Use of New Technologies and Online Communication at the English Lessons

and in Extracurricular Work

Mikhail Nokhov,

Teacher of English from Gymnasium # 1, Khasavyurt, Dagestan,

Honored Teacher of Dagestan

Approved and adopted by the State Duma of the Russian Federation new Federal

State Educational Standard in Foreign Languages which is also called the standard

of the second generation stipulates the following requirements regarding the results

of the students’ mastering the basic teaching program:

-

Personal

-

Meta subjective

-

Subjective

Personal results

-

formation of world outlook, which corresponds to the contemporary level of

the development of science and public practice based on the dialogue of

cultures, and different forms of public awareness, and perception of a

person’s place in the multicultural world.

-

tolerant behavior and attitude in the multicultural society, readiness and

ability of having a dialogue with other people, coming to consensus, finding

mutual purposes and cooperating in order to get them.

Meta subjective results

- the ability of clearly, logically correctly expressing his/her point of view;

use of adequate language;

-

the ability of cooperation in the process of mutual activity, considering the

position of other participants of the action, effective problem-solving skills.

Subjective results are divided into two levels: basic and advanced

-

the basic option is for those students who are oriented on getting secondary

education.

-

the

advanced

option

is

for

those

students

who

prepare

for

further

professional education, develop their individual abilities and capabilities by

independent extracurricular work.

Having read all these requirements I started thinking about the role of the English

language teacher who works at an ordinary city and country school. What must

he/she do to achieve the goal? With the introduction of English into the Unified

State Exam as a compulsory subject the role of the teachers of English has become

very important. To teach the students to be creative, to be able to have an

unprepared talk with their coevals in English, to analyze the work of art in English,

the teacher must be well prepared him/herself. Who does he/she or his/her students

speak English to in their free time? To be frank – to nobody, not only in the village

schools but even in large city schools, too, which are well equipped with modern

educational

equipment. The

introduction

of

the

Internet

into

our

educational

process helps us solve the problem of how to make the teachers develop their

speaking proficiency and the students learn English properly.

Use of the Internet helps the teacher widen the borders of the textbook, makes

the process of teaching English fruitful, interesting and cognitive to all students,

both

to

the

bright

ones

and

those

who

are

lagging

behind

in

their

studies.

Participation in the International projects and programs is one of the solutions to

the problem of how to make the process of learning English interesting to students.

Our Aim is to:

- teach a student to use new technologies effectively and thus raise the quality of

education;

- help a student understand the changes in the purposes of education, from learning

to knowing.

What is it for?

A student must learn to use the global network Internet as a means of informational

supply. The importance of the development of this branch of education is always

stressed by the President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin, because the Man of

the Future must know the techniques and methods of self-dependent acquiring of

new knowledge; ways of creative approach to the choice and solution of different

problems.

What Result Should be Expected?

- acquiring the new informational technologies;

- creation of a desired product in the form of either a project or writing an essay, or

development of the ability to hold an unprepared talk in English, getting the

students ready to pass the Unified State Exam;

- getting rid of computer fear;

- professional use of computers by the teachers.

None of the textbooks can substitute the lively communication of the students

from different countries of the world. The role of the Internet is indispensable

here. Not long ago the communication of the students from different countries at

the lessons was something from the field of science-fiction. Now it is a part of the

English lesson, a common working process.

New teaching technologies and educational facilities that we are having in

schools nowadays help us provide our students with very interesting opportunities

of communicating with their peers from the English-speaking countries all over the

world. One of these facilities is an interactive program “The Global Classroom”

which

is

a

research

based,

international,

interdisciplinary,

interactive

website

providing a cross cultural and heterogeneous mix of students with the opportunity

to immerse themselves in reading, research, rhetoric and writing in the disciplines

of World Geography and World Literature.

I got acquainted with Mr. Michael Bailey, a teacher of World Geography,

Literature

and

English

from

the

city

of

Belfast,

Maine,

U.S.A.,

during

our

participation in the International seminar in the Cold War period in Cambridge,

Great Britain, where I was in the group of ten teachers from Russia in 2005. He

told me a lot about his school, students, use of computer technologies in the

process

of

teaching

and

finally

invited

me

to

participate

in

his

interactive

educational program “Global classroom”.

It is a research international website that gives the students from different

countries of the world a chance to master their reading skills, go in for research and

learn how to write essays in World Literature and Geography.

The web-based classroom environment

offers our students an opportunity to

participate in a collegial exchange of images, ideas, experiences and opinions with

the students from around the world.

What Do Students Find Here?

The Global Classroom experience introduces students, on a personal level, to

students from different cultures and

different perspectives on common

questions that these cultures may entertain.

What Do We Deal With?

First Semester Second Semester

The World East Asia

Maine South Asia

Middle East Africa

Russia Latin America

Europe United States

Australia Maine

Subjects to be studied: Each region is evaluated on specific criteria which are

connected to the Unit Question. They are designed to provoke analysis of key

areas pertaining to the Unit Question and are the building blocks of the Unit Essay.

Geography: topography, water, natural resources, boundaries

History: conflicts, governments, leaders, current events

Culture: ethnicities, religions, languages, conflicts

World Literature

In the study of each region a selection of 4 – 5 short stories or poems,

written by celebrated authors from the region, are read. Interpretive and thought

provoking questions are provided for class discussion. Synthesis questions are

offered to connect the central theme of the story with the regional question.

The program provides the students with great opportunities of developing

their

reading

and

speaking

skills,

understanding

and

having

an

unprepared

conversation.

In our first introductory unit we have the opportunity to share with the

Classroom our understanding of our own republic, town and gymnasium.

We

discuss home, and family, and develop the skills of description and analysis. We

deal with national and global regions and issues.

In each of the discussions

throughout the year we study geography, climate, history, culture and economy of a

region of the world and discuss how these different topics play a role in the

region’s prosperity or challenges for the future.

I think that participating in this cross-cultural exchange my students have

become able to make deeper connections with the literature and develop a better

understanding

of

the

geographical

areas

they

study

–

all

through

their

communication with teens who live there and hone their language skills. And what

is more important the experience allows all the students to knock down the walls of

the traditional classrooms and physical locations to challenge the stereotypes and

preconceived notions they had about each other. Besides, the children make

friendly relations not only with the students from the USA but from other 21

countries who are also participants of the program.

Every month I give workshops to the teachers of English at the Teachers’

Development institute in Makhachkala. I usually speak about the use of The

Internet in the classroom. And every time I try to organize the workshop in such a

way so that the teachers would have a chance to develop their speaking proficiency

talking to the teachers of English either from Thailand,

South Korea, India,

Pakistan, Malaysia, or western countries – Croatia, the Netherlands, Great Britain.

It is difficult to talk to American teachers because of the time difference but still

Guy Hamlin and Michael Bailey, teachers from Belfast area school, Maine, U.S.A.

find time to talk to us. It is a good practice for the teachers as they have a good

chance to brush up their speaking skills and to be able to get additional information

from the other side. And here we observe that it is really a problem for many

teachers to converse in English on the spot, they must have some preparatory

activity.

It would be in a good taste to say that we have regular online lessons and

different undertakings with schools in Russia – Vladimir school # 42, the Honored

Teacher of the Russian Federation Svetlana Galustyan, Samara Access School,

teacher

Eugenia

Kudryavtseva. We

speak

about

our

country,

how

large

and

beautiful it is, our homes, schools, scientists, writers, and so on.

Our experience in using online communication was approved by the

Ministry of Education and Science of Dagestan.

I hope this article will motivate the teachers and make them think of the year

2020 when the English Unified State Exam will become obligatory for all the

school leavers.

Of course, I can’t say that the students can speak on all the topics fluently and

without preparation, for at the most important moment they may forget everything

and become “dumb and deaf”. That’s why they should be prepared. And how to

prepare them you’ll see in the application.

To finish this article up, I would like to thank the English language office of

the American Embassy in Moscow for their support of my teaching activity in

Dagestan.

SCRIPT n°1

12

TH

APRIL

2016.

START

08:00 Croatia time. 10:00

Moscow time

END

09:00 Croatia time, 11:00 Moscow time

VIDEOCONFERENCE; GYMNASIUM # 1, KHASAVYURT, DAGESTAN, RUSSIA - PRIMARY

SCHOOL DRAGANICI, DRAGANICI (CRO)

Talk slowly and articulate

Speaker

Text

1.

Introduction RUS

Mikhail Nokhov,

Khasavyurt

Gymnasium # 1,

teacher

Today we all have become the witnesses of a very important even which is taking place now. For the

first time we are having a video conference in English with the former socialist republic of Croatia.

Welcome to Dagestan and our classroom, dear friends. Hope you’ll enjoy our conference. There are

two nice girls here. They are alumni of the ACCESS program and they will lead our today’s talk.

2.

Introduction1 CRO

Daniela Orlović ICT

teacher

Dear friends I am very glad and very excited to meet you, because it is the first time for our school

to communicate in this way. I am here together with our seventh graders and their class master

Mrs. Vesna Kočan and English teacher and our headmaster Mrs. Marica Jurčić who wants to greet

you.

Principal Mrs. Marica

Jurčić

I am glad that this program has been realized between our two schools and I hope that we together

will learn more about our countries and customs and keep in touch in future.

3.

Principle of our

Gymnasium Mr.

Arslan Davadzhiev

He will greet us and say good words. (I’ll have to translate)

Presentation of

Dagestan, Russia

and your school

Aishat

Gazimagomedova and

Miyasad Rashidova

Start the conversation

and introduce the

participants.

Patya Dakhadayeva,

Ali Isaev, Gamzat

Gadzhiev, Elderova

Karina, Tavalaev

Temirlan, Mollaev

Zainalabid

“Dagestan is a wonderful place for tourism and Khasavyurt is a city of Friendship and alliance”.

Please, if you can, make a short presentation about your school. Presentation “Gymnasium # 1”

4.

Presentation of

Croatia and our

school

my students:

Laura

Doris

Ivana

Presentation of Croatia and school, via shared screen

5.

Croatia

Daniela Orlović

Our students wanted to know more about your country and customs so I suggest we start with

questions

CONVERSATION

QUESTION

1.

Croatia

Josip

What religion is in Dagestan?

Khasavyurt

Most of the people living in Dagestan are Muslims. But still there are Christians, and Jews living

here. There have never been any religious conflicts in our republic.

2

Croatia

Anna-Maria

What is the official language and letters in Dagestan?

Khasavyurt

The official; language in our Republic is Russian. There are 38 national languages in our small

republic. The Russian language is the language of the people’s intercourse.

3

Croatia

Karla

What nationalities live in Dagestan?

Khasavyurt

There are more than 42 nationalities living in our small republic. There is a saying that when the

god was spreading nationalities within the peoples he was flying over Dagestan and there became a

hole in the sack with languages and lots of them fell onto our small republic. There are the Avars,

the Kumiks, the Darghies, the Lezghies, the Laks, the Tabasarans , the Russians, the Azerbaijanis,

the Ukrainians, the Jews and so on.

4

Croatia

Tomislav L.

What are the most important traditions and custom of your people?

Khasavyurt

The best tradition in Dagestan is people’s hospitality and friendship. There are many customs here.

We’ll try to speak about them next time.

5

Croatia

Erik

What holidays do you celebrate?

Khasavyurt

We celebrate all the Federal holidays, which are celebrated around Russia – the New Year,

Christmas, Easter, May day, Victory Day, Day of Russia, Flag day, Day of Alliance and

Reconciliation. And the local holidays such as Navruz Bairam, Id el Fitr – Uraza bairam and so on.

6

Croatia

Doris

What is the most favorite food?

Khasavyurt

(presentation)

Our people are meat and dough eaters. They like boiled and fried meat. We can have a separate talk

about our national food. We are going to show some kinds of food. (show the presentation

“Our national food”.

7

Croatia

Bruno G.

What kinds of music are popular with your students?

Khasavyurt

We can’t say that classical music is popular with the students. Mostly rap, jazz, rock and roll, heavy

rock, heavy metal and national music, of course.

8

Croatia

Ema

How do you spend your free time, and where do you usually go out?

Khasavyurt

Our city is not very large and with the political situation being rather bad here, it’s dangerous for

the people to go out in the evening. But there are some sporting facilities, the boys go in for football,

freestyle wrestling, karate, etc. The girls go to musical school and other studios in our house of

culture.

1

Khasavyurt

What does the flag of Croatia mean?

Croatia

Tomislav Š.

Pan-Slavic colors red, white and blue, the colors found on most flags of Slavic countries. Symbolize

the common origin of Slavic nations.

The unique flag of the Croatian people entered the first two colors from the historical coat of arms

of the Kingdom of Croatian, red and white. The third color - blue is taken from historical arms of

the Kingdom of Dalmatia and Slavonia.

2

Khasavyurt

What does the coat of arms of Croatia mean?

Ivana

The coat of arms, which is on the Croatian flag has the form of a shield. Above the main shield is a

crown with five smaller shields, which are arranged from the left to the right side of the shield in

this order: the oldest known Croatian coat of arms, coats of arms of the Republic of Dubrovnik,

Dalmatia, Istria and Slavonia.

3

Khasavyurt

What are the most important traditions and customs of your people?

Marko

Christmas traditions are part of Croatian tradition. At Christmas time we like decorating a

Christmas tree on Christmas Eve, we go to a Mass in church (Midnight Mass), we sing Christmas

songs –carols. We enjoy in prepared food (roast turkey, lamb, ham and a lot of cakes).

Our famous custom in Draganići is “Vuzmenka”. It's Easter custom that requires a lot of work.

Vuzmenka is a fire that burns in the night of Saturday and burns until Easter morning. This year

we have made a pile of woods 13 m tall. We light the fire at midnight, when all the residents of the

villages are gathered around it. We're very proud of it. As for every Easter we decorate Easter eggs,

we make a bunch of spring flowers called “Puranac” and we take it to church together with a

basket of food on blessing.

4

Khasavyurt

What holidays do you celebrate?

Laura

In Croatia we celebrate

•

New Year - 1st January

•

The Day of international Croatia recognition -

•

Easter

•

Corpus Christi

•

Labor Day - 1st May

•

Fascist Resistance Day - 22nd June

•

Independence Day - 25th June

•

Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day of Croatian Defenders - 5th August

•

All Saints Day - 1st November

•

Christmas - 25th December

5

Khasavyurt

What nationalities live in Croatia?

Ivana

In Croatia, there are 22 recognized ethnic minorities: Albanians, Austrians, Bosnians, Bulgarians,

Montenegrins, Czechs, Hungarians, Macedonians, Germans, Poles, Roma, Romanians, Russians,

Ruthenians, Slovaks, Slovenes, Serbs, Italians, Turks, Ukrainians, Vlachs and Jews.

In our country there is one official language Croation. The other minorities speak Croation - our

mother tongue, but they speak their own languages too.

Ethnic minorities make about 10% of the Croatian population.

6

Khasavyurt

What is the most favorite food?

Doris

Our most famous food are cabbage rolls. We call it “Sarma”. Sarma is a dish of minced meat mixed

with rice, wrapped in leaf pickled cabbage. Another famous dish are “Zagorski štrukli”. It's pasta

filled with cow cheese and sour cream. Another favorite food are “Kulen” and “Pršut”. Dalmatian

“Pršut” is a specialty created by drying the ham in smoke and “bura” (strong north wind). If you

ever come to Croatia to the seaside, you have to try this specialty. “Kulen” is the original Croatian

meat product created by drying in smoke with lots of spices.

7

What kind of sports are popular with your students?

Tomislav

Sports, which are popular in our school, are football, gymnastics, taekwondo, basketball, table

tennis and the others.

8

CROATIA

CHECKOUT

Daniela Orlović

Unfortunately our videoconference has come to an end, till next time, best wishes and see you!

9.

RUSSIA

CHECKOUT

Mikhail Nokhov

On behalf of the Dagestani, side let me thank you, your principle and all the students who

participated in the conference and express my desire to have another conference devoted to any

other topic the students express their desire to have. Bye. See you soon on the screen.

10