The academic staff of IvSU at the conference «Modern Issues in Teaching Foreign Languages»

On the 29th – 31st of October 2020 the XXI annual Umbrella international conference of the National Association of Teachers of English (NATE) in Russia was held.

The conference "Modern Issues in Teaching Foreign Languages", the official platform of which was Kursk State University, had an international status and was dedicated to new technologies in teaching foreign languages, the development of professional and cultural competencies of students, and general linguistic issues. It was held online and brought together more than 350 linguists, masters of teaching methods, as well as university and school teachers of English from all over Russia. It was gratifying that the students of language faculties of classical and pedagogical universities actively participated in the conference.

The conference participants were welcomed by Kelli Odhuu, Regional English Language Officer of the US Embassy in Tallinn, and Svetlana Ter-Minasova, Honorary NATE President Founder, Professor Emeritus of Lomonosov Moscow State University. Practical scientists from the University of Kansas (USA), the University of Costa Rica (Costa Rica), the University of Szeged (Hungary), and representatives of the Cambridge publishing house (Great Britain) were invited as the main speakers. They talked about modern online learning tools and successful mixed learning formats, innovative systems for monitoring and evaluating students' knowledge and ways to increase students' motivation, new educational literature on preparing for international exams, etc.

Ivanovo State University and the Ivanovo Regional Association of English Language Teachers IVELTA, bringing together almost one hundred like-minded people, were represented by the head of the Modern Russian and European lexicography, President of IVELTA prof. O. M. Karpova, Director of the Institute of Humanities, Associate Professor S. A. Manik, Acting Head of Department of Foreign Languages, Associate Professor of the same department E. A. Shilova, associate professors of the same department E. N. Pastukhova, E. A. Polyakova, A.V. Belozerova and E. M. Grigorieva.

S.A. Manik, E. A. Polyakova and A.V. Belozerova held a master-class "Using the parallel corpus in teaching foreign languages based on the material of the parallel corpus of socio-political texts", which aroused considerable interest of the audience. E. N. Pastukhova made a presentation on the topic: "Using the didactic potential of the Dictionary of Old English in teaching the discipline "History of the English Language". E. A. Shilova spoke about the latest anglicisms in the vocabulary of domestic tourism detailing the linguo-didactic aspects of mastering of the categorical-conceptual apparatus of the sphere of professional activity of future specialists.

The conference launched the annual national online project "iTravel-Russia", in which IvSU students have already participated twice and in the competition dedicated to the anniversary of the Great Victory. They became the prizewinners by creating informative and at the same time touching videos about the contribution of the Ivanovo region to the Victory over fascism. This year, the organizers of the competition could not ignore the problem of the current global pandemic, designating the topic as "Particularities of New Normal under Pandemic: My Experience", which, in our opinion, provides potential participants with a wide field for creativity. We hope that this time our students will represent the University with dignity.

On the last day of the conference, at the general meeting of the National Association of English Language Teachers, IvSU representatives proposed Ivanovo as the host city for the Umbrella conference in 2021. The University management has previously promised to support the initiative because holding such a representative scientific forum will certainly help to strengthen the positive image of the University.