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24 WWW. UNWLA.ORG “НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ЧЕРВЕНЬ 2013 for foreign students at the Univ ersity of Illinois — to the external exam in Ukrainian for high school graduates. I wrote up a proposal to modify the existing essay requirements, and make the essay more specific, more argumentative, and more clearly structured. Then I got in touch with a n umber of teachers of Ukrainian, both in the United States and in Ukraine, and asked them to give me some feedback on this test proposal and on the feasibility of introducing it in Ukraine. And wha t kind of a response did you r e- ceive ? It’s interesting, bu t not many teachers wanted to participate in this study — not even the ones at my alma mater in Dnipropetrovsk. Only with difficu l- ty was I able to find several interested professors from a few Kyiv universities, for example. I r e- ceived eight responses total, so it is hard to gene r- alize, but my results show that those teachers who had at least some exposure to academic writing abroad received my ideas very positively. They praised the innovations I proposed, including making topics for the argumentative essays sp e- ci f ic and practical rather than broad and abstract, such as “What is love?” They also liked the speci f- ic argument structure which I proposed to intr o- duce. The rest of the teachers, however, disliked the innovations and suggested that we keep the test t he way it is right now. Why do you think they disliked your su g- gestions? D id they explain their point of view? I think it is because high school education in Ukraine is more aimed at developing general h u- man values. You probably remember that this general humanistic framework was part of all the subjects we studied at school — not only literature or history, but also the sciences, etc. Many of my Ukrainian respondents insisted on keeping this framework because they consider it an important goal of hig h school education to teach these values to students. Some Ukrainian teachers even me n- tioned in their responses that the social problems faced by the United States right now, such as gun violence and mass shootings in public places, stem from the lack of a n education in humanistic values in American schools. Of course, this is a philosophical question. I understand where these teachers are coming from, but I also think that mastering the skills of clear and persuasive argumentative writing is i n- valuable f or the students’ future academic and professional careers. You’ ve been here for about two years. What surprising differences or similarities between the educational systems in Ukraine and in the US did you discover ? I discovered that here, there is more of a focus on practical ability, on implementing the skills that you learn in class. In Ukraine, it’ s more about the theory: we read, we discuss readings, but we do not really go outside the classroom and apply it in practice. And here all the researc h that people undertake in linguistics and language teaching is connected to practical ability. For example, as part of my coursework here, I had a compulsory teaching component. I taught English to a group of volunteers — usually spouses of international st udents at the University of Illinois — and had a chance to practice and test the ideas and methods learned in class. Another difference is that in Ukraine st u- dents don't do much group work in class, esp e- cia l ly outside of language classes. Because of it, I think Ukrainian students lack group skills. And it’s a good set of skills to have, it’s teamwork. Al t- hough we have this expression that two heads are better than one, we don’t seem to implement it in education. What do you see yourself doing in 5 - 6 years from now? Could you talk a little bit about your future plans? I plan to continue my studies in the USA. I would like to complete my Ph.D. here and I want to co n- tinue my research in writing and testing. In the long run, I envision myself in academia — mayb e here and maybe in Ukraine — but I want to work on developing tests and curricula for writing, and I want to work with international students... Are you m ore interested in developing curricula for teaching Ukrainian or for teaching English? I would say f or teaching Ukrainian because I think I can bring more useful input into the practices of teaching Ukrainian in Ukraine — taking as an e x- ample the practices of teaching English which I studied here. Even though these languages are di f- ferent, classes are diff erent, and audiences are di f- ferent, there are many things that could be benef i- cially adapted in Ukrainian education . Thank you, Olexandro, and I wish you the best of luck in your studies ! Interview by Olesia Wallo
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