Статистика ВК сообщества "Language Link Russia"

According to an old Japanese proverb, "Better than a thousand days of diligent study is one day with a great teacher." I often think of that quote every time, I take on a new class of students.

With over 30 years’ experience in the classroom, I have seen classes of every ‘size, shape, and color’, and despite having all these classroom years under my belt, I still ask myself, how each new class is going to be the same as or different from previous classes I have taught

Though it would be an exaggeration to say no two classes are alike, I can say with certitude there will be both similarities and differences. In terms of similarities, there are the human components that go into being that great teacher the Japanese proverb spoke about. I’ve never encountered a class that didn’t want their teacher to be upbeat, positive, enthusiastic, nurturing, and have a good sense of humor. This is especially true today when confronted with a world where bad news seems to be a ubiquitous commodity.

I always say if you want bad news, buy a newspaper; if you want to leave the ‘real’ world behind, then enter a language classroom. For better or worse (and I think better), classrooms are artificial environments that are brought to life by the teacher, and in these manmade environments, you have the opportunity to explore a vast number of coulda, woulda, and shoulda worlds allowing you to escape from the real world … at least for an academic hour or two.

In terms of differences, sooner or later each new class forces the teacher to come up with just the right mix of ‘teaching format’. It probably comes as no surprise that there are various approaches to language teaching. One book which I own, and which makes for less-than-scintillating reading, discusses 22 different approaches. Though I’ve never used the majority of them, they do exist. Suffice it to say, this is where classrooms are and should be different.

Very young students often enjoy Total Physical Response (TPR) which must then morph into a different approach, teenagers and young adults prefer the ‘Communicative Approach’ with varying degrees of lexical/ grammatical study, older adults find safety in ‘Grammar-translation’, and so on and so forth. This, of course, brings out another similarity that is shared by all those great teachers referred to in the aforementioned proverb. Great teachers are professional, knowledgeable, and most importantly willing to change because of or learn from his or her students.

So, there you have it, my formula for a great teacher. Of course, that said, I was once told by one of my professors, “There are no great teachers, only great students.” And indeed, there ARE great students … but not all or even most of them are great. In retrospect, these, the less-than-great students, are the ones for whom I want to be great and for whom I worry most about just how to be so.

Perhaps, in the end, it is this worry that really makes for a great teacher. If so, then Jodi Lynn Picoult, an American writer, nailed it when she said, "The fact that you worry about being a good teacher, means that you already are one." So, not to toot my own horn (actually I am), I will end by quoting René Descartes who said, “I think, therefore I am.”

Have a good week.

#Robsays@languagelinkrussia

Photo by Jason Goodman

If you’re a fan of classic rock, then I don’t need to tell you that in 1979, Pink Floyd released its seminal album ‘The Wall’. Even non-classic rock fans can recite the following lyrics from ‘Another Brick in the Wall’:

We don't need no education
We don't need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teacher, leave them kids alone

Though I prefer to simply enjoy the song rather than analyze its content and deeper meaning, I can’t help but wonder what school must have been like for Roger Waters who wrote this song about his views on formal education.

According to Waters, teachers were more interested in keeping the kids quiet than teaching them. If true, then Sidney Hook, a renowned educator, was right when he said, “Everyone who remembers his own education remembers teachers, not methods and techniques. The teacher is the heart of the educational system.” Of course, had Roger Waters had a teacher like Sidney Hook, the world might have been deprived of one of the 100 greatest rock songs ever written.

Regardless, this begs the question, ‘What is the role of the teacher in the classroom’. I personally subscribe to the Bob Talbot school of thought which states, “Teaching kids to count is fine, but teaching them what counts is best.” Good teachers regardless of subject have only one job which according to CS Lewis is ‘not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts’.

So, if you ask me what the role of a good teacher is, then I’d say it's a combination of teaching kids (Waters) from the heart (Hook) about what really counts (Talbot) so as to bring forth new knowledge from where once there was very little (Lewis). Not very original, but then again there’s no need to reinvent the wheel or so the expression goes.

Have a good day.

#Robsays@languagelinkrussia

Друзья,
готовы потренировать произношение?
Поехали:
1. Conscientiousness [kɒnʃɪˈenʃəsnəs] - добросовестность
2. Anonymous [əˈnɒnɪməs] - анонимный
3. Hereditary [hɪˈrɛdɪtəri] - наследственный
4. Prejudice [ˈprɛʤʊdɪs] - предубеждение
5. Onomatopoeia [ˌɒnəʊmətəʊˈpi(ː)ə] – звукоподражание
6. Facilitate [fəˈsɪlɪteɪt] - облегчать
7. Choir [ˈkwʌɪə] - хор
8. Queue [kjuː] - очередь
9. Regularly [ˈreɡjʊləli] - регулярно
10. Rural [ˈrʊər(ə)l] - сельский.

Ставьте "+" в комментариях, если смогли произнести все слова с первой попытки! Посмотрим, сколько у нас отличников 🤓

Друзья,
Знание иностранных языков, кроме всего прочего, соединяет сердца
Согласны? - оставьте сердечко в комментариях

26 апреля в Библиотеке иностранной литературы состоялась церемония закрытия XIV Международного конкурса эссе «Единство в различии», организованного [club22463439|Образовательной компанией RELOD].

Генеральный директор Language Link Роб Дженски выступил с вдохновляющей речью и вручил победителям сертификаты на обучение от [club5672708|Language Link Москва] и [club19482404|Language Link Санкт-Петербург].

#news@languagelinkrussia #unityindiversity

Чтобы лучше понимать текст на английском и правильно писать, нужно разбираться в пунктуации. Существует двенадцать ключевых знаков препинания. Прочитайте список с примерами, чтобы вы знали, как правильно ее использовать на письме.

Друзья!
Спешим поздравить вас и ваших близких с чудесным праздником — Новым годом! Пусть этот год принесет вам только счастливые мгновения, позитивное настроение и успех!

Всего вам самого доброго, лучшего, незабываемого в 2022 году!

Команда Language Link

Друзья,
приближается День всех влюбленных — время красивых признаний и комплиментов!
Умеете ли вы говорить комплименты на английском?
Let's go тренироваться с нами!

Сохраняйте пост и удивляйте своих любимых!

P.S. Не жалейте для нас ваших сердечек Ставь лайк посту, если понравилось

В 2021 году почти половина (45%) соискателей указали в своих резюме знание английского. Среди них 48% владеют языком на уровнях A1 и A2. 36% соискателей знают английский на B1 и B2, а С1 и C2 — всего 16%.
Как показали исследования портала HeadHunter, знание английского языка в России в среднем увеличивает зарплату сотрудника на 15%.
Думаете, это не много? Так вот, например, разница в ожидаемых зарплатах между кандидатами с начальным и продвинутым уровнем владения английским языком в среднем составляет более 50 тыс. рублей.
Интересно, что в вакансиях в сфере науки и образования будущим сотрудникам со знанием языка предлагают зарплату на 30% выше!

STUDENTS, TEACHERS ... AND HORSES

“My mom always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get,” or so claimed Forest Gump in a 1994 film of the same name. Interestingly, that is also the same year I first entered Russia to teach English … and to set up Language Link.

As a teacher, I can say with certainty that what Forest Gump says about life is also true of classroom students. Each time I looked at a new class of language learners, I found myself wondering what approach to language teaching would ultimately work best.

No doubt, the reader has heard of the often touted communicative approach to language teaching, and though I agree it’s a wonderful approach, my question ran much deeper.

You see, students are not all created equal. Some have intrinsic motivation or reasons as to why they want or need to learn English; others simply lack this, and so the teacher must serve as a source of extrinsic motivation; that is, making the student who does not necessarily want to learn English at least want to be in the classroom. That’s job one.

Job two is to try and understand how different students learn best. Some students are visual learners and need to ‘see’ language while others are auditory learners and need to hear it. Still others learn best through association and so on and so forth. Because of this, teachers make appropriate use of whiteboards and flash cards for the visual learners; individual and choral drills and sound recordings for auditory learners; and roleplays and other hands-on activities for those who learn best by doing.

With all that a teacher has to do so as to be a good teacher, the question
must be asked so what is the students responsibility? I’m sure there can be no doubt that learning must be the student’s job, and for this reason, different students can have different learning outcomes.

So, each has his or her own job - teacher and student; that said, though I agree ‘you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink; Mario Cortes states, ‘Whereas a good teacher can lead the horse to water, an excellent teacher will make the horse thirsty first’. Regardless, in the end, only the horse can decide just how much it wants to drink.

Have a good day.