Development of cooperation between strategic partners; Allameh Tabataba'I University of Iran and Eurasian National University of Kazakhstan

I am Marzieh Sadat Razavi, a PhD candidate in Teaching Persian to the speakers of other Languages from Allameh Tabataba'i University in Iran, who have the honor of teaching Persian language to the students of Oriental Studies in the faculty of International Relations of the L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University. Eurasian National University is a leading university of Kazakhstan, ranked in the top 400 best universities in the world according to QS World University Rankings in 2020. ENU has gained a reputation as a world-class comprehensive research university, offering internationally recognized qualifications. The University which is located in Nur-Sultan actively participates in state program "Development of education hub in central Asia" and nowadays hosts more than 3% of international students from 25 countries of the world.

My first experience as a foreign specialist to give lecture in ENU was in the year of 2019 when I attend the university for one semester. It was my pleasure to be invited by the ENU for the second time in 2020 to deliver lecture for another semester. Due to the Coronavirus Pandemic, the course was in remote format. In this semester I was in charge of three groups of students; Bachelor students of third and fourth year and one MA student. The classes were held in Microsoft office Teams with an almost fair quality. Except their main course book, the students of different classes were provided with a variety of visual and auditory materials such as films, songs and discussions. They were also encouraged in participating in seminars planned by Allameh Tabataba'i University which were in Persian. Despite all limitations and shortcomings due to the online classes, my all attempt was to create an enjoyable and cheerful atmosphere and provide the students with more chances to be actively engaged in class activities during the lesson time and after that. Students' achievement and satisfaction was what I aimed to and thankfully was gained, at the end of the course.

Beside teaching, I also had the opportunity for the second time to participate in the university's international seminar to present and publish an article which is jointly written with A. Tyulyubayeva, the teacher of the department of Oriental Studies on the topic of Persian and Kazakh languages' similarities and their effect on the easiness of learning Persian for Kazakh speaking students.

As the final point, I would like to thank the Eurasian National University and hope for further cooperation in future.