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The issues of securing the quality of teaching foreign languages are coming to the forefront. The center of secondary special professional education jointly with the Uzbekistan Teachers of English Association introduce an additional mechanism, which will help study foreign languages in compliance with established standards.

An Uzbekistan Today correspondent talks on this and other details with Chairperson of the Uzbekistan Teachers of English Association, director of the Academic Lyceum №2 under the Uzbek State University of World Languages, Feruza Rashidova.

“The issues of quality training have been acute at all times. Can we expect today that that they are going to be solved within feasible future?”

“Radical changes have taken place in recent years in the organization of studying, training and assessment of mastering foreign languages in the light of realization of the Presidential resolution “On further improvement of teaching foreign languages”. A new State educational standard (SES) was adopted, which meets the international requirements. The priority lies in the development of communication skills. Currently all involved parties in mastering a foreign language at the international level have a clear idea about the requirements at each level of education in the country. New generation manuals have been printed out and the results of pilot assessment system of mastering a language have been summed up. All this, no doubt, promote the improvement of quality in studying a language.”

“I made several attempts to study a foreign language, but no headway has been made in the matter. Finally I realized that the problem rested with me – I didn’t like it. I think there are many people like me. But the objective is that every Uzbekistani should master, at least, one foreign language apart from their mother tongue.”

“A lot depends on a teacher and his or her professionalism. The teacher should never be left alone and should feel the presence of the monitoring system in compliance with the requirements of the State standard. With the support of the Center for secondary special professional education (SSPE), which had approved of the Association’s initiative on the project “Permanent mechanism for improving the mastery of pedagogues in foreign languages”, a foreign language teacher should work to ensure the transparency of their activity and inform parents, employers and, definitely, their students about the SES requirements.”

“Isn’t the framework of the system, proposed by the Association, too rigid?”

“On the contrary, it will facilitate the achievement of the set targets and will work based on the “win-win” principle. Everybody is going to be happy, and most importantly, it will secure the quality of training.

“It assumes that a teacher should deliver to parents and students the volume of knowledge, which the youths and girls will have to acquire at each stage of training, including the assessment system. This will promote the shaping of self-control. Students and parents may approach a pedagogue at any time of their convenience and ask for consultation and advice.

“Now, what regards effecting control from the side of their colleagues. There are no teachers, who are “doomed” to eternal success; hence a provision in the project, which envisages pedagogues’ mutual control in the field of corporate improvement and development.”

“Why was it namely the Association that took to elaboration and introduction of the new system?”

“Because assisting teachers – members of the Association – is one of our basic functions. In addition to that we cooperate with similar associations of specialists in 145 countries of the world, which enable us to operate with the application of the best global practices.”

“At what stage is the introduction of this system?”

“Today we can talk about promising future for the project, considering that our cooperation with the Innovation center under the Uzbek State University of World Languages, the SSPE methodological center, specialists of the Association and foreign universities, which accompanied the piloting of the project, produces positive response, including those of international specialists. Apart from that, full interaction has been established with regional methodology employees and basic academic lyceums and colleges within the framework of the project. Thus, the state and social networks contribute to training specialists from the level of a regular pedagogue to the level of international specialists, who are expected to improve this system through practicing it at national educational establishments.”

Source: Jahonnews.uz