RA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE WORKS OUT NEW METHODS FOR TEACHING ARMENIAN AS FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Noyan Tapan
April 23, 2008

YEREVAN, APRIL 23, ARMENIANS TODAY – NOYAN TAPAN. For the purpose
of developing Armenology, the RA Ministry of Education and Science
is working out methods of teaching Armenian as a foreign language
for Diasporan Armenian pupils. RA Minister of Education and Science
Levon Mkrtchian said at the April 23 press conference.

The Minister expressed discontent with the language policy carried
on in the country, be it a native or foreign language. And for the
purpose of developing Armenology, according to him, we should first
have a possibility of teaching it in foreign languages, as promotion
of the Armenian language abroad is done through foreign languages,
in particular, in the Diaspora, which has a problem of preservation
of the Armenian language.

L. Mkrtchian also considered important the necessity of methods of
teaching Armenian for nearly 4 thousand foreign students studying
in Armenia, who living and receiving education in Armenian higher
education institutions, speak in Russian or English with RA
citizens. "We wish to create such methods, through which a foreign
student will be able to learn Armenian in two years. And after
graduating from the University and leaving our country he will also
take our language value with him, involuntarily becoming a function
assisting with spreading of Armenian," he said.

According to the Minister, the spreading and strengthening of Armenian
is the work of responsible specialists living in the homeland and
engaged in the sphere. The terminological committee has been recreated
for already three months, the activity of which has an important
role in the issue of sphere’s development. "It is possible to take
the criteria and use them in the sphere of mathematics or physics,
while just we are responsible for the sphere of Armenology," he added.
From: Baghdasarian