor to choose the material according to the grade, level, and teaching goals and objectives. First of all it is aimed at using at school.

Statement of the problem. The research was conducted due to identification of deficits in organizing school education process and test runs of the innovative educational product at primary and secondary school to see how it meets the respective needs.

Results. The surveys within our research show that deficit of schoolbook materials and additional materials as well as lack of time for search are the main problems. Hundred per cent of teachers need additional modern resources accessible without wasting time. There is a special deficit of multimedia.

Conclusion. The resource to be created will solve the problems by allowing to quickly find and collect digital materials for the classes and to construct the classes and their fragments. Now test runs of the resource start at schools to identify its impact. Later the resource may be used at other educational organizations in Russia and abroad. The future research will deal with quantitative and qualitative features of resource implementation and use, its impact on raising the education quality.

Key words. Schoolbook, follow-up material, digital technologies in education, multilingualism, online education, federal innovation platform, polylingual methodological resource, visualization, network cooperation, professional training, digital literacy.

For citation: Zinovieva I.Yu. ‘Polylingual methodological resource’ federal innovation platform / I.Yu. Zinovieva, A.S. Leonova, M.B. Chikov // Scientific Journal “Modern Linguistic and Methodical-and-didactic Researches”. – 2021. - № 4 (35). – P. 36-44.

_____________________________________________

© Zinovieva I.Yu., Leonova A.S., Chikov M.B., 2021

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Introduction.

Digital transformation does not leave aside education. On the one hand, digital techniques are inevitable, this is the requirement of our time. On the other hand, their implementation makes up the educational deficits.

In the paper, the university as a federal innovative platform’s interaction with region’s primary and secondary schools to identify the deficits and to meet the demand by development, approval, and implementation of an innovative digital educational product in the field of foreign language teaching is regarded.

In digital support of foreign language education, Nizhny Novgorod as well as other Russian regions lack a unified tool which would systematize and regulate the existing information and communication streams. Developing a unified educational resource is aimed at consolidation of successful teaching practices, bringing forth teachers’ horizontal interaction within the common educational space.

The public policy in polylingual education being strengthened, the second foreign language at Russian primary and secondary school being implemented with the third foreign language being in view, the teachers’ methodological readiness at primary, secondary, and vocational school is crucial. To raise the efficiency, teachers need not only to have command of methodology of teaching the second and the third foreign language, but also to be able to select and organize follow-up material basing on the idea of several foreign languages co-learning, or polylingualism.

In 2020 Dobrolyubov State linguistics university of Nizhny Novgorod (LUNN) received the status of a federal innovative platform with its project of creating a “Polylingual methodological resource” digital educational tool to be used first of all at school and combining such crucial components of modern education as innovative digital technologies including online learning and network cooperation, in our case that of university and school, to build up seamless educational trajectories and work out a strategy of continuing linguistic education (for federal normative documents on federal innovative platforms, see [1, 3]).

Statement of the problem. To carry out the project, existing deficits in organizing the educational process at school including its digitalization bottlenecks are to be identified to design the innovative educational product in line with the demand.

The subject of the research is support of school educational process in Nizhny Novgorod and nearby regions. The object of the research is deficits in organization and support of the educational process including its digital component.

The method applied was conducting digital surveys and interviewing school teachers of Nizhny Novgorod region, the Republic of Tatarstan, university students majoring and minoring in preschool and school language education, academic community. The quantitative analysis of the results showed existing deficits and served as a base for developing and adjusting the concept of the innovative educational product.

As the survey was aimed at identifying the needs and developing a product to meet them on the base of the federal innovation platform, let us first briefly describe the project itself. According to the application addressed to the Ministry of Research and Higher Education the project consists of the following.

The project includes developing, approval, and implementation of training, full and partial retraining of specialists, among all in pedagogy, research including pedagogical, and education management using modern digital techniques.

The goal of the project is creating digital information and telecommunication space for resource support of teaching several foreign languages at school of Nizhny Novgorod and adjoining regions to later on transfer the experience of using the resource as well as the resource itself to remote Russian regions and abroad.

The projects have several objectives.

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1. Creating a unified resource of basic and authors’ follow-up materials in several foreign languages.

2. Creating program environment of a polylingual methodological online constructor for specific purposes of several foreign languages co-learning.

3.Designing and conducting professional training programs for schoolteachers to get acquainted with the tools of the digital methodological resource and the ways of their using in polylingual education.

4.Conducting networking events to involve primary, secondary, and vocational school teachers in cooperation in development of the platform’s educational content.

5.Ensuring sustainable growth of the resource unique users’ number in teaching foreign languages.

The project should lead to creation of a unified information and communication space with a base of materials regularly updated, an online constructor for modeling educational units (classes, blocks of classes, courses) in several foreign languages co-learning, and a platform for horizontal communication of primary, secondary, and vocational school teachers of Nizhny Novgorod and other Russian regions and, later on, abroad.

Dobrolyubov State Linguistics University of Nizhny Novgorod has its scientific school with rich traditions and offers majoring in BA and MA programs in Pedagogical Education with one or two (both as the first one) foreign languages and in Linguistics, programs Theory an Methodology of Foreign Language Teaching and Theory and Practice of Cross-cultural Communication, postgraduate studies in Pedagogy and Linguistics, professional training in a wide range of programs, full professional retraining (over 250 hours with a diploma) in Early Foreign Language Teaching Methodology and Foreign Language Schoolteacher, both augmented by an elective Artificial Intelligence and Controlling Digital Classroom module. Digital component has always been of great importance in the University’s scientific and educational activities. LUNN professors and scholars latest research has resulted in monographies and papers in Russian and foreign index bases (e.g. [4] – [9]).

Let us describe the working principle of the polylingual methodological resource and go over to the surveys to identify the existing deficits and needs and to clarify its concept.

The polylingual methodological resource is an online repository of educational and methodological materials to follow up the basic ones in schoolbooks. We have been considering schoolbooks most popular in Nizhny Novgorod region such as Spotlight and Starlight for English, Spektrum and Horizonte, Français en Perspective и L’Oiseau Bleau for German and French as the first and the second foreign language respectively. In any case, the school’s choice of this or that schoolbook has no crucial meaning for the resource feasibility which offers additional materials covering all the topics represented in schoolbooks.

Now we have restricted our work by three languages, English, German, and French, to widen it later by others (Chinese, Spanish, Italian, Japanese). The term polylingual and the range of several languages exactly meet the contemporary requirements and development trends of school educational environment: two foreign languages has become reality at many schools, time of implementation of the third foreign language does not seem to be too distant future; one of the most probable foreign languages, also one of the state final school exams being in Russia university entrance exams at the same time is considered Chinese. Polylingualism is a natural and strengthening phenomenon of our global world. School faces not only the task of teaching a foreign language but also that of organizing two or more languages co-learning with the material of one language being a base for another (more relevant for European languages of course; in case of choosing Chinese as a second foreign language after a European one the methodology will be based on the maximum contrast, with similarities in the word as the central language unit only expressed in a Chinese ideogram and in a European lexeme, as well as in creating new meanings by word composition and metaphoric or metonymic semantic

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transfers. Recognition and practical use of language similarities on such an abstract level will play a great role in development of a linguistic personality, of course).

Our innovative product means selection of materials for all the stages of language learning at school; to say it in a simple way, for all the years, considering the specifics of period of time and depth of language teaching at a certain school, of course. The built-in filters choose and combine materials for the respective purposes in a class (a series of classes) according to some criteria: year, phonetic material, lexical topic, grammar. Thus, on a simple request made by marking certain positions the teacher may get several variants of materials to augment the schoolbooks offer, not just by physical materials but by materials with a versatile digital (visual, gamified) format and online accessibility.

The system is designed to present the material of the same class on two levels, basic and advanced, to exactly meet the level of the pupils in the class. The formats may be various: text, PPT presentation, interactive exercise, audio, video, etc. The control panel of the environment lies at the left side of the window.

According to the stage of a class being formed by the tool it will also give methodological assistance (e.g. as pop-ups) for organizing the material with consideration of this or that teaching purpose, achieving this or that educational result.

You can use the resource as a computer presentation online or offline (during the class itself, either from the Internet or from the hard disk after saving) and print the material to hand out and work with hard copies.

The project has been regularly presented by LUNN to the potential target audience. First of all, presentations took place at numerous formal and informal events within the framework of the federal Teacher of the Future project implemented since February 2021 under the brand name Modern School. Within its framework, school teachers receive advanced training in new educational technologies and improvement of core professional competencies (in our case, language competencies) and participate in various free-form experience-sharing events such as round tables, creative living rooms, anti-conferences, etc. at the expense of the federal grant. We will return to the results of the interviews with this key target group below.

The product has also been presented to the students of professional retraining programs implemented by LUNN, Foreign Language Schoolteacher and Methodology of Early Foreign Language Teaching, which, by the way, deserve a separate publication. E.g. Early Foreign Language Teaching Methodology program has passed professional and public accreditation and, basing on the recommendations of international expert commission, is now implemented in variable modular structure allowing to build individual educational trajectories, including a module of a foreign partner university which is written down in the graduation document (diploma) among all the other modules. Such a structure is now applied to the Foreign Language Schoolteacher program as well, immediately generating increased demand for a wide variety of first (other than English) and second foreign language choices. It is easy to imagine that the trainees of these programs are advanced, highly motivated people who have decided to change their lives by devoting them to teaching and who are ready to give their talent and experience to this, as well as to implement all the new and progressive things. This target group received the presentation of our federal innovation platform and the polylingual resource with great enthusiasm, expressing the hope that the institutions of secondary general and vocational education, where they work or plan to work, will have access to the innovative product and be able to use it. It should be mentioned that according to our roadmap the project will evolve as follows: LUNN partner schools will receive the product for free on the condition of its testing and participation in the optimization process considering the experience of practical application. LUNN has many general and vocational schools as permanent partners up to now; many institutions consolidated their status as partners getting involved into more active cooperation by creating the Regional Consortium of Linguistic Education in 2021 which includes over 40 educational institutions; besides, it should be emphasized that any secondary education institution

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willing to use the product, take part in its optimization, may become a partner of LUNN for joint activities within the framework of the project. During the presentation and discussion with the trainees of professional retraining programs, the problem of lacking materials on profes- sion-oriented foreign languages at vocational school was voiced; given that the product is primarily focused on a basic foreign language (all stages of education including high school and/or vocational training, while the starting point for the development was the middle school stage), it should be said that the development of profession-oriented materials will undoubtedly be a next task within the project.

The platform has also been presented at the partner university LUNN has a long and fruitful relationship with, Minsk State Linguistic University, one of the traditional linguistic universities, successfully preserving and enriching its traditions. The product was of great interest for the colleagues, the presentation involved everyone in a widely ranged discussion on methodology. Representatives of the partner university expressed a wish to use the results of the project in the future and also raised the issue of financing the federal innovation platform. It should be also mentioned that Minsk colleagues were interested in other successful experience of LUNN, participation in Russian federal grant programs of Education national project: Teacher of the Future / Modern School and New Opportunities for Everyone. Under the latter, 2000 Russian citizens were trained in 2019 in professional foreign language and oral and written literacy in Russian, in 2020 the number amounted to over 3000 people (including 2500 citizens under the same programs with the extension of the languages and professional areas and over 500 people in professional training programs for acting or potential teachers in language lifelong learning system). LUNN experience in co-financing grant programs, being, as we know, one of the most important conditions for their implementation, was appreciated by the colleagues. As to funding the federal innovation platform, LUNN finances the working group members through incentive payments and contracts. Applying for and receiving the status of a federal innovation platform are not grant conditions, so the university is not paid for this status, but it is of course possible to request funding from budgets of different levels and to attract private sponsors for the development of an innovative product. Perhaps we will share our experience in attracting such funds in the near future.

Results of the study.

The research covered teachers of schools and colleges in Nizhny Novgorod and its region. Their feedback suggests that the product is strongly needed as the problem of providing materials persists. The existing schoolbooks do not fully meet the requirements of forming language competencies, and searching for additional materials takes a huge amount of time and often does not lead to the necessary results. A teacher spends 1 to 2 hours preparing a lesson, more than 50 per cent of teachers use several textbooks and their own resources, and more than 80 per cent of teachers would like to use the ‘one-stop shop’ mode of preparation. According to a survey among foreign language teachers in Nizhny Novgorod region, more than 33 per cent say there is a lack of teaching material and more than 25 per cent say it is not interesting (these are the two largest groups, see Table 1). In another survey, more than 92 per cent of teachers noted a lack of material in existing textbooks and 100 per cent said there is a need for more material that is accessible without wasting time. There is also a special need for digital materials (multimedia, visualization) and methodological materials for teachers (see Table 2).

More than 75 per cent of teachers assume using the materials in MS Word format for download, while most of LUNN students majoring in Pedagogical Education surveyed for their visions of using materials first of all think of a presentation in the class (see Table 3 and 4). It highlights one more purpose of our project, a more active implementation of digital, multimedia format in school education. Anyhow, the need for multimedia, interactive and other digital materials is extremely strong among schoolteachers (among students this need is not that strong, maybe due to easier accessibility of multimedia materials for this category of respondents). It should also be mentioned that the teachers see the aim of the product in providing educational materials rather than in help with reporting and planning documentation (on the concept stage this function was also thought of). This information was received during oral interviews; however, we can presume that if comprehensive computer surveys relating to this item had been conducted, the result would have been predictable, too.

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The most revealing results of the survey indicating existing deficits and priorities are shown in the Table 5 below. These are the maximum values of all the surveys conducted.

Table 5. Maximum values of surveys conducted among the schoolteachers of Nizhny Novgorod region and LUNN students majoring in Pedagogical Education

Schoolteachers among surveyed, per cent

The results clearly confirm the lack of educational materials and the need for additional materials as well as lack of time to find these materials. Teachers’ need for media files is unambiguous. The preference for the use of downloaded files in lessons indicates, on the one hand, a lack of digital training for teachers, but, on the other hand, it probably indicates a lack of equipment at schools, due to what many see the potential danger of not having an Internet connection or even presentation technology in all classrooms. The product being developed solves the problem of materials accessibility, primarily media files, without wasting time, and involves online and offline use including presentations and MS Word documents download. We hope that schools using the product will therefore allocate and/or raise (request) funds for the development of digital infrastructure.

Conclusion and perspectives.

The study unequivocally proves the lack of resources for the proper organization of the educational process at school. This shows the extreme need for an innovative product being developed by LUNN on the base of the federal innovation platform. The product concept is finalized on the basis of the research, filling the polylingual methodological resource with materials is continued and its testing at schools has started. The research on the base of the federal innovation platform will be carried on forth, its next objective will be to identify the impact of the innovative product on improving the efficiency of the educational process.

The project is expected to be implemented until 2025. In 2022, the product will also be tested at educational institutions in nearby regions (the Volga Federal District), and in 2024 it will be transferred to the remote ones. In parallel with the piloting and introduction of the product, users will be trained in professional development programs and the methodological and technical content will be amended in accordance with feedback on its practical application. As we said above, it is also planned to use the product at vocational schools and – in the long term

– at other educational institutions as well: universities, language schools, centers, kindergartens, etc. We are also considering developing a mobile version of the resource for easy use in any environment or format, which corresponds to the microlearning concept that is currently being actively implemented.

All the stages of development, testing and implementation of the product will be accompanied by a research of all methodological, psychological, digital, social components of the emerging educational environment with an analysis of relevant quantitative and qualitative parameters and subsequent optimization of the functioning and implementation of the product, as well as of the created professional community.

Information on the Federal Innovation Platform on LUNN website including the Regulation on the Federal Innovation Platform see [10; 11; 12].

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