MA students of the Faculty of Romance and Germanic Philology completed a course of exchange training at Aston University (UK)

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For the first time in the 55-year history of the Faculty of Romance and Germanic Philology students of the Master’s programme “Teaching foreign languages ​​with the use of online technologies” got an opportunity to undergo a course of exchange education at the Faculty of Languages and Social Sciences at Aston University (Birmingham, UK). This one-semester training became possible thanks to the TEMPUS project «Improving the teaching of European languages ​​through the introduction of on-line technologies in teacher training» (544161-TEMPUS-1-2013-1-UK-TEMPUS-JPCR Aston University «Developing the Teaching of European Languages: Modernising Language Teaching through the development of blended Masters Programmes») and the development of cooperation, supported by the Erasmus+ programme. Such cooperation between VSU and Aston University has a long-term perspective.

At Aston, Anna Berdar and Galina Alekseeva studied on the master’s programme «Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages» (TESOL) from September 1st, 2016 to January 31st, 2017. The training programme consisted of the modules«Approaches to Teaching and Learning»,«English Teaching Practice», «Research Methods». In addition to these modules, the students also opted for «Lexicogrammar» and «Analysis of Written and SpokenDiscourse».

At Aston, the VSU students studied together with representatives of many countries – Britain, China, Spain, Romania, Syria, Vietnam, as well as the representatives of the Tempus partner-country institutions–Ukraine and Uzbekistan. The teachers at Aston were Dr. S. Garton, Dr. N. Hooton, Dr. M. Morris-Adams, who had visited VSU earlier and taught A.Berdarand G. Alekseeva as well as the other students in their first year.

In addition to their studies, Anna and Galina were involved into the activities in numerous students’ clubs and societies, took part in the city celebrations, and got the chance to familiarise with the British culture through the tours round Birmingham and its suburbs, and also to London, Nottingham and other places of interest.