Dear Organizing Committee,

My name is Juan del Valle-Coello, and I was a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant at Kalashnikov Izhevsk State Technical University (ISTU) during the 2019-2020 academic year. I took part in the organization of this year’s essay contest, “Pros and Cons of IT in Education,” and I would like to say a few words about it.

As a teaching assistant in the English Department at ISTU, I collaborated in the planning of the contest, helping prepare promotional materials and delivering presentations on essay writing for ISTU students. Additionally, I served on the jury for the top students’ presentations, watching and rating them to help select winners and provide feedback. I was quite impressed with the students’ performance and participation in the contest; many students at ISTU were highly enthusiastic about participating, and the top contestants’ presentations (both from ISTU and other universities) were very good, displaying a good command of English, strong argumentation skills, and an ability to deliver quite polished presentations.

I enjoyed working with the English Department to organize this contest, and I enjoyed watching students’ presentations as a member of the jury. In spite of the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, I consider that everything was carried out quite smoothly. I wish all the organizers and participants success in their future endeavors, and I appreciate your desire to learn and work with the English language.

Best,

Juan del Valle-Coello

*These are his own statements and do not reflect the official position of the Fulbright program

Hi. My name is Lupita Rdz Bulnes from Mexico. I am a full time professor at the University of Nuevo León, the third largest public university in my country. I work in the area of Foreign Language Teaching and International Evaluation and Accreditation.

I have been participating as part of the jury for the essay writing and public speaking contest organized by the English Department of Kalashnikov Izhevsk State Technical University since last year. This time the contest was about  "IT in Education: Pros and Cons". In 2019, it was about artificial intelligence and its role in our society nowadays.  In my opinion, I see this contest as a valuable event where administrators, students and teachers can show how they are learning a foreign language as they get engaged in debating about  topics of worldwide relevance.

Being part of the jury in this contest has been an interesting experience where I get to know university students from different contexts. To read their essays and watch their videos has given me an opportunity to see their interest in mastering the English language as they aim for professions with higher standards and diversified skills. I believe this is a plus in the education they are receiving and a well-planned strategy from their English Department and the University, as a whole.

The fact that the English Department  looks  for international evaluators  to be part of the jury is also another key feature in this contest. International accreditation of educational programs nowadays promotes and requires participation of international evaluators as to validate the quality of their language and educational programmes, in general. Needless to say, this is something that motivates students and teachers to perform better in their essay writing, and later on, as they record their public speaking sessions!

To end my contribution, I must say I feel very honoured to be part of this project and participate along with teacher Andrey Gareyev - who kindly invited me - as members of the International Network of Foreign Language Centres, an initiative that makes these academic  liaisons a reality. Working with international partners like your university is always an interesting and challenging adventure!

EFL Students have a special way to surprise even the most experienced teachers and make them turn our eyes to look at them with admiration and respect. When young people know how far they want to get in life, they can accomplish their most desired academic goals. Thus, universities are to provide interesting and challenging opportunities for students to see beyond the language English classes.

I was recently invited by  Kalashnikov Izhevsk State Technical University to participate with our students from the Language Center at Universidad Pedagogica Nacional Francisco Morazan in Honduras in a writing contest. Our participants were highly motivated and even when this was an international contest, they believed they could write their essays and show what they have learned throughout a year of intensive English classes.

As I and their teacher followed their participation in the international contest, I understood once again, that exposing students to new academic experiences is very important for their future professional life, the fact that has been clearly understood by the University of Kalashnikov Izhevsk State Technical University as they successfully lead a very well-organized contest that includes the composing of essays according to two different categories, for linguistic and non-linguistic majors, and close with the description of such essays in videos created by the finalists.

Later in the process, I was invited to participate as part of the jury. This part of the process was also very well explained, and support was always offered by the organizers. The participants I had to judge, were extremely well prepared and their mastery of the language and understanding of the topics were amazing. Students, regardless of their young age, were able to explain in a very professional way their beliefs about technology in education. As an EFL/ESL specialist, I was able to see the different competences a fluent speaker of English as a foreign language can develop. I was in awe to see how well the participants had prepared their presentations, but most amazing of all, how well they were able to orally develop their topics.

As the Director of The International Network for Language Centers and Programs, I want to thank  Kalashnikov Izhevsk State Technical University, active member of the Network, for this activity that has included the participant universities in this Network. Their international view strengthens collaboration among different universities over the world as well as the internationalization of the academic activity. As a Network, we greatly appreciate the efforts of the Kalashnikov Izhevsk State Technical University as they continually seek for excellent and academic collaborative professional work.

My deep respect for a work well done!!!