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As some of you may know, TLC dates back to 2017 when on February, 17 the first issue that we poured our souls into saw the light of day. It was all the more meaningful to us since the inaugural release got the blessing of David Crystal himself who was supporting enough to write both an intro and an article for it. In his ‘Reflections on TLC’ Professor Crystal wrote:

‘The acronym of this timely new journal brings to my mind all kinds of topical associations, several culture-specific in character. When I was working in clinical linguistics, TLC meant ‘total lung capacity’. When I encountered it in a sandwich bar in New York, it meant ‘tomato, lettuce and cheese’. For Indiana Jones buffs it could only mean The Last Crusade, and for Harry Potter nerds – The Leaky Cauldron. In everyday speech, it means ‘tender loving care’: ‘I need a bit of TLC’, someone might say....'

‘...There needs to be a rapprochement between linguistic, media, and cultural studies, and this new journal is the place where this can happen. From now on ‘I need TLC’ will have a different meaning.’

These lines became our mantra, and three years and a lot of hard work later we are proud to announce that TLC has been accepted for inclusion in Scopus. It is a fundamental milestone and an honour to be part of this unique database that supports and connects people across the entire academic community. And, of course, we wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the support of our publisher, Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia, and all of you, our outstanding contributors and devoted readers. We promise to keep up the good work.

The plenary session and four discussion platforms brought together employees of international departments of higher education organisations, heads of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Russia, heads of departments of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Russia, heads and representatives of Rossotrudnichestvo, representatives of the Federation Council and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia.

At the plenary session, experts discussed current trends in international cooperation and highlighted the basic principles of its transformation in the near future. The vector for the discussion was defined by Vladimir Filippov – President of RUDN University, Chairman of the Higher Attestation Commission. Dr Filippov spoke of the new tasks and challenges associated not only with the pandemic, but also with the new priorities of state policy in the field of education export.

‘In the new realities, international recognition is important for Russia. This task was set by the President of the Russian Federation and aims to make Russia one of the top 10 countries in the world in terms of science and education quality. The key role in addressing this task is assigned to universities’, – stated Vladimir Filippov.

Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education Petr Kucherenko noted that the conference is the response of Russian universities to the state’s call to comprehensively develop the export of education and fully support its relevance and international competitiveness. The Deputy Minister stressed that in the tough competitive conditions of the educational market, no given Russian university is able to independently develop an effective systemic international partnership. Pooling of resources, exchange of experience, dialogue and mutual support are extremely important today. A series of events that take place at RUDN University provides such an opportunity.

Konstantin Kosachev, Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs, put new emphasis on the issue of education exports. According to the expert, the pandemic is not only a threat to the international activities of educational institutions, but also an opportunity: ‘Online education programmes, provided they come with proper technical support, can become a hallmark of Russian universities’.

Konstantin Kosachev touched upon the problem of attracting motivated foreign students to study: ‘Since the launch of the project on education export, the number of foreign students has doubled, and this brings it closer to the desired figure – 425,000 foreign citizens studying at Russian universities by 2024. However, in the pursuit of absolute numbers it is important to retain quality. Today, only 3% of foreigners who entered our universities under quotas are winners of Olympiads or competitions. When recruiting foreign students, it is worth remembering that this is human potential for our economy and international projects’.

Executive director of the Global Universities Association Irina Karelina spoke about the Open Doors project, an international Olympiad that allows talented students from foreign countries to enroll for free Master’s and postgraduate studies at leading Russian universities without entrance tests.

The conference also welcomed representatives of the diplomatic missions of the Russian Federation in France, Norway, experts on the UK, as well as Acting Director of the Institute of the Far East of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexei Maslov, who shared the experience of universities in these countries working hard amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

The experts noted that the main response to the spread of the pandemic was the launch of the online training format. The experts spoke about the practical solutions implemented in these countries and the best practices that could be implemented in Russian universities.

Discussing the best practices in using remote technologies as a response to the COVID-19 challenges, representatives of Russian universities also presented their own cases of exporting education during the pandemic and identified common steps to develop international activities in 2021.

As the conference came to an end, the organisers noted that despite its unprecedented format, the conference turned into a productive platform for discussion.

In 2020, the festival was held online for the first time. During the week, students participated in master classes and quizzes, shared recipes of national cuisine, played football and took part in round table discussions.

Marijana Prodanovic from Belgrade discussed humanistic approaches to the modern era language testing in her talk entitled Testing the Untestable. Barry Tomalin presented his views on innovation in business training, and Emma Abbate from Naples explained how to implement CLIL by using the European platforms Europeana (https://europeana.eu) and GoLab (https://golabz.eu). The final presentation of the conference featured Rob Williams of the University of Westminster in London on how students and teachers can work together in co-creating assessments. The conference concluded with a virtual cocktail and as they say in the UK, ‘A good time was had by all’.

In August Barry Tomalin of Glasgow Caledonian University London explored how the world of business English teaching was changing to respond more closely to corporate needs. In September, Rob Williams of the University of Westminster discussed new ideas in the teaching discourse management in the language classroom – artificial models vs real language. In October, Elizabeth Mickiewicz of the University of Coventry explained the role of COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning) in language teaching. In December, Geoff Tranter addressed the topic of humour in language learning and teaching. We look forward to more ICC-Languages webinars early next year.

In the meantime, we wish all our colleagues and friends a happy Christmas and hopefully a quarantine freer and more open new year.

During the lockdown period EUROLTA has updated its framework and modified it for the teaching of English and German. The framework is accessible at http://icc-languages.eu/eurolta/resources/framework.

ICC-Languages has written an online version of the EUROLTA course which will be delivered through the world-famous online platform MOODLE. This will allow teachers around the world to participate in the course from their home locations.

The course ‘EUROLTA Online’ will cover all the same input and development topics as the face-to-face EUROLTA, and teachers will be able to arrange teaching practice in their local locations, to be shared with their tutors for support and assessment.

The EUROLTA centres and EUROLTA training courses all carry the ICC-Languages Certificate of Quality Assurance.

EUROLTA is always happy to hear from teachers wanting to see what EUROLTA can offer them and schools interested in joining the EUROLTA certified schools network as a training centre. Learn more by visiting http://icc-languages.eu or contact the EUROLTA co-ordinator, Myriam Fischer Callus at callus@t-online.de.

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The parties summed up working results and discussed plans for the near future. In recent years, the export of educational services in the two countries has grown significantly, mutually beneficial ties between educational organisations have expanded, and the interest in learning Russian and Chinese has heightened. By 2020, the scope of bilateral exchanges between Russia and China has reached 100,000 people. The participants identified the main guidelines for joint work to develop and strengthen educational cooperation in 2020. The deputy ministers noted that in the current unstable epidemiological situation, it is imperative to develop new joint online technologies to provide quality remote educational services to students, and draw up electronic educational resources in Russian and Chinese.

The Subcommittee also noted the strengthening of educational cooperation between Russia and China within the framework of SCO and BRICS in a multilateral format during Russia’s chairmanship of the SCO in 2019-2020 and BRICS in 2020.

The next meeting of the Russian-Chinese Subcommittee on Educational Cooperation will be held in 2021 in Russia.

‘While a single diploma used to be enough, it is now preferable to deploy competencies in multiple areas of expertise for a successful career,’ the marketing expert emphasised.

In leading Russian universities, specialised marketing departments are rare. Therefore, for those who have chosen this specialty, Lana Pinyaeva also advises to look closely at the faculties of Sociology and Management. Exclusively for the RBC project, she singled out several universities offering the most outstanding quality of training in these areas. Among the top four is Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia.

‘Here marketing is one of the majors taught at the Faculty of Economics. And this, I think, is a great combination. Economic expertise is useful for all kinds of specialists, especially when they grow up to become managers,’ says Pinyaeva. According to her, university students can get an internship at the largest international FMCG companies.

The conference was dedicated to the 20-year anniversary of the Department of Foreign Languages of the Faculty of Economics and focused on the main areas of research carried out at the department:

• topical issues of teaching foreign languages for business communication;
• modern tendencies of profession-oriented foreign language teaching;
• integration of new information technology into the practice of foreign language teaching in non-linguistic higher educational institutions;
• strategies for teaching translation in non-linguistic higher educational institutions;
• intercultural business communication;
• topical issues of modern applied linguistics.

Conference reports were delivered by leading experts in linguistics and linguodidactics. The list of participating experts included:

Elena N. Malyuga (Russia), Head of Foreign Languages Department, Faculty of Economics, Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia, Academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, Doctor of Linguistics, Professor, Chair of the Organising Committee;

Michael McCarthy (UK), Emeritus Professor of Applied Linguistics at Nottingham University, one of the founders of Corpus Linguistics;

Barry Tomalin (UK), Professor at Birkbeck College, London University, Professor at the British School of Leadership and Management, Glasgow Caledonian University London, author of textbooks on Business English;

Wayne Rimmer (UK), Doctor of Philology in Applied Linguistics, Coordinator of the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL), author of teaching materials and resource books published by Cambridge University Press;

David Krašovec (France), PhD, Assistant Professor at the Department of Language Training for State Administration Personnel, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration;

Tatyana A. Dmitrenko (Russia), Academician of the International Teacher’s Training Academy of Science, Doctor of Education, Professor, Department of Foreign Language Teaching Methodology, Faculty of Foreign Languages, Moscow State Pedagogical University, member of the Organising Committee;

Tamara B. Nazarova (Russia), Doctor of Linguistics, Professor, Department of English Language Studies, Faculty of Philology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, member of the Organising Committee;

Maria V. Ivanova (Russia), Doctor of Linguistics, Professor, Academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, Dean of the Full-Time Faculty of the Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education ‘A.M. Gorky Literary Institute’;

Eugenia V. Ponomarenko (Russia), Academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, Doctor of Linguistics, Professor, English Language Department, Moscow State Institute of International Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation (MGIMO University), Vice-Chair of the Organising Committee.

Specialists representing 42 Russian and international universities took part in the sub-forums of the conference.

EUROLTA trains all language teachers, not just English teachers, and is very good at raising the standards of language teaching for adults and has had particular success in training teachers to help immigrants learning the language of their adopted country.

It is also responding to demands for online EUROLTA training offered by EUROLTA training professionals.

To become a EUROLTA centre at €750, to buy the EUROLTA training manual at €250, or to get online EUROLTA training, contact Myriam Fischer Callus at callus@t-mobile.de.

EUROLTA is an internationally recognised teacher training programme to train you to teach languages using up-to-date methodologies. You can take the programme to gain the skills and knowledge you need as a language teacher; to make you a more confident and more competent language teacher; and to enhance your employment prospects.

The first hour’s webinar on the Business of Culture was presented by Barry Tomalin on August 27th and the recording and slides are accessible online at https://icc-languages.eu/webinars.

The next webinar on September 17th was hosted by Rob Williams of the University of Westminster on Teaching Discourse Management in the Classroom, followed on October 7th by Elizabeth Mickiewicz of the University of Coventry on Collaborative Online Learning (COIL) in the Language Classroom.

ICC-Languages intends to hold monthly one-hour online webinars, usually in the third or fourth week of the month, so if you would like to contribute your ideas and experiences of language learning and teaching please contact our President, Ellinor Haase, at ellinor.haase@icc-languages.eu. Whether you’re at home or at school or university we wish you a happy and productive autumn.

A key focus of the conference will be how teachers have coped and are coping in the Covid-19 context and what the future holds for language teaching and training once the pandemic has passed. Short and to the point presentations will be followed by an online open discussion where the participants can share their experiences of teaching in the time of Covid-19.

Speakers already booked include Susanna Slivensky of the European Centre for Modern Languages of the Council of Europe, Barry Tomalin on the value of language learning as access to international employment, Rob Williams, former president of ICC, Emma Abbate, Marijana Prodanovic and Elena Yakovleva with Ruben Agadzhanyan.

To find out more about the conference, the presentations and joining instructions, please visit https://icc-languages.eu/conference.

However, we are conscious that online learning cannot do the job on its own as training course and university participants really value the face-to-face contact of conferences and summer schools.

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‘RUDN University decided not to depend on opening borders and to give our foreign applicants the opportunity to start their studies at home, before arriving in Moscow. We divided the entire programme of the preparatory faculty into seventeen modules. They all will be available for independent study online, and a foreigner will need to go through nine of them. Lectures will be held for virtual groups in real time. Regular native speaker interaction will be provided as a communication exercise. Special tutors will help promptly resolve all organisational issues,’ – explained President of RUDN University Vladimir Filippov. Mr Filippov also spoke about the university’s operation during the pandemic, including the most challenging issues faced by the staff and administration, the new projects and what prompted the ultimate decision to initiate a digital version of the entire faculty.

The campaign will extend up until June 20, and additional mobile blood drawing points will open on the basis of volunteer and coworking centres.

The world currently houses over 25.000 higher educational institutions, and the top thousand are rated in the QS ranking. In 2021, 28 Russian universities were included in the QS World University Rankings 2021. The QS World University Rankings, compiled by QS Quacquarelli Symonds, a global research and advisory centre, includes the top 1.000 universities in the world. QS uses six indicators to compile the ranking — academic reputation, employer reputation, citation index, student-teacher ratio, international staff, and the share of foreign students.

The winners will receive a lump sum payment of 41.500 roubles per person.

The conference programme also features plenary presentations by Tamara Djordjevic, Language Policy Officer of the TEMPUS Foundation of Serbia, Marijana Prodanovic and Michael Carrier. There will also be parallel workshops on methodology, business English and culture and online learning. A great opportunity to meet and learn from international professionals.

At a time when schools are cautiously re-opening across Europe, we are convinced that the EOL tools and resources can help develop and strengthen quality language education, which celebrates linguistic and cultural diversity and is so essential today to ensure intercultural dialogue, linguistic and cultural diversity and social cohesion in our societies.

The Hessen Volkshochschulverband (the umbrella organisation of all adult education centres in Hessen, Germany) handed over their EUROLTA licence to one of its schools, VHS Hanau. Eleven participants have recently completed a EUROLTA course and a new class will start in August.

Across the Atlantic in the twin-island state of Trinidad and Tobago the JSM Language and Innovation Centre is keen to run EUROLTA courses to train teachers to support families emigrating from Venezuela because of the problems there. JSM offers a wide range of customised language courses, cultural events and language immersion trips. They are also an accredited Exam Centre for SIELE (servicio Internacional de Evaluacion de la Lengua Espanola) administered by the Cervantes Institute in Spain.

In Cairo, Egypt, the House of Knowledge and the Teacher Training Academy hope to offer EUROLTA to student teachers in Egypt with the possibility of extending the training to Jordan. The school, founded in 2016, offers a wide range of language classes and is an accredited exam centre for IELTS, TOEFL, Goethe and DELF (Diplome d’Anglais en Language Francaise).

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DOAJ offers an array of benefits to both publishers and readers. The Directory’s statistics show over 900.000 page views and 300.000 unique visitors a month from all over the world. Many aggregators, databases, libraries, and search portals collect free metadata from DOAJ and include it in their products. Examples are Scopus, EBSCO and Serial Solutions. Over 95% of the DOAJ Publisher community said that DOAJ is important for increasing their journal’s visibility and getting the seal of scholars’ approval. Besides, the Directory is often cited as a source of quality open access journals in research and scholarly publishing circles.

TLC Editorial Board and team members truly appreciate being included into the Directory of Open Access Journals and are always commited to keeping up the work for the benefit of our readers and the scientific community.

In 2020, RUDN University was included in 5 subject and 2 industry ratings of the global QS rating, has shown rapid growth in Linguistics and Modern Languages (rising by 50 and 100 positions over the year, respectively), and for the first time entered the list to compete in the domains of Mathematics, Economics and Econometrics, and Chemistry. In industry rankings, RUDN University improved its positions in Arts and Humanities and entered the Top 500 list in Social Sciences and Management.

‘It is a great honour and a responsibility to receive this order. RUDN University has been training Colombian students from its very foundation. Since then, 663 Colombians have become university graduates. Today, 71 Colombian citizens are studying for undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate degrees at RUDN University. We are happy to maintain cooperation between our countries and train highly qualified specialists for the benefit of the future’, said Vladimir Filippov.

The Jose Acevedo and Gómez Order of Civil Merit is awarded to people and organisations that have been actively collaborating with the District of Columbia for at least 25 years.

The rating assesses social media communications and university-user networking performance. The highest ER is provided by native posts, i.e. real stories from real people, such as an interview with a post-graduate student from Italy Antonella Selvitella who studies foreign language teaching methodology and dreams of coming up with new approaches to learning Italian. RUDN University Facebook user coverage exceeds 12 mln people.

EUROLTA Certificate in English (online course, coming soon). This new course will start January 2020 and will be offered online. Teachers and practitioners of English, French, Greek and other languages can be certified through this training course, which will provide teachers with a wide range of knowledge and skills to empower students’ language learning.

EUROLTA Certificate in Greek (face-to-face and online course). This programme is intended for teachers of any foreign language and of Greek as a foreign language, and is offered in Greek. It inclu- des an extended 9-month Blended Learning pro- gramme offering 250 hours of total training, 6 face-to-face training days in 2 weekends (Fri-Sun), online training, 6 observation sessions, and 4 teaching sessions.

EUROLTA Diploma in Greek (face-to-face and online course). This programme is intended for teacher trainers, language school directors, and experienced teachers of any foreign language and of Greek as a foreign language, and is offered in Greek. It includes an extended 9-month Blended Learning programme offering 250 hours of total training, 6 face-to-face training days in 2 week- ends (Fri-Sun), online training, 10 observation sessions, and 4 teaching sessions.

EUROLTA Certificate on How to Teach Lan- guages Online. This course has been offered since 2014 in Greek and will be offered in English too in 2020.

For more information please contact Ifigenia Georgiadou at ifigenia@hcc.edu.gr. Details are also available online at hcc.edu.gr/en/are-you-a-professor-2/teacher-certification-eurolta.

‘The quality of teaching is reflected in learners’ success. This is why we attach great importance to furthering teachers’ qualifications and supporting these courses financially. Our wide range of 20 languages at VHS Hanau shows that our success proves us right,’ said the Mayor.

‘In the context of EUROLTA qualification, course participants learn the basic qualifications in methodology and didactics through a modern multi- sensory training. This unique training gives the future language trainers the tools they need to teach languages. EUROLTA is practice and theory at the same time,’ said Patrizia Stöhr, VHS Hanau EUROLTA Coordinator.

Myriam Fischer Callus, ICC EUROLTA Project Manager, explained: ‘The ICC has made it its business to promote and improve the quality of teaching of foreign languages. This is why EUROLTA was created in the first place. The ICC is particularly happy to accredit VHS Hanau and hopes that EUROLTA will grow beyond its borders’.

For more information please contact Ifigenia Georgiadou at ifigenia@hcc.edu.gr.

In the meantime, we are receiving applications for membership which we are processing online, notably from Egypt, Cyprus and Trinidad. All applications have to be agreed by the ICC board and audited by quality control advisers. But we look forward to welcoming the directors of the new organisations to our conference in October.

Ellinor presented the ICC’s network and Language for Work projects. The conference allowed delegates to reflect on the important contribution made by the Centre in the field of language education and showcased the results of the current pro- gramme and launch the next programme for 2020-2023. Key themes are inspiring innovation in language education, managing changing contexts and evolving competences.

The ECML presented its draft anniversary declaration, Quality Language Education for a Democratic and Socially Cohesive Europe: Nine ECML Cornerstones. The aim of the declaration is to raise awareness of the political importance of language education and the need for a sustained support for its professionalisation across Europe.

The PALINGUI project aims to evaluate the process of daily language learning and ensure it is recognised and valued. It also wants to support children’s understanding of their own language learning and describe their next steps.

The framework aimed to provide a description of competences to be acquired to be an effective LSP teacher but also a basis for materials development and training. The final situational report and the LSP Teacher Competence Framework can be accessed at catapult-project.eu.