MGIMO Faculty at Oxford Summer Seminar

15 August 2019

July 28th to August 10th, a group of MGIMO lecturers took part in an “English Language Teachers’ Summer Seminar” at Exeter College.

The seminar was attended by lecturers from different MGIMO English language departments: O.Kochkina (Directorate of Language Training and the Bologna Process); N.Tsvetkova, E.Khvatova, I.Ignatieva (English Language Department No.1); A.Lazko, O.Smirnova (English Language Department No.2); K.Stepanyan (English Language Department No.3); S.Nezgovorova, E.Orlyanskaya, I.Chirkova (English Language Department No.4); M.Vasina, A.Muntyan (English Language Department No.6); M.Sheyerman (English Language Department No.8), as well as the teachers from MGIMO’s Odintsovo campus, E.Mingazeyeva and N.Gabrielyan.

The program comprised a number of lectures and practical tasks as well as day and evening excursions to famous places in Oxford, including a cultural exchange evening, a quest around town, an evening with Scottish dances, a visit to the Bodleian library and various museums, an open-air theatrical performance and walks in Oxford and its surroundings.

The training program focused on how English is taught and consisted of lectures and seminars. MGIMO’s lecturers, together with nationals of 30 other countries, discussed new teaching methods, the teacher’s involvement in the educational process, how to overcome motivation problems, the best way to use literature in language classes, the challenges of modern English grammar, creative learning and methodological issues, digital literacy and developing students’ listening skills.

The program allowed our lecturers to broaden their horizons, share best practices with colleagues from different countries through informal communication, compare their pedagogical experience and approaches to classroom work; all of which will undoubtedly help to improve language training at MGIMO. MGIMO lecturers hope to keep contact with the other participants during the year.

The internship was organized with the financial support of the Deputy Chairman of MGIMO’s Board of Trustees, Alisher Usmanov.