Study Issues of International Students Discussed at SUSU

A roundtable discussion entitled “Topical issues of international students’ studying in a mixed classroom” was held at South Ural State University.

The event was organized by the Department of Russian as a Foreign Language of the Institute of Linguistics and International Communication, the Center for Sociocultural Adaptation and the International Affairs Division.

A participant of the conference, Associate Professor of the Department of Russian as a Foreign Language, Elena Doronina, explained the goal of holding the roundtable discussion.

“First such event was held in 2016 Back then we discussed some issues in studying and adaptation of international students. Many goals that were set two years ago have already been achieved. Nevertheless, implementation of Project 5-100 sets new goals ahead of us; in this regard, the necessity came up to discuss issues of working with international students at a new level.”

Besides, Elena Gennadievna talked about other issues discussed in the course of plenary session.

“Two years ago we made a decision to create the Center for Sociocultural Adaptation and the system of voluntarily support for international students. In my opinion, nowadays all the services involved in this adaptation process are working very well. But the issue of quality of professional knowledge of a certain part of international students still remains unsolved. And the primary reason for this is insufficient level of Russian language knowledge, which means losing motivation in studying.”

Head of the International Affairs Division, Olga Yaroshenko, Head of the Department of International Relations and Foreign Studies, Liudmila Shestakova, Dean of the Department of Pre-University Training, Yulia Bolotina, Head of the Department for Migration Support of Foreign Citizens, Marina Davydova, and representatives of all Institutes and Schools who are responsible for working with international students took active participation in the roundtable discussion.

Participants of the roundtable discussion considered issues of international students’ studying in Russian language in a mixed classroom, i.e. in groups where international students are studying together with Russian students; shared some positive experience; determined the main components of a teacher’s methodical tools, and agreed on joint projects with teaching staff of the Department of Russian as a Foreign Language.

At the end of the sections’ operation, participants of the roundtable discussion approved a resolution on improving the quality of international students’ education, and created a working group for implementation of the decisions made.