Empirical Study Of The Influence Of Russian And Chinese Teachers' Online Classroom Management On Students' Learning Outcomes In Chinese As Foreign Language Online Classroom

In the context of internationalization and globalization,China and Russia have increasingly more political,economic,touristic and cultural ties;now more and more people in Russian are interested in China and start learning Chinese language.Chinese language learning becomes an important part of contemporary language education in Russia.Chinese language courses are compulsory in many formal educational institutions.But beyond that,Chinese language learning is also a substantial part of non-formal education,extra-curricular education and adult education.Chinese language schools are to be found in bigger and smaller cities.Traditional classrooms find it hard to satisfy the increasing demand.As the technology becomes an integral part of the educational process-be it formal,informal or non-formal education-the classroom is being transferred into virtual space.The rapidly increasing number of online language schools proves that it is a very popular educational trend.Online language education allows learners to have much wider choices:teachers,methods,educational platforms,ways of organizing classes etc.With no geographical restrictions foreign language learning is becoming global.Via online schools students can get in touch with Chinese teachers which can be easily found even for the students who live in remote areas of Russia.For example,western Russian cities still have few Chinese teachers from China,as well as Russian teachers of Chinese language.Online language schools allow students from such cities study Chinese.Classroom management deals with the teacher's behaviors and techniques aimed at ensuring such a classroom environment which would be conducive to successful learning.Online classroom is different from traditional classroom in many aspects,including classroom management.Online classroom management deals with how to create a classroom environment conducive to successful learning in very particular online settings,where the teacher interacts with students via online communication.Therefore,online classroom management deals with ensuring stable connection in the classroom,providing students with necessary materials,resolving disciplinary problems,managing teacher-student and student-student relations,keeping track of time consumption for various activities etc.In our work we approach online classroom management from the four angles-content management,conduct management,covenant management and time management.We discuss how these classroom management dimensions evolve in the online classroom.Then we collect evidence about the four aspects of classroom management practiced by Russian and Chinese teachers of Chinese language in an online language school.We have 6 Chinese teachers and 8 Russian teachers who give online classes of Chinese language to Russian students.Using observation,interview and questionnaires we gather data about classroom management practices in classrooms led by Russian and Chinese teachers.Then we draw a descriptive conclusion about each aspect of classroom management in classrooms led by Russian and Chinese teachers.The role of classroom management is to provide good conditions for successful learning.Consequently,students learning outcomes become a yardstick to measure the effectiveness of classroom management practices of Russian and Chinese teachers.In the next part of the paper we conduct a stepwise regression analysis to see to what degree classroom management impacts students' learning outcomes.We gather other variables which might also influence learning outcomes and draw a regression model.This model proves that classroom management has influence on learners'learning outcomes.The results of the stepwise regression show that there are three variables which cause systematic improvement in the students' outcomes.They are-the teacher's teaching experience,the student's learning time outside of the classroom and the teacher 's classroom management.Such a result shows that,indeed,for the learning to be successful,it is crucial for teaching to find its way to the recipient,namely,the student,and it is the classroom management which provides the channel for this teaching-learning communication.According to the study,the teacher's teaching experience accounts for 43,5%of changes in student's learning outcomes,students' learning time outside the classroom-for 32,8%,classroom management-for 25%.Having proved that classroom management is one of the variables which influence learners' learning outcomes,we analyze which classroom management(of Russian or Chinese teachers)is more conducive to learners' outcomes in each of the language aspects.Language learning outcomes include listening,reading,writing and speaking;we analyze which type of management brings about better results in each of the four aspects.The analysis showed that for reading,Chinese classroom management yield better learning outcomes,while listening,speaking and writing are better under Russian classroom management.Finally,in order to increase the effectiveness of the Russian and Chinese teachers'classroom management we provide recommendations for each of the two groups.Russian teachers are advised to improve their time management,while Chinese teachers should pay attention to content management(especially,extra materials and technical issues)and covenant management(including encouraging more students to participate and rotating participants in pairs and small groups).Being a foreign student studying in China,I apologize for any inconvenience in reading caused by language slips which may occur in the text of the paper.