Buniva Family History. 14-Day Free Trial. Buniva Name Meaning. Historically, surnames evolved as a way to sort people into groups - by occupation, place of origin, clan affiliation, patronage, parentage, adoption, and even physical characteristics (like red hair). Many of the modern surnames in the dictionary can be traced back to.

George Balabushka (Russian: Григорий Антонович Балабушка Grigoriy Antonovich Balabushka; December 9, 1912 – December 5, 1975) was a Russian-bornbilliards (pool) cue maker, arguably the most prominent member of that profession,^[1] and is sometimes referred to as 'the Stradivarius of cuemakers'. His full name or last name standing alone is often used to refer to a cue stick made by him.^[1] Arriving in the U.S. in 1924, he worked at various carpentry and toy and furniture making jobs. He was an avid pool player and purchased a pool room with a business partner in 1959 and thereafter started making cues as gifts for friends which quickly blossomed into a business when others wanted to purchase them.

Balabushka turned out approximately 1,200 handcrafted cues during his 16-year cue-making career, spanning from 1959 to his death in 1975. His cues are highly valued collectors items, made more so after being prominently featured in Martin Scorsese's 1986 film, The Color of Money. Balabushka cues are generally separated into three distinct classes and time periods related to what blanks Balabushka was using in cue construction: The Titlist blank era (1959–1966), the Burton Spain blank era (1966–1971) and the Gus Szamboti blank era (1971–1975). Original Balabushka cues with verified provenance may realize tens of thousands of dollars at auction.

Life and career[edit]

Early life[edit]

George Balabushka was born in Russia on December 9, 1912 and immigrated to the United States in 1924 at 12 years of age.^[1] His family, parents Anton and Natalie and younger sister Mary, settled in New York City.^[1] Although originally named Gregori, according to Balabushka he was given a new first name, George, by immigration officials when he was processed through Ellis Island.^[1]

Employment[edit]

Balabushka's first job was as a wooden toy designer and maker,^[1] working for the Educational Equipment Company,^[2] then located at 71 West 23rd St., in Manhattan,^[3] which made building blocks for nurseries and schools.^[2] Thereafter he built children's furniture for the Playtime Woodworking Company located on Greenwich Village's Jane Street.^[2] While on the job, Balabushka lost his middle finger to a band saw.^[2] Using a wooden mold, he made himself a replacement plastic finger of such craftsmanship that even his friends did not realize his loss until long after the incident.^[1][4] As Balabushka's carpentry skills deepened he began building accordions and other detailed carpentry pieces on his own time.^[5] In 1949, Balabushka applied for patent on a folding leg bracket mechanism he invented, which was granted in 1951.^[6]

Marriage and children[edit]

While working at Playtime Woodworking he met a woman named Josephine, his future wife, who then lived directly across the street from the toy company.^[2] They were married in 1941, and bought a home in Brooklyn several years later. Josephine and George had two sons, Gregory and George, both named after their father.^[1]

Josephine was not just a source of love and stability but was the rock that allowed Balabushka the ability to hone his craft. According to the writers of The Billiard Encyclopedia, 'Josephine's limitless patience and strong sense of independence would afford George the time and solitude necessary that a great artist needs in order to perfect his craft.'^[2]

Transition to cuemaker[edit]

Balabushka was an avid billiards player, especially of the game of straight pool, taking part in competitions and spending time with well-known practitioners of the sport.^[1] In 1959, he purchased a Brooklyn-based pool hall with partner, Frank McGown, which was located at 50th Street and 5th Avenue.^[1] While running the room, he began repairing cues as a hobby, and soon the idea was sparked to design and manufacture his own line of pool cues.^[1]

By the end of 1959, Balabushka had made a number of cues, most of which were given to friends as Christmas gifts.^[1] As this practice went on, he began receiving orders for his cues.^[1] His first cues were conversions of the popular Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company manufactured 'Titlist' cues,^[1] which were one-piece cues; that is, they had no joint in the middle that would allow a player to break down the cue into two sections for ease of transport.^[7] At the time he started, there were very few private cuemakers, the industry being dominated by large manufacturers.^[1]

Cuemaking career and death[edit]

Between 1959 and 1962, Balabushka handcrafted between 20 and 30 cues per year on a part-time basis.^[1] Because of the relative dearth of private cuemakers and the excellence of his product, Balabushka's name quickly became known amongst professional players.^[1] By the end of 1962, Balabushka was receiving more orders for cues than he could fill given his time constraints.^[1] Balabushka accordingly sold his interest in the pool room, converted his garage into a carpentry shop, and by 1964 was building cues full-time, while continuing to hone his cuemaking abilities.^[1]

Unlike many of the large manufacturers of the day, Balabushka's emphasis was on playing ability and fine craftsmanship, reflecting the values he had held during his years in the woodworking business.^[1] He was an innovator in cue construction, cue finishes and cue design.^[1] Balabushka's cues were not the elaborately decorated attempts at building art that became a mainstay of the cue market starting in the 1980s and onward.^[1] Rather, most Balabushka cues are relatively plain and without grand ornamentation flourishes.^[4] Many of his trademark construction techniques have become standard in the industry, such as the use of Irish linen for wrap material and block style checkered-pattern ringwork above a cue's wrap, commonly employing alternating ebony and ivory, pieces which are eponymously named 'Bushka rings.'^[1][5]

George Balabushka died in 1975 at the age of 62. He was posthumously honored as the first inductee into the American Cuemakers Association Hall of Fame in February, 1993.^[8] In 2004, he was inducted into the Meritorious Service category of the Billiard Congress of America's Hall of Fame.^[9]

Cue details[edit]

There are three distinct classes of cues produced during different time periods related to what blanks Balabushka was using in cue construction: The Titlist blank era (1959–1966), the Burton Spain blank era (1966–1971) and the Gus Szamboti blank era (1971–1975).^[5] The 'blanks' referred to are the bottom (butt) portion of a cue where the splicing of various hardwoods has been completed but the cue has not yet been turned on a lathe to produce the final shape, and certain features have not yet been added such as a wrap, joint mechanism, butt cap, bumper and any inlays.^[7]

While blank variety is the defining demarcation between one Balabushka cue and another, there are some shared features spanning Balabushka's fleeting 16-year career.^[5] Cue forearms were characteristically made with straight-grained maple, based on Balabushka's belief that a single-direction maple grain provided superior integrity to that of curly maple or birdseye maple.^[5] He used stainless steel joints and delrin butt caps almost exclusively.^[5] A small number of his cues feature ivory joints and ivory butt caps, making them highly valued collector's items.^[5] Balabushka used a distinguishing reddish-brown bumper, and employed Cortland Irish linen for many of his wraps, with the highly sought after leather wrap a rare departure for him and a distinct value enhancer.^[5] Unless a different length was specified, Balabushka made all his cues to a standard 57½ inches in length.^[5]

In addition to Bushka rings, various other decorative rings were commonly incorporated, including various colored plastics (often marbleized), and silver and contrasting wooden rings.^[5] For decoration, Balabushka often inlaid small mother-of-pearl dots and notched diamonds.^[5] Series of window-shaped maple pieces commonly adorned Balabushka butt sleeves, with each window usually featuring one burl for its aesthetic effect.^[5] Some other features common to many other cuemakers' lines from the same era are notably absent or mostly absent from Balabushka's, including ivory inlays and the signing of his cues.^[5] A long-standing controversy exists over what finish Balabushka used.^[5] One side argues that he used an oil finish on all his cues, while the other insists that his later cues were coated with a spray lacquer.^[5]

Titlist era[edit]

When Balabushka first started repairing cues while working at his pool room, he started converting house cues into custom cues.^[5] Many of these house cues were made by Brunswick.^[5] When he started building his own cues in 1959, he used blanks purchased from Brunswick for their 'Titlist' cue line; the same used in the construction of the house cues he had been converting.^[5] Many of the fine cuemakers working during the same era as Balabushka did likewise, including Frank Paradise (Paradise cues), Eugene Balner (Palmer cues, named after Arnold Palmer) and Ernie Gutierrez (Ginacue), all following in the footsteps of earlier master cuemaker, Herman Rambow.^[5]

Building a full spliced blank from scratch was an expensive and painstaking process, and the large manufacturing facilities of Brunswick turned out good quality blanks, with beautiful points, veneers and sound construction.^[2][5] In Balabushka's case, his entire workshop consisted of a single lathe and other woodworking equipment in the confines of his modest garage, and building his own full-splice butts would have been prohibitively difficult and expensive for him.^[5]

Burton Spain era[edit]

Balabushka used Titlist blanks until 1966 when he was contacted by Chicagoan Burton Spain.^[5] Spain had recently begun making handmade spliced blanks and was supplying them to Balabushka's closest rival, Frank Paradise.^[5] Spain had become fascinated by splicing technology when he came upon a Titlist cue split down the middle in 1965 and set out to perfect and even improve on the Titlist splice.^[5] Spain's original intent was to be predominantly a cuemaker in his own right using his proprietary spliced blanks. However, by 1966 Spain's superior blanks were in high demand and he instead turned to making blanks for other cuemakers full-time, which he continued until 1970.^[5]

Balabushka took Spain up on his offer after seeing the quality of his splices.^[5] Buying from Spain also had the advantage that he was able to have Spain customize the blanks to his specifications.^[5] During this period Balabushka began incorporating more elaborate details into his cues, including the eponymous Bushka rings innovation.^[5] Many later cuemakers would install Bushka rings both above the wrap and on the butt sleeve below the wrap.^[5] Balabushka used them only above the wrap, which is believed to have aided him in keeping the balance point higher on the cue.^[5] In 1970, Spain sold his cue business to tool and die maker John Davis, who had been assisting Spain for a number of years.^[5] Balabushka continued buying blanks from Davis until 1971.^[5]

Gus Szamboti era[edit]

In 1971, Balabushka met Penndel, Pennsylvania, native Gus Szamboti at a tournament.^[2][5] Szamboti had been working for RCA as a draftsman and designer, but RCA layoffs were common at the time, and he had started designing and selling pool cues as a more stable job path.^[2] Though he too started production with Titlist blanks as well as blanks manufactured by WICO of Chicago, Szamboti later began making his own.^[2] Balabushka was very impressed with Szamboti's blanks and, in addition to the two men becoming fast friends, he became Szamboti's first customer, buying blanks from him for $18 apiece.^[2]

Balabushka cues from the Gus Szamboti era are typified by straight grained maple forearms bearing four ebony points, with four veneers included, normally colored black, green, white and mahogany, or sometimes with an orange veneer in place of mahogany.^[5] Balabushka cues from this era, spanning the last five years of his life, are considered the finest of his career as a class.^[5] There have been unconfirmed rumors that some few cues made during this period included splices made by Balabushka himself.^[5]

Prominence[edit]

It is estimated that Balabushka produced between 1,000 and 1,200 cues during his lifetime.^[1] However, by the mid-1960s, forged Balabushka cues started circulating in the market, as he was already recognized as the premier cue maker of the era,^[1][9] referred to as 'the Stradivarius of cuemakers'.^[5][7][10] Balabushka and his cues achieved much wider recognition after being prominently featured in Martin Scorsese's 1986 film, The Color of Money (the sequel to the classic 1961 film The Hustler).^[1]

In the film, Tom Cruise’s character, Vincent Lauria, is presented with a beautiful cue by Paul Newman's character, Fast Eddie Felson. Vincent takes the cue, his reverence obvious, and whispers 'A Balabushka..'^[1] After this, Balabushka's name became associated by the general public with highly valued and rare cues.^[1] The cue actually used in the film was, however, not a genuine Balabushka,^[5] but a Joss Cues model J-18 (renamed the N-07), custom-made to look like a Balabushka.^[5][11][12] The filmmakers feared that any cue used might get damaged during filming; especially in light of a scene set in a pool room where Cruise's character rapidly whirls the cue around in time to the song Werewolves of London. An original Balabushka was thus considered too valuable to be risked in the production.^[5]

Original Balabushka cues with verified provenance may realize tens of thousands of dollars at auction.^[4] In 1994, for example, a Balabushka was purchased by a collector for $45,000.^[4] In a 1998 Syracuse Herald-Journal article a collection of thirty original Balabushkas cues and six Gus Szamboti cues was estimated to be worth 2 million dollars, the cues said to be the equivalent in the cue collecting world of Rembrandts and van Goghs respectively.^[13] There are, however, many fake Balabushka cues in existence.^[5] Complicating matters, in the 1980s with the permission and license of his surviving family, a line of Balabushka replicas began to be manufactured in large quantities by the Adam Custom Cue Company.^[5]

References[edit]

1. ^ ^{abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzaaab}Bachmen, Martyne S. (April 2004). 'Balabushka: One of a Kind'. Billiards Digest: 60–63. ISSN0164-761X.
2. ^ ^abcdefghijkStein, Victor; Rubino, Paul (1996) [1st ed. 1994]. The Billiard Encyclopedia: An Illustrated History of the Sport (2nd ed.). Minneapolis: Blue Book Publications. pp. 315, 321–31, 333–35. ISBN1-886768-06-4.
3. ^J.W. Alicoate; Joseph Darmenberg; M.D. Kann, eds. (1927). The Film daily year book of motion pictures. J. W. Alicoate. p. 791. OCLC1569196.
4. ^ ^abcdKowalick, Vince (November 26, 1994). 'No Matter How You Cue Up, It's Tough to Beat a Legend'. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 2, 2009.
5. ^ ^{abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzaaabacadaeafagahaiajakalamanaoap}Simpson, Brad (1996). Paul Rubino & Victor Stein (eds.). Blue Book of Pool Cues (first ed.). Blue Book Publications. pp. 103–4, 412, 422. ISBN1-886768-02-1.CS1 maint: uses editors parameter (link)
6. ^U.S. Patent 2,553,887, May 22, 1951. Retrieved on May 2, 2009.
7. ^ ^abcShamos, Michael Ian (1993). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Billiards. New York, NY: Lyons & Burford. pp. 14, 29, 71–2. ISBN1-55821-219-1.
8. ^'ACA Awards, ACA Hall of Fame'. American Cuemakers Association. 2003. Retrieved November 16, 2006.
9. ^ ^ab'BCA Hall of Fame Inductees: 2002 – 2006'. Billiard Congress of America. 2006. Archived from the original on October 19, 2006. Retrieved November 16, 2006.
10. ^Staff writers (January 29, 2004). 'Laurance, Balabushka Picked for Hall of Fame'. Billiards Digest. Retrieved May 8, 2009.
11. ^Zibart, Eve (February 25, 1990). 'The Cadillac Of Cue Sticks'. The Washington Post. Retrieved May 16, 2009.
12. ^Commercial information about the Joss N7 model pool cue
13. ^'Syracuse man will show his sticks in New York City'(fee required). Syracuse Herald-Journal. January 12, 1998. p. D7. Retrieved February 7, 2010.

External links[edit]

• Balabushka's patent application for a folding leg bracket (1949) (html version)

Vol. 40 (Number 5) Year 2019. Page 1

Metodología de proyectos integrados de aprendizaje de Idiomas para estudiantes universitarios

Vera PAKHARUKOVA 1; Olga TOPORKOVA 2; Inna BESSARABOVA 3; Tamara YOVANOVICH 4

Received: 18/10/2018 • Approved: 25/01/2019 • Published 11/02/2019

Contents

1. Introduction

Project-based learning approach has become more popular due to a number of reasons. It is the integrated project that allows rational combining and mixing programs, courses and techniques based on the compatibility of possible principles to achieve goals and objectives in foreign language learning. In this regard much attention should be paid to the autonomous principle of learning mode as it implies an interactive participation of the students at every stage of learning / teaching processes, and it also reflects their individual interests and motivation.

It has been noted that “for English as Second Language (ESL) students, project-based learning typically integrated the four skills (listening, speaking,reading and writing) and encouraged the use of English outside the classroom (Marquez K., 2016,). Student projects may be collaborative or independent, and require students to use their developing language skills to negotiate, solve problems and acquire new information”. Authentic project tasks according to some researches (Haffner M. & Fun C., 2012) should encourage cooperation, communication, development of creative and critical thinking competencies, as well as the use of modern technologies.

Then Schleicher A. (2015), director for Education and Skills of the 21st century (OECD, Boston, Massachusetts), when assessing the concept of 'four-dimensional education' drew the attention of the experts to the fact that “it is necessary to clearly define the spaces, in which educators, curriculum planners, policymakers and learners could establish what should be learned, in their context and for their future”. Answering a similar crucial question a number of researchers focused on training programs that needed to be thoroughly reviewed for the four aspects: knowledge, skills, character and meta-learning (Fadel Ch., Vitalik M., Drilling B., 2011), “Adaptation for the 21st century should mean a review of each indicator of certain spheres of life and the interrelationship between them. Our educational systems should be oriented to the positive goals of personal competences formation, knowledge and expediency for all students.” All the students should learn to consider the results of their actions, and in the long term, to act meaningfully in the environment, to reflect and adapt to the changes in the world”.

This paper is to focus on the methodological content of foreign language learning techniques because its components allow developing undergraduates’ general cultural and professional communication competences (Yovanovich T., Prom N., Toporkova O, 2018). Following modern teachers-methodologists, a methodological content is considered to be based on speech orientation, situational backgrounds, functionality, individualization, and novelty (Solovova, 2010). These components define the features, structure, principles and technologies of modern foreign language training forms. The aim of this article is to describe how the above-mentioned components are implemented during foreign language classes’ arrangements with bachelor and master students in and out of classroom spaces as well.

2. Research Methodology

Various stages of the present study involved the application a number of methods: method of theoretical analysis of related psychological, pedagogical and methodological literature, comparative method, method of generalization of accumulated experience in the field of study, survey and diagnostic methods (interviewing, questionnaires, testing), observation methods (direct and indirect observation) and predictive methods (simulation and forecasting).

The study was carried out at Volgograd State Technical University, with covering 164 students and faculty members of the Department of Foreign Languages. Theoretical and experimental work was carried out in several stages. At the first exploratory and cognitive stage (2016-2017), a targeted analysis of literary sources including foreign reviews was made; the initial research positions were defined, and the authors' own experience in applying project technologies in the work of university teachers was generalized. At the second stage (2017-2018), the scientific and pedagogical foundations for the application of advanced project technologies in the faculty's educational process were clarified. Then the ways of improving the educational process were developed while teaching the university students and undergraduates within the framework of the project 'Integrated Second Language (English) Learning'. When assessing and generalizing the results of practical research, the methods of theoretical analysis were applied: questionnaire surveying, interviewing, evaluation-prognostic techniques for the purpose of analyzing students' language skills and personal qualities; diagnostic methods (testing, generalization of variable characteristics); methods of statistical data processing.

3. Discussion

3.1. Methodological Content Components

Project teaching policies and practices of a foreign language is characterized by a number of different and interrelated aspects, components, principles and factors (Hafner M. & Fun C.; Mahboob Ah. & Tilakaratna N., 2012).

The following types of integrated projects are of interest for consideration (Marquez K., 2016):

3.1.1. Technology projects

Technology-based projects not only enhance language learning, but also help students improve their technical skills. One common type of project is to encourage students to use the Internet to research a topic of interest. The results of their research (creative work) can be used to construct a website, write a report or give a presentation. Technology-based projects are not limited to computers, however. Using video and audio recorders, students can create documentation of interviews, poetry readings, skits or plays. Recordings may be presented in class or posted to a website such as YouTube for wider viewing.

3.1.2. Writing projects

Writing projects involve far more than just writing. A popular class project for ESL (English as a second language) students is a class newsletter or newspaper. Students use verbal communication, analytical thinking and problem-solving skills while working together to choose topics and types of articles; edit and revise contents; and design the layout. Other possible writing project for ESL students includes letters to pen pals, political figures or celebrities. Students may also enjoy developing short stories, various info, notes or other types of creative writing, which can be bound together into a class book or published to a website.

3.1.3. Community projects

English classes are a valuable way to learn the language, but eventually students will need opportunities to use their newly acquired language skills in a real-world context. Volunteering, for example, gives students a meaningful opportunity to practice their developing English language skills, as well as engage with the local community and learn about culture and language outside the classroom. Volunteer opportunities can be a one-time event or an ongoing activity, and may take place at locations such as public libraries, community and charity events, schools and soup kitchens. Possible volunteer responsibilities could include helping with neighborhood cleanups, tutoring children, providing logistical support for fundraisers or doing clerical or translation tasks.

3.1.4. Presentation Projects

Presentation projects can take many forms. Often a presentation is one element of a larger project. For instance, students who take on a research or community project may present information about their project to their classmates. A presentation may also be a project unto itself. In this way, students may have an informative talk to their group-mates. Some experts (Marquez K., Morrison, B., Curry, N., 2016) believe that the presentation can be a project in itself. Presentation projects can be basic and low-tech, with the students' spoken communication as the main focus, or they can involve technical or creative components such as advanced visual aids for solving local problems, extensive research or video clips and other props.

One of the most important principles in this respect is the principle of autonomy. In a given situation, we are talking about the Autonomous work of the students on the project tasks, and their interaction with groupmates outside the classroom and the use of all possible means, including hardware and software and Internet resources.

3.2. Sample tasks on integrated projects

It should be stated that presented types of projects are very relevant for our students of the technical University, as English for them is also a foreign language for business communication, based on standards that underlie the foreign language programs of the 3rd generation for higher education (FGOS VPO, 2016). As for technological projects, their role is also steadily increasing, as they actually allow us to effectively expand the educational space beyond the classroom and enhance both linguistic and extra linguistic skills and competencies of students (Pakharukova V., Toporkova O., Yankina E., 2016). Thus, for second-year students of Economics and management department group tasks with the distribution of roles and student leaders have a prolonged character, and while preparing them, we could carry out an intermediate quality control of training, spending if necessary, a few minutes in the classroom. The following project tasks are offered to our students and graduates depending on their specialty direction: 'Web-site design', 'Computer programs for supermarkets', “Advertising Campaign Project', 'TV Commercial Project', “Trends in the development of the regional economy ', “Event marketing research” and others. Basic training is performed through the Internet resources – email, web-sites, Skype, social networks.

Last year, we started at our language centre the so-called Julia's Club – organized by a young teacher-trainee from the United States, Julia M. – where everyone could take part in the discussion and role presentation of project tasks on the proposed topics: “Travelling”, “Role models” (November), “American Culture vs Russian Culture”, “Winter Holidays” (December, 2017). We would like also to note our language self-training center (Self-Access Language Centre), established for students and undergraduates where they can get various consultations of teachers working at the Department.

A special attention is paid to develop our students’ skills of writing their thoughts and views, starting with freshmen students, and it is, above all, small thematic messages (small stories and emails) in both written and oral forms, as well as the design of advertising materials (leaflets, prospects). One of the most important creative works is the preparation and writing an Essay on 'My future specialty” for the 2nd year students.

Social projects also take place in our academic process. One of the joint projects with the Department of 'Advertising and public relations', presented in English, was devoted to solving environmental problems of our region (Zarudneva A., Pakharukova V., 2017).

In our city (Volgograd), summer, 2018, there was held the World Cup, and the students of Technical University participated in this event as volunteers, and they could practice their communication skills in real situations and activities.

The study and analysis of the project approach to foreign language learning has shown that it is one of the most promising methods of linguistic skills and competencies development, as well as personal and professional qualities of the future specialist in a modern society. First of all, those are such important qualities as responsibility, persistence and persistency in achieving goals and objectives, leadership and business qualities, tolerant and ethical attitude towards the colleagues and business partners. Moreover, some students with rather poor knowledge of English and weak communication skills could take part in the project activities and improve their language skills. The current situation on the integrated project on the one hand made the mentioned students cooperate with the other mates and get help and support, and on the other hand provided the circumstances for language competences and personal qualities development.

Since the modern world community demands and local economic needs are high, we can say, quite strict requirements to the future specialist, and, that is why, learning courses (programs) and curricula should be regularly reviewed and adjusted.

The emphasis on the educational space, in our opinion, is the integration mechanism that contributes to the development of various language competencies and communication skills of the future professionals. And the learning of a foreign language should be considered in the context of changes, as well as global and local trends of the social development.

As the basis of the project approach to learning the second language (English) some principles can be considered.

Following the experts in applied linguistics of Australian University (Mahboob Ah. & Tilakaratna N. 2012), there have been identified six principles: 1) Collaboration, 2) Relevance, 3) Evidence, 4) Alignment, 5) Transparency, 6) Empowerment. In short, these six principles are combined in “CREATE”, which is associated with creativity and a certain perspective.

It is obvious that the principles are aimed at expanding the educational component, including the learning space. The researchers believe that these principles are in no way prescriptive or immutable; they should be evaluated on the basis of regular feedback and consultation, and revised as necessary over time.

The role of the teacher seems to be changing in the frames of integrated project paradigm. “One of the important roles of the teacher is to give an adequate expert evaluation of the achievements, and not to control the learners” (Little D.; Fabela-Cárdenas M., 2012).

In this regard, it is appropriate to disclose the aspect of autonomy in terms of integrated project learning a foreign language. It has been stated that the development of autonomy in language learning is governed by three basic pedagogical principles: • learner involvement – engaging learners to share responsibility for the learning process (the affective and the metacognitive dimensions); • learner reflection – helping learners to think critically when they plan, monitor and evaluate their learning (the metacognitive dimensions); • appropriate target language use – using the target language as the principal medium of language learning (the communicative and the metacognitive dimensions).

We also asked ourselves what the teacher should do according to these three principles. In this sense the teacher should:

• use the target language as the preferred medium of classroom communication and require the same of her/his learners; • involve the learners in a non-stop quest for good learning activities, which are shared, discussed, analyzed and evaluated with the whole class – in the target language, to begin with in very simple terms; • help the learners to set their own learning targets and choose their own learning activities, subjecting them to discussion, analysis and evaluation – again, in the target language; • require the learners to identify individual goals but pursue them through collaborative work in small groups; • require the learners to keep a written record of their learning – plans of lessons and projects, lists of useful vocabulary, whatever texts they themselves produce; • engage the learners in regular evaluation of their progress as individual learners and as a class – in the target language.

Following the academic standards, we have determined the possibility of integrated studying a foreignlanguage having taken into account the compatibility of various factors, starting with curriculum and individual goals and objectives, learning environment and educational space to the provision of educational equipment, teaching materials, as well as needs and preferences of students for learning a foreign language.

As for the whole set of goals and objectives, they coincide to a greater or lesser extent, and it gave us the opportunity of combining academic (classroom) and extra-curricular activities in the spatial framework of our University. Moreover, it appeared possible to combine in this way our efforts and capacities of the University (the language center with well-equipped computer classrooms for independent work), as well as hard - and software (Internet resources), with those having at home. The development of autonomous learning strategies is known to become possible as a result of improved computer and Internet technologies.

It should be also noted that goals, needs and interests of the students are the most variable factors for many reasons.

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In this regard the most of our efforts were concentrated on the development a number of important students’ qualities, and it was primarily the responsibility shared, at least with the other participants of the educational process (mates, teachers, consultants, organizers, etc.), for the learning outcomes. Students were also involved in the organizational activities in order to gain experience of autonomous acquiring of language knowledge and skills, as well as developing the competencies required for the use in different situations.

Having compared and analyzed the above presented approaches and the given principles we formulated the following integration factors affecting the implementation of strategies for autonomous learning within a technical University: - informativity, - compatibility, - readiness (including technical training – TT), - involvement, - flexibility, - integration, - evaluation, - continuity.

A special accent, in our opinion, should be made on the moral component of autonomous aspect of learning in general and on learning a foreign language in particular, taking into consideration the current shift towards dependent and consumer attitude towards the life.

There exists a great need for developing such qualities as sense of purpose, autonomy in attitudes and decision-making, strong will, charisma, persistence, patience, tolerance towards the others and just honesty in the relationships of personal and business nature as well.

The implementation of the students’ autonomy in learning activities on mastering a foreign language will allow us to maintain and develop the system of continuous language education. However, many questions have ambiguous and variable nature, and they should be fully explored and tested in a further project work on integrated approach to foreign language learning within the University and beyond its boundaries.

3.3. Assessments of the research data

Sharing the above approaches and guided by the results of our research and own practical work on the project technology of English language teaching, we can add one more principle: 7) educational Space, which is structurally integrated into the presented system of principles in the form of CREATES.

With regard to the principle of collaboration, it refers to the cooperation of all stakeholders in the field of foreign language teaching strategy – from the experts and officials in the field of education to the teachers, students and local administration The relevance principle is considered in relation to the key policy areas in the field of education, practices and training materials. The principle of evidence is interpreted ambiguously and concludes that it is not always possible to provide a large amount of evidence to support successful practices. The principle ofalignment should be the basis for the development of the curriculum and training materials, which in turn need to be combined with the classroom training practices. Further, these practices should be evaluated according to whether the students demonstrate the required level of language proficiency, as well as defined skills and competencies depending on the specific context. The principle of transparency requires that strategic goals, tactic objectives and results were visible, accessible and justified to all stakeholders. Finally, the principle of empowerment means that the ultimate goal of any project of foreign language teaching should be to empower all the stakeholders (teachers, students, organizers, managers, experts) through collaborative, relevant, evidence-based and transparent practices.

It is appropriate here to refer to the aspect of autonomy and related points of view: ‘autonomously or independently it does not mean alone, alone with himself‘. ‘In addition to the teacher-student dynamics, another critical component in the development of effective learner autonomy is a peer network. Contrary to what the term might evoke in popular usage, learner autonomy does not involve secluding oneself in a cork-lined room with a mountain of learning materials. This is all the more true for the social phenomenon of human speech. Computer interactions can simulate aspects of this process, but it is not nearly the same as direct human-to-human communication’ (Godwin-Jones R., 2011).

It is not less important, in our view, to find a good balance between communications with real partners and supporting gadgets or interactive training programs, otherwise we can face some undesirable consequences or deviations in psychological terms at least. Evidently fashionable devices must occupy the right place in our learning and communication processes.

The problem of loneness is increasingly spreading in spite of all quick and “useful” gadgets and devices, and it has become much deeper than decades ago. Quite large numbers of young people have been used and often prefer to communicate by means of various gadgets as if hiding behind newfangled devices and concealing their feelings, emotions, and sometimes real goals and desires.

The intermediate results of our two-year research and experimental work carried out with the students and first-year undergraduates on integrated language learning projects (English) are given in the Summary table.

Table 1

Column (before %) in the Table shows the pre-test results and indicates that the difference between experimental and control groups was not initially significant, in comparison with the column (after %) where integrated projects of language learning (English) were used as a basic technique opposed to the control groups with traditional methods of learning. Summary table also shows the percentage (%) increases in the range of language skills and competences developments in experimental groups.

To accomplish the objective of the present study, the following instruments were employed:

A placement test: Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT, 2009) was used partially as a placement test to determine the participants' level range. Its reliability was reported in some sources since it has been considered as a standard test. The pre-test included items extracted from the participants' text book 'Select readings: Intermediate' developed by Lee (2011). The pre-test included 25 multiple-choice items and it focused on vocabulary recognition and grammar and text items. The test was taken to evaluate student’s ability in vocabulary recognition and grammar forms at the beginning of the research period. The post-test was a modified pre-test with the same content but of a different form to avoid the learners' reminding.

Our students were also tested by a set of aspect tasks for reading, listening, speaking and writing, before they started the course, and after they completed the training course on specially designed integrated programmes that lasted for two years. There were developed some special tests, as well as questionnaires and situational tasks with evaluation criteria.

Having ultimately, analyzed and summarized the promising data we decided to step forward in the direction of mutual efforts and participation.

4. Conclusions

In order to ensure strategy and practice expansion, we believe that educational projects themselves must be viable in the social, political, economic and cultural environments in which they operate. And the integrated project could be defined as an arrangement (organizational) form, which gives a real opportunity to comprehensively develop language competences, personal and business qualities at expanding the educational spaces through modern Internet resources, and combining classroom and extracurricular activities.

In conclusion, we confess that the principles outlined in this review are not mutually exclusive. In fact, we suppose that they are, in one way or another, interrelated with each other. The given principles are applicable in various contexts and have a number of meanings. As noted above, it is also important to remember that these principles themselves need to be regularly reviewed and updated to maintain their relevance, validity and applicability in diverse educational contexts. Our research is going to be continued and moved to the next stage.

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1. Volgograd State Technical University, Russia

2. Volgograd State Technical University, Russia

3. Volgograd State Technical University, Russia

4. Volgograd State Technical University, Russia. Contact e-mail: srdjan@live.ru

Revista ESPACIOS. ISSN 0798 1015
Vol. 40 (Nº 5) Year 2019

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