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The paper describes the results of the longitudinal experiment held at the department of the extracurricular education - the Further Study Training Centre - at the RUDN University, Moscow. The study was aimed at measuring the added value gained throughout the course in English as a foreign language in the context of Academic skills development. The urgency of the study derived from the growing popularity of scorebased grading evaluation methods commonly implemented in Russian educational institutions and in most cased overshadowing its alternatives. Verification of the ability of quantitative techniques as an objective tool to measure developed skills and competences and, at the same time, respond to all challenges of modern education presents itself as a priority task. So, the focal point of the current research was the comparative analysis of qualitative and quantitative assessment of the English learners' academic outcomes and the role of each type in building academic confidence. The latter was measured by means of the Academic Behavioral Confidence Scale (ABC) initially suggested by Sander and Sanders in 2003 and widely deployed by later methodologists. On total, 142 learners were able to participate in all the experiment phases, roughly equally divided into the control and experimental groups respectively. All of them were mastering the programme of English as a foreign language for at least two academic terms based on the extracurricular training centres at two of top Universities of Moscow, Russia: RUDN University and national research University "Higher School of Economics". All the subjects were mastering the programme of English for scientific and academic purposes for at least two academic terms. The main research focus was made on the productive skills, i.e speaking and writing, as these kind of activities may be appraised by both quantitative and qualitative methods. The control group was presented by the qualitatively assessed students, so their skills and competences were evaluated based on the customized score banding scale. The students in this group were made familiar with the criteria set and skills assessed. The experimental group comprised the participants whose SLOs (student learning outcomes) were measured based on reviews received as teachers', examiners' and peers' feedback, cooperative analysis and narrative descriptions, main focus being shifted from the rubrics to notes and observations. Verbal appraisals were granted for any interim or final oral tasks and written assignments performed. Contrary to the expectations, the results of the experiment revealed a slightly higher level of English competence increase demonstrated by the control against experimental group participants; whereas students in the latter group significantly improved the level of their academic confidence compared to the pretest numbers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fairy tales have their roots in archaic society and archaic thought, thus immediately succeeding myths. Myths have close connection to their bearers and folktales are 'displaced' in time and space. The timelessness of the tale and lack of geographic specificity endow it with utopian connotations. The spatiotemporal indefiniteness, or such a definiteness, which is not characteristic to reality is the most essential feature of the tale genre. The particular construction of fictional space and time, the chronotope, is genre-specific; each genre has its own unique chronotope. With this structural approach, fairy tales differ in their organization of time and space. Fairy tales take place in one magical world, detached from our own both in space and in time, the reader or listener of a fairy tale is detached from its space and time. In traditional fairy tales, which take place in a detached time and place, readers are not supposed to believe in the story. The addressee of a fairy tale is situated outside the text; the communication is based on a fictional contract between the sender and the addressee. The toponyms used in fairy tales can be both factual and imaginary. The chronotope of tales is distinctly reflected on the level of its poetics. In fairy tales the chronotope habitually finds its expression right at the beginning of the text - in the initial formulas. Other main structural units of tales are final formulas, which bring readers back to earth, to reality, and ease the transition to normal conversation. The final formulas make listener think over the secret message hidden in the tale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foreign language learners must develop proficiency in the target language. They must find ways to deal with the challenge of learning foreign languages. Learners who are able to regulate their own learning through a variety of metacognitive and cognitive perspectives and procedures are more likely to meet this challenge successfully. This problem has already been studied by different authors. But self-regulation as applied to EMI has not been much developed yet. To bridge this gap this paper examines the selfregulation in relation to EMI learners. The instructional model is suggested to help learners to develop self-regulated learning skills. A special instruction was designated, it incorporated both content and language standards which should be addressed in EMI teaching learning. The research showed that good self-regulators had developed the skills and habits to be effective learners, exhibiting effective learning strategies. The key for instructors is to understand how to foster and train these skills in all students. The research has found that active involvement in learning, including setting goals, selecting appropriate strategies, monitoring motivational levels are all related to learning outcomes. This paper concludes with practical implication of self-regulated abilities which include goal-setting, self-monitoring, self-instruction, and self-reinforcement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]