Studies in Comparative Education

WAYS OF REDUCING ANXIETY IN UKRAINIAN SECONDARY LEARNERS WHEN SPEAKING ENGLISH

Olena Bevz — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0200

The paper highlights the significance of addressing the issue of anxiety in language learning, especially when it comes to speaking English as a foreign language by Ukrainian secondary learners. The aim of this small-scale classroom research is to investigate the secondary learners’ language anxiety levels when speaking English, and to suggest ways to reduce it. The levels of language anxiety were defined by means of a self-report questionnaire, ‘The Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale’ (FLCAS), which uses a Likert scale to assess issues related to communication apprehension, test anxiety, and fear of negative evaluation. The intervention rested on exploiting the following strategies: encouraging gradual exposure to speaking situations, providing interactive and creative speaking practices, using positive reinforcement and confidence building, and fostering a supportive learning environment. Throughout the intervention, specific strategies were used to develop fluency, confident body language, and active participation towards the group of learners with a high level of language anxiety. To trace the impact of the intervention on the participants, the focused observation on the behavioural changes, such as participation levels in speaking activities, changes in body language, fluency and willingness to speak.

The intervention helped reduce severe speaking anxiety and led to noticeable positive changes in fluency, body language, and participation. The findings suggest that the implemented strategies helped reduce anxiety and improve engagement. It also proves that understanding language anxiety levels serves as a premise for providing necessary help and support to anxious foreign language secondary learners.

SHIFTING THE PARADIGM OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING IN HEIS TOWARDS EU RECOMMENDATIONS

Iryna Didenko, Liudmyla Zagoruiko, Iryna Oliinyk — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0200

The article deals with recent amendments in CEFR and their influence on school and university education in Ukraine in terms of teaching foreign languages. The article outlines what mediation is and what the rationale of developing mediation competencies is. The authors provide examples of the situations, where mediation competencies application is vital to build mutual understanding. The article gives the understanding of the current situation in secondary education in terms of mediation competencies development. They share hands-on experience of challenges the English teachers are facing in terms of changing the focus of their lessons to mediation skills. Also the article flags up the potential threats for HEIs connected with the requirements of the State Standard for Upper-Secondary Education to summatively assess mediation competencies only at the schools with advanced language learning. And the authors provide certain recommendations for HEIs, how to develop mediation competencies of the students enrolled and what the university professors can do to shift the focus of their language lessons to mediation competencies development.

SUSTAINABLE POST-WAR RECOVERY OF BORDER UNIVERSITIES IN UKRAINE: A CONCEPTUAL MODEL

Nataliia Kholiavko — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0200

The full-scale war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine has drastically transformed the operation and mission of Ukrainian higher education institutions, especially border universities exposed to heightened risks. These institutions have faced infrastructure damage, relocation of staff and students, and disruptions to educational and research activities. Despite the conflict, they have acted as community hubs, providing shelter, material support, psychological assistance, and integration services for internally displaced persons, highlighting the increasing importance of the "third mission" of universities - engagement with society. This study proposes a conceptual model for the sustainable post-war recovery of Ukrainian border universities, based on sustainable development principles and digital transformation. The model comprises five interconnected blocks: strategic-target, functional-structural, partnership, digitalization, and monitoring-evaluation. The strategic-target block emphasizes safety, educational quality, research relevance, and sustainable leadership. The functional-structural block addresses renovation and reconstruction of campuses, resilience of processes, and institutional adaptability. The partnership block relies on the Quadruple Helix model, fostering collaboration between academia, industry, government, and civil society to generate synergistic effects for universities, local businesses, and communities. The digitalization block focuses on AI, big data, IoT, blockchain, and cloud technologies to enhance interactivity, remote experimentation, campus security, and institutional efficiency. The monitoring-evaluation block provides indicators to assess strategic alignment, financial sustainability, educational quality, digital competence, security, and partnership outcomes. The proposed model enables border universities to adopt a "build back better" approach, transitioning to a higher level of development that strengthens societal impact, competitiveness, and international recognition. Integrating sustainable development and digitalization ensures resilience, adaptability, and the capacity to meet post-war challenges, contributing to the systematic reconstruction of higher education in Ukraine.

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OF LANGUAGE EDUCATION: INSIGHTS FROM THE EUROPEAN DIGIFLED PROJECT

Natalya Oliynyk, Olga Meleshchenko, Olena Morozova — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0200

The full-scale war in Ukraine has intensified the need for resilient and flexible models of language education, accelerating the transition toward digital formats across higher education institutions. At the same time, the digital transformation of language instruction remains uneven, limited by disparities in infrastructure, instructors’ digital competence, and the integration of innovative pedagogical technologies. The study examines key features and trends of digital transformation in Ukrainian university language education using the benchmarking report of the Erasmus+ CBHE project “Modernisation of university education programmes in foreign languages by integrating information technologies (DigiFLEd)” as the primary analytical source. The report’s comparative insights into European partner universities serve as reference models for assessing digital transformation potential in Ukraine.

The methodology combines comparative analysis of major European frameworks (DigCompEdu 2.0, Digital Education Action Plan, CEFR Companion Volume) with content analysis of DigiFLEd benchmarking materials. Structural analysis of practices in three European partner universities – Maynooth University, University of Western Macedonia, and Tampere University – was used to identify strategies related to digital governance, pedagogical models, AI integration, and instructor support.

The findings reveal universal components of effective digital transformation: strategic institutional alignment, strong teaching-support centres, coherent LMS-based ecosystems, extensive use of multimodal and autonomous learning formats, and responsible implementation of artificial intelligence. Compared with these models, Ukrainian universities show both substantial potential and persistent constraints, particularly regarding infrastructure, digital competence development, and pedagogical integration of digital tools.

The study concludes that insights from the DigiFLEd benchmarking process provide a strong basis for developing sustainable digitalisation strategies in Ukrainian language education.