Volkova Elena

INSTITUTIONAL INFORMATION

Contact

Education Information

• 2002 - 2003 MEd in Trainer Development (English Language Teaching)

  University of Exeter, UK (College of St Mark and St John)

Dissertation

• Hornby Trust Alumni Project Award Scheme 2020–2021 Creating ELT UZB website to support FB ELT Uzb group Objectives: The project aims to create a website for EL teachers in Uzbekistan. It will be, of course, open to any interested professional from any country. This website will have a primary mission to support the Face Book educational group ELT Uzb (further FB ELT Uzb) created by Nodira Isamukhamedova’s personal initiative on the 6th April 2019. The FB ELT Uzb and the website will both aim to provide a wide range of opportunities for participants’ professional development. This includes support for immediate teaching practice and related concerns, exchanging advice and guidance and the opportunity to share experiences with peers, engagement with research in education, assistance in planning for learning, teaching and assessment. The project outcomes and outputs are as follows: 1. Website will be established and launched to function in parallel with the FB ELT Uzb group; 2. The promotion of the website will be done through the FB group thus the number of websites users is expected to amount to the number of FB ELT Uzb followers which is at present 5,4 thousand teachers from several countries; 3. The existing FB ELT Uzb materials, activities and resources will be properly categorised and organised on the website for a more convenient use; 4. The users will be further assisted to engage with the educational literature and scholarly activity in ELT through linking the website to the activity of local ELT publication ALT FL in Uzbekistan (Active Learning and Teaching of Foreign Languages in Uzb) run by Elena Volkova since 2015; 5. The website will provide a means to foster reflection through mentoring activity; 6. The website forum will further enhance the quality of users’ experience through sharing good practice principles and expertise; 7. The website will promote digital professional learning opportunities;

• PROPOSAL FOR COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH PROJECT APPLICATION FORM FOR 2020 ROUND Project coordinator: Elena Volkova Title of the project: Facing the challenges of engaging HE students in a post-COVID world: The application of Social Media Messengers to Enhance Student Learning Outcomes and Engagement. 1. Objectives of the project: Provide a clear and concise statement of the project’s objectives (“the problem”). Here also justify why this objective is important from the perspective of an existing research gap in this field. Finally explain practical value of this objective. This research project seeks to investigate the effectiveness of two different Social Media Messengers, Instagram and Telegram, in two different Higher Education contexts (England and Uzbekistan). The idea of conducting this research is reinforced given the current climate, specifically the COVID 19 pandemic, where everyone has been forced to conduct teaching and learning online and transform their digital capabilities. Blackboard at UoW and Intranet at WIUT are formal means of teaching, learning and assessment and in both institutions email is still considered to be the most effective way to communicate with students and share information (Tucker 2014). Yet there is some evidence that students as stakeholders have shown reluctance in adopting those enthusiastically and they are beginning to turn away from the use of formal modes in preference to Social Media channels. It is known that they spend more time on platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat, WhatsApp and Telegram. Indeed, the use of social media has been widely adopted across all age groups – but particularly so amongst the so called ‘Millennial’ and ‘Generation Z’ demographics – typically those aged 18 – 30 years of age. This age group has embraced social media as a platform for communication and sharing information (Olaleke, Iroju, & Olajide, 2015). Yet whilst these technologies are increasingly applied in collaboration, community building and participation, their adoption and application in Higher Education has been limited. The lack of insight into the area means that social media channels as part of a teaching and learning strategy are often adopted in a fragmented and non-systemic manner. Using as a framework research conducted by Mazana (2018) this study will explore the use of Instagram and Telegram as used by lecturers at WIUT and Westminster Business School in enhancing class communication. More spec

• Teachers’ learning in HE: mapping teachers needs to the professional development affordances in Uzbekistan HE Participatory Action Research as one affordance Project objectives and research questions The main purpose of the study is to acquire better understanding of how in-service workplace professional development based on PAR may be effective to propose an in-service CPD model in the context of Uzbekistan. Within this main aim, several research questions are identified: 1. What are the areas in the current INSET CPD curriculum that can be improved though workplaces learning based on PAR affordance? 2. How can teachers be encouraged to engage in PAR? 3. How can institutions and National CPD centers be encouraged and supported to provide opportunities for teachers to engage and learn through PAR affordance?

• English Matters” (2002) Macmillan Publishers • “Learning through Writing Materials for an INSETT course” (2009) Folio MATSDA
  

• “Thoughts on the first year at WIUT” (2008) Exchange news from EIC
  

• “Research skills – a need for their gradual development in all educational settings” (2009) WIUT Conference proceedings • ‘Development for Uzbekistan English Teachers’ training handbook (2009), British Council, Uzbekistan
  

• ‘Train the trainer manual’ ‘Biodiversity, land degradation and climate change teaching manual’ (2009) Publications on thematic of GEF SGP in Uzbekistan
  

  http://sgp.uz/en/thematic-gef/publications/611?print

• ‘Understanding CEFR – a metaphor from Richard West, a UK freelance consultant’ (2016). Active Learning and Teaching of Foreign languages in Uzbekistan. Tashkent: Print Line Group
  

• ‘Three examples of tasks that help develop basic research skills’ (2016), Active Learning and Teaching of Foreign languages in Uzbekistan. Tashkent: Print Line Group
  

• ‘A mom’s story of language acquisition’ (2017) Humanizing Language Teaching, Year19, Issue 2 available at http://www.hltmag.co.uk/apr17/ • Chief editing Active Learning and Teaching of Foreign Languages in Uzbekistan Volume 1, 2, 3, 4 2015 Active Learning and Teaching of Foreign Languages in Uzbekistan Volume 1, 2, 3, 4 2016 Active Learning and Teaching of Foreign Languages in Uzbekistan Volume 1, 2, 3, 4, 2017
  

  http://www.hltmag.co.uk/apr17/

• “Material Design for Blended Learning – first steps at WIUT” a working paper for the "Distance education - educational environment of the XXI century", 7-8 December 2017, BSUIR, Belorussia
  

• Babakhodjaeva, L. and Volkova, E. (2018). First steps in implementing blended learning at Westminster International University in Tashkent. In: Geissler, G. , Skala, F. (eds) (2018). Vena: SP “Starkov S.A.”, 201-211
  

Supported Projects

• - Active Learning and Teaching of Foreign Languages in Uzbekistan, Chief Editor

  ISSN 2181-9343 OAK Registration document is №260/7 (Philology). Active Learning and Teaching of Foreign Languages in Uzbekistan, ALT FL has been registered with the VAK (OAK) of Uzbekistan on the 29 December 2018. The Registration document is №260/7 (Philology). Published in the ‘LIST of recommended scientific editions for publication of basic scientific results of dissertations by Supreme attestation commission of the Republic of Uzbekistan.’ Approved by the Resolutions of the Presidium of the Supreme Attestation Commission of the Republic of Uzbekistan. – Tashkent: 2019. – 160 p. Ўзбекистон ALT FL is produced in Uzbekistan in accordance with international standards (ISSN 2181-9343). The authorship includes local and international teachers, academics, researchers, students who have exposure to the Uzbekistan context. ALT FL main focus is language education and teacher education thus it is open for teachers from any level of education and any discipline. The nature of publications varies from purely research oriented articles that are required to be adopted for an ordinary reader, to reflective articles or annotations. The intention is to introduce peer-review practice in the nearest future for which the capacity building activities are delivered on the ongoing basis. ALTFL started as a paper publication but last year has moved to the e-version and the mobile application was created for convenience of the readership. However, as reported by the publishing house, this was an unsuccessful innovation. Thus, the grant was sought to move ALT FL to the website of the associated ELT educational platform. It is intended to launch it in 2021.

Grant proposals

Activities in Scientific Journals

• 2015 Scientific and Academic Publishing (SAP) peer editor

  Peer editing in the area of education and management

• 2019 SAGE, peer editor

  Peer editing in the area of education and e-learning

Scientific Consultation

• 2016 Mentor in research supervision

  Assisting colleagues and alumni in research guidance at BA and MA level

Invited Congress & Symposium Activities

Citations

CV Elena Volkova January 2020.pdf

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