Expedition to Tajikistan
Senior lecturer of the School of Russian as a Foreign Language Anastasia Ivanenko from the 24th of October to the 1st of November took part in an educational expedition to Tajikistan.
The expedition took place within the framework of the volunteer program of the A.S. Pushkin Institute «Ambassadors of the Russian language in the world». This program is aimed at popularizing the Russian language and culture among students in different CIS countries and abroad.
During the week, volunteers conducted lessons for students of 2-10 grades of the State Lyceum № 1 in Bokhtar сity. The classes were held in an interactive format using game techniques. In the lessons, schoolchildren got acquainted with Russian phraseology, studied thematic vocabulary («Space», «Written Language», «Folk crafts»), made a toy from tatters, played on wooden spoons, discussed memes, danced Russian dances and learned songs by heart. As a result of the expedition in Lyceum № 1 there was a concert, at which students showed what they were taught by volunteers for a week, and also performed with folk Tajik dances.
I was very happy to participate in the expedition in the anniversary year of the program! This year it is turning 10 years old! Together with my partner Aleksei Bogdanov (associate lecturer of the Institute of Foreign Languages at MCU) we worked in the 2nd, 6th and 8th grades. In each parallel we had «Russian» and «Tajik» classes. In the former teaching is carried out in Russian, and in the latter - in Tajik. The pupils spoke Russian to varying degrees, but still tried very hard and actively participated in the work, tried to demonstrate themselves. In the classroom there are 40+ people, sometimes the kids sit three in a row, but the discipline is at a high level. Phones at school are banned, and a beautiful school uniform is mandatory. Teachers in Tajikistan are highly respected, so the general mood in class was very industrious. In between classes pupils ran a soccer ball on the grass, hugged us and wondered how long we would stay.
The pedagogical challenge for us came in as the lessons were given without any language-mediator in the 2nd grade of the "Tajik" class, since the children began to learn Russian a few months ago. For these kids we especially carefully designed tasks and sometimes even drew examples from the nationally oriented textbook. After the main lessons we worked on the performances for the final concert. I put on a scene from the fairy tale «Teremok»: I learned with the children the text for their roles, corrected their phonetics and worked as a director. The children treated the process with great dedication and after several rehearsals played a fairy tale at the concert at the end of the week!
At the school everyone was very hospitable: the administration supported our initiatives and even encouraged us to stay working there after the programme. The Russian teachers in the Lyceum are trying hard to maintain a high level of the language. It was a great pleasure for me to introduce the kids to the Russian language, to participate in the dialogue between two cultures. I would like to believe that the positive perception of Russia will be maintained by the children for many years to come and this will promote friendship between our countries.