17:59 Mariupol State University signed an agreement on cooperation with the Goethe-Institut | |
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Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Donetsk Mr. Wolfgang Mössinger and Deputy Director and Head of Language Department of Goethe-Institut in Ukraine Susanne Becker visited MSU on September 6th. The guests met with Rector of Mariupol State University, Professor, Honorary Consul of the Republic of Cyprus in Mariupol Kostyantyn Balabanov. The meeting was also attended by Head of the Board of Education of Mariupol City Council Svitlana Dobrovolska, Deputy Director, Head of General, Secondary and Preschool Education Department of Mariupol City Council Inna Darmenko, Vice-Rector for International Relations, Professor Mykola Trofymenko, Dean of the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Professor Iryna Sokolova and Head of the German and French Philology Department, Associate Professor Yuliia Kazhan. An agreement on cooperation between Mariupol State University and Goethe Institut was signed after a fruitful discussion. Main clauses of the agreement were discussed by the parties during the press conference. 
  The agreement provides for the implementation of the pilot project of Goethe-Institut which gives students of specialty "Language and Literature (German)" and "Language and Literature (English)"an opportunity to improve their linguistic and methodological competence. A three-years project is aimed at introducing DLL manuals (Deutsch Lehren Lernen - «Let’s learn to teach German"), designed by an international team of experienced professionals with the support of Goethe Institute, into the educational process at the Faculty of Foreign Languages. Under the agreement, the students will be provided with free textbooks and access to online courses powered by Moodle created by Goethe Institut. Mariupol State University in its turn agrees to integrate an agreed amount of “Deutsch Lehren Lernen” manuals into their curriculum and to motivate students to study German. For the first time MSU graduated German language and literature specialists in 1996. The University has trained more than 200 professionals who have built a successful career both in Ukraine and abroad - in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Greece, China. Today, more than 400 students study German as first, second or third foreign language. Over the past 5 years about 20 students and teachers of the University have participated in the cultural, educational and scientific programs in Germany. Agreement also provides for the skills improvement for the teachers of German language from MSU and city schools, which will allow them to test and to apply their knowledge. On September 2nd and 3d referent of Goethe-Institut Olena Beketova held first methodological seminar on the topic of DLL manuals at the Faculty of Foreign Languages . It was attended by 11 teachers of the German and French Philology Department and 7 German language teachers from different schools of Mariupol.  
 Methodical competence of lecturers and teachers will be improved during their 12-week online course, which will start from mid-September 2016. At the end of the course, schoolteachers and teachers of the department will be given certificates. The best students of the course will be training disseminators (multiplikator) for Goethe Institut. “Multiplikator” is a trainer who will later be involved into the implementation of the similar project in other cities of Ukraine. The "Let’s learn to teach German" project will be launched only in three cities of Ukraine: Mariupol, Nizhyn and Vinnytsia. Moreover, MSU is the first higher education institution to sign an agreement with Goethe Institut and the first to test new methods of teaching German. A Coordinating Committee represented by Deputy Director and Head of Language Department of Goethe-Institut in Ukraine Susanne Becker and Head of the German and French Philology Department, Associate Professor Yuliia Kazhan who has completed the courses for DLL trainers and obtained a certificate will observe the implementation of the agreement. The Coordinating Committee may involve experts (if necessary) such as experts of special German language departments or representatives of German Academic Exchange Service DAAD. Mariupol State University has been cooperating with Goethe Institut and German Academic Exchange Service DAAD for many years. This summer German Language and Literature Department student Oleksandr Avdeev gained a DAAD scholarship and completed internship at the University of Münster, which is on of the leading German universities. Within the framework of German Academic Exchange Service thirteen MSU students will be a part of an educational program at the University of Gottingen in November 2016. Thus, the cooperation agreement is another step towards strengthening relations between Mariupol State University and German partners in order to enhance the level of teaching German at the University and in Mariupol in general.  | |
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