Greek Students of the Russian as a Foreign Language Courses are Preparing for the State Testing
Training continues in Greece within the framework of the course of Russian as a foreign language implemented on the basis of the University of Ioannina with the support of St Petersburg University.
Cooperation between Russian and Greek universities began in February 2020, when the first admission of students to the programme for studying Russian as a foreign language took place. Now the third group is undergoing training, preparing to take state testing in May. The lectures are attended by 150 students, teachers and administrative staff of the University of Ioannina, almost 40 of whom have already taken courses at St Petersburg University last academic year. Interest in learning Russian as a foreign language is shown by representatives of various faculties, who study and teach in programmes in the field of medicine, information technology, archeology, art, psychology, economics, and even speech therapy.
According to Dmitry Ptyushkin, director of the Language Testing Centre of St Petersburg University, having a TORFL certificate is an important professional factor in Greece: knowledge of the Russian language opens up career opportunities in a various sectors of the economy, including the tourism industry. ‘Initially, we considered this project rather as an introductory one in order to provide the inhabitants of Greece with the opportunity to learn the basics of the Russian language and culture, making our country a little closer for them and soon we saw great interest,’ said Dmitry Ptyushkin. ‘And if during the first enrollment many enrolled in the course out of curiosity, now the bulk of the students are people who specifically learn the language in order to actively use it in the future, this is very important for them.’
This year, specialists from the St Petersburg University Language Testing Centre made the programme more intense, doubled the number of classes, and introduced various forms of intermediate certification that allow assessing students' progress and, if necessary, adjusting the educational process. In addition, the course was complemented by leisure activities - thematic conversation clubs and lectures about St Petersburg University.
The project is supported by the Centre for Foreign Languages of the University of Ioannina, and St Petersburg University’s developments in the field of online education have made it possible to involve more people in learning.
We recently received a letter from the University of Ioannina in which colleagues report that they are satisfied with our cooperation and hope to develop it in the future. We are very grateful for their position and will continue our activities. The University's courses on the study of Russian as a foreign language allow people from all over the world to touch the treasury of Russian history and culture in a convenient way for them and gain knowledge for practical purposes.
Director of the Language Testing Centre at St Petersburg University Dmitry Ptyushkin
St Petersburg University is doing a lot of work to spread the Russian language abroad and is one of the few Russian universities that have opened Russian as a foreign language courses in several countries around the world, including China, Zimbabwe , Palestine and Latvia.
Active international activity of St Petersburg University brings positive results: for several years the University has been holding the title of the most popular Russian university among foreign citizens according to Rossotrudnichestvo. Currently, the SPbU Language Testing Center is negotiating the establishment of cooperation with the language centres of South Africa and Malawi. ‘We always respond to the request of an external audience and focus on its needs, therefore we are ready to scale our activities, open courses in any country in the world and train even more people,’ said Dmitry Ptyushkin.