KHACHATUR ABOVYAN ARMENIAN STATE PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY

“The basis of the world educational system is not homogeneity, but multiplicity and multilingualism”, the Vice-Rector of the Armenian State Pedagogical University Mr. Ara Yeremyan highlighted in his keynote address at the International Regional Conference organized at the Pedagogical University today.

The conference headed “Multilingualism within institutional context; German as a second foreign language” had expert participants from Germany, Georgia, middle-Asian countries, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Nagorno Karabakh and from the RA regions.

During his keynote address Mr. Ara Yeremyan observed that multilingual communication skills of an individual living in an information societyfacilitate the cultural discourse and his access to the World society. In this perspective he quoted the principles of language policy announced by the EC.

“These are the linguistic and cultural diversity, multilingualism, acceptance of equality of all languages, effective ethnic and intercultural cooperation, free movement of population, mutual understanding.”

Afterwards, the conference participants were greeted by the RA Deputy Minister of Education and Science Mr. Manuk Mkrtchyan. Based on his own experience he understood both the necessity of multilingualism and the complexity of mastering languages. The Deputy Minister noticed that in order to master a language it is very important to not feel it with its rules, memory and vocabulary, but to perceive it on a mere sensational level. Besides he outlined the importance of a precondition to fluently learn a language, “Before studying a language it is important that the learner is familiar with the history and culture of the given country and its nation. In fact, Mr. Manuk Mkrtchyan does not agree with the new tendency of learning several languages simultaneously, which is often mentioned but not really carried out.More to the point, it is much better to set realistic objectives and to solve them. According to the Deputy Minister, today the study of a foreign language at secondary schools must start with the introduction of the given country’s culture and the ability to master the language on a translation level. 

Among those present at the opening of the conference was the Deputy Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany in Armenia Ms. Nadia Lichtemberger, who passed the Ambassador’s welcoming speech and informed those present that especially in the recent years  German language became more attractive and that in Armenia, too, it had already started to be accepted as the second foreign language. 

“German language is a window to the German culture, history and German science”, the Deputy Ambassador stated.

Likewise, the lecturer of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Ms. Angela Nerents informed that the conference was a wonderful opportunity to teach German, to develop multilingualism, and to overall spread German language in the region. She did not want to present any statistics but was sorry to state that from the institutional perspective the number of those studying German decreased during the recent years; however, she is encouraged by another indication according to which in our days individual grown-ups study German language more frequently than in the past. In their turn, they implement projects in the region that aim at fostering the dissemination of German. In fact at this moment she also drew the attention to the activities of the Armenian Association of Teachers of German Language the Head of which is the Professor of the Pedagogical University’s Department of German Language Ms. Melania Astvatsatryan. The latter was the organizer of the current two-day conference. 

Later on the representative of the Service of Teaching German Abroad Mr. Tomas Bloomenratte presented the mission of their organization- to support the dissemination of German in various countries. Similarly, he welcomed the idea of holding the conference and expressed his hope that it would show positive results in the near future.

Furthermore, the Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the two-day conference, the Professor of the Department of German Language at the Pedagogical University, the President of the Armenian Association of Teachers of German Ms. Melania Astvatsatryan presented the Armenian-German scientific and cultural relations, reminded about Fredrick Parrot -a naturalist, doctor, the first person with German nationality who climbed up to the pick of the Ararat, who actually left his homeland in 1829 and was in Etchmiadzin on 1 September, where he got acquainted with a Deacon. He was supposed to accompany Parrot up to the pick of the Ararat and to stick a wooden cross up there. And that Deacon was Khachatur Abovyan. Actually he was the pioneer of Armenian –German friendship, and today persons all involved in spreading German language have come together in his educational center.

The International Conference will continue its activities during two days. And the result will be the new teaching method of German as a second foreign language, development of a new programme, which should strongly differ from the methods of teaching the first foreign language.