Honors Students of Education Ukraine’s in Germany

The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine awarded a Honors Student of Education of Ukraine medal to adviser in pedagogical contacts of Goethe Institute Inter Naciones in Kyiv Ms. Gisela Gibtner, reports The Day’s Liudmyla RIABOKON. In Soviet times the German Democratic Republic supplied Ukraine, as well as the whole Soviet Union, with large amount of inexpensive textbooks. However, at that time studying foreign languages came to nothing more than studying grammar and translation. Today the main goal of studying foreign language has become fluently communicating in it. This requires absolutely different educational technologies and textbooks. Due to Ms. Gibtner, many new German textbooks came to Ukraine. She constantly supports creating textbooks of the German language by Ukrainian authors. Incidentally, professors of the Horlovka Institute of Foreign Languages Olena Parshykova and Natalia Driuchkiv have created a textbook for the little ones, German Through a Game. However, a textbook is not enough to master a foreign language; a complete educational set is necessary, including video and audio materials. The Goethe Institute has assisted on recording cassettes in Germany as a supplement to the textbook for children, which use Ukrainian music in combination with German texts. The Institute distributes these cassettes among teachers free of charge. Ms. Gisela Gibtner told The Day’s correspondent that a German language textbook should be adapted to the Ukrainian mentality and include fragments of our country’s life. “To find a place in the modern world, it is not enough to know only one foreign language; perhaps one should master at least three,” believes Ms. Gibtner.