Abstract:

Regional studies as a subject more often becomes a part of the curriculum in Russian Universities. In the paper we provide the description of our experience of teaching regional studies in Russia as an independent subject taught in the language of the region studied, giving specific attention to the usage of Internet technologies at the classes, and we also provide a detailed description of the methodology how we teach regional studies as an inseparable part of teaching a foreign language in general.

Regional studies is quite a modern tendency in teaching, which brings out the necessity to clarify the difference between country study and regional studies as independent spheres of study. Investigation into the history of regional studies reveals that regional studies is considered to be a whole cluster of knowledge about a region, its position on the geopolitical map of the world, its people, their lifestyle and culture. The students should not only be taught the peculiar features of a region, but also taught to analyse the current state of the region and to forecast its future development. The methods applied while investigating the issue imply the comparative and contrastive analysis of the country study and regional studies as subjects taught at Universities, the analysis of the role of rote learning and classical ways of teaching in the teaching process, a brief overview on the usage of Internet technologies at the classes and creating an authentic environment for students to plunge into the atmosphere of a foreign country.

At the modern stage an important role is also attributed to the ways of gaining knowledge which can be largely improved with the help of Internet technologies at the classes of regional studies. The necessity to use Internet is closely connected with the fact that Internet has ceased to be a mere source of information – the perception of students has changed greatly. Rote learning which played a big role in learning a foreign language has ceased to be crucial. It’s fair to suggest that a reasonable combination of traditional and modern methods of teaching and learning a foreign language will bring a great benefit to students and teachers. Internet technologies help not only to uptake the content but also to use it in practice. The learner can independently or relatively independently choose and find relevant materials on a given topic, they can learn in autonomous mode and get all necessary information which will direct them in their study, they can work in cooperation with foreign partners (while doing international projects). They can also choose forms of “feedback” like a presentation, a video clip or a sound clip.

The paper provides the description of how we work with live blogs, electronic encyclopedias, Internet journals, Moodle at our classes on regional studies and foreign languages, and also provides a wide range of sites on regional studies. The investigation might be of concern to the teachers of foreign languages, students, educators.

Keywords:

Education, regional studies, internet technologies, cross-cultural communication.