English Language Teacher Education Consortium
Project description
Title: English Language Teacher Education Consortium
Topicality
February 24, 2022 is the date which shaped the political, social, cultural and language priorities of Ukrainians; divided the world map into foes and allies; reconfirmed the necessity for international cooperation.
The nation-wide decision to join the European Union displayed the determination of the people to meet its standards in various field of life. Among them is effective foreign language education.
English is a lingua franca in scientific, educational, business, political and various other areas. The ability to use it in communication improves career prospects, fosters communication and human relationships, broadens educational opportunities, enriches lingua-socio-cultural awareness. But the quality of foreign language education depends by far on the professional expertise of language teachers, their ability to train specialists capable of making independent decisions, of solving problems and facing challenges, of cooperation with European partners.
English language teacher training in Ukraine is provided by universities with correspondent educational programmes. The content of each of them is developed by a group of academics, school principals and university students guided by a guarantor holding a PhD, a Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences or a Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences Degree. It is also reviewed by stakeholders and can be improved accordingly. The quality of educational process is ensured by various centralized and local mechanisms including: programme accreditation, obligatory 6-ECTS-credit internship of academic staff (once in 5 years), membership in international professional organisations, participation in research work, supervising students' scientific studies, participation in various contests for academics and students etc. At the same time, research findings and the educational potential of Ukrainian scholars are mainly discussed and applied at the national level. This is a historical legacy of certain separation between post-Soviet and European countries.
In the current political situation numerous universities of Europe have initiated programmes and projects providing Ukrainian researchers, academics and students with opportunities for cooperation. Our project will help Ukrainian and European scholars share their scientific and practical findings and experience in the area of English language teacher training. Looking for scientific areas of crossover interest to promote joint international research, sharing best practices, organising programs of student academic mobility are just a few opportunities that may be presented by a suggested project.
Planned influence
Primarily, the project is aimed to increase the quality of English language teacher training practices in partner universities by means of involving both educationalists and would-be teachers into research-to-practice discussion. Relevant innovations will involve the adjustment of curricula and some educational policies.
Secondly, academic mobility opportunities for students will strengthen their professional expertise, enhance the formation of communicative language competence and contribute to their personal development (e.g. of soft skills, entrepreneurship etc.). As a long-term result, the project will provide secondary educational institutions in Ukraine with a new generation of English language teachers oriented at EU standards of work. In its turn, this will contribute to raising the quality of foreign language education in the country and promoting its further European integration.
Thirdly, the partnership will suggest CPD opportunities for educationalists and empower joint research in partner universities.
The sustainability of the project will be ensured by the electronic platform designed as a means of communication and cooperation between the project participants and by the consortium which will regulate further partnership.
The aim of the project is to promote international partnership for excellence in the field of English teacher training to foster innovation and to contribute to fuller engagement of Ukraine into a European Education Area.
The tasks of the project include:
1. Enhancing the cooperation and constructive dialogue between researchers and practitioners to introduce innovation into the training of would-be teachers of English as a foreign language by sharing relevant state-of-art investigation results and good practices.
2. Providing educationalists within university and school settings with online and off-line CPD opportunities in the fields of the Methodology of teaching English as a foreign language and Linguistics.
3. Developing would-be English language teachers' communicative language competence and professional expertise as a result of their participation in the events provided by partner universities in the frameworks of the project.
4. Promoting academic mobility of students aimed at acquiring education and training programmes provided by partner universities.
5. Fostering the digital transformation of higher education as a regional priority.
Desired outcomes
1. Setting up and expanding a consortium between Ukrainian and European universities aimed at developing a framework for dynamic cooperation in the field of training a teacher of English as a foreign language.
2. Creating an electronic platform providing technical capacities for international communication and cooperation.
3. Compiling a database of Ukrainian and European researchers dealing with English language teacher training (Name and surname, affiliation, scientific degree and rank, fields of scientific interest, publication list).
4. Writing collective monographs, organizing conferences, delivering lectures by well-known Ukrainian and European scholars, conducting webinars, masterclasses, holding language summer schools and other events aimed at sharing research results and innovative practices related to English language teacher training.
5. Raising a number of students embarked on academic mobility programmes.
Innovations
1. The consortium will establish potential crossover areas of research interest and promote joint studies. It can be enabled by means of open access database of researchers. 2. Every partner university will be able to organise academic or scientific events for academics, researchers, students and, potentially, English language school teachers.
3. The platform will perform a multitude of functions: ensuring communication for various purposes, sharing event blurbs for educationalists and students (conferences, master classes, lectures, webinars, summer language schools, summer camps etc).
4. The consortium will initiate the publication of collective monographs based on the results of joint international research in the frameworks of the project.
Areas of work
1. Continuous professional development
2. Vocational training
3. Scientific and educational cooperation
4. Foreign language education in view of European and Ukrainian educational reforms.
ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION CONSORTIUM
Partner universities:
POLAND
1. University of Economics and Human Sciences in Warsaw - Dr. Luis Javier Pentón Herrera, the coordinator.
2. Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Arts - Dr. Anna Becker
SPAIN
1. Pontifical University of Salamanca - Dr. Maria Moliner Bernabe.
TURKEY
1. Bahçeşehir University, Istanbul - Dr. Ufuk Keles
UKRAINE
1. Zhytomyr Ivan Franko State University - Dr. Nataliia Shcherba
2. Rivne State Humanitarian University - Dr. Alla Fridrikh
3. Khmelnytskyi National University - Dr. Nataliia Bidiuk
4. Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University - Dr. Nataliia Pyliachyk
5. Korostyshiv pedagogical professional I. Y. Franko college - Dr. Inna Volotivska