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Aida Rodomanchenko
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Elena Lubnina
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The Founding of the National Association of Teachers of English in Russia
The National Association of Teachers of English (NATE), the
TESOL affiliate in Russia, though underrepresented at TESOL conventions
recently, is neither small nor passive. NATE Russia was inspired by
Professor Svetlana Ter-Minasova, who was invited to be the first
international keynote speaker at the TESOL convention in 1997. The idea to start a national association coincided with major
changes in Russia—perestroika (a political movement for reformation in the Soviet political and economic system), which affected all spheres of life. This development resonated
well with the beginning of democratic changes in the country and gave
birth to one more TESOL international affiliate. It was a grass-roots
movement; teachers recognized a bottom-up approach to problem-solving
for the first time. The motto “every voice must be heard” was an
eye-opener, and it still keeps the association alive and
appreciated.
NATE Russia was founded by outstanding professors of Lomonosov Moscow
State University who were famous for their research in linguistics.
Their legendary discoveries and achievements were the pillars and models
to follow for the teachers and professors of the whole country.
Unfortunately, due to dozens of years of isolation, very little is known
to people from other countries about the glorious history of teaching
foreign languages in Russia.
NATE’s Goals
The main aims of the association were to unite Russian EFL teachers and
to enhance their professional development on a continuous basis. NATE was hosted by the Lomonosov Moscow State University, and for the first few years all activities were
based in Moscow. It took years to spread the idea of the association,
but with time regional organisations started springing up all over the
country. The success of the first ones inspired ELT professionals from
various regions of Russia to join and/or create local associations in
order to share their experiences with colleagues.
One of the new goals of NATE Russia was to unite regional affiliates
and to influence state policy in EFL teaching in the Russian Federation.
NATE strives to strengthen partnerships with international
organizations and represent interests of Russian EFL teachers all over
the world.
NATE Russia holds annual conferences and organizes seminars,
workshops, and master-classes for teachers of English in Russia. It is a
tradition to convene annual NATE conferences in different parts of the
country. This helps boost the interest of local teachers in becoming
members of local associations and helps those local associations grow
membership. About 300–500 teachers participate in annual conferences,
where leading foreign and Russian specialists make outstanding plenary
and keynote presentations. NATE keeps teachers up-to-date about current
trends in EFL teaching and professional development, providing access to
important information about upcoming events, both national and
international, via its website.
NATE Russia provides unique opportunities for English language teachers
to meet with colleagues and become a part of the national and
international community. The association supports efficient EFL teaching
and enables every teacher to be heard at a national level.
After 25 years of glorious history, NATE was forced to close. New
government regulations demanded full compliance with new rules. The
rebirth of the association took more than a year of intense work from
many dedicated association leaders, and this rebirth has brought many
new ideas—one of them is the need to undergo a rebranding campaign.
Now NATE Russia is officially and legally registered as an NGO with
1,000 members and more than 40 professional groups in all regions of
Russia. NATE Russia is also a TESOL and IATEFL affiliate.
NATE’s Know-How: The Umbrella
The first regional NATE affiliates appeared in the end of 90s. It was a
pre-email period when even phone connections between cities were too
expensive and, as a result, rare. Affiliates, scattered around 9 time
zones, had to figure out how to keep in touch with scarce resources and
limited funding. The Umbrella meetings were to be convened once a year!
At the beginning of the academic year, thought leaders from
regional associations are invited to meet in a friendly atmosphere and
present the results of their work. They are tasked with brainstorming
and developing a list of most important projects that would unite most
affiliates. The Umbrella motto is: “Human mind is like an umbrella—it
works only when it is open!” (Kulinich, 2010) Many ideas have been
brought up at these meetings, and many projects that have benefited the
professional lives of teachers all over the country have been discussed
during the Umbrellas.
Moreover, the local community that hosts the Umbrella meeting
benefits from it, because leading experts in the EFL teaching field come
to the city and hold professional development workshops. Local teachers
and educators from the nearest towns eagerly take part in these events,
so local conferences often precede or coincide with the NATE event. The
Umbrella meetings and the decisions made there have had a huge impact
on the EFL teaching methodology and professional development of EFL
teachers and educational policies in Russia.
NATE Russia and State Authorities
Continuous assessment has always been a cornerstone of the Russian
education system. Russian EFL teachers knew what to do and how to do it,
but they lacked a systematic approach to an objective assessment. Most
exams were held in a face-to-face interview form with no scoring rubrics
and no transparent criteria. As a result, there was quite a number of
students who managed to struggle through exams knowing next to nothing,
but getting the highest grade simply because they were skilled in—let’s
put it nicely—charming examiners with their eloquent
stream-of-consciousness speech. However, it wasn’t to last long. The
Russian educational system needed a unified approach to subject
assessment in general and language assessment in particular. So, a high
stakes examination, the Unified National Exam, came into being. It
replaced entrance exams developed and administered locally by state
universities; gave children from all over Russia equal opportunities in
entering the best colleges and universities; eliminated corruption from
authorities; and, what is more important, has been objective and
transparent for students and their parents ever since.
As a result, teachers needed knowledge on how to prepare students for
the National Examination and how to construct test items to make
additional practice tasks. Among one of the first projects that aimed at
familiarizing school and university teachers with test development
strategies was the All-Russia Testing Institute. The idea of this
project came across during one of the Umbrella meetings and was
immediately implemented by the thought leaders. Supported by local
associations and coordinated by NATE Russia, this project helped to
promote testing and educational assessment in Russia in the time when high-stakes university
entrance exams (Russian National Exams in various subjects) were coming
into being.
NATE Russia and EFL Teaching Methodology
NATE Russia has a huge impact on the methodology of teaching English in
Russia and, in its turn, on the textbooks that are used at schools and
universities. Teachers, who are at the front line, know best what is
most needed and what is often missing in the teaching materials. At one
of the Umbrella meetings, participants raised the crucial issue of
teaching Russian area studies through EFL classes with the focus on the
diversity. Teachers were devastated that their students were able to
talk about British and American geography, history, sights, and so on,
but couldn’t say a word in English about their own homeland. This issue
resulted in the Appreciating
Diversity project, which was
launched in 2014.
The Appreciating Diversity project gave birth to digital and
paper-based teaching materials, which are being used now to teach about
the ethnic and cultural diversity of Russia in EFL classes; for
instance, “English Lessons for Teaching Russian Culture and Cultural
Diversity in Russia”(Khodakova & Nadtocheva, 2015), and “Yamalia
– the Back of Beyond” (Kolyadin, Gorshkova, Kolyadina, &
Sokolenko, 2015). More than 600 teachers from 30 regions of the Russian
Federation collaborated on the project, strengthening the ELT alumni
community in Russia and providing an opportunity for ELT teachers of a
particular region to share their expertise and knowledge of the region
with others.
The project provided EFL teachers and students with plenty of
opportunities to raise general awareness of the problems of ethnic and
cultural diversity and to empower students to be cultural ambassadors of
Russia, developing a positive image of the country in the global
community. Moreover, this project has brought a significant change in
students, who are becoming more autonomous and more motivated to acquire
English than before. The results of the project were presented on a
website, where teachers could take part in webinars and find materials
about geography and the people and culture of various regions of
Russia.
Among other breakthrough projects that were structured and launched in a similar way are:
Different associations worked together to establish interregional
contacts, which led to new ideas and projects. About 40 affiliates took
part in various projects and involved thousands of school and university
teachers in meaningful research and practical creative work.
Conclusion
The feeling that there are buddies all over the world and that
they can give you a helping hand is very heart-warming. How do you find
like-minded people? How do you keep up good work and share the gained
knowledge? You are not alone, just look around and decide for yourself
if it’s worth being a member of your local association or NATE, a TESOL
affiliate in Russia. We welcome you!
References
Khodakova, A., & Nadtocheva, E. (2015). English lessons for teaching Russian culture and cultural
diversity in Russia. Location: Tula, Russia. Retrieved from https://rucont.ru/file.ashx?guid=7494a513-de47-4e81-b30e-42e0277dd2c6
Kolyadin, E., Gorshkova, E., Kolyadina, I., Sokolenko, O.
(Eds.). (2015). Yamalia – the back of beyond. A series of
English lessons in Yamalia studies. Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous
Okrug: Gubkinskiy. Retrieved from http://www.yamelta.ru/resources/YAMALIA.pdf
Kulinich, M. (2010, August). ELT professionals in Russia as agents of
change. Paper presented at the ESSE 10 Conference, Torino, Italy. Retrieved from http://www.eltrussia.ru/articles_62.html
Aida Rodomanchenko is a member of the NATE
Coordination Council and an associate professor at National Research
University Higher School of Economics in Moscow.
Elena Lubnina is a NATE Honorary Member, TESOL member,
ELO specialist (1998–2016), and true moving spirit
of the association. | 
