German Educational and Cultural Centre in Armenia - AWO ......2. Teacher training The teacher...

Internal Armenien Evaluation Report

1. German Educational and

Cultural Centre in Armenia Page 2

2. Armenian State Pedagogical Page 6

University after Khachatur Abovyan

3. Reintegration center Page 7

RECEA AWO HEIMATGARTEN

4. German language teaching: Page 8

Methodology and difficulties

5. Armenian language teaching: Page 36


6. Russian language teaching: Page 46


7. Report about psychological work Page 60

8. Summary Page

German Educational and Cultural Centre in Armenia

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Funded by the European Union Return Fund

(DELKA, Deutsches Lehr- und Kulturzentrum in Armenien)

The German educational and cultural centre was founded due to the initiative of

Goethe Institute (Munich) in Yerevan on June 26, 1992. It was legitimized by the

Ministry of Education and Science (NM - 157 from 26.06.1992) on June 28, 1994.

The Centre is registered at the Ministry of Justice (Order N 31/2-33 from

28.06.1994) as well.

Branches up to 2010:

Artashat, Artik, Gyumri, Eghegnadzor, Kapan, Martuni, Sevan, Vanadzor.

The Centre is active in the following fields:

1. Language Courses

The courses are targeted at all age levels from children over adolescents to adults,

as well as members of the German community in Armenia. There are courses for

several competence levels for beginners, as well as advanced training level.

Furthermore, the centre also offers options for individual counselling and tutoring.

2. Teacher training

The teacher training consists of language and cross-cultural workshops, as well as

network seminars, didactic-methodological seminars. There are options for part-

time courses as well as correspondence courses for German language educators.

At the end of the part-time courses, the participating teachers received

international certificates that they were given the right to teach German in Armenia

and abroad, almost anywhere in the world.

3. Competitions in German Language Competence ('Deutscholympiaden').

Competitions in use of the taught German language are held in three rounds every

year: at school, on regional and national level. By tradition, the grand opening of

the competitions is accompanied by performances of a local choir (Ave Maria)

established at the Centre, or a musician quartet (ART-piano quartet). The event is

organized with the active participation of representatives of the German Embassy

and German organizations in Armenia.

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4. Preparation and publication of educational materials:

The various publications of the German educational and cultural centre consists of

the annual magazine "Deutsch in Armenien" (from 1995 to 2002), exam tests for

the 8th grade students (Yerevan 1997), a German language Introduction for

Elementary school pupils (Meine ABC - Fibel), a publication on the Alphabetisation

in a foreign language (Alphabetisierung in der Fremdsprache,Jerewan, 1999), A

German language schoolbook (Unsere Fibel Deutsch, Jerewan 2000, 2002), and

school dictionaries German-Armenian (Augsburg, Germany 1998) as well as

Armenian-German (Augsburg, Germany 2000).

5. Cultural Program

The German Children's Theatre under the direction of art director Ruzanna Margun

made the performances of the plays "Aschenputtel" (Cinderella), "Die Bremer

Stadtmusikanten" (The Town Musicians of Bremen), and "Sing the

Alphabet"(Singing the alphabet), a music revue with music by Areg Lusignan and

text by Armine Hovhannisyan.

In August 2001, a recording "Singing the alphabet" was performed in Lucerne

(Switzerland) at the XII German teachers World Congress.

6. German Chamber Choir and Musical Programs

In 1997, the German Chamber Choir "Ave Maria" has performed to the

accompaniment of the German organist Karsten Vibush.The program consisted of

the works by Bach, Mozart, Händel, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Schumann, Komitas

and other composers.

The German Chamber Choir annually participates in music festivals organized by

the boards of national minorities.

The Piano Quartet 'ART Klavierquartett' was founded in 1997 at the German

educational and cultural center. Since 2005, the quartet performs under the

auspices of the Brusov state university.

The quartet consists of professional and experienced musicians:

Angelica Harutyunyan - piano

Carmen Tosunjan - violin

Yana Daryan - viola

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Aram Talalyan - cello

Head of the Quartet is Angelica Harutyunyan, associate professor of Yerevan State

Conservatory 'Komitas'.

From its foundation in 1997 to the present day, the quartet regularly performs in

concerts and thus promotes classic European music, especially the works of

German and Austrian composers in Armenia. Thereby the musicians are promoting

the development of contacts between Armenia and German-speaking countries and

facilitate a cultural exchange. Over the years the musicians in the quartet

performed a number of classic works of different periods and styles, some of which

were performed for the first time in Armenia.

The ensemble is characterized by its expressive creative style, which is based on an

in-depth comprehension of the artistic design featuring the classical compositions.

The press has repeatedly noted the high craftsmanship, impeccable taste in art and

an enthusiastic reception from the audience.

Repertoire of the piano quartett (ART Klavierquartett)

W.A.Mozartg-moll, K 478

Es-Dur, K 493

L.van Beethoven Es-Dur

D-Dur Wo 036

C-Dur

F.Mendelssohn – Bartholdy c-moll, Op. 1

f-moll, Op. 2

h-moll, Op. 3

R.Schumann Es-Dur, Op.47

J.Brahms g-moll, Op.25

A-Dur, Op.26

c-moll, Op.60

A.Dvorzak D-Dur, Op.23

Es-Dur, Op.87

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R.Strauss c-moll, Op.13

G.Mahler a-moll, Satz

M.Reger d-moll, Op.113

In 2014, the music world celebrates the 150th anniversary of the birth of Richard

Strauss. His work (c-moll, Op.13) was first performed in Armenia by the ART-

Klavierquartet. The quartet intends to play in Germany, if financial support from

Germany is available.

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Armenian State Pedagogical University after Khachatur

Abovyan

Armenian State Pedagogical University (ASPU) is a higher education institution

founded in Yerevan, Armenia in 1922. Nowadays, the number of students at the

University exceeds 14,000.

As one of the oldest traditional educational institutions in Armenia, the ASPU is

nowadays considered as one of the most progressive universities of the country,

both due to some recent educational reforms, as well as its active international

cooperation. The University displays a productive educational and scientific process,

based on the constant expansion of international relations due to the cooperation

with different universities. These transnational exchange programs are not limited

to other HEIs in the former USSR countries, but also the leading foreign universities

further abroad. The ASPU cooperates with European institutions, resulting in the

revised and reformed educational structure conforming to European educational

standards.

The ASPU implements various programs for the exchange of both students and

teachers, takes part in joint international projects and organizes international

conferences, seminars, forums. The ASPU is the leading university in the country

that prepares competent and qualified teachers and educators in secondary

schools. The University implements a three tier system of education

(undergraduate, graduate, postgraduate) for 52 different specializations as well as

different effective teaching and learning technologies. The university has qualified

academic staff and is equipped with modernized equipment and technological

devices.

The main divisions of the University are its faculties, departments and research

institutes, the scientific library, a science museum, the house museum named after

Khachatur Abovyan, departments and offices, internal services providers, a high

school, the college, as well as several scientific and educational centers:

• Research Center for Armenian and world history, historiography and source

studies.

• Research Centre for Theoretical Philosophy, Logic and Philosophy of Science.

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• Research Centre of Arts, Cultural Studies, Armenian miniatures, history and

theory of Armenian and medieval art.

The International Cooperation Division implements and coordinates transnational

cooperation programs in accordance with the University's strategic development

plans. The Division coordinates the implementation of these strategic objectives,

initiate cooperation with foreign universities, develops cooperation programs with

relevant structural units and monitors their implementation.

The department provides the membership of the ASPU in numerous organizations

and associations, and promotes the mutual exchange with a number of universities

and research centers worldwide.

Report about activities

Reintegration center RECEA AWO HEIMATGARTEN

In December 2013 a reintegration center, based on the German educational and

cultural center in Yerevan, was established.

Address: 0070, Yerevan, Alen Manukyan str. 13, ASPU building (Faculty of

Philology), room 405, tel. 37410556030138.

Partners: Armenian State Pedagogical University after Khachatur Abovyan and

German educational and cultural center.

Center operates in the following areas:

• social adaptation of remigrants to the new environment;

• psychological help;

• language courses;

• development of national self-consciousness;

• development of tolerance;

• cultural program of introducing students to the national culture, literature, history

and historical monuments.

Knowledge of their native language (Armenian), ability to communicate in that

language is an integral part of social adaptation and integration of children and

adolescents. On the one hand, the involvement of children in the system of

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education, on the other hand - activities and excursions in the city and beyond the

city borders, visits to museums and other cultural attractions help to get acquainted

with the national culture.

Psychological assistance is provided by ASPU teacher Lilit Bagdasaryan. The main

focus is laid on stress relief, decrease of general anxiety, fighting with difficulties in

adapting to the new environment and the language barrier as one of the main

problems of remigrants.

Cultural approach aims to implement the principle of cultural conformity as one of

the most important principles of modern education.

Remigrants face following problems:

• entering the new social environment;

• new unfamiliar school system;

• lack or insufficient knowledge of the Armenian language;

• new life conditions.

It manifests itself in the assistance of the center and facilitating adaptation of

children and adolescents to a new school environment, stimulating the formation of

skills in Armenian, Russian and German.

Language courses

The children learn following languages: Armenian, Russian and German.

Teachers: Gayane Terzyan, Bella Ayunts, Shushanik Petrosyan.

Volunteers: Anait Sograbyan, Nara Asatryan.

Kolya Simonyan works in the reintegration center since 1.12.2012. He is assistant

of RECEA director Prof. Dr. Melanya Astvatsatryan.

His responsibilities include:

• phone calls;

• organization of meetings with parents;

• training evenings, festivals, excursions;

• checking homework;

• preparation of test items;

• monitoring sessions;

• discussion sessions with teachers;

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• translation of training materials from German into Armenian;

• translation of training materials from Armenian into German.

In the process of teaching languages the following positions are especially

significant:

• heterogeneous nature of linguistic knowledge and multilevel languages co-

learning;

• multi-level communicative competence;

• languages convergence;

• social importance, the role and specificity of the Armenian language;

• activity-based approach to learning;

• multi-channel thinking;

• visualization;

• classes in museums;

• didactic tours;

• introduction of technology into the learning process.

Activity approach promotes effective learning, whereby students themselves plan

their actions and learning strategies, establishing their own individual route.

Active approach means:

• learn by performing actions (etwas mit der Sprachetun);

• involve children in activities;

• learn with pleasure;

• learn through role-playing game technologies, including songs, rhymes, puzzles;

• interconnected learning with all kinds of speech activity.

Multichannel learning - input of all sorts of channels to maximize the training effect:

visual, auditory, manual, light, sound, music.

Visualization covers not only substantive but also pictorial visibility. For example,

using graphical diagrams can model the structure of words, phrases, sentences.

Significant role belongs to the games that enhance motivation, the interest of

students, which has a positive effect on the process of assimilation.

In the process of organizing language classes, the teachers have attempted to

implement learning strategies within the program "Development of critical thinking

through reading and writing" (DCTRW) with certain modifications on their part. The

program is based on basic conceptual model presented in three categories: "Call,

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comprehension of the content, reflection". In brief, the interpretation of Charles

Temple’s model begins with the stage at which the teacher connects the lesson with

previous knowledge of students, as well as with their own requests. Then comes

the stage at which students are actively investigating, exploring new material,

gradually mastering it. At the final stage, students record what they have learned

and use new material to perform certain tasks. Method of mutual learning and

collective way of learning proves its best. As the authors of the DCTRW program

claim, students do better in school and learn by teaching. Mutual learning is carried

out in small groups, in which the teacher distributes social roles. For example, the

role of supervisor, responsible for performing tasks in the group (the leader),

stenographer, writing down every step. Teacher first demonstrates the roles, and

then the children take on these roles.

In the process of collective learning activities the whole group is involved into the

work. The instructor demonstrates open questions using a computer or writing on

the chalkboard. Children are given specific time to answer them individually, orally

or in writing. The children then turn to each other and share their answers with

partners.

Control methods and testing

For the successful organization of the learning process, the focus is laid on the

quality factor of assimilation. Using the methods of monitoring, the teacher receives

information about the success of training. Written test or control work is usually

held after studying specific topics and specific material to test and evaluate the

quality of learning by students. The following methods are used:

• Conduct pre-test written surveys as long as the teacher is not satisfied how well

the students understood the studied material;

• warning students 1-2 weeks about the work and organization of the relevant

preparatory work;

• preparatory tests, the purpose is to determine the degree of preparedness of

students in the upcoming exams.

This also contributes to regular homework checking, which allows to identify gaps in

the knowledge of students. Here alternate traditional and nontraditional forms of

checking homework are used. The most traditional and effective kind of work -

collecting notebooks for inspection work performed at home. It is generally time-

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consuming work. Less time-consuming technique is mutual homework

authentication that students make to each other. Of course, mutual testing is

carried out under the supervision of teachers. Another type of test - one of the

students is writing on the board his homework tasks and then each student checks

his homework with the verified sample. But the most common form of validation of

knowledge and skills of students is a standardized test control based on so-called

objective tests of closed type.

Difficulties in learning

All teachers mark different level of language knowledge, not only due to age-

related features, but also individual characteristics and individual learning style.

Some students are receptive to new material, if they work together with a

companion, while others are more receptive to the background music or with the

help of modern songs. The biggest obstacle is the constant inflow and outflow of

students. On such conditions it is difficult to maintain a uniform threshold. Incoming

new children need individual training that makes teacher’s work more complicated.

Educational assistance involves the provision of individual students or groups with

educational and didactic services they need for further integration into the group.

Great difficulty is produced by learning the Armenian language, which acts in

several ways: as the language of teaching for all subjects (Language for Education),

as an independent subject of learning (Language in Education and Language as

Subject), mastering Armenian secondary school examination (through written

tests). Each of these target systems requires special techniques in teaching

strategies.

Certainly, in the course of studying languages there are objective difficulties for

typical Armenian students. Quite substantially the specificity of the Armenian

language is taken into account. The Armenian language belongs to the Indo-

European family, but is an agglutinative language, revealing at the same time an

extensive system of inflections and analytical structures.

In the process of teaching difficulties arise related to the laws of interference of the

spoken language. One of the main problems is that interference signals are

common mistakes for all students. All teachers note the difficulties arising due to

lack of generic differentiation in the Armenian language, which negatively affects

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the introduction and consolidation of personal (he, she, it) and possessive pronouns

3rd person singular and interfaced with the category of gender.

To overcome unwanted interference in different groups (beginners and advanced),

teachers practice different strategies and technics.

B. Advanced group.

Advanced groups have the advantage not only in terms of increasing the volume of

knowledge, but also a wide use of the acquired language experience.

Later, in connection with the expansion of knowledge of the Russian language,

interfering phenomena may be explained with support on the Russian language.

In the latter case, the technology works well "extra explanation", namely return to

the previously passed phenomena and their presentation and explanation on the

new, higher bilingual level.

Education upturn as an imperative of innovative society development

The transition to the multilingual society, globalization, intercultural integration at

the national/regional and international level, linguistic and cultural diversity cause

new challenges in the educational field, especially in trying to find a new sense for

the fundamental didactic categories and documents founded on Council of Europe

values which aim is to promote plurilingual and intercultural education.

Globalization and informatization of the society pose new challenges for the

educational system related to plurilingualism, learner oriented, action oriented,

competence-based approach.

As noted in the documents of the Council of Europe, people can live together

in a diverse society only when the respect and recognition of the equal

dignity of each other and different culture is present. ("White Book" on

Intercultural Cooperation "Living together in equal dignity",

http://coe.ru/publication/ebook/whitepaper).

Today, it is indisputable that teaching language without involving cultural

facts of native speakers is impossible.

New Trends in Language Education

Convergence of language curricula, i.e. “one curriculum for all languages” linked to

the CEFR (competences, levels/sublevels and its descriptors). The way described is

the same for all languages

http://coe.ru/publication/ebook/whitepaper

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communicative, plurilingual and intercultural competence acquisition in all

foreign languages

focus on learning outcomes as opposed to teaching objectives ( outcomes as

products of an action, of doing something< liable to increase of knowledge

and skills),

outcomes defined in terms of competences using “can do statements” to

define communicative competence relating to proficiency level

descriptors and their adaptation to the learners’ age, needs and the

context of their learning

some suggestions for teachers on how it can be used in teaching practice

description/definition of objectives from the point of actions

from the level of educational goals in the teaching foreign languages to the

identification of linguistic elements

In a national audience there is a need for learning a foreign language with specific

manifestations of concrete forms of bilingualism. In these circumstances, a student

may take different proficiency in a second stage (Russian) and third (foreign)

language.

Foreign language is a mandatory component of the elementary, secondary and

higher education in the Republic of Armenia. The language policy profile, which

suggests teaching 3 foreign languages at schools, has been worked out the 1st

foreign language (Russian) to be taught from the first semester of the second

grade; the second foreign language (English, French, German) to be taught from

the first semester of the third grade 2 hours a week, and to start the teaching of

the third foreign language from the first semester of the 5th grade.

Bilingual education is not typical to Armenian primary and secondary schools and

actually is not widely used. There exist only a few cases of bilingual education,

although the learners are confronted with 4 languages (including Armenian) under

the institutional conditions (2 hours per week for each foreign language(FL).

Given that the education system should reflect the innovative trends, training was

carried out in accordance with modern conceptual foundations of the educational

process, namely

• not only of knowledge , skills and abilities;

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• but also particular personality characteristics that make a person capable of

constant renewal of the dialogue (N.D.Galskova, 2004, p. 36 -37).

Complex processes of intercultural interaction generate the following problems

1. entering a new social environment,

2. presence in the new environment of other value orientations,

3. alienation and loneliness,

4. emotional rejection of the individual in the new environment (Migratsiya.

Materials of the Roundtable. Moscow, 2007, p.11).

New educational paradigm

As communicative language competence was declared as the goal of learning,

which includes linguistic, sociolinguistic and pragmatic competences. In a

multilingual environment of particular relevance gets asymmetry phenomenon in

relation to purposes, that is to say, the uneven changing competences of two or

three languages certain types of speech activity

Modern trends in language teaching methodology is also a convergence curriculum

with simultaneously learnt languages, which is embodied in the so-called

universalization of basic approaches, principles, methods of teaching. The slogan of

convergency is the thesis "One curriculum for all languages", which means

Redefining categories of goal-setting,

Asymmetry and operationalization of goals

Multilevel description of communicative competence,

Multilevel description of plurilingualism ( simultaneously learnt/acquired

languages)

The process of converging simultaneously learnt languages.

National-regional component of intercultural communication. Revealing the specifics

of the national Russian bilingualism and plurilingualism of national-russian

subordinative bilingualism and plurilingualism.

Cultural Approach

The cultural approach is based on the principle of cultural conformity as one of the

most important principles of modern education. The aims of multicultural education,

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as noted by A.N.Dzhurinsky (2007), built around the four key points: the socio-

cultural identity, development of concepts and ideas about multicultural

environment, positive attitude to diversified cultural environment and development

of international communication skills.

Education system

Teaching and learning system makes provision for the following phases:

1. The Building Knowledge Phase

demonstration/presentation of new material (explanation of meaning, form and

usage of lexical elements and grammatical structures),

control of understanding and assessing learning

development of productive and receptive language activities.

Productive activities and strategies include both speaking (oral production - OP)

and writing (written production - WP). In the first case the learner produces an oral

text, in the second case – the written text.

Interaction. Besides that the oral interaction (OI) and written interaction (WI) are

differed. Thus interactive activities can be oral and written.

Receptive activities include listening (oral reception - OR) and reading

(written/visual reception - WR).In the first case the learner receives a spoken input,

in the second case – a written text as input.

The Buildung Knowledge Phase serves to:

compare expectations with what is being learned

revise expectations or raise new owns

identify the main points

make inference about the material etc. (A.Crawford, W.Saula. Reading and Writing

for Critical Thinking , 2005, p.3).

2. The Consolidation Phase

The Consolidation Phase is a very important integral part of teaching and learning

process. It is actually training through exercises, strategies, games, ICT resourсes.

To encourage the learners of all kinds of language activities the Consolidation Phase

must include various tasks and exercises. The exercise system must meet common

and particular requirements.

In accordance with the general requirements of a system of exercises should

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consider the aim of training and specific tasks in connection with the view to

developing language skills: cognitive features and mnemonic processes;

implement complex pronged approach to mastering the language material, taking

into account the features of the functioning of all aspects of the complex and at the

same time allowing the use of exercises aimed aspect;

recognize the stage of training and skills formation sequence, implying the

synthesis of reference organization , training and practice proper speech;

include exercises in specific situations in connection with decisive communicative

tasks

In accordance with the special requirements a system of exercise should take into

account

specific learning difficulties of the first or second foreign language at a national

audience (in this case with the Armenian language of instruction);

movable dynamic nature of language parity (varying degrees of interference ,

transference , and in rare cases, intercalation at different stages of training and a

single class/audience) ;

differentiated approach to heterogeneous groups of students , using data on the

various options and the range of reliance on previously learned languages .

The Consolidation Phase serves to:

summarize the main ideas

interpret the ideas

make personal responses etc. (A.Crawford, W.Saula.o., RWCT, 2005, p.3).

Art therapy as a mechanism for the positive effects on children psychics

Recently, much technology has spread ART therapy aimed at the removal of chronic

stress disorders, negative emotions. As noted in the literature, art therapy - a

treatment of the human condition through the arts and creativity. Man gets rid of

negative emotions, thoughts and feelings by passing them through creative

methods to the experience. Possibly art therapy can include, for example,

isotherapy (expression of feelings and emotions through drawing), phototherapy of

fairy tales therapy and other destinations. Technology art therapy favors the

socialization of children and their subsequent positive development.

Effective Learning of the German Language for Migrant Children

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The language education policy in Armenia should be aimed at integration, primarily

in an European context but also in a global educational field, taking into

consideration the national characteristics and traditions of education and culture. As

the Republic of Armenia actively develops its international relations, the necessity

to raise the level of foreign language teaching and learning methodology

consequently increases as well.

Minority languages:

Assyrian, Yezidi, Greek, Russian, Kurdish

Percentage of the population as a whole speak

Assyrian 0,1%

Yezidi 1,3 %

Greek 0,04 %

Russian 0,5 %

Kurdish 0,05 %

According to Part 1 of Article 3 of the European Charter for Regional or Minority

Languages, the Republic of Armenia has undertaken special obligations towards

these five minority languages, which are Assyrian, Yezidi, Greek, Russian and

Kurdish, which includes three languages (Assyrian, Yezidi and Kurdish) which are

not acknowledged as an official language in any country of the world.

However, the present teaching and learning systems do not fully correspond to the

modern requirements; consequently, it does not completely provide the potential of

foreign language learning as a contributing factor for the development of a

multilingual individual. Thus, it is required to critically analyze and eventually

reform language teaching and learning methodology issues in the field of general

education, as well as professional education.

Learning a foreign language is a mandatory component of the elementary,

secondary and higher education in the Republic of Armenia. The language policy

profile, which suggests teaching three foreign languages at school, has been

worked out that the first foreign language (Russian) is to be taught from the first

semester of the second grade; the second foreign language (either English, French

or German) is to be taught from the first semester of the third grade for 2 hours a

week, and to start the teaching of the third foreign language from the first

semester of the 5th grade.

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Bilingual education is not very common or established at Armenian primary and

secondary schools. There exist only a few examples of bilingual education, although

the learners are confronted with four languages (including Armenian) under the

institutional conditions (two hours per week for each foreign language (FL).

As to the regional minorities, there are some schools where the schooling

languages are either mostly Russian or Armenian. For example, in the Ararat

province, where the Assyrian-speaking minority is concentrated, Russian is used as

a language of schooling in the villages Verin Dvin and Dimitrovo. Those pupils, who

are not skilled in the Assyrian language, learn this language based on Russian.

Beginning with the second grade, the pupils are involved in interdisciplinary

projects developing a multilingual thematic glossary (Armenian – Russian – English)

which includes specific subject-related vocabulary (Mkhitar Sebastatsy Educational

Complex).

1. In primary schools the teaching/learning process is organized in separately

for each class and subject i.e. mother tongue, mathematics, foreign language and

so on. However, integrated subjects also exist, for instance, the subject “Me and

the Surrounding World” includes elementary knowledge from several disciplines

including natural sciences, social studies and safe life activity. In general, the

subject “Mother Tongue” is taught as an integrated unit, including Armenian

language and literature.

2. There are also schools in Armenia where experiments with a more integrated

approach of didactics of more subjects are carried out, especially in the first grade.

3. The teacher education programs at pedagogical universities are targeted at

the education of education specialists for primary school as generalist teachers

who can teach all the subjects besides foreign languages (mother tongue,

mathematics, technology, music, painting, “Me and the Surrounding World” etc.).

4. However, during the last years, this list of subjects is often limited to three

or four separate subjects (mother tongue, mathematics, “Me and the Surrounding

World”, and sometimes also - technology). The other subjects – music, physical

education, chess, or foreign languages are taught by other teachers.

Unfortunately, compared to English and other languages, German is not particularly

common in schools and universities in Armenia. In this sense, the statistics in

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Europe (more than 80 million German speakers) is encouraging, and to some

extent establishes an additional motivation to learn the German language.

However, for foreign language learning external motivation is not enough. As

psychologists say, motivation must come directly from the individual to learn the

language. Assuming modern learning objectives, the knowledge of only lexical and

grammatical systems does not provide motivation or communication development.

In modern language teaching, one of the methodology goals is understood in a

broad sense. Communicative competence as the goal of learning does not only

include linguistic (phonetic, grammatical, lexical) and voice (speaking, reading,

listening, writing) competences but also sociolinguistic knowledge, as well as a

compensatory "learning to learn" competence.

Of course the motor, launching the whole mechanism, is motivation. Therefore, the

task should be designed in a way that does not limit the children to purely formal

language operations, but establishes their wish to solve certain problems in a

particular communicative situation through the use of the foreign language.

The process of how words are memorized is of great interest in this context.

Mechanical learning of many words is not of much use, because the words remain

at the level of memory and are not used in practical speech. Of course, mnemonics

helps to some extent in terms of recurrence, but for the words to fall into long-term

memory, they must be repeated by pronunciation, playing, learning graphics, forms

of words, their pronunciation and usage, thereby creating auditory, visual and

sound-motorical images of the used words. To save words in the memory, you need

to practice and train their use. This is facilitated by the different types and kinds of

exercises.

As German grammar is often considered very difficult by Armenian students of that

language, the children often feel discomfort, which hampers their ability to learn

the language efficiently. Educational games or role playing who combine the

language learning process with a more playful and thus comforting atmosphere in

class. Children who are included in the games get the motivation that encourages

them to explore the material. So a monotonous exercise turns into an interesting

and lively game that does not only mobilize the attention and interest of the

participants but also activates their thinking and speech practices. The positive

emotional attitude of the child is also a driving force.

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Emotional sphere stimulates connections to all senses. The well-known American

scientist Howard Gardner, author of "The Theory of Multiple Intelligences", noted

the following: to learn a material, the student must utter it, sing it, use it during

physical activities and movement, and so on. Actually, in this situation, educational

material studied with different positions, children show not only mental and speech

activity, but also physical ones.

Phonetic, lexical, grammatical games can be performed through various actions

Phonetic Games:

The learning group is divided into several teams. In accordance with the

instructions the children react (raise their hands, stand, walk) to the words with

long vowels, and short consonants etc. Teacher corrects mistakes while playing.

The game is considered won by the team that made fewer mistakes.

Each Children gets vocabulary cards with 15-20 words, one word per card. The

Teacher reads these words in a random sequence, and the students have to find

the word and number.

Lexical games

The learning group is divided into several teams. Each team receives a set of

vocabulary cards. The team that uses all the words first to create sentences wins

the game.

2. Each pair of pupils is given pictures with relevant remarks. With their help, it is

necessary to sound a picture or situation.

Grammar games

1. "Modal verbs". In German there are six modal verbs, which differ from the usual

conjugation of verbs. A characteristic feature is that they have the same shape in

first and third person singular and take no personal terminations. Besides the verb

sollen all other verbs change the root vowel in conjugation.

2. The learning group is divided into two teams, the first group of student builds a

bid with a particular modal verb and throws a ball to a partner from the other team.

At the same time throwing the ball passes the verb of the sentence, and the person

who caught the ball repeats the whole sentence and inserts the missing verb. After

that, he throws the ball back to his opponent and says his sentence with the

missing modal verb.

21


3. "Dice". To play this game dice are made, which have pictures of objects,

animals, situations on them. Participants in the teams alternately come to the

table, roll the dice and called the sentence with a particular image. For each

correctly invented sentence the team gets a point.

At present, there is a widespread use of role-playing games on during foreign

languages. Taking different roles, the children do not feel the tension that occurs

during normal classes. While playing their roles, the children become more

liberated and free.

In didactic literature one can find different types of role-playing games. For

example: "stubborn Thomas", who initially denies everything he sees and hears. It

is known that in the negation in German refers to the material in the case of use,

which does not match its use either in Russian or Armenian. The negation nicht in

German is basically put after the verb or at the end of the sentences. The proposal

phrases are selected so that all cases of the use of negation and various means of

transmission are covered:

Du machst es. - Ich mache es nicht.

Du weisst das. - Ich weiss das nicht.

Du hast Zeit? - Ich habe keine Zeit.

Du gehst jetzt nach Hause. - Ich gehe nicht nach Hause.

Alle arbeiten? - Niemand arbeitet.

Du gehst oft in die Bibliothek. - Ich gehe nie in die Bibliothek.

Game

Was macht er/sie? Wer ist das?

One participant calls the action, the other one determines it.

Er lehrt Kinder und Schüler. Er ist ein Lehrer.

Er arbeitet in der Fabrik. Er ist ein Arbeiter.

Er näht Kleider. Er ist ein Schneider.

Er malt Bilder. Er ist ein Maler.

The participants of the game are given three words which they should get

connected in the sentences.

For example, die Oma, der Tee, die Brille.

22


Sentences: Die Oma trank ihren Tee, nahm/setzte ... auf die Brille und begann zu

lesen.

der Bus, die Schule, fahren Er fährt mit dem Bus in die Schule.

Adhering to a set of simple instructions increases the productivity of the language

learning process. For example, a particular word or concept in German associates

itself with a certain "way". It may be small and cozy images of German cities,

Germans in national costumes or German food. The children are immersed in the

proposed specific images of Germany and begin to feel more comfortable in this

environment. This reduces psychological barriers and helps to relieve stress in the

language learning process. We should not get hung up on grammar rules, but we

should speak as much as possible to talk about what you are doing in the

classroom, at home, on the way home that surrounds you and what is important in

your life.

Intercultural adaptation is a complex process that cannot function without language

acquisition. On the one hand, the children of migrants need contacts, on the other -

the awareness of personal identity, and in the synthesis - the awareness of national

and cultural identity.

Language education in this context takes on a special significance, in particular

appeal to language national studies problems learning German, introduction to

German culture. Problems of immigrants are socio-cultural, socio-linguistic,

pragmatic and psychological problems, which are reflected in the educational

process. The main difficulties the students face are linguistically associated with the

assimilation of German graphic, vocabulary, grammar.

Heterogeneous group:

Sorted by age:

Vardanyan Kima - 18 years; Chatyan Levon – 16; Chatyan Ashot – 14; Hasmik

Avetisyan - 14; Grigoryan Maria - 10; Serobyan Narek – 9, Avetyan Gevorg- 13.

Sorted by level of Language Competence by starting the course:

Asmik - B1

Kim, Levon - A2 level

23


Ashot - A1

Maria, Narek, Gevorg - A1.1

Textbooks:

1. Rosa Maria Dallapiazza u. a., Tangram 1A Kursbuch und

Arbeitsbuch. Ismaning: Max Hueber Verlag, 1998.

2. Rosa Maria Dallapiazza u. a., Tangram 1B Kursbuch und

Arbeitsbuch. Ismaning: Max Hueber Verlag, 2004.

3. Rosa Maria Dallapiazza u. a., Tangram Aktuell 2 Kursbuch und Arbeitsbuch.

Ismaning: Max Hueber Verlag, 2005.

4. Akuelle Lekture Krimigeschichten (von A1-B1).

5. Olga Swerlowa, Hallo Ann , Klett, 2012.

The group members are also distinguished by different motivations. Some want to

master the spoken language, and others are preparing for their exams at school.

Entering the new social environment of the language classes is accompanied by

learning and accepting norms of communication, rules of conduct as well as other

values and orientations .

The intercultural communication is impossible without tolerance, willingness to

accept not only a different language, but a different culture as well. Intercultural

communication is carried out successfully in interactive activities between the

teaching staff and the students.

This necessarily includes an introduction to the country's cultural heritage through

common excursions, visits to museums and historical monuments. These activities

also serve to increase the social cohesion between the language class participants

by offering an extracurricular and outstanding experience.

Leisure:

ChatyanLevonChatyanAshot visited "Aquatek" thanks to ASPU and personally

rector.

After reading the articles in the journal "Foreign languages in school", classes based

on visual gaming technology were held, as recommended in this magazine. The

class began with the so-called warm-up for students. Physical activity relieves

stress for students.

Game "Mimwürfel"

24


The used dice shows a stylized human face on each of its sides of which depicts a

face expressing joy, delight, surprise or anger. This funny die causes laughter in

children and willingness to describe emotions verbally. With this, you can enter a

variety of dice at the beginning of the lesson and make organizational moment

entertaining. After the question “Wie geht’s?” (German for "How are you?"), the

students roll the dice and describe their emotions depending on the image.

Phrase in a circle

The grammatical structures and words producing difficulties for students are

selected for this game. Example are dative sentences, reverse word order, etc. The

students stand in a circle and are required to say the same sentence in turn, but

with different emotions, as the mimic die dictates.

Lesson-song

Material: The Book "Eine kleine Deutschmusik". Through these songs, different

grammatical phenomena and lexical units can be trained. The used motives of most

language songs are familiar to the students. For example, using the tune of "Santa

Lucia" can offer students grammar material Perfekt and prepositions.

Wo haben sie Deutsch gelernt?

In einen Abendkurs.

Durch Lieder und Gesang.

Und in der Schule.

Game «Wohin? Woher?»

Pictures are used adverbs-antonyms to describe directions: nach oben, nach unten,

nach rechts, nach links, nach vorne, nach hinten.

Game "Snowball"

The students are aligned in a row and repeat the words offered by the teacher.

Each one subsequently repeats everything that he has heard from adding a

sentence by himself.

Difficulties

Contemporary developments and reforms of the educational system including

language classes for the acquisition of foreign languages, have let to new

challenges.

The main objective of teaching foreign languages is the development of the

students' communication skills as a part of the preparation process for living in a

25


multilingual, multicultural and democratic society.

Foreign language lessons are also designed to acquaint the students with elements

of other cultures, which in turn leads to a deeper understanding of their own culture

as a consequence.

In an early age, students use their native language as a communication tool, not

realizing the grammatical system of the language. Therefore, learning a foreign

language should also include the basic knowledge of grammar.

In the process of teaching the German language, imaging techniques are widely

used (object - visual and schematic). Diagrams help to identify implicit sides of

various linguistic phenomena covered in class.

During the initial stage of learning this new languages, words are modeled by

means of tables, where each cell corresponds to the sounds or letters. In many

languages, a graphic image of a word cannot match the sound. For example, the

German word wohnen consists of 6 letters, but 5 sounds.

Modeling method enables clear revealing of the structure. Division of words into

syllables is based on the principle of sound utterance groups.

A schematic modeling is also effective during the presentation of the morphological

structure of the word.

This approach helps the students to perceive the structure of complex or affixed

words. Through this approach, the students are effectively enabled to implement

various operations of analysis, synthesis and generalization.

In the form of schemes, the structure of German sentences and word order is

presented (forward and reverse), which differs from the structure of sentences in

the Armenian language.

For example,

der

er derLehrer

Lehre

die

erin dieLehrerin

Sportsaal

Lehre

der

+

woh nen

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- Subject

- Predicate

- Minor part of the sentence

- Interrogative

This visual modeling promotes the assimilation of the word order.

By learning German, the students identify the differences and similarities of the

various languages they know, be it German, Russian or Armenian.

For example, in the Armenian language there are many analogues of sounds and

sound combinations to German. In the Armenian language, unlike Russian, there

are also some temporary form of verbs (past tense forms like the German

Präteritum or Perfekt).

As known, the mother tongue plays a dual role in the study of a foreign language

with both positive and negative connotations. In this case, the presence of

similarities facilitates understanding and mastering of the relevant phenomena in

German. However, there are many phenomena that do not match the shape, size

and use.

For example

Wer – Ո՞վ, ովքե՞ր (Who – in singular and plural)

Wer liest das Buch?

Er liest ein Buch.

Wer liest das Buch?

Sie lesenein Buch.

Իմ (моё) – mein, meine, mein, meine

Քո (твое ) – dein, deine, dein, deine

Նրա (его/её) – sein, seine, sein, ihr, ihre, ihr

The use of the German Dative forms is particularly difficult to assess.

German question words wem meets one Armenian form, which covers both the

dative and accusative. Ում (Who?) - Wem? - Dem, einem, der, einer, den

Children who know the Russian language, use this knowledge as a support in

learning the German language in grammatical phenomena that are not in their

native language. For example expressions of grammatical gender such as Sein

Buch, Ihr Buch - his book, her book.

?

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When constructing methods of teaching German language the above mentioned

difficulties are taken into account, which are the source of interference and

generate a persistent common mistake for students.

German Prepositions and cases

Unlike developed case system of the Armenian language (7 cases), in German there

are only 4. German language is peculiar by preposition-case designs that facilitate

the recognition and use of nouns in a particular case.

In the German language there are also prepositions that define a particular case.

This simplifies the task of the German language. One can confidently use this

pretext article dative. Usually first Nominativ Akkusativ are introduced in the

classroom. Question of nominative case is wer? was? In German, in Armenian

"ovker ?", "inch?". Comparing questions in two languages allows to conclude that

the issues in the Armenian also differ in both singular and plural.

Accusative is very often used in speech. Questions for accusative in German are

wen?, was?, in Armenian "um", "inch ?". In the case of the use of inanimate nouns

in German and Armenian question accusative coincides with the nominative (was? "

Inch .") Practice shows that it is more expedient to carry out training on the use of

the material issues first personal pronouns.

Answering wen? may include the following pronouns: mich «I», dich «you», ihn

«it», sie «it», es «it (cf. p.)», uns «us», euch «you», sie «their» , Sie «you».

At the same pronoun sie can mean both "she", "her", "they" and "them." At

first glance it seems that the use of these pronouns can be confusing, but in the

context of everything becomes clear.

Answering “wen?” may include the following pronouns: mich, dich, ihn, sie, es,

uns, euch, sie, Sie.

At the same pronoun “sie” can mean both "she", "her", "they" and "them". At

first glance it seems that these pronouns can be confusing, but in the context of

everything becomes clear.

Wen siehst du? Wer ist da?

Ich sehe sie! Sie gehen zusammen.

Wen liebst du? Na sag schon!

Ich liebe sie! Sie ist so schön.

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As it follows from the above examples, it is possible to train and use the nominative

accusative simultaneously in the communicative context where each case use

becomes clear. Further, this grammar material can be fastened by means of

prepositions, which directly indicate the use of the accusative.

• Wir schlendern durch den Park.

• Ich mache alles für dich!

• Geh ohne ihn! Er geht später.

mit, nach, aus, zu, von, bei

Wem gibst du mein Buch? «Кому ты даёшь мою книгу?»

Ich gebe ihm dein Buch. «Я даю твою книгу ему»

Wem erzählt ihr die Geschichte? «Кому вы рассказываете эту историю?»

Wir erzählen ihr die Geschichte. «Мы рассказываем ей эту историю»

In the above mentioned examples, the coincidence of the nominative and

accusative cases in German, and the coincidence of articles nominative and

accusative is present. Form of the article den in the accusative is understood by

students with great difficulty.

As for the dative, the dative controls another group of prepositions that can learn

how to rhyme .

mit, nach, aus, zu, von, bei

• Wem gibst du mein Buch?

• Ich gebe ihm dein Buch.

• Wem erzählt ihr die Geschichte?

• Wir erzählen ihr die Geschichte.

After training on the material accusative pronouns can go to specific nouns

There are a number of German prepositions with dual control: accusative and

dative. Double prepositions controls include: an, auf , hinter, in, neben, über,

unter, vor , zwischen. Some of them merge with the article: an + dem = am, an +

das = ans, in + dem = im, in + das = ins.

All these excuses can mean as the location and movement. If location means (wo?)

of someone or something, pretext dative is used. If the statement is an allusion to

the movement of something or someone in a certain place (wohin?), accusative

should be used. Occurrences are fundamentally different from that of the cases of

the Armenian language, which is very difficult for students.

29


Ein Buch liegt auf dem Tisch.

Ich lege ein Buch auf den Tisch.

Wir sind in dem (im) Kino.

Wir gehen in das (ins) Kino.

A special challenge is mastering the genitive (Genitiv). For male and neuter

typical ending -(e)s. If we compare this case with forms in contact languages,

you can set the location mismatch nouns in both languages.

Das ist das Auto des Direktors.

Ich nehme die Tasche der Schwester.

Das Motorrad steht neben der Wand des Hauses.

Ich sammle Spielzeuge der Kinder.

In German – „Das ist das Auto des Direktors“, in Armenian - "Direktors Auto".

Mismatch structures in contact languages is the cause of typical errors of students

in the process of mastering this grammatical material.

Increasingly genitive German dative replaced. You could say "Die Hauptstadt

Deutschlands" und "Hauptstadt von Deutschland", "Das Denkmal von Andranik",

„Andraniks Denkmal“.

German prepositions

German prepositions is a very difficult topic for students with Armenian as native

language. In some cases, prepositional constructions in German correspond to non-

prepositional constructions in Armenian.

For example, Ich gehe in die Schule. In the Armenian language in the same

sentence is no preposition. Jesgnumemdproz.

In cases where the preposition is present in a sentence, it is in some cases in

postposition .Forexample, mit meiner Freundin - իմընկերուհուհետ. im enkeruhuhet.

German prepositions with dual control are of particular difficulties for students: in,

an auf, neben, hinter, über, unter, zwischen, vor.

Initially introduced with static option: Question Wo? - Dativ, and then - Wohin? -

Akkusativ. Visualization helps for the correct use of prepositions.

Gradual introduction of prepositions (in, an, auf), their explanation and exercises

are beneficial.

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http://beranger.org/ludditus/wp-

content/uploads/2013/05/prepozitii_opac1.png

http://beranger.org/ludditus/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/prepozitii_opac1.png

http://beranger.org/ludditus/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/prepozitii_opac1.png

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German verbs

The present tense of the verb

Strong and irregular verbs

Most German verbs varies by person and number.

Distinguish between strong and weak verbs. Strong verbs with -e- radically (helfen

« help », lesen « read », nehmen « take », etc.) in 2 and 3 liters. uhrs receive -i (e)

-. Likewise, verbs with -a- or -au- radically (fahren « ride , ride », lassen « let »,

laufen « Run" ) acquire umlaut , that is -a- and -au- turn in -ä- and -äu-. Let us

consider some examples.

These are the main changes that occur in the root only in the forms of pronouns du

and er / sie / es. They just remember, if you repeat the circuit conjugation on

similar examples. Children are given instruction: try the same way to conjugate

verbs sprechen (sprichst, spricht), geben (gibst, gibt), vergessen (vergisst,

vergisst), nehmen (nimmst, nimmt), sehen (siehst, sieht), essen (isst, isst), lassen

(lässt, lässt).All these verbs are very frequent, it is difficult to manage without

them in speech. Such cases should be brought to a regular repetition by

automatism. Several examples of these verbs:

Was liest du heute?

Du hilfst mir gar nicht!

Eines Tages vergisst du alles!

Ich sehe dich, du siehst mich.

Ich gebe dir etwas und du gibst mir etwas.

Er spricht so oft und so laut.

Ich fahre schnell, aber er fährt langsam.

Er nimmt alles. Ich nehme nichts.

Difficulties in identifying and using verb separable prefixes are rooted in their

structural features. Separable prefix in the present tense (Präsens) is placed at the

end, forming a loop structure.

Negation nicht is put before the detachable attachment. Let us try to conjugate

verbs with other detachable and non-detachable prefixes. Among them there are

strong verbs which undergo radical changes: anfangen (fängst an, fängt an),

beitragen (trägst bei, trägt bei), einladen (lädst ein, lädt ein), nachgeben (gibst

33


nach, gibt nach), vorschlagen (schlägst vor, schlägt vor), empfehlen (empfiehlst,

empfiehlt), geraten (gerätst, gerät).

Here are some suggestions to new verbs. Note the location of detachable prefixes

in the sentence. Also note that in subordinate clauses the verb occupies the last

place. If it is a verb with separable prefix, the prefix is by the verb.

Sie schlägt immer etwas vor.

Du siehst gut aus! Einfach klasse!

Ich mache das Fenster auf, er macht die Tür zu.

Wann fängst du an?

Perfekt

Perfect time is an analytical form, which has an analogue in semantic terms in the

Armenian language, despite the fact that the form can be formed by the Armenian

equivalent synthetically. At first Perfekt of weak verbs is learnt, and then of strong

verbs.

Children get the instruction: to form the perfect tense of the verb haben to be used

in personal form, and in the end put the proposal form Partizip II.

A few examples from Perfekt:

Was hast du im Sommer gemacht? Ich habe meine Oma besucht. Ich habe auch

im Walde Beeren besucht. Vielgetanzt und gelacht.

Wohin bist du gegangen? Ich bin in den Wald gegangen.

Summary tables that present the studied verb tenses are very useful:

Zeitform Frage Bestätigung Negation

Präsens Was machst du? Ich mache meine

Hausaufgaben.

Wir haben keine

Hausaufgaben.

Futurum Was wirst du

morgen machen?

Ich werde meinen

Freund besuchen.

Er kann nicht

kommen.

Perfekt Was hast du heute

gemacht?

Ich habe viele Е-

Mails geschrieben.

Ich habe nichts

gemacht.

It is useful to introduce grammatical material by speech samples that have

generalized value and can be used independently in speech, for example:

Wie ist dein / ihr Name? Es gibt hier einen großen Platz.

Grammatical constructions can be fixed by communicative intentions and

colloquialisms.

34


Hallo, ich bin ...

Ich heiße ...

Das ist mein(e) ...

Wie ist dein (Ihr) Name?

Wie heißt du?

Wie heißen Sie?

WoherkommenSie?

Wo arbeitenSie?

Sehr angenehm

Progress and achievements of the course participants of German:

• Maria Grigoryan (in the group for a year and a half)

She has very little free time as she visits various free-time classes and

additional activities including singing. So she learns only in the classroom and

does not always have time for home work. She has good pronunciation .

• Kima Vardanyan (in the group for a year and a half)

He had elementary conversational speech skills, made many mistakes in the

declension of nouns , in agreeing nouns and adjectives, using verb tenses and

prepositions , word order of simple and complex sentences.

Now he can relatively fluently express his thoughts in German when reading and

translating texts.

• Levon Chatyan (worked 7 months)

Had problems with the grammar of the German language and orthography. Good

sensing information by ear (auding, listening comprehension), made mistakes in

the process of speaking. With difficulty could make a generalization read.

After 8 months there has been progress in knowledge and skills, to some extent,

learned the grammar of the German language , less mistakes made in a speech

to perceive the main idea of the text read .

• Ashot Chatyan (in the group for 7 months)

Unable to language function poorly perceived grammatical phenomena, confused

case endings and verb tenses, difficult to build speech patterns, had troubles

with reading and listening texts.

Upon completion of 7 months course he can read and translate well, asks questions

35


and responds to them in a particular communicative situation.

• Hasmik Avetyan (takes 5 months)

She had problems with German grammar, confused cases and verb tenses. Her

vocabulary was poor. Ignorance of many common words compensated

descriptive explanations of the phenomenon. She communicated mainly with

short sentences. After five months of training she made a big step forward.

According to the results of the Republican Olympiad on the German language

she has received the diploma of the first degree.

CONCLUSION

Thus, learning a foreign language, in this case German, today is a prerequisite for

success in school and in life in general. This contributes to the learner's internal

motivation. The desire to learn German is stimulated by gaming techniques, with

which one can not only master the language system, but also to generate speech

and communication skills. Thus, the motivation necessary to support the promotion

and satisfaction is achieved.

36


Armenian language teaching: methodology and difficulties

Teacher Gayane Terzyan

Multifaceted problem involves adapting the reintegration of returnees in the three

major areas of life:

• socio-economic;

• psychological;

• cultural and educational.

These areas are often interrelated and one sphere depends on the other, and so

they cannot be separated from each other.

Cultural and educational adaptation can only be done in collaboration with the

family and school. In this case, the adaptation center can play a catalytic role.

Armenian language lessons

Our project of the Armenian language course has two options

• Armenian as their native language (the language of education)

• Armenian as the second language

The group study

Participants

• Families mostly left Armenia and lived abroad for several years (2-6 years).

• Several families returned 1-2 years ago, and went through the first period of

adaptation independently.

• A group of diverse age (5-21 years) and language proficiency.

• Some families live outside of Yerevan and it is difficult to visit the center twice a

week to bring children to the lessons.

Knowledge of the Armenian language

• For children, as well as for parents, the first and primary spoken language is

Armenian. Even during the years spent abroad, the language spoken in the family

was mainly Armenian.

• For only one participant Armenian is not the first language. We teach him with the

program "Armenian as the second language."

• Children basically have no communication problems with the Armenian language

in everyday life.

37


• Almost all children before departure and upon arrival went to Armenian schools ,

therefore, they also have some reading and writing skills.

• There are serious problems in the knowledge of grammar in compliance with the

school curriculum.

• The main concern of parents as well as of children, is to meet the requirements of

the school curriculum and in the future of final secondary school exams.

Language for Education

In the context of the language policy of the Council of Europe language education is

considered in two aspects

• language as a subject

• language as a means of studying other subjects.

In our case it is possible to consider only the first option, hoping that their newly

acquired language skills will also contribute to the study of other subjects.

Armenian language course planning

According to the language needs of the participants two variants of language

courses were planned

1. Armenian as the language of education

Participants in these courses are the children who

• were in Armenian schools before departure and upon arrival

• are fluent in Armenian at the household level

• need Armenian language lessons to improve their school success.

For them, the course aims to develop

• reading skills;

• writing skills;

• knowledge of the grammatical structure of the language;

• socio-cultural knowledge.

2. Armenian as the second language

Participants in these courses are the children who

• did not receive education in Armenian.

For them, the course is aimed at improving

• communication skills

• socio-cultural knowledge.

How the groups were formed?

38


The groups were formed according to age and language proficiency

• The first group

This group includes children of the senior classes, two of them had to pass primary

school exams in the summer. After five months of training, they successfully

passed their final exams in Armenian and Russian languages.

• The second group

This group identified children of upper elementary school and junior high school. In

this group, a major challenge is the development of reading skills. We hope that

after some time we can start a course of grammar with them.

• The third group

The group identified the preschool children and children of first grades. Here the

main problem is alphabetization and reading technic. In this group we have also

included a sixth-grade pupil, who went to the Bulgarian school for five years. He did

not know Armenian letters, although he was fluent in Armenian. After 3 months of

learning he was quite fluent in reading Armenian. He is in the second class of the

Armenian school, and he had problems with Armenian as language of education.

• The forth group

The group identified the participants for which the Armenian language is not the

first language. Here, the main emphasis is on learning the language as the means

of communication.

Methods of organizing courses and language learning

o Communicative methods of organizing classes

o Language classes

o These lessons are mostly done in the first group, with the students who are

preparing for school exams.

o Lesson Reading – Discussion

o The lessons were conducted in the second group. Children read and discussed

various literary texts. Here the focus was on the development of skills, word

recognition, comprehension of texts, forming their own opinions, as well as writing

skills.

o In the third group, the emphasis was laid on the development of oral

communication skills and writing techniques.

Computer game lessons

39


A computer program "Playing in Armenian" is used, which gives the option of using

computer games.

makes learning more attractive, combining study and play;

stimulates motivation;

combines linguistic and sociocultural knowledge;

develops skills of self-learning (continues learning at home);

provides immediate feedback;

promotes self-control and self-esteem.

Lessons in the Museum (for all groups)

The most important factor in cultural and educational integration of children of

returnees is to introduce the history and cultural heritage of its own people.

Museum lessons

introduce the history and culture of the country;

help to form a correct attitude towards the homeland , its values;

contribute to the self-esteem of children, instill pride in their homeland;

help to become bearers of socio-cultural traditions of Armenian people.

Museums classes were held in

• Matenadaran (Institute and Museum of Ancient Manuscripts);

• Museum of History of Yerevan;

• Historical and Archaeological Museum "Erebuni";

• Historical and Archaeological Museum "Metsamor";

• At the monument "Sardarapat " in honor of the national liberation battle;

• National Museum of Ethnography and the national liberation struggle;

• In a number of monasteries in the spiritual center of the Armenian Apostolic

Church of Echmiadzin (Cathedral Church of St. Hripsimeh, St. Gayane and St.

Shoghakat);

• In the treasury named after Alex and Marie Manoogians;

• In the temple of "Zvartnots".

Features of the organization of museum lessons

Preparatory stage (before excursion)

• lesson-talk;

• presentation or film;

• discussion;

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During the excursion

• professional guide (Metsamor, Sardarapat, Echmiadzin, Zvartnots);

• Discussion, Quiz (Museum of History of Yerevan)

After the tour

• Reading special texts about the monument or museum;

• Discussion of materials and experiences on tour;

Organization of national holidays

An important element of the cultural and educational program is the organization of

national traditional festivals, the purpose is not only the transmission of information

about holidays and traditions, customs, but also the process of familiarizing the

participants bringing in the daily lives of these rituals, traditions, customs, national

cuisine.

We celebrated Christmas, New Year and Easter with the children and their families.

Challenges and Prospects

First months of work have identified a number of problems and difficulties

• Instability of groups

Due to the fact that the return is a long process, a formed group gradually

changes frequently, which hampers progress in the group.

• The age of students

The project involves members of different ages (from 5 to 21 years), which

makes them together into one group; the result is a few groups of 1-3 pupils.

• Residence participants

Many members live outside of Yerevan. After school they are forced to come

to the center in Yerevan to attend several classes and late at night they need to go

home.

• Different levels of proficiency

• Different goals and motives of language learning

Beginning with an effort to master the spoken language up to the wish to pass

final exams.

Socio-Economic Adaptation

The socio-economic adaptation of immigrants and their families is in fact a function

41


of the public administrations, if the encouragement for repatriation is a part of the

country's political priorities. This involves the creation of a favorable legislative

environment as well as the consolidation of all forces and capabilities of public

institutions. But when the state has no such opportunities and moreover, if the

immigration is a consequence of a lack of these conditions, the resulting problem

can be partially addressed with the help of NGOs and international organizations.

Psychological Adaptation

Psychological adjustment largely depends on the socio-economic adaptation. For a

family to feel comfortable and protected, it must first of all solve its economic

problems and needs to reintegrate into the social environment which it left years

ago - even though this environment may have changed significantly during its

absence.

Psychological adaptation is impossible without cultural and educational integration,

especially among the younger generation.

Cultural and Educational Adaptation

The success of adaptation actions depend largely on the solution of social and

psychological problems beforehand.

Having lived several years outside their homeland, any returning family, if not

alienated from its roots, traditions and customs, could partially forget them, and

their children mostly do not know them at all.

For cultural and educational integration of children from returnee families, one of

the most important factors for a sustainable adaptation to the new environment is

to introduce history and culture of his country and people. This does not only

provide knowledge but also helps to relate to the motherland and its historical and

cultural treasures, not only to be proud of their homeland , but also to become the

successor of the carrier and its cultural heritage.

The Adaptation Centre for returnee families offers language courses and a series of

events with the aim of cultural reintegration.

For this purpose excursions were not only a fascinating journey, but also geography

lessons, we planned and held them in a special way.

In order to determine accurately the needs of the participants, the needs of the

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pupils were analyzed in a survey implemented by the centre staff.

The Computer Game "Playing in Armenian"

These grammar lessons of the Armenian language were for the purpose of teaching

grammar in a playful way. The game was originally created for the curriculum of

senior primary school classes (Age 7 to 9). It does not only take account for the

curriculum of grammar, but also the age characteristics of children and thus

combines the language training with positive feedback for the players in this age

bracket. The texts written in the game provide a lot of cultural information for

instance literature, history, geography, art, sports, etc. The original game design is

that by performing grammar tasks student "travels" to historical sites, museums

and places of interest.

For example,

• Players "meet " with the noun in the Erebuni museum, where they not only get

acquainted with the grammatical features of nouns, but also with almost 3000year

history of the city of Yerevan and former capitals of ancient Armenia.

• In the Museum of Ancient Manuscripts "Matenadaran" children become

acquainted with the adjective, as well as with the history of ancient manuscripts,

handwritten parchment and ancient books.

• Numerals and pronouns are "waiting" at the stadium and at the zoo. Here they

will find a lot of information about sports, athletes and the world of animals.

• By studying other grammatical phenomena, children will "travel" through

historical Armenia, and "meet" famous writers and artists.

Progress and Achievements of the Armenian Language Course Participants

The biggest challenge for the Armenian language lessons is that the group is not

homogenous:

• different age;

• different levels of proficiency;

• different objectives and motives for language learning.

In these circumstances, it is almost impossible to make a single program or

curriculum. This class is often carried out in the individual mode.

But even in the study group sessions of the same grammatical material individual

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exercises were developed for each participant taking into consideration his age,

individual characteristics and linguistic knowledge.

Therefore, it is difficult to expect the same results from all the participants.

Partially the difficulty was also associated with changes in the groups.

Children came and went away from the group when they or their parents thought

that they had fulfilled their task (passed the exam, caught up with their classmates

on the school curriculum etc), even if the teachers believed that the pedagogical

issue is not yet fully implemented.

There are several examples of increasing knowledge and skills that the language

course participants have achieved so far.

Kima Vardanyan (in the group for one and a half years)

When Kima started with the language courses, she could only read slowly and with

difficulties. It was difficult for her to distinguish between some of the Armenian

letters and her vocabulary was comparatively poor for her age. She compensated

this ignorance of several common words through descriptive explanations of the

phenomenon. She communicated mainly using common words, often using foreign

words when she died not know the correct Armenian term. She made numerous

spelling errors and had poor knowledge of the main works of Armenian literature.

Now she reads fluently (although still sometimes confusing letters). She has

significantly expanded her vocabulary and now can replace most common words

through two or three synonyms. At the same time, Kima uses fewer foreign words.

She can explain many spelling rules, and has thereby reduced the number of

spelling errors she previously made. She has also enriched her lexical and phonetic

knowledge and had time to get acquainted with some of the classics of Armenian

literature. Kima was preparing for her final exams in Armenian language and

literature. She passed the final tests with good results.

Gor Tumasyan (in the group for 11 months)

When he joined the group, Gor could read fluently , but he made a lot of spelling

mistakes. His vocabulary was mostly conversational. For instance, during typical

vocabulary tests of frequently used common words he understood only five to six,

but he could only replace one or two of them with synonyms or literary equivalents.

44


As a consequence, Gor had difficulties in making coherent speech, formulate logical

questions or to present his thoughts. It was particularly difficult for him to learn the

language program in school.

Gor can now explain common words by finding their literary equivalent, and even

their etymology. His oral speech have enriched, and although he still makes

orthographical mistakes, he can logically and coherently express his thoughts. He

achieves good results in the school program and his grades in Armenian language

have improved.

Anait Terzyan(in the group for 6 months)

When Anait became a part of the group, her vocabulary was meager, but she was

able to learns new words easily and quickly. It was apparently quite difficult for her

to read and write and she often forgot a few letters, spelling and morphology. She

did not know the parts of speech, the composition of words, sentences and made

many linguistic and stylistic errors. But since finishing primary school required her

to pass the final exam, she had learn to rapidly not only on grammar, but also on

literature. It was particularly difficult for her to write the thematic essays and tests.

It was necessary to spend time with Anait to give her additional private lessons.

Now she already does good in the context of the school program although she is

often forced to study intensely, but still the progress is evident. Recently her school

essay on "If you want peace, keep your sword ready" was awarded with a very

good mark.

Mkrtych Chivigyan (in the group for 7 months)

Mkrtych is in the 6th grade. From the 1st to the 5th grade, he went to a Bulgarian

school. He did not even know the letters of the Armenian language, although he

spoke a bit Armenian. He began to learn the alphabet.

The first two months he worked individually with a teacher, learning letters,

syllables and words, working with maps.

Now he can read short stories and fairy tales. He can explain the words in the text.

He still has difficulties in writing. He can rewrite texts, but hardly express his own

thoughts. And has not yet mastered the school curriculum, but the progress is

obvious.

45


Levon Chatyan (in the group for 8 months)

Before he came to Armenia, Levon studied at Russian and Polish schools. Armenian

is his second language, but was never the language of learning for. He spoke poor

Armenian and poorly understood the speech. He knew the letters, but could not

write without significant difficulties.

Leven participated in individual training lessons on the program "Armenian as a

second language ". The private lessons began with the purpose of mastering the

language for everyday communication.

After two months of training, it was revealed that Levon had to pass an exam on

the Armenian language for his secondary school education the program was

changed. Leven is currently training for the work on his final tests.

After eight months of intense training, Levon speaks and understands the language

well. He has increased his vocabulary, and is able to communicate normally and can

clearly express his thoughts. He has many difficulties in preparing for the exam

test, but he is trying his best.

Compiling the results in a certain way, we get the following picture:

• based on the needs of the Armenian language, the focus in the classroom is laid

on the development and assimilation of grammar and writing;

• to build practical language experience is mainly carried out during lessons,

excursions and discussions;

• all the children have achieved progress;

• every child achieved certain results in comparison to his starting level.

46


Russian language teaching: methodology and difficulties

Teacher Bella Ayunts

Increasing the effectiveness of the Russian language teaching raised is an

important task that the team of the RECEA center and the university are facing.

Undoubtedly, the introduction of innovative methods, strategies and technologies of

teaching are effective ways of preparing children to master a second language.

However, crucial meaning has the realization of educational tasks implemented

both in the process of teaching and through extracurricular activities. The increase

of effectiveness of learning is also directly related to specifics of native language in

contact with Russian native speakers. In fact, some of our students appear in a

educational triple-linguism where they already speak up to a certain level in their

mother tongue as well as secondary languages (e.g. Bulgarian, Danish, Dutch) and

then start to learn Russian as a third language. On the one hand, the issue is that

learning of Russian is based on their knowledge and skills of their mother language

(Armenian) but on the other hand, differences between the languages create

complications for the acquisition of the Russian language. These complications

generate a demand for specific measures to address these challenges of teaching

the language to the audience. Both the Russian language teacher and the learners

need to know the specifics of their mother tongue well; otherwise, the doubled

language acquisition could be difficult to achieve the desired language skill levels in

both languages. The typological characteristics of Armenian significantly vary from

the Russian language and the linguistic differences cover all linguistic levels: the

grammar, the phonetics and vocabulary.

Language students do not only develop as a linguistic identity for themselves, but

also act as carrier of local, European and global culture. In Armenia, the acquisition

of language skills is directly linked to the acquisition of the rich cultural heritage of

the country. The Heimatgarten Adaptation Center in Armenia, established on the

basis of ASPU, actually has become not only a center of learning, but also a place of

"language" meetings for migrant children learning multiple languages, primarily

Armenian speakers. These meetings are attached to the respective cultures of

carriers of a particular language. Within this context, it can be said that the meeting

of people also acts as a meeting ground for different cultures. When children are

47


studying a language and thus become familiar with the culture, traditions and

customs of a specific country, they also receive the opportunity to understand

them. Thus, the concept of intercultural learning has become a key factor of the

integrative aims and a significant stepping stone for gaining access to cultural

values beyond the language.

The Russian language classes were initialized in the January 2013. Currently 17

children are learning the language. Classes are based on textbooks:

• Antonov V.E., Nakhabina M.M., Safronova M.V., Tolstoy A.A. "The Road to

Russia", St. Petersburg,Chrysostom, 2008;

• Miller L.V., Politova L.V., Rybakov I.J. "Once upon a time..." (textbook and

workbook), St. Petersburg,"Chrysostom", 2008;

• Lebedeva M.N. "Russian language with a smile. Short stories , jokes , dialogues",

Wiley, 2012;

• Shtelter O. "In this small basket... Games in Russian lesson", St. Petersburg,

Chrysostom,2012;

• Akishina A.A. "Russian language games", Moscow, 2011 (various game tasks ,

crosswords, puzzles , charades).

The purpose of the Russian language courses in the adaptation center is not

only the mastery of language, speech competence and communicative competence

in general , but also the formation of socio-cultural competence at level A2 - B1,

the accumulation of background knowledge, familiarity with the traditions of

Armenian society, norms of behavior and gaining familiarity with communication

registers.

In the process of teaching, interactive methods are used as often as possible. The

language is taught in a dialogue mode of implementation (oral productive speech)

based on a principle of information novelty. Despite the focus on direct verbal

communication, receptive skills (listening and reading) are also developed during

the courses. With regard to the formation of reading material provided by the so-

called multi-level plateau of texts, ranging from A1 to B2 of the European

Framework of References for Language skills (Belyaeva G.V., Gorskaja E.I.,

Eremina L.I., Lutskaya N.E. Listen. Ask. Answer. Russian language.Courses.2004;

48


Gubieva I.G., Yatselenko V.A. Russian texts.Book for reading in Russian for

foreigners. Russian language, 2010; Karavanova N.B. Read and understand

everything!: A Guide to reading and language development for foreigners studying

Russian. Russian language, 2009).

Of course, there are learning difficulties related to the structure of different

systems of languages: Russian, Armenian and German all belong to different

language families. Contingents who are not speaking Russian, frequently have

great difficulties with grammatical categories that the Russian language simply does

not have in common with the Armenian language. It is primarily about the category

of grammatical gender that permits various lexical and grammatical level words.

Under these conditions, the implementation of the communicative approach does

not necessarily lead to the desired results on its own. Therefore, in the learning

process, we have developed and tested cognitive operations aimed at the

differentiation and recognition of these phenomena and concepts. For example,

personal pronouns of the 3rd person singular (he, she, it), corresponds to only one

person in Armenian, namely the undifferentiated concept նա. The challenge is for

students to use techniques aimed at singling out three separate concepts like նա 1,

նա 2 or նա 3 corresponding to the different grammatical genders and signaling

these via a different color cards to label a person or object as masculine, feminine

and neuter according to the grammatical gender in other languages. Using

elements of role-playing games, like letting the students act as mothers, fathers,

brothers, sisters, boys, girls, etc. helps to establish identified generic terms, and

then realized generic differences to allow a more distinct understanding of

grammatical gender and its use. Only after realizing the generic differentiation of

the material in the native language, the students can continue to master the

appropriate equivalents in the studied language, like in this case, Russian.

Similar difficulties arise at the lexical level. Sources of interference are cases of

semantic mismatch volumes of lexical units. Consequently, there is a need to

connect situational data acquisition units with an illustration of the micro and macro

context.

There are also some organizational difficulties. The teaching staff has to deal with

newly arriving participants on a regular base. It does not make much sense to put

them into the already existing learning groups, where the children already possess

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some language knowledge. For this reason, the teacher has to deal with them

individually and intensively so that they are able to "catch up" with the group.

The intercultural learning concept involves the extensive use of computer

technology. Gaining familiarity with virtual reality opens up new possibilities in the

educational process through the creation of jobs, including cultural studies oriented

to perform actions in the process of listening, speaking, reading and writing. The

introduction of information technology significantly increases the motivation of

students to study the Russian language for communication, language and cultural

interaction.

Lexical challenges

On a vocabulary level polysemantic words are the most challenging for the

students. These include homonyms, the semantic volume of which does not

coincide with corresponding equivalents in another language, not mentioning the

challenges of understanding the realities in the learning language. As children like

playful methods and fairy tale therapy in contrast to the vocabulary of folklore

tales, fairy tales, songs, fables, proverbs and sayings which are challenging in their

use.

The spoken language is full of separate words and combination of expressions as

well.

In some cases, we can find different assessment of the features in the Armenian

language lying in the core of the aphorisms. For instance, the Russian expression

“Stubborn as an ass” matches the meaning of the phrase “Stubborn as a bull” in

Armenian; nevertheless “donkey” in the sense of “fool”, “silly” exists in both

languages.

In Russian, the word “pig” characterizes a dirty, sloppy person, while in

Armenian the word “pig” characterizes someone who is reserved and unsociable.

However, it is not enough to limit these language aspects to a literal translation into

the native language when explaining the words. The basis of selection of the most

optimal way to explain the word should be based on the comparative analysis of it’s

meaning in two languages.

If the comparison shows that one Russian word matches several words in the

mother tongue (or opposite), a direct translation can hardly lead to positive results.

It is necessary to enter that word into different semantic links and compare Russian

50


and Armenian expressions and discover mismatches between the meaning of the

expressions in both languages as well as learning the given word's most commonly

used meaning in combination with other words. Without realizing the scope of the

meaning of the words, the children thus construct sentences with an Armenian

analogy.

This consideration for the peculiarities of language interaction, allows to

properly solve the issue of a positive transfer of skills from one language to another

and thus counteract the interference of crossed language acquisition. In the

students' process of learning the Russian language, dealing with these issues this

reveals when in learning missing or partly matching words in their mother tongue,

they automatically try to transfer the applied language skills into the Russian

language. In fact, in a number of cases the learners' theoretical knowledge of

Russian can be used in practice.

A great challenge for children of remigrants consists of linguistic phenomena

which do not coincide in their structure with corresponding equivalents in their

native language and which therefore create a source of interference. For example,

categories such as grammatical gender, the sequence in attributive constructions,

the word order in a sentence, or the conjugation of verbs according to gender, time

and case. For instance, adjectives in the Armenian language do not change, but are

attached to the nouns.

Adjectives

For Armenian-learners most difficult in the “Adjective” topic is the alignment

of adjectives to the substantive in gender, time and case. While adjectives in the

Armenian language do not change, they do so in Russian - they are aligned with

nouns in gender, number and case; while in the Armenian language adjectives do

not change and do not align with the substantives.

Verbs

Because some case categories do not exist in the Armenian language, Armenian

students face big difficulties in process of learning it.

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The Participants very often mix up the forms of verbs in the future tense, perfective

and imperfective verbs, for example, instead of will write -I will be write, instead of

will see – I will be see.

For the correct use of the interfering effects of the Russian language, it is necessary

to compare and match these phenomena in both languages. On the one hand this

is made to ensure that children are able to recognize the linguistic differences and

similarities, on the other hand, this operation is particularly important in the

context of trilinguism, as the second language (a language of the country of

habitation prior to the migration to Armenia) can influence the process of learning

the Russian language both negatively or positively. In the result the comparing the

forms of cognitive skills among children and the fact of realisation may contribute

to a proper perception and understanding of the differences and similarities in the

involved languages and thus deepen the understanding for all of them.

Grammatical Games

As mentioned above, the children react very positively to the more playful training

methods in the Russian language classes. We try to make the exercises in a

playing form, which contributes to the motivation and activeness of the learners.

For instance, for the better understanding of the topic of differences between

animate and inanimate nouns, we use colorful pictures, the images of different

objects and brainteasers for learners to guess.

These images can also be used in a form of silent dictation. The teacher shows

different images of the objects and the learners should write down the word: a cup,

a notebook, stairs, a pencil, a cucumber, etc.

Another example is the game “Name the professions, musicians, sportsmen”

For example, professions: writes books - a writer, repairs watches - a watchmaker;

Musicians: plays the piano - piano player, plays a guitar - guitar player;

Sportsman: plays football - football player, plays tennis- tennis player.

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Very effective are journey lessons and minor competitions within the learning

group. During these lessons appears protagonists from fairy tales, cartoons etc that

throughout the class learn tasks with students.

The students have also received diversified cultural information. Great interest

aroused the electronic video tour to “St. Petersburg and its suburbs". Students

learned the sights of the Northern capital. "Walked" through the main and most

famous street of St. Petersburg, Nevsky Avenue, visited the Hermitage, the Russian

Museum, St. Isaac's Cathedral, the church of the Savior on Blood, the Kazan

Cathedral, and the suburbs of St. Petersburg: The Palace and Park ensemble of

Peterhof, Museum-Palace Tsarskoye Selo (Queen Ekaterina’s Palace with the

famous Amber Room), Pavlovsk (Pavlovsk Palace), Gatchina (Huge Gatchina Palace

and the Palace Park).

The children visited the Russian Drama Theatre after Stanislavsky, a children's play

called "Doctor Aybolit". The hero of Korney Chukovsky’s - "The doctor Aybolit" - is a

well-known fairy tale character for kids, who is a kind veterinarian and a doctor.

This remarkable story teaches compassion, helping others and that good deeds

should be paid back.

The tales of Chukovsky are a literary storehouse of different images and ideas, and

"Dr. Aybolit" is no exception. The Good Doctor Aybolit is presented as an

embodiment of sensitivity, compassion for others. "Doctor Aybolit" is an incredibly

emotional and still quite simple story to understand, but in its simplicity, the author

skillfully realized the upbringing ideas. Rescuing and helping neighbors in need,

Doctor Aybolit himself receives kindness from animals and humans.

All tours conducted in and outside of Yerevan are discussed at several levels:

Stage 1 - preliminary discussion, getting acquaintance with the material, the history

of the monument or area, its role in the history of Armenia and the interest for

that place.

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Stage 2 - The tour itself, where the children can compare their previously learned

information with their vision on location.

Stage 3 – Summarizing discussion during the lessons, which often appear in a

game mode. In the form of a roleplaying game the students assume a few fixed

roles such as guides, interpreters, or foreigners and the students show and explain

the seen historic sites and attractions.

There is a lack of targeted adaptation programs for children from primary schools

who do not speak the Russian language. Therefore, children who are getting into a

new environment are not able to adapt immediately. In this regard it is necessary

to create appropriate conditions for a social and educational environment that

fosters along with classes at school for a child to enter in the new school

environment, because the socialization process applies to all spheres of the

children’s activities. A positive shift in this direction can be seen in the organization

of additional working modules in the Russian language with migrant children after

class. As the task is not only to teach how to read, write and speak the language, it

is necessary to also train rules and norms of behavior and to introduce the children

to the rich culture of the target language country to gradually expanding their

horizon.

The second problem relates to the implementation of mutual cooperation with the

children's parents, including the establishment of regular contacts. The practice

shows that most parents are not aware of the need to work with their children at

home. Here, they can be helpful if they instruct, offer guidance for the organization

of their child, as well as respecting the established learning procedures, offer

support and competent advice as well as carrying out regular monitoring of the

children's progress.

Due to the need of coordination and cooperation between educators on the one

hand and parents or social guardians on the other hand, it seems appropriate to

develop training and educational tools for parents to increase their competences at

helping their children at home. Using the guidelines, policies and techniques for

intensive teaching of Russian, allowing for a short time to bring the process of

54


mastering the Russian language to the threshold level. For this purpose it is

necessary to implement the principles and methods of intensive training especially

for children who do not speak Russian or who have insufficient knowledge of the

language.

The measures of language adaptation for children must be accompanied by a

process of cultural socialization and adaptation. In the current project, an action

plan was developed for the integrated course of academic and cultural support for

children. During the process of language learning, the classes also teach skills

related to the correct behavior in typical real-life situations and knowledge of

Russian culture. In the process of learning, progressive innovations and latest

Russian textbooks were used in combination with educational-methodical

complexes corresponding to the requirements of a modern information society.

These complexes include a textbook, a workbook, a guide for teachers and a

glossary.

To these earlier educational complex can add the following:

• Antonov V.E., Nakhabina M.M., Safronova M.V., Tolstih A.A. The Road to Russia,

St. Petersburg: Chrysostom, 2008;

• Miller L.V., Politova L.V., Rybakov I.J. Once upon a time ... (textbook and

workbook), St. Petersburg: Chrysostom, 2008;

• Esmantova T.L. Russian language: 5 elements: A1 level (elementary), St.

Petersburg: Zlatoust, 2011;

• Esmantova T.L. Russian language: 5 elements: a book for teachers. Level A

(Elementary). Book + CD, St. Petersburg: Zlatoust, 2012;

• Esmantova T.L. Russian language: 5 elements: A2 level (base), St. Petersburg:

Zlatoust, 2012.

1. Learning Goals and Objectives:

The learning objectives are discussed in terms of a functional and planned outcome.

In other words, the decisive factor is achieving the established goal in the end. In

accordance with the new definition of objectives, the desired end result is the

mastery of communicative language competence. In this regard, a comprehensive

approach is important, namely the following factors in the learning process, while

55


taking the specificity of bilingualism and multilingualism (in the learning process

into account the nature of bilingualism and mastery of a second or third language)

into account:

1. Adjustment and development of pronunciation skills and speech intonation.

2. Communicative orientation on training, resulting in the formation of

communicative competence.

3. Development of reading, speaking, listening and writing skills

4. Mastering language material on the basis of speech patterns and designs.

5. Mastering the grammatical framework and vocabulary of the Russian

language proficiency within A1.

6. Development of cultural and cross-cultural information necessary for the

adaptation to a new life.

2. Learning Contents

2.1. Language Material and Learning Process Organization.

1. Lexical and grammatical material minimization.

2. Combining linguistic material in the form of language models and speech

samples.

3. Step-by-step communicative tasks solving.

4. System exercises and activities at each grade level

The first bloc of central activities actually lays the foundation for the communicative

competence formation. From the first steps communicative orientation training is

performed because any act of mastering the language and speech patterns use

typical phrases as a base material. Due to the use of these materials in their

speech, the students are enabled to implement certain communicative tasks. This

possibility results from the speech samples use. The advantage of using these

speech patterns is that, as a "representative" of a particular linguistic or

grammatical structure of the model, they can be used in direct speech. So, with the

help of speech samples or standard phrases, children can quickly formulate how to

agree, deny or how make requests. Through the training of speech samples,

amenable lexical items and grammatical structures are trained simultaneously,

56


although their use does not preclude the work on an isolated word or grammatical

structures. Since lexical units in the methodical plan are not only isolated words,

but consists of whole phrases, the students learn stable combinations of words

until the idiomatic expressions are perceived as an integral unit that implements a

particular communicative intention.Therefore, the first concentration of highlighted

speech patterns with a representative function for certain structural and functional

types of a Russian simple sentence form a very efficient way of imparting the

knowledge about language structure types through these known patterns.

Examples:

Specifying Name / subject: Это Артем. Вот наша школа. This is Artem. This is our

school.

Specifying Action: Он работает.He works.

Specifying Quality Он хорошо рисует. He draws well.

Direction Specification: Мы идем в школу.We go to school.

Location Specification: Справа аптека. The drug store is on the right

Time Specification: Урок утром. The lesson in the morning.

Indication of the object of the action Он читает газету.He is reading the

newspaper.

Relation to the action: Он работает охотно.He works willingly.

Presence of a specifying subject: У меня есть сестра. I have a sister.

As Inessa Bim noted, each highlighted structural-functional type has their

communication options to offer. For example, in the framework of functional-

structural types of affirmative sentences (A) singled out options such as

B. Asking or suggesting (interrogative sentences without a question word)

C. Objection (negative sentence)

D. Demanding information (interrogative sentence with a question word)

E. Encouraging or requesting (imperative sentence)

Already, these five elements of the model A-E provide the very basics of

elementary communication, in the particular case in dialogue.

U1 Это Моника. This is Monica. (A)

U2 Это разве Моника? Is this Monica? (B)

U1 Конечно, это она. Sure this is her. (A)

U2 Нет, это не Моника No, this is not Monica. (C)

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U1 А кто это? And who is this? (D)

U2 Спроси Анну Ask Anna. (E)

Of course, the replica sequence can vary. It is important that children act as

participants of actual communication, thereby increasing their motivation as well as

the culture of communication in the target language.

In general, we can say that the center has fulfilled its mission in teaching the

Russian language and culture to migrant children. However, both positive and

negative aspects of this project have become apparent in the process. Difficulties

appeared due to heterogeneity and fluidity of the contingent groups. Offering

classes two or three times a week for students at a zero level of knowledge, in the

absence of reading and writing skills are simply unable to provide full language

proficiency. However, there are certainly positive tendencies to be found, and the

Russian language skills are provided at the minimum level of competence (A1).

For the language teaching process, it would be recommendable to involve the

parents or social guardians more directly in the process of learning and the

socialization of their children.

Progress and achievement of the Russian language learners

Kima Vardanyan (studied the language for 6 months)

Kima returned from Germany where she had lived for 6 years. She passed a

medical treatment after an eye injury. When she arrived, Kima didn’t know Russian

letters and therefore couldn’t neither read nor write. She had individual classes

where she learned Russian letters, formed skills of expressive and fluent reading,

the vocabulary considerably enlarged with new words. She can read tales and short

stories.

Kima stopped to attend her Russian language classes because she is getting

prepared for University entering examinations. She is going to take the entering

examinations in Armenian and German language studies.

Gor Tumasyan (attended language classes for 9 months)

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Gor lived in the Netherlands for 4 years. His family returned to Armenia in April

2013. He started to attend our center in June 2013. He is in his 6th year of school.

He knew most of the Russian letters, but had issues with reading and writing. He

used to make many mistakes both in spoken language and in orthography. The

language vocabulary was very poor. Therefore he used to face issues with

acquisition of the school program, especially in the Russian language.

Now Gorcan read in an expressive and fluent manner. He makes fewer mistakes in

writing, learned many rules of the Russian language orthography and has

significantly expanded his vocabulary so that he can pick up synonyms and

antonyms to the words used in class.

Norayr Martirosyan (learns Russian for 9 months)

Norayr returned from The Netherlands where he lived for 4 years. Currently studies

in the 9th grade of school. He has attended the RECEA center since July 2013. He

didn't know all Russian letters and could hardly read and write. The vocabulary was

poor. His knowledge was quite behind his peers. Norayr lives in the city of Masis,

therefore it was impossible to carry out additional Russian language lessons.

Now Noravyr reads expressively and fluently. He makes fewer mistakes when

writing and knows the elemental spelling rules. His speech became clear competent

and well organized. He hasenriched his vocabulary.

Anahit Terzyan (learns Russian for 6 months)

Anahit returned from Denmark, where her family lived for 5 years. Now she studies

at the 9th grade. Before she left the country, she used to study the Russian

language, but unfortunately she forgot most of it, including the spelling of many

letters. She used to read very slow and made many mistakes; often she didn’t

understand the meaning of what she read. She used to make mistakes in matching

words in the sentences, constructing sentences and telling short stories.

Her vocabulary got wider. She formed an ability to change and figure words, build

sentences right and create short stories.

Mkrtich Chividyan (learns for 7 months)

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Mkrtich was born and raised in Bulgaria. He is 12 years old. His family returned to

Armenia in October 2013. Now he studies in the 6th grade. He could neither read

nor write, so in the beginning he used to get private classes. He joined the main

group after he had learned the Cyrillic alphabet.

He made a huge step forward in reading and writing, his vocabulary has expanded

significantly. He understands the meaning of most words and can tell the meaning

of age-appropriate texts. He can easily tell the synonyms and antonyms to the

words.

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Report about psychological work with the children of

migrant families

Psychologist Lilit Bagdasaryan

The main purpose of the psychological work in the RECEA center is

psychosocial readaptation of children from different countries to the new conditions

of life in connection with the return to Armenia.

In reintegration center psychological work with children from different countries

(Denmark, Germany, Bulgaria, the Netherlands) for their socio-psychological

rehabilitation in connection with the remigration to Armenia was conducted.

Psychological work began with the collection of information about children and their

families. Appointments were made with children’s parents, mostly with their

mothers. Since returning to Armenia meant changing the language, social circle,

social status, specific questions that reveal the psychological problems of children

were prepared in advance.

Despite the mitigating circumstance situation that children and their families were

repatriated, for many of them it was an unexpected return, or somewhat

undesirable. In addition, some children were born and grew up in these countries,

learning the state language, cultural values and social circle of countries that have

become dear to them. Their return to Armenia meant to them changing the

language, cultural traditions, social circle, social status, and this situation is

stressful, would increase the anxiety, low self-esteem and leads to a number of

other negative psychological states, hindering social adaptation. Meetings were

organized with children, with the purpose of introducting and establishing contact

with children and obtaining their consent to work with a psychologist. Thereafter,

for each child an individualized plan of work with a psychologist was given for

several months ahead.

As a result of this meeting family members were contacted, a schedule of

visits children psychological sessions was made up, with selected psychological

techniques.

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Psychological work in November was divided into several stages:

1. Preparatory. During this phase, information was collected on children in need of

psychological help. Contacts were made with members of their families, mostly

mothers, agreement was reached for days and hours of meetings. At this stage

psychological techniques were picked and special interview questions were

prepared that reveal the psychological problems of children.

2. Acquaintance. At this stage the group meeting was held with four children, with

the main aim to establish contact with the children, obtaining their consent to

further work with a psychologist.

3. Psychodiagnostic. At this stage, individual sessions were held with each child and

their psychological difficulties were identified. Among the techniques carried out,

except for the psychological interview, it should be noted projective technique

"Non-existing animal", which allows to identify the level of anxiety, aggression, self-

esteem, focus on the child's past, present or future, and much more. Identified

problems such as difficulties in establishing contacts with adults and peers,

increased anxiety, insufficient assessment of their capabilities and abilities / low

self-esteem / low emotional background, reflected in bad mood, pessimistic

assessment of the future. Nevertheless positive aspects are to note, that consist in

the fact that the children did not have decrease in motivation to communicate,

opening the possibility of psychological work towards social rehabilitation.

4. Evaluation. After psychological diagnosis needs and specific areas of

psychological work for every child were assessed.

5. Psychological correction. The individual work with children was started. The main

problem was low self-esteem, lack of faith in their own strength and ability,

discontent with actual life situation and the level of knowledge. The general

uncertainty about the future that caused anxiety and fears, was diagnosed. In the

process of psychological work various psychological techniques were used, the

given homework was checked in the next session. In the session psychological

conversations were used, as well as art therapy and metaphorical therapy.

Children, who conducted individual psychological work came from the following

countries: Anahit Terzyan (Denmark), Kima Vardanyan (Germany), Mkrtich

Chivigyan (Bulgaria), Norayr Martirosyan (Netherlands). Families, children, and the

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specific problems of each child are not listed for privacy, for each child an

individualized plan of psychological work was given, inclusive December.

In the process of individual psychological operation the main emphasis was on the

children’s positive attitude to life. The children did not lose motivation to learn and

to communicate. This circumstance was to guide us in the conduction of

psychological sessions and opened up opportunities for effective work on social

rehabilitation. In addition to these methods and techniques, children were given

homework, which were tested and discussed in the classroom. This homework

involved finding and researching information about Armenian traditions, cultural

values, etc., which helped to reduce anxiety and other negative psychological

states.

A small program of psychological workshops for children was worked out, during

the program they will receive information on a variety of psychological phenomena,

successful ways of behavior and communication, etc. In this form, it was easier for

children to ask questions and receive answers impersonally.

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Summary

The developed and tested learning system was conducted in the reintegration

center in the following areas:

• diagnostic work;

• psychological services and monitoring;

• socio-cultural integration and adaptation;

• overcoming language barriers;

• learning process;

• educational process based on the triad of "teacher-student-parent" and aimed to

stimulate socialization.

Diagnostic (psycho-diagnostic) Activities

The commission was formed, including:

Chairperson - Melania Astvatsatryan

Armenian Language Spokesperson - Gayane Terzian

Russian language Spokesperson - Bella Ayunts

German language Spokesperson - Shushanik Petrosyan.

The purpose of the diagnostic work was to determine, collect and compile relevant

information about each child. A preliminary interview with the parents of the

children took place prior to the diagnostic work. The questions for these interviews

include:

• what country he/she came from;

• how and where he/she studied before;

• where he/she is studying now;

• how long he/she lived in the country;

• the conditions in which a child in the given country lived and is now living;

• if parents know the language of the country where they came;

• the communication language in the family;

the basic education and language competence level;

• the degree of psychological and socio-cultural adaptation.

The information received from parents was taken into account in the process of

organizing classes. Diagnostic work included the following steps:

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• determination of the children's age;

• individual characteristics and child psychological type identification;

• determine the characteristics of the child's emotional sphere;

• establishing a level of communication skills.

All these data were obtained through communication during meetings, questioning

and testing (see Appendix).

Psychological Service and Monitoring

As a result of the psycho-diagnostic interviews, testing, questionnaires impediments

and areas of pedagogical work were identified. Psychological and educational

support and monitoring were carried out both within the learning groups and on an

individual level.

Socio-cultural Integration and Adaptation

Socio-cultural integration and adaptation were carried out parallel to the other

activities (e.g. the language classes) with diverse activities in accordance with the

scheduled thematic plan. These include measures such as

• conversations;

• excursions;

• games.

All implemented excursions as well as the other cultural events were directly

related to the contents of subject curricula. The main goal was to learn and

consolidate the knowledge of the involved students and to guide them through their

own direct interaction with real cultural and historical values. By shaping these

activities into memorable events, they become more prevalent for the involved

students and are combined with a stronger emotional response as a first-hand

experience in comparison to second-hand learning.

The literature specifically highlighted the so-called "event approach" as the most

productive method of solving problems of cultural integration and tolerance in the

education of students. The event approach considers the education and training as

the co-existence of adults and children, their interaction and cooperation.

Migrant parents also do not only need legal support, but also require their own

socio-cultural adaptation. Most parents were involved in cultural and educational

activities with their children.

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Overcoming language barriers is the main mission of the subject commissions,

implemented primarily through mother-tongue education.

The purpose of the various subject committees is to ensure a minimum level of

migrant children are sufficiently proficient for mastering the program material. The

language teachers work was not only aimed at the formation of the necessary

knowledge, skills and relevant competencies, but also at supporting a positive

motivational attitude to learn the language. These issues contributed to a large

extent to the formation of cognitive interests, such as :

- Gaming technology;

- Entertaining emotional tasks;

- Reflection, knowledge of the student's results and success;

- The novelty of the methods and techniques;

- The use of technical training and Internet resources.

Lessons in 'game mode' helped to organize more interesting and exciting classes,

while bringing the students closer to real communication by their own volition.

Games create an emotional background and enhance the motivation and activation

of each participant. Especially effective in this regard are communication-based

games, which serve as a mean for the formation of communicative competences.

Psychologists consider game as one of the leading forms of mental function training

and ways of knowing the child of reality (Elkonin). During the game, first of all

psychological barriers are more easily overcome, especially for children with some

degree of retardation.

All teachers on the subject commissions systematically used communication,

grammar, vocabulary, phonetics and spelling games. Grammar games were

intended to create a natural situation for the use of speech samples, to teach

children to use speech patterns representing one or another grammatical model

and mainly aimed at overcoming the grammar.

Phonetic games help to train students in pronouncing sounds which do not coincide

with the sounds of the Armenian language, or which are not even present in that

language. Typical errors of students, for example, in the Russian language are

spelling words with the letters е, ё, я, ю, ы, ш, щ, ь,ъ, combinations жи, ши, чи,

щи, words with unstressed vowels or unpronounceable consonants.

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Through lexical games, the children were given the opportunity to learn new words,

to train them in typical situations and to develop speech activity on their own.

More general games helped to increase interest in those aspects of the language

that seemed boring. Due to the relaxed atmosphere of the game, psychological and

language barriers were gradually eliminated.

The learning process was seen as a dynamic interaction of teacher and student as a

system, referring to a particular contingent in the learning process of the specific

language.

What are the challenges in implementing goals?

For the successful implementation of learning objectives for both native and foreign

languages, it was necessary to consider them as a multi-level system. This led to a

hierarchy of objectives and their relationship to different fields of activity such as:

• kinds of speech activity;

• sub-goals within a certain period of time;

• specific objectives of each lesson;

• specific objectives of the lesson and its individual units.

Likewise it was necessary to take the asymmetry of the movable targets and their

nature into account. As I.Bim noted that by solving specific tasks in each lesson,

the child moves from target to targets as on steps: first to the closest, and then to

more distant. The more dissected final and intermediate objectives are presented in

the curriculum and textbooks. The easier it is to identify a specific task, the easier it

becomes to manage the training for that task as well. At the same, time one

should not forget the main task of each lesson as well. This does not only serve as

an introduction and reinforcement of knowledge and material, but also as a more

communicative orientation training. On this basis, it is appropriate to allocate

communicative cognitive function purposes, which includes other gaming or

practical activities.

The teacher should be clear about how to realize the goals based on current

textbooks and materials. Despite the fact that the target is treated as an expected

result, the goal does not always completely coincide with the final results. The

teacher’s activities are developed on the base of these patterns, namely not to lose

sight of the ultimate goal, while each concrete step consists of intermediate and

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final goals. While the objectives stated in terms of knowledge, skills, competencies,

the problem is always focused on a proximal outcome and specific conditions of

training and assimilating. This challenge is always focused on a long-term result

(I.L.Bim, p.56).

So if one task of the first lesson was to teach students to talk with each other when

they got acquainted, this problem has received more concrete exercises. For

example, say ‘hello’ and introduce yourself to each other, using input speech

patterns. I.L.Bim specifically indicates the predetermined outcome

• purposes of communication (communicative task to meet);

• speech content (in reliance on the presented material).

Such a detailed statement of the educational challenge is particularly important in

the initial stages of training, for each component serves as a students’ support.

Certain communicative task or communicative intentions correspond to definite

structural and semantic models as well as speech patterns. For example, the name

of the subject or the subject (This is a school. This is a teacher), the name of the

quality of the item (the school is new), etc. (for more details see Section 2).

It is essential for the students to be aware of the communicative task or function of

a structural type of sentence in the speech. Speech patterns, combining all the

elements of language - vocabulary, phonetics, grammar and speech -were

communicated during the training to the degree of automation in order to reach the

desired level of verbal communication. The object of training consists of the

communication and interaction between the participants as well as the interrelation

of their replicas. The end result of this interaction appears as a micro dialogue

implementing communication tasks of the participants in dialogic communication.

Since responding to a statement is easier than building a statement, the teaching

process should start with the response phase. For this purpose, exercises on

practicing reactive and proactive replicas are provided.

Work on speech samples compiles well with an inductive conscious approach,

suggesting intensive work on numerous examples that should gradually lead to the

recognition of linguistic rules, modes of action and generalizations acquisition.

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Important Principles in the Process of Achieving the Goals

Basic methodological principles are formulated as follows:

• communicative and cognitive training orientation;

• consideration of features of the native (Armenian) language;

• the dominant role of exercises from stage presentations and explanations of the

material up to the material and the development of appropriate skill consolidation;

• the principle of language learning based on the structural and functional models

and speech samples.

According to this cognitive approach, methodical training is contrasted by conscious

design statements. The widespread structural-functional approach language

teaching methodology focuses on the acquisition of language and speech units

which perform different functions within the direct speech. Due to the structural-

functional approach, it has been possible to minimize the objects’ absorption.

However, it is obvious that only the structural-functional approach and simulation

method as applied to supply level are insufficient for teaching direct speech

dialogues. The widespread use of the structural-functional approach and the

simulation created the preconditions for the formation of more focused speech

relying on analogy. It is important that the communicative approach manifests at

all levels up to the contents of learning. In this context, it manifests in shifting the

emphasis away from a material effect that allowed to allocate procedural aspect of

the content of education. Among the principles of learning, the principle of

communicativeness came to be regarded as the more appropriate approach to

language teaching. In this aspect, the communicative orientation of the training,

i.e. the goal of learning was perceived as learning to communicate in a foreign

language. The communicative orientation training emphasizes the need of

communication techniques, in particular the formation of such skills as starting,

maintaining and eventually ending conversations.

In this context, language acquisition contributes to the improvement of a culture of

communication, and thus provides techniques of mental labor or operations (such

memory, judgment, etc.). Mastering a foreign language grants students a direct

access to the cultural customs of the country, history, literature, geography, art

and values of the associated language group specifically as well as a larger part of

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the world culture in general. That is why a foreign language grants the opportunity

to implement a variety of interdisciplinary communication (p.45), expanding the

social experience of students and deepen their knowledge and other subject areas.

As a consequence, the implemented methods, techniques and learning strategies,

as well as a system of exercises are aimed at forming and supporting

communication skills (both in oral and written communication). The provided

exercises help the students to monitor their activities and progress. The mastery of

their own foreign language skills are exercises as "immediate material means of

activities of students and teachers of students with each other or the student

textbook and independent work" (p.102).

Educational work

The main objectives of educational work and the basic condition of children’s

successful adaptation are their inclusion in a cultural environment and social life.

Meeting with art as well as educational excursions were a decisive factor in the

aesthetic and creative development of the involved children. As a result, these

events have contributed to the children's development and may prompt creative

activity. A positive result was achieved through cognitive excursion programs,

including the study of attractions, history, culture and literature. The above-

mentioned programs are aimed at awakening a sense of cultural identity, as well as

tolerance for culture and traditions of other nations in the children. The Armenian

teacher G.Terzyan developed and tested in practice the concept of learning

excursion activity.

Thus, training and educational activities in the field of language and socio-cultural

adaptation are successfully combined and at the same time contribute to the

development of several aspects of the personality of a child, including aspects such

as the perception of the world, thinking, memory and emotions.

Methods of work and the results obtained allowed to submit work that presented

the reintegration center in a positive light in the public view which helped to attract

contingents from other organizations who had a wish to learn languages. For

instance, the French organization French Office for Immigration and Integration

(OFII) within the program "Enhancement of Migration Management Capacities of

Armenia" - The European Union’s Project "Targeted Initiative for Armenia" (Project

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Director Virginie Artot) in accordance with the memorandum signed with the Rector

of the University and OFII sent two children to study Armenian language (teacher

Gayane Terzian). Their classes began on June 10th, 2013.

The organization of a system of education and psychosocial support for children of

migrants allows shows that the installation and operation of reintegration center in

Yerevan based in ASPU named after Kh.Abovyan for the period December 2012 -

May 2014 justified itself. The willingness of several organizations to send their

contingent of migrant children to the Center, as it was the case with the OFII, as

well as the achieved success of the students in the language competitions

underlines this success.

The main mission, namely the training native and foreign languages as well as the

provision psychological support to children of migrants have been performed, for

instance by

o Meeting the children’s wishes, I would like to recommend for future projects:

o training courses along the Armenian, Russian and German languages, it is

also possible to include English teaching in the program;

o Opening visits to the not only for children, but also for their parents,

providing them with special training on some issues, namely how to support their

children (i.e. while doing their homework) effectively, how to teach games, how to

teach children to concentrate, how to improve memory mechanisms, and so on; to

provide pedagogic support for parents.

o children showed great interest for participating in sports circles, especially in

swimming. For several months, the university has provided them this opportunity

for free by taking over the expenses. However, it would be better to plan even

more sport activities in future.

Educational Tour Program for Migrant Children

The process of socio-cultural adaptation is supported by educational tours that help

the participants to get acquainted with the history and culture of the country and its

traditions, while these activities also help them to improve and develop their level

of proficiency in the language.

The educational tours essentially form interactive thematic sessions that can

continue or bring closure to a topic, along with new information and the

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development language skills by combining language-based and cultural exercises

and acknowledgements.

The lessons tours thus provide an opportunity not only to enrich the vocabulary of

the native language and improve communication skills, but also to acquaint the

returnee children history and cultural heritage of their own culture, which is an

important factor of cultural and educational adaptation. The excursions and

sightseeing programs involve a combination of two main goals of our project: the

study of language and culture.

These lessons therefore obtain the following objectives: The participating pupils

become more familiar with the historical and cultural heritage of the country but

the excursions also help to develop a more positive attitude towards the homeland

and therefore contribute to the awakening of a sense of cultural identity and self-

esteem as the bearer of this culture and grants access to a cultural heritage. These

acknowledgements gained during these help the pupils to become bearers of the

socio-cultural traditions of their people, while fostering respect and tolerance for life

and customs of other nations and peoples.

The classical form of the tour (the story of a professional guide) does not produce

the desired direct effect, since the information is not digested properly. There are

several reasons:

• lack of knowledge in the field of terminology,

• small active vocabulary relating to excursions,

• lack of motivation to acquire new knowledge,

• bad interpretation of the material

• distractions in nature or in the museum

The instructors and educators plan these trips at the beginning of the educational

period. Each excursion requires the approval by the pedagogical council, initialled

by the director and discussed with parents at meetings.

To address these issues, the educational trips had to develop a different set of

Features for the organization of museum lessons, so that excursions were not only

a fascinating journey, but also helped to convey information, the educational team

of RECEA decided to base the structure of these excursions on three

methodologically and pedagogically-designed stages:

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Preparatory phase (before excursion).

An introductory session prepares the participants to obtain information, while the

class works through and accumulates thematic vocabulary that will be used

extensively during the trip, so that the pupils have the linguistic capability of

comprehension. During these sessions, the instructor demonstrates objects

(through photos and videos), which the participants will be able to visit, and

formulates the tasks that will be checked at the final, lesson after the trip (review,

travel notes, essay, etc.).

Form of introductory lessons:

• Lesson-talk

• View the presentation or film

• Talk

2. Informational stage (during the tour).

One of the criteria for the implementation of the excursions are their interactive

form and the resulting transmission of information by professional guides through

story-lectures, dialogue, open discussions, competitions and quizzes

3. Wrap-up stage (after the tour).

The completion phase, in turn, can occur in several ways, either after the tour or on

the way back with the help of the quiz, or as a discussion of and excitement about

the hike, checked the assimilation of information, new terms, words. The

experiences of the trip then form the foundation for further educational activities,

like reading special texts about the monument or museum or the writing tasks

such as small essay or compositions about the trip.

Organization of National Holidays

An important element of the cultural and educational program is the organization of

traditional Armenian festivals. The purpose of this does not only consist of a

transfer of information about holidays, traditions and customs, but also contains a

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process of familiarizing the participants with these rituals and thus their own

culture.

For this purpose, holidays such as Christmas, New Years Eve and Eastern are

celebrated together. Migrant parents and specifically their children need social and

cultural adaptation through education. Having the children participate in activities

of this kind, together with their family (parents, grandparents, brothers and

sisters) is of great importance.

For this purpose, the children gather information in preparation of the event and

discuss about a specific festival, both in its traditional and contemporary forms of

celebration. This research helps to understand the deep meaning of the holiday. In

class, the pupils then tell how these celebrations are held in their families, and

compare these to the information from their research. In this context, national

dishes and cuisine is also discussed, i.e. what dishes are prepared for these

holidays, what dishes are prepared in their families.

Thus prepared, the pupils then can actively participate in the festival and are

activated as bearers of this tradition and culture. The children observe the

customs and rituals of the holiday listen to and sing national songs, both traditional

and modern ( if necessary with the help of karaoke). Part of this mutual celebration

is a traditional dish for the occasion.

The active work in the project, as well as the opinions of the participants - children

and their parents alike , indicate that the project was successful. Commenting on

the results of the project can be divided into two types of achievements: On the

one hand, the knowledge and skills that the participating children have acquired are

a concrete result of the project implementation. Evidence for these individual

progresses are well-passed exams, increasing success in school, and improved

speech and communication skills in the Armenian language. On the other hand, the

project also contributed successfully to the socialization of the involved children.

Acquiring new knowledge and skills without a doubt helped them towards better

communication skills and an adaptation to the Armenian society, for instance

through the loss of inhibition to actually speak due to the fear of making mistakes.

Additionally, the project participants made friends with each other and formed a

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tight-knit and sociable community, where children felt at home and learned to help

each other.

However, during the implementation of the project, the project team also identified

a number of challenges that can and should be overcome when continuing work

with the families of immigrants: It is recommendable to organize group activities

within the communities or neighbourhoods where the returnees actually live. The

return centre enabled the participation for families living in Yerevan and its

surrounding areas (although here there were difficulties with the arrival to the

capital), while families in remote areas do not have such opportunities. It is also

recommendable to involve family members in the socio-cultural as often as

possible since this would increases the project's reach and efficiency. It is also

necessary to organize extra training courses for parents of young children, since

the efficiency of work with them depends on how the parents are able to help them.

Such a class targeted at parents could grant them the opportunity to better support

their children, for instance in learning for school or during the adaptation to the

Armenian language.

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