RATING CONTROL IN LEARNING TO
RUSSIAN AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
Anna Alexandrovna Erofeeva
Kazan Federal University, Kazan, Russia
Tatyana Alexandrovna Korneyeva
Kazan Federal University, Kazan, Russia
Tatyana Damirovna Markova
Linguistics University of Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
E
-mail: tatyana.tak1110@gmail.com
Recepción: 05/08/2019 Aceptación: 16/09/2019 Publicación: 23/10/2019
Citación sugerida:
Erofeeva, A.A., Korneyeva, T.A. y Markova, T.D. (2019). Rating control in learning to
Russian as a foreign language. 3C TIC. Cuadernos de desarrollo aplicados a las TIC. Edición
Especial, Octubre 2019, 194-205. doi: https://doi.org/10.17993/3ctic.2019.83-2.194-205
Suggested citation:
Erofeeva, A.A., Korneyeva, T.A. & Markova, T.D. (2019). Rating control in learning to
Russian as a foreign language. 3C TIC. Cuadernos de desarrollo aplicados a las TIC. Special
Issue, October 2019, 194-205. doi: https://doi.org/10.17993/3ctic.2019.83-2.194-205
3C TIC. Cuadernos de desarrollo aplicados a las TIC. ISSN: 2254-6529
196
ABSTRACT
The urgency of the research is in seeking for the methods and techniques to
intensify the learning activities of students in learning to Russian as a foreign
language, to increase their motivation, to develop creative potential, mutual help
and cooperativeness in a classroom environment and outside the classroom.
One of the eective methods for improving learning is the rating control of the
educational activities of students. This article is supposed to substantiate the
eectiveness of the systematic use of rating control and ranking students at each
stage of the Russian language learning as foreign. The basic research methods
are the modeling of study process, the methods of analysis and synthesis, lesson
observation, experiment (diagnostic, prognostic, organizational, practical,
generalizing). The results of the study show the eectiveness of applying systematic
ranking of the students within the classes following on from the results of the
educational task, the eectiveness of the model of classes in Russian as a foreign
language in which a student who occupies the highest position in the ranking
is always rst to be tested. The study of the impact of rating control system in
teaching Russian as a foreign language on student performance and increasing
their level of language competence plays an important role in improving the
methods and techniques of organizing educational work in Russian.
KEYWORDS
Russian as a Foreign Language, Methods, Control, Rating, Ranking.
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1. INTRODUCTION
Dierentiation in teaching and an individual approach to students in the process
of teaching of Russian as a foreign or non-native language often leads to an
underestimation of the competitive factor in teaching and the orientation of
teachers to “average” students or low-performing students. This reects a
bad eect on the educational process and personal achievements of students.
Meanwhile, the focus of the teaching methodology and didactic material on high-
achieving students allows making great educational progress and stimulating the
educational and cognitive activity of all students in the training group, regardless
of the level of competence in a discipline. A similar system for organizing
educational activities of students in Russian as a foreign language is based on a
constant ranking of students in terms of the quality and eciency of learning
activity.
One of the eective methods for generating a higher return from education is the
rating control of learning activity of the students. Rating is generally understood
as an individual numerical indicator of an evaluation of attainments in studies.
It is obtained by adding the rating marks obtained as a result of the assessment
of individual educational activities, if possible, considering the coecient of
signicance (“weight” coecient) of these actions in achieving educational goals
(Chernyavskaya & Grechin, 2008). The main principle of rating is ranking.
Rating learning technology enables to obtain objective data on the level of
student’s grades. The scientic literature dierentiates the cumulative ratings -
Olympic, leadership, certicate ratings - from the academic achievement ratings
(Chernyavskaya & Grechin, 2008). The grades for the rst three ratings are
cumulated during the last years of schooling and are extended to the next year.
The ranking of academic achievements summarizes the grade point average of
all academic disciplines. Thus, rating control is one of the modern means of
assessing the quality of education and is applied, as a rule, at the nal stages of
training, when it is necessary to dierentiate the students in order to distribute
them among subject major or academic classes. Institutions of higher learning
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use the system of rating control more consistently in the form of a grade-rating
system to assess the quality of students’ academic work using block-modular
learning technology (Arkayeva, 2009).
Rating control in the system of learning to Russian as a foreign language has not
been practically studied. As a rule, scientic works dealing with the methods of
learning to Russian as a foreign language discuss the system for testing foreign
students and methods for the development of control and test materials for various
levels (Balykhina, 2007). Koryakina (2017) in her work considers the functions of
control (verication, training, developmental, educational), the types of control
(preliminary, current, mid-term, nal), the methods (written assignments and
tests) and the forms of control (individual and frontal). The importance of using
all types of control in teaching of a foreign language is noted (Koryakina, 2017).
However, the actual rating control has remained out of eyeshot of the scholar.
From our point of view, the essence of rating control in the methodology of
learning to Russian as a second language lies primarily in the constant ranking of
the results of students performing learning tasks. On this basis an eective model
of classes in Russian as a foreign language is built, according to which a student
who occupies the highest position in the ranking is always rst to be tested. This
means that the teacher starts marking test of the student who completed the
previous task best and then in descending order. We should pay attention to the
mobility of the rating within one lesson and in learning overall. The students’
ranking is built upon the completion of a concrete task, and during the lesson
the student’s place in the ranking can be changing. The main condition is that
the student who is the rst to have performed the previous task speaks, then
according the place in the ranking. With such an organization of the control
system, considerable attention is paid to high-achieving learners. Low-performing
students get additional opportunities to recognize by listening and solidify the
knowledge to have been acquired and demonstrate certain success in learning.
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2. METHODOLOGY
The main research methods include: theoretical analysis of scientic and
educational literature, modeling of the learning process, methods of analysis and
synthesis, lesson observation, experiment (diagnostic, prognostic, organizational,
practical, generalizing), conversation method. The study of specialized literature
on the topic made it possible to identify the main methods and techniques used
in learning to Russian as a foreign language, focus on communicative teaching
technologies, especially the interaction with the students during the lesson
(Safonova & Lukoyanova, 2016; Fazliakhmetov & Yusupova, 2018; Rakhimova
et al., 2017), organize a problem-based dialogue (Fattakhova et al., 2018), study
the history of the issue (Safonova & Erofeeva, 2017; Andrade, 2017). Modeling
of the learning process made it possible to identify learning strategies and tactics,
predict student behavior, and optimally organize the educational process. Lesson
observation made it possible to collect factual material and analyze the learning
outcomes. Using the methods of analysis and synthesis, the results of experiments
have been summarized and analyzed, and an idea about the further improvement
of the learning process have been formed. The experimental method made
it possible to trace changes in the quality of knowledge and skills of students
following from the result of using the rating control technique. The method of
conversation contributed to the identication of psychological characteristics of
students and the impact on them of the above learning system.
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The testing of the rating control methods in class on Russian as a foreign language
was carried out based on the Kazan (Privolzhsky) Federal University during the
2017-2018 and 2018-2019 academic years in the groups of students from Xi’an
Petroleum University (China) who were undergoing internship in Russian at
the department Russian language and its teaching methods. The average age
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of the students was 20 years, the time of studying the Russian language before
arriving in Kazan was two years, the time of studying at KFU was eight months
(excluding winter holidays).
Testing was carried out in two stages. The rst stage (diagnostic, prognostic,
organizational, practical stages of the experiment) is the academic year 2017-
2018, one group (12 people), courses on practical grammar of the Russian
language and improvement of written language. The second stage (practical,
generalizing the stages of the experiment) – the academic year 2018-2019, one
group (12 learners) – the courses on practical grammar of the Russian language,
on improving written language (eight months), on morphology (four months);
two groups (11 and 12 learners) – morphology (four months).
During the rst stage of testing based on observation methods and primary control
methods, the psychological and pedagogical features of a group of Chinese
learners of a specied age and their level of knowledge of the Russian language
which turned out to be quite low, as well as a high level of motivation and interest
in the learning process, were revealed. Based on the obtained psychological and
pedagogical results and considering the individual capabilities of students, it was
decided to use the methods of rating control of the results of students’ attainment
at each stage of the lesson on the above courses. Then, during the four months
of training, the teacher began to grade each performed task of the student who
completed the previous task best, and then in descending order. The ranking of
students was built upon the completion of a certain task, and during the lesson
the student’s rank could repeatedly change. The students’ rating was mobile
within the same lesson and in the study overall. The main condition was that the
student who took the previous assignment best to speak rst, then according to
the ranking. With such an organization of classes, considerable attention was paid
to the advanced students. The weaker students received additional opportunities
to recognize by listening and solidify the studied material and demonstrated
concrete success in learning. When changing the place in the ranking, as a rule,
the sequence of positions of two learners changed, less often – of three ones.
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In the process of teaching practical grammar and improving the written
language of the students, all types of speech activities were involved: reading,
writing, listening, speaking, but the priority was given to speaking, that is, to
developing skills in the possession of grammatical material in oral form (based on
a communicative technique).
Signicant conditions for implementing the proposed model were: a) a high pace
of the lesson, b) an obligatory testing of all students in the group, c) the time limit
for an answer (3-5 minutes on average), d) putting grades for each completed
assignment and announcing the results to the students (at the end of the lesson).
Testing of the methodology showed signicant achievements of a group of
trainee students in four months and an increase in the level of formation of
language competence.
The negative aspects of testing the systematic ranking of students by the level
of assignments to be performed in the academic year of 2017-2018 should
include: 1) psychological discomfort of the student who is always the last on
the list; 2) gradually forming psychological fatigue of the group as a result of
intensive educational activities. To reduce the negative consequences of studying
in the second semester (the next four months), a system of encouraging tasks
for low-performing students (a variety of creative tasks that helped them realize
their potential and improve speech quality) was devised and a group work with
account taken of the interaction of advanced and weaker students (dialogs,
mutual testing, mutual control, etc.) was organized. However, the basic principle
of rating control and ranking was retained.
During the second stage of testing in the academic year of 2018-2019, the
methods and techniques for organizing learning activities of foreign students and
the system for organizing rating control (with application of the basic principles)
were improved. When analyzing the learning outcomes of students in the group
in which the ranking system was tested, a signicantly higher level of formation
of language competence (especially in speaking) was observed with other groups
in the study group. It is characteristic that the inclusion of two other groups in the
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experiment at the beginning of the second semester in the course of morphology
also showed a signicant intensication of students’ learning activity and the
improvement of all types of speech activity. At the stage of 2018-2019, there
were no negative eects in the form of psychological fatigue of the group or
psychological discomfort of the weakest student.
As a result of testing, a learning model focused on advanced students, while
studying the practical grammar of the Russian language and improving
written language, signicant successes of all students of the foreign group of
students studying the Russian language, their interest in the nal learning
results, cooperativeness and mutual help were noted. This has conrmed the
assumptions by the scholars of Kazan University in several works dealing with
the peculiarities of teaching foreign students to the Russian language (Safonova
& Lukoyanova, 2016; Fazliakhmetov & Yusupova, 2018; Rakhimova et al., 2017;
Fattakhova et al., 2018; Safonova & Erofeeva, 2017). The interest in learning the
Russian language, the desire to take a higher position in the ranking, the obvious
results of successful educational activities motivate the students who are learning
Russian to learn it further.
4. SUMMARY
Thus, the following should be attributed to signicant research results. 1) The
necessity of a scientic description of the rating control system in learning to
Russian as a foreign language has been substantiated. 2) The eectiveness of
the systematic ranking of students in the classroom based on the results of the
educational task has been proved. 3) The eectiveness of the model of classes in
Russian as a foreign language has been proved, in which a student who occupies
the highest position in the ranking is always rst to be tested. 4) The need for
objectivity in assessing the knowledge and skills of the students, the strictness
and at the same time goodwill of the teacher, an elaborated system of moral
encouragement of the participants in the learning process has been emphasized.
5) Attention is drawn to the mobility of rating within one lesson and in training
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overall. The ranking of students is built upon the completion of a concrete task,
and during the lesson the student’s place in the ranking can repeatedly change.
The main condition is that the student who is the rst to perform the previous
task speaks rst, then according to the ranking. 6) It has been revealed that with
such an organization of the control system, considerable attention is paid to high-
performing students. Low-performing students receive additional opportunity to
recognize the material by listening and solidify it and demonstrate certain success
in learning. 7) Important conditions for the implementation of the model are: a)
a high pace of the lesson, b) an obligatory testing of all students in the group, c)
the time limit for an answer (3-5 minutes on average), d) putting grades for each
completed assignment and announcing the results to the students (at the end of
the lesson). 8) The stimulating eect is the pair and group work of the students,
challenging tasks.
5. CONCLUSIONS
Even though the methods of learning to Russian as a foreign language has been
developed quite comprehensively and in detail, the questions concerning the
intensication of learning activities of students and the maintenance of their
interest in the subject have been remained within eyeshot of methodological
scientists so far. In this respect, the methods of rating control and ranking the
learners according to the results of their learning activities deserves attention
and requires having been further researched and tested in the context of other
disciplines of learning to Russian as a foreign language.
6. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The work is performed according to the Russian Government Program of Competitive Growth
of Kazan Federal University.
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