Abstract:

The evolving nature of modern Russian education attempting to adapt the best European educational practices and to maintain its own has led to reexamining the roles English teachers perform in the classroom.The article analyses the two approaches and discusses their correlation. Even though both perceptions seem to be based on comparatively similar assumptions, the article reveals a more general character of the Russian methodology approach, and a more functional nature of the European approach. Educated in Russian traditional methodology, teachers struggle to fulfil the current performance requirements, respond to the considerable underlying challenges, and have to find and maintain the balance between the Russian traditional and European patterns of classroom behaviour. While their choice is normally based on the state-of-the-art concepts, it apparently does not often result in modifying their own teaching practices. The article may give education administrators and teacher trainers some useful insights to help them reshape teacher training procedures and methodology.

Keywords:

Teacher roles, higher education context, classroom practices, teaching foreign languages.