Voronezh Calls
Voronezh met us with pouring rain. It never stopped, not even for a
moment. Those eager to go sightseeing were disappointed; however, the rain did not
interfere with the conference organized by the Ministry of Education and Science of the
Russian Federation, the Research and Methodological Council for Foreign Languages (Black
Soil Branch), the Voronezh Association of English Language Teachers and Voronezh State
University. The conference took place on September 23–25, 2004, and was entitled
“Enhancing Quality in Foreign Language Teaching in Higher Education”.
The plenary meeting opened with a brilliant presentation delivered by
Prof. M. Verbitskaya from Moscow State University. It was devoted to the quality of
education. Indeed, generations follow generations, new textbooks appear, and the very
“paradigm of education” undergoes drastic changes with time. Nevertheless, the quality
of education appears to be one of those eternal questions that are permanently posed and
never find exhaustive answers.
Prof. M. Verbitskaya presented her own vision of the issue of
education quality stressing the fact that in the final account it is the ability of the
graduate to exist in the modern, ever-changing world that really matters. We live in a
different society where the necessity to reproduce knowledge once acquired is no longer of
vital importance; however, we need to be able to solve non-standard problems and to use
reflection as the basis for decision-making and further planning of our activity. In her
report the speaker analysed in detail the interaction of various components of teaching
process, the role of the teacher and the student in attaining the final goal, correlation
between knowledge and competence.
Other speakers at the plenary meeting were Dr. Pavel Sysoyev
(Tambov State University), Dr. Bridget F. Gersten (ELO, U.S. Embassy,
Moscow) and Dr. Svetlana Titova (Moscow State University).
One more event needs to be mentioned: Dr. Marina Sternina was
congratulated on the occasion of her jubilee. Everybody thanked the charming Marina for
her incessant labour and the great contribution she has made to the teaching
profession’s development. It was a very touching moment since we all know her as the
best professional and our best friend.
 Special Interest Groups’ discussions followed, among them: Managing Changes
in Higher Education, Course and Material Design, Developing Communicative Skills in Higher
Language Education, Integrating Professional Training and Foreign Language Teaching,
Performance in a Foreign Language: Assessment and Measurement, Applied Linguistics and
Foreign Language Teaching, New Informational Technologies in the Language Classroom.
Simple enumeration shows how wide the spectre of the Conference was! Moderators were
virtually struggling with the time since all presentations were extremely interesting and
useful. Additional chairs were brought in, numerous questions asked, new ideas shared. All
speakers were characterised by their high degree of professionalism and what might be
described as dignity and self-esteem.
On the second Conference day Dr. Bridget F. Gersten conducted
a workshop on writing as a social process. She described writing as a socially-embedded
activity and showed the audience definite ways and means of using writing in the
classroom...even before ESL learners have mastered spoken English! According to
Dr. Bridget F. Gersten, ESL learners can be engaged in the craft of writing at a
very early stage of learning; they can respond to the work of others and take others’
feedback into consideration when writing. If the classroom environment is organized with
many opportunities in mind, ESL learners can use writing for many different purposes.
Dr. Gersten’s presentation raised great interest and gave the audience many
pleasant moments.
The atmosphere of genuine interest and mutual respect reigned supreme.
It set me wondering if that was generally typical of Voronezh citizens. Indeed, the
generous Voronezh region gave our country – and the world – such glorious names as
Koltsov, Nikitin, Pyatnitsky. Peter the Great built the Russian fleet in Voronezh; he was
supervising the construction process in person and was residing in Voronezh for quite a
long time, thus making this city the centre of Russian government. The first zemskaya secondary
school in Russia opened in the village of Tavrovo (now it is within city boundaries).
The role of Voronezh in the Great Patriotic War is impossible to overestimate. Voronezh
people are very talented, hard-working, open-hearted. And we - the guests of the
Conference - immediately felt this legendary ancient strength emanating from our hosts.
Our wonderful organizers decided to acquaint us with the cultural
heritage of the Voronezh region and took us to Staroye Zhivotinnoye, where the memorial
manor-house of the famous Russian poet Dmitriy Venevitinov is situated. There we met a
brilliant lady, Yelena Vinogradova, the senior researcher of the museum. Young and
fragile-looking, Yelena is a unique personality whose whole life is indissolubly connected
with Venevitinov’s house. It so happened that she had resided there since her childhood.
The strength of her narration cannot be described in the words of any language; many of us
were shedding tears of admiration, sympathy and, perhaps, revelation. At the end of the
guided tour there was a concert.
We Voronezh rewarded and overwhelmed. We want to express our heartiest
thanks to the organizers, and especially to Natalya Alexandrovna Sharova and Larissa
Grigorievna Kuzmina who took care of everything and everyone, and who set and kept the
ball rolling, making it all move smoothly, as if by itself. In fact, these two ladies
acted as “the rest of the iceberg”, enabling its “tip” to shine and sparkle,
despite the rain...
By Larissa Mashkova, MSU
|