Foreign Language Faculty representatives studied the best practices of multilingual education in Estonia within MultiEd project

Zaporizhzhia National University (ZNU, Zaporizhzhia National University) has been participating in the MultiEd project of the Erasmus+ program of the KA2 (Capacity Building in Higher Education) for three years. A 5-day visit from May 22 to 26 to Estonia was called "Estonia as Education Nation". The ZNU was represented by participants from the Chair of English Philology and Linguodidactics Doctor of Sci. in Philology, Assoc. Prof. Iryna Galutskykh, Candidate of Sci. in Philology, Assoc. Prof. Oksana Shevchuk and from the Chair of Second Foreign Language Teaching Candidate of Sci. in Philology, Assoc. Prof. Hanna Vanina. The study visit program for the group of teachers from eight Ukrainian HEIs-partners was devoted to the study of Estonia's experience in the field of multilingual education.
On the first day of the internship, educators visited Narva Päikene kindergarten, Narva Gümnaasium and Narva College of University of Tartu. Estonian specialists from the city of Narva shared with their Ukrainian colleagues the peculiarities of the study process in the kindergarten with language immersion. The teachers not only listened to representatives of the administration, but also attended language classes on the Estonian language in different age groups. Director of Narva State Gymnasium Teivi Gabriel talked about the strategic vision and the challenges that the gymnasium has to face.
The Ukrainian colleagues were impressed not only by the features of the organization of the educational process in the gymnasium, but also by the completely new building of the institution, which was constructed from scratch according to the newest standards. Both Ukrainian and Estonian educators expressed hope that all the educational institutions of our country destroyed during the war will be rebuilt even better.
By the way, another state gymnasium is under construction in Narva. Teachers also met with its director Irene Käosaar. She spoke about the results and prospects of linguistic integration in Estonia. Many similar points were discussed with the Ukrainian colleagues.
In the following days, the study visit program continued in the city of Tartu. Teachers visited Tartu University, Miina Härma Gümnaasium and Tartu Kristjan Jaak Petersoni gümnaasium. Tiiu Müür, a teacher at Miina Härma Gümnaasium, shared her experience of teaching English. During the visit, the pedagogues had the opportunity to expand their knowledge and discuss the strategies of languages learning and language immersion, the Estonian school concept development, the life-long learning, international cooperation and attended lectures on the CLIL methodology.
Thanks to the MultiEd project, the best practices of multilingual education are already being implemented in Ukraine. In eight partner higher education institutions, including ZNU, the e-course "CLIL Methodology" for teachers of secondary schools and HEIs was successfully launched on the Moodle e-learning platform. During June-July dissemination seminars in professional development on teaching and implementing the CLIL methodology will be available to all willing teachers of foreign languages via Zoom platform.