New initiative to improve the capacity of foreign language teaching in Ukraine

A new EU-funded project has kicked off that aims to improve significantly foreign language teaching in Ukraine. The project aims in 3 years to reach the highest European standards in language teaching in Ukrainian universities.

The project brings together 14 partners, including 8 Ukrainian universities and three universities from EU member states, under the leadership of Tartu University Narva College, Estonia. The project focuses on the improvement of curricula of foreign language teachers, bringing in new methods of teaching languages as well as promoting general multilingualism in higher education.

“30 years after the collapse of the USSR Ukrainian education system has still largely remained Ukrainian-Russian bilingual. Meanwhile English has become lingua franca, especially in Europe, however, Ukraine ranks among the last 5 countries in the list of proficiency in English among European nations. This is one the challenges of higher education in Ukraine – the improvement of English skills in all levels of education and the first step is a significant improvement in the training of English language teachers,” commented Oleksandra Golovko, the leader of the project from Tartu University Narva College.

“Outdated curricula for teachers of foreign languages, traditional teaching methods, shortage of innovative educational technologies, low level of internationalization and international cooperation are the main factors that slow down the development of students’ linguistic aptitude in Ukraine. This situation demands a new generation of teachers and modern approaches that can be used to promote cultural and linguistic open-mindedness, multilingual education, and European integration,” added Golovko.

The project is co-funded by Erasmus+ KA2 Programme and runs until November 2022. The specific goals of the project are to update BA and MA curricula for Teacher of Foreign Languages in 8 Ukrainian partner universities; to integrate modern methods of teaching and CLIL methodology (Content and language integrated learning) into the teaching practice; to introduce a wide choice of CLIL-based courses in English; to develop multilingual education strategies and national recommendations on multilingualism in higher education; and to promote internationalization of higher education in Ukraine.

Project partners are: University of Tartu Narva College (lead partner), Pädagogische Hochschule Heidelberg (Germany), Aston University (UK), Interlink Academy (NGO, Germany), Zaporizhzhia National University (Ukraine), Poltava National Pedagogical University (Ukraine), Mykolaiv National University (Ukraine),  Horlivka Institute of Foreign Languages (Ukraine), Kharkiv National University (Ukraine), Cherkasy National University (Ukraine), Ternopil National Pedagogical University (Ukraine), Precarpathian National University (Ukraine), Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (Ukraine), Association of Teachers of English “TESOL Ukraine” (Ukraine).