Webinar from CATESOL

7.6.2022

The Head of the Department of Romance and Germanic Philology took part in a webinar from CATESOL: Educating Ukrainian Refugees in Poland – Lessons for the United States.

On June 6, CATESOL International Webinar was hosted by Lewis Javier Penton Herrera, President of the Union of Judy O’Loughlin (California) and Associate Professor of Modern Languages ​​at the University of Warsaw, Poland.

The Head of the Department of Romance and Germanic Philology, Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor Olena Bindas spoke at the plenary session with a report “Language Proficiency of Higher Education Refugee Students from Ukraine in Poland: Challenges and Perspectives”).

The first stage of the research was conducted with higher education applicants from Ukraine, who became free students of the Department of Modern Languages ​​at the University of Warsaw, Poland. Out of 26 applicants from Ukrainian higher education institutions, only 14 agreed to cooperate: from Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University, A. Makarenko Sumy State Pedagogical University, Kharkiv Humanitarian and Pedagogical Academy, Ivan Franko Zhytomyr State University, Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University, H.S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University, Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatyuk National Pedagogical University, National University “Odesa Law Academy”, Kyiv National Linguistic University, etc.

Olena Bindas presented the first results of her research, noting that the vast majority of refugee students from Ukraine (60%) have a high level of English proficiency (advanced), and others (40%) – intermediate. All higher education applicants from Ukraine (100%) are beginners in learning Polish. This indicates that the study was conducted with students who had to leave Ukraine in February-March 2022, fleeing the war. To the last question, “What do they plan to do next?” only one answer was received (100%) – I don’t know. 

All refugee students, as well as teachers, hope for a quick end to the war and liberation of Ukraine from the racists, which will give them the opportunity to return to the walls of their native alma mater. 

According to the Department of Romance and Germanic Philology