Prof. Denis Zubalov spoke at the Teach for HSE discussion platform on the theme "Multicultural and Multilingual education. How to build the educational process in a multicultural and multilingual environment effectively?"

On February 19, 2020, a regular meeting within the framework of the project "Teach for HSE" was held in the hall of the Big professorial club at 11 Pokrovsky Boulevard. The discussion was devoted to teaching in a multicultural and multilingual environment.

In recent years, the number of international students enrolled at HSE has grown significantly. The active process of internationalization of the University environment, where some groups of individuals can be representers of original national traditions, different languages or mentalities and may have different "backgrounds", has set a number of completely new tasks for teachers. What challenges they face in their work, how their pedagogical approach changes in the new realities – these are the key aspects that the participants discussed during the meeting. Oksana Chernenko, Director of educational innovation at HSE and moderator of the discussion, noted that this is the third meeting on the platform dedicated to education in a multicultural environment since 2018. This means that the interest in this topic from the teachers is still significant. This time, the speakers of the discussion were Anatoly Kharkhurin, associate Professor of the faculty of social Sciences (Department of psychology) and Denis Zubalov, associate Professor of the faculty of Humanities (Department of General and applied Philology), academic head of the educational program: "Language policy in the context of ethnic and cultural diversity". Anatoly Kharkhurin introduced colleagues to the modern paradigm of plurilinguism as the most promising educational model. Its essence is that languages are perceived not as independent static systems, but as dynamic, constantly developing integrated into each other and into the socio-cultural context to which they belong. Modern research has shown that this approach has a very positive effect on the development of both cognitive skills (such as "selective attention") and creative abilities. Denis Zubalov explained how it is possible to overcome certain difficulties that arise in the conditions of multilingualism in practice. The process of globalization has increased the influx of foreign students to HSE and, according to Professor, it is very important to bring the University's academic standards to all applicants in time. At the same time, he emphasized the idea of a great influence of the personal motivation factor on the level of preparation of the applicant and the student's academic performance.