St Petersburg University conducts testing in Russian as a foreign language in Greece

Over 50 people took part in the session testing their knowledge at the levels from А1 to В1. Most of them were Greek students studying Russian at universities or planning to use it at their work. ‘Despite complicated global circumstances we continue to work in the sphere of the Russian language developing the activity of the University representative office in Greece. It has been demonstrated by the recent testing session held in a calm and friendly atmosphere,’ said Dmitry Ptyushkin, director of the Language Testing Centre at St Petersburg University.

These days, testing sessions are held not only in Thessaloniki, but also in Athens, Corinth and other Greek cities. We have received a large number of applications for the summer and we are going to continue developing the ties that have connected our countries and peoples for many years.

Dmitry Ptyushkin, director of the Language Testing Centre at St Petersburg University

For the first time since 2019, it has been possible to hold the testing session with the participation of a specialist from St Petersburg. Previously, the restrictions caused by the coronavirus disease had not allowed for that. However, currently foreign citizens studying Russian can take an examination without leaving home. In 2020, the Language Testing Centre at St Petersburg University together with the Centre of E-Learning Development developed a resource for online testing sessions in Russian as a foreign language as part of the work on creating the University’s own educational platform. The new service has allowed for the testing geography to expand including the countries where the exams have not been held before: Australia, New Zealand, Cameroon, Canada, Ecuador, and other countries. Testing was held with the use of the invigilation system providing for reliability and validity of the results obtained. All the video materials are stored in the database and can be accessed if honesty of the examined person is in question. During the two years of its operation, the resource has proved effective and popular: one half of the 6,000 people tested in Russian as a foreign language in 2021 took the exam in a distant format.

Over 50 people took part in the session testing their knowledge at the levels from А1 to В1. Most of them were Greek students studying Russian at universities or planning to use it at their work. ‘Despite complicated global circumstances we continue to work in the sphere of the Russian language developing the activity of the University representative office in Greece. It has been demonstrated by the recent testing session held in a calm and friendly atmosphere,’ said Dmitry Ptyushkin, director of the Language Testing Centre at St Petersburg University. ‘These days, testing sessions are held not only in Thessaloniki, but also in Athens, Corinth and other Greek cities. We have received a large number of applications for the summer and we are going to continue developing the ties that have connected our countries and peoples for many years.’

For the first time since 2019, it has been possible to hold the testing session with the participation of a specialist from St Petersburg. Previously, the restrictions caused by the coronavirus disease had not allowed for that. However, currently foreign citizens studying Russian can take an examination without leaving home. In 2020, the Language Testing Centre at St Petersburg University together with the Centre of E-Learning Development developed a resource for online testing sessions in Russian as a foreign language as part of the work on creating the University’s own educational platform. The new service has allowed for the testing geography to expand including the countries where the exams have not been held before: Australia, New Zealand, Cameroon, Canada, Ecuador, and other countries. Testing was held with the use of the invigilation system providing for reliability and validity of the results obtained. All the video materials are stored in the database and can be accessed if honesty of the examined person is in question. During the two years of its operation, the resource has proved effective and popular: one half of the 6,000 people tested in Russian as a foreign language in 2021 took the exam in a distant format.  Moreover, the number of people that took part in the testing sessions last year exceeded that of 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic.

Organising language testing is just one of the many activities and events performed by the representative office of St Petersburg University. Among them are: delivering a course of lectures on the joint history of Russian and Greece; teaching Russian as a foreign language; and implementing a non-degree programme for Greek translators.