Mandated Child Abuse Reporting in a Multicultural Environment

The abuse and neglect of children has been linked to their cognitive, academic, psychological, and behavioral demise. As a result of the deleterious effects that abuse can have on children’s development and well-being, all 50 states, including the District of Columbia, have enacted child abuse reporting laws for mental health professionals. These laws typically require a mandated child abuse report when child maltreatment has been reasonably suspected. Although mandated child abuse reporting laws appear straight-forward, mandated reporting often entails complex and nuanced decision-making, particularly when a child is from a diverse cultural background. Thus, this article offers a discussion for mental health professionals (e.g., psychologists, psychiatrists, counselors, social workers) regarding mandated child abuse reporting within a multicultural environment.

Evaluating the quality of foreign language training based on test translation of culture specific linguistic units

The article analyses the quality of foreign language training among international relations students, necessary for professional communication in a multicultural environment, with regards to different historical and cultural backgrounds of the contacting languages. The article aims to provide criteria for evaluating the quality by assessing test translation of culture specific linguistic units with focus on linguistic, social and cultural differences of the source and target languages. The study involves such methods as the analysis of theoretical literature, polling, a questionnaire survey as well as the use of quantifiable data for the analysis and classification of the findings. Fifty-seven MGIMO master program students participated in the study. Authentic specialized texts containing 56 culture specific linguistic units including non-equivalent lexicon and realia, served as test materials. The quality of translation was evaluated according to a 100-point grading scale conventionally used in MGIMO- University. The article summarizes the basic skills acquired during foreign language training as described in Russian and foreign theoretical literature, and analyzes methods for evaluating the levels of expertise. The study proposes and empirically tests criteria for assessing the quality of foreign language training among international relations students. The study found that the quality of foreign language training depends on the proficiency in translating culture specific linguistic units (realia and non-equivalent lexicon) from foreign language into Russian, with regard for social and cultural differences of the two languages. The findings indicate the relevance of the given indices and show the necessity to elaborate clear criteria for assessing the quality of professional foreign language training.

Incorporating Socially-Relevant Teaching Strategies in the Online TESOL Classroom

Conducting online TESOL class is always both a challenge and opportunity for teachers to effectively support English language learners. Specifically, this study explores socially relevant teaching strategies to facilitate an engaging and equitable online classroom for educators with ELLs with diverse backgrounds. This research contains online language teaching strategies in the context of multicultural environment. Overall, three strategies are elaborated. One strategy is organizing whole-class discussion and various activity based on learners' cultural background. The second strategy is choosing and using socially relevant teaching materials with online technology, including neutral and authentic materials and giving learners timely prompts. The third strategy is counteracting inequitable relationships in society and in class, managing student emotions to create supportive relationships among students and the teacher. These strategies expand literature on how to conduct online program that are relevant and sustaining for culturally and linguistically diverse adult language learners.

Special Issue Editorial:

The global pandemic has brought about fundamental changes in education. The abrupt closing of schools has disrupted the teaching and learning processes and presented challenges for schools worldwide. This Special Issue explores “digital inclusion” through the use of technology-facilitated learning platforms and modalities within the multicultural environment of schooling. It especially gives attention to cases that highlight the responses of parents, teachers, administrators, and students in countries that have the digital infrastructure and technological advancement and in those that do not in order to question the “digital divide” and the challenges and implications that this disparity brings to education.

The Current State of the Teaching the Russian Language in the Multicultural Russian School

Although it is commonly known that the dominant trend in the development of modern post-industrial society is globalization, today we can already talk about glocalization as a bidirectional process of integration and localization, complementary to the dialectical development of mankind. This process implies the unification of all spheres of social life in a single global space and the isolation of individual regions and ethnic groups as a protective reaction to preserve their uniqueness and identity. The described social trends are now becoming decisive for the development of the education system as the main social institution. Migration processes and related problems of integrating migrants into a new society, preserving the national language and culture, searching for identity - all these phenomena necessitate innovative methodological solutions that should be implemented in the context of learning the Russian language at a multicultural Russian school. The article considers topical problems related to the implementation of the program of teaching the Russian language in a multicultural environment. The authors propose a conceptual definition of a multicultural school. They analyze the pedagogical experience of individual educational institutions developing their own training methods for use in a multicultural environment. This analysis makes it possible to identify socio-adaptive, cultural, psychological and linguistic aspects of teaching Russian in a multicultural school. Along the way, an increase in the psychoemotional burden of teachers working in multi-ethnic classes is noted. Additionally, the effective experience of implementing preschool language training of non-native speakers in the Moscow region is analyzed. In line with the above, the authors review the current situation with regard to teaching the Russian language in the multiethnic regions of Russia through the example of the Republics of Sakha (Yakutia) and Tatarstan. In particular, it is noted that for the regions of the Russian Federation it is methodologically incorrect to use the term multicultural school, since in the national constituent entities of the Russian Federation there is a special type of national school, and a program for studying Russian as a non-native language is also being implemented.

EXPERIENCE OF ORGANIZATION OF PRESCHOOL EDUCATION IN THE POLYCULTURAL ENVIRONMENT OF TRANSCARPATHIA IN 1919-1938

The transition of education from the traditional to the personality-oriented model, the introduction of the State Standard of Preschool Education challenge the training of educators for the work in new social environment in cnditions of multiculturalism, cultural diversity, bilingual education. The purpose of the article was to analyze the historical and cultural experience of the organization of preschool education in the multicultural environment of Transcarpathia in the period between the two world wars (1919−1938). Achieving the goal involved the application of various research methods: general scientific (analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, generalization, systematization, classification), which were used to process archival sources, scientific and pedagogical literature and highlight the main features to characterize the process of preschool education in the study period. presentation of statistical data for a visual representation of the multicultural educational environment of preschool Transcarpathia being part of Czechoslovakia; search and bibliographic, used in the study for the interpretation of materials of archival and library collections, catalogs, descriptions, publications; system-historical − to consider the historical and cultural preconditions for the formation of theoretical foundations for the development of preschool education in Transcarpathia; historical-comparative − to compare the content, forms, methods of organization of preschool education of the studied period with the organizational and activity stage of realization of goals and objectives of preschool education in modern conditions of their modernization in the European context; interpretive − to determine the potential opportunities for the use of valuable assets of the analyzed experience of the organization of preschool education in a certain historical and cultural period in modern conditions. The results of study of experience of organizing preschool education in Transcarpathia in the Czechoslovak period make it possible to outline a range of ideas that can be implemented in the system of multicultural educational environment of modern preschool institutions.

QS Subject Focus Summit 2020 on Modern Languages and Linguistics: Languages and migration in a globalized world

This article summarizes some of the results of the first QS Subject Focus Summit on Linguistics and Modern Languages held jointly with the RUDN University on December 15-17, 2020. It provides rationale for the choice of venue of this linguistic forum and analyzes the most relevant topics of discussion, including interdisciplinarity in modern linguistic research, comparative studies of languages and cultures, and intercultural and cross-cultural communication. Participants explored the topics as diverse as the role of linguistics in developing artificial intelligence systems and application of artificial intelligence in linguistic research, the dynamics of languages in minority situations and the efforts in preserving endangered languages. They dwelt on the current state of translation studies and discussed prospects for their future in view of advances in computer technologies, and many others. The articles included in this issue and authored by the Summit participants clearly show that language has become an object of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary studies. Moreover, the interdisciplinary research paradigm is manifested not only in the convergence of linguistics with other areas of humanities, but also with sciences. This article provides a brief overview of the contributions which present major paradigms of modern linguistics. It highlights the importance of applying computer technologies in linguistic research and emphasizes the necessity to modify language policies in order to preserve minority languages and meet the needs of language education in a multilingual and multicultural environment.

Implementing a Program on Poly- / Multiculturalism for Future Teachers of Foreign Languages: Practice-Oriented Approach

The article considers the key aspects for implementation of a university program on poly- / multiculturalism for future teachers of foreign languages (FL), teachers / instructor of languages for specific purposes (LSP), lecturers and teachers of translation, aiming at the practical value. The two concepts ‘polycultural education’ and ‘multicultural education’ are differentiated; it is substantiated that more research is required and the clarifications are to be introduced among academics locally and globally as the mentioned concepts and relevant labels in terminology are misused / confused in the research works laid out in Ukrainian and Russian. Next, the course “Poly- / multiculturalism for future teachers of foreign languages” aims at mastering pedagogical innovations in the field of poly- / multicultural education, development of students' ethno-cultural competence and pedagogical creativity, respectively. The purpose of the optional / specially designed is to form students' ideas about cultural pluralism as an objective social reality and nurture such ideas in support for everyday communication inside and outside the classroom. It is found relevant to single out the following course objectives: 1) to develop poly- / multicultural and ethno-pedagogical competences of students who are training to become FL teachers / instructors, LSP teachers / instructors, translation lecturers, philologists, translators, etc.; 2) to form the students’ ability in future to conduct professional activities in a poly- / multicultural environment, taking into account the peculiarities of the socio-cultural situation of development; 3) to keep developing the students’ ability to use in professional activities the basic development laws of the modern social and cultural environment. It is specified that the course designs the cornerstones by highlighting the relevance in the modern global and educational environment; aim and objectives; the contents; the structure; and the methodology of the course. It is concluded that the research findings contribute to good practices of designing and developing university curricula from a practice-oriented perspective and help bring quality change to the modern educational space.

The Role of the Interactive Binary Lesson in Teaching Bulgarian as a Second Languagе

The conducting of an experiment on the role of the binary interactive lesson with the participation of a research associate from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) has an extremely important part in the learning process. The lesson is about getting to know the role of the natural products in our health. The main objectives of this interactive binary lesson are: expanding and improving of the grammatical knowledge and development of specialized language skills in Bulgarian of our medical students by including them in innovative formats to increase their communicative competence; introduction of pseudo-communicative tasks with particular speech actions, repetition of phrases and creation of own short dialogues, communicative exercises for building complete and bigger dialogues and narrative texts; utilizing teamwork for creating situational compositions, transformations and psychological testing for measuring the parameters of readiness for working in a team, mutual respect, trust, mutual assistance, responsibility in a multicultural environment. In this manuscript we offer the specifics of an interactive lesson about the role of natural products and health realized with foreign students. We specify the opportunities for language acquisition orally and in writing in accordance with the indicated levels of competence of the European Language Framework. We take into account the possibilities for the application of interactive in parallel with the traditional methods and tools of work, so as to achieve the development of creative thinking in a foreign language for students, as well as the improvement of communicative skills for professional realization.

Considerations on out-of-hospital pain assessment of a diverse population

Nearly all medical emergency calls are related to someone experiencing some form of discomfort—either due to trauma or pain. Initial pain assessment may be undertaken over the telephone by an emergency medical dispatcher, without seeing the patient; however, the next key moment in pain assessment is completed patient-side by the paramedic. This inquiry is detailed and guides the paramedic in the formation of a differential diagnosis and provision of appropriate pain management. The research team recently conducted and published a study on pain assessment which raised concerns on the subjectivity of pain scoring. The work presented was in the context of a very multicultural environment. The aim of this commentary article is to further explore this topic and encourage health professionals to reflect on this aspect of patient assessment.