Rinata R. Zaripova

In the context of the effective implementation of bilingual and multilingual education strategies in the Republic of Tatarstan, the present study draws attention to the initiated project «Teacher-Bi- and Multilingual» launched in 2018 at Kazan Federal University. The primary objective of the project is to prepare subject teachers capable of conducting educational activities in three languages and knowing the theoretical and practical foundations of bilingual and multilingual education. The article highlights the necessity for the transformation of didactic support to prepare teaching staff that takes into account the peculiarities of the multilingual educational environment. The existing material, targeting monolingual educational institutions, does not contribute to the effective work of educators in a multilingual environment. Therefore, the author proposes supplementing the set of universal and general professional competences with a special multilingual subject-methodological competence. The research aims to develop a set of measures for forming multilingual subject-methodological competence and evaluate its effectiveness. The study involved an analysis of domestic and foreign scientific literature on the topic, emphasizing accumulated experience in preparing specialists and teachers in multilingualism based on contemporary scientific and methodological approaches. Works dedicated to the formation of subject-specific language competence, the methodological creativity of inventive foreign language teachers, and the development of multilingualism in students of linguistic universities were also considered. The developed set of measures for forming multilingual subject-methodological competence in preservice subject teachers in a multilingual educational environment was pilot tested. The experiment took place over five years at the Institute of Philology and Intercultural Communication of Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University, involving 72 fifth-year students enrolled in multilingual educational programs. The main experimental method included diagnosing the level of competence formation using the international exam Teaching Knowledge Test – CLIL, adapted to the Russian language. The results analysis showed that the majority of participants in the experiment demonstrated an advanced level of multilingual subject-methodological competence. However, students found it challenging to conduct classes using the CLIL methodology due to a lack of practical skills in this area. It is recommended to pay special attention to developing practical skills in preservice subject teachers engaged in multilingual educational programs so that they can successfully apply multilingual methodology in their pedagogical agency. The results of the study will help determine the effectiveness of the proposed measures and their applicability in the multilingual educational environment.

The rise of online and hybrid courses at the higher education level increases the need for distance learning infrastructures to nourish online faculty preparedness and student online learning success. Developing online courses is a very laborious process, but the results can outweigh the struggles that faculty encounter when doing it in bi- and multilingual way. The goal of the research is the development, implementation in the practice of education, and testing of a multilingual e-learning course that promotes effective multilingual learning through the use of Russian, national (Tatar), and English languages for students of Kazan Federal University located in the Republic of Tatarstan. Tatarstan is one of the republics of Russian Federation and 53% of population are Tatar. There are two official languages, Tatar and Russian. In 2018, the Ministry of education of the Republic of Tatarstan launched a “Bilingual teacher” project, which has been implemented at the Kazan Federal University and aimed at training subject teachers for the new multilingual schools who are able and ready to work successfully at school using 2 (Tatar and Russian) or 3 (Tatar, Russian and English) languages. Considering the circumstances, there is a necessity of bi- and multilingual teacher training program using specific educational techniques, approaches and learning materials. The pilot multilingual (Russian, Tatar and English) math e-learning course was designed, developed and delivered to pre-service teacher training students. The ADDIE model was used to guide the development of the e-learning course that would meet the diverse needs of bi- and multilingual students. It comprises five phases: analysis (assessment of existing conditions and educational tools); design (theories, methodologies and technological solutions applied); development (creation of the educational content); implementation (course delivery process); evaluation (collecting, interpreting and analyzing the empirical data to measure the motivation and attitude towards bi- and multilingual e-learning course). To evaluate pre-service teacher’s motivation and attitudes towards multilingual education by means of Russian, Tatar and English languages the survey was conducted. The results give us reason to say that students were not guided by external motives while working with e-learning course, such as high mark, verbal approval, but they considered the work to be important, useful and potentially necessary for future successful professional work. It can be concluded that the developed multilingual education framework is scalable and can be applied for other subject courses (e.g., Computer Science, Physics etc.).