IN OUR CLASSROOMS When the word was spread that our department was to host a group of ELT specialists from Great Britain, who had come on a sort of an exchange programme to our country, we were pretty excited – no wonder, over 20 years ago contacts of such kind were all but rare. Our visitors were to conduct a number of language classes for advanced students and tutors as well; among the latter I found myself, then a “newly-baked” Moscow State University teacher who had just embarked upon an ELT career. Curious to know about our guests’ impressions, I risked to approach one of them with my questions on completion of their visit – and was faced with a set of due compliments to the effect that everything was just excellent and we all spoke English nicely.
Not satisfied with formal praising – and perhaps suspecting there could be something else ‘behind the surface’ – I pressed for details asking what they really thought about the level of our teaching. I guessed correctly, in fact there was much more to expect. “If you insist so . . .” they said somewhat reluctantly, and in a few days’ time produced several sheets of paper labelled Moscow English. It turned out to be a test for Moscow teachers of English, and leafing through the precious file I suddenly discovered – to my horror – that quite a number of mistakes mentioned were my own mistakes as well! Moreover, some of them could be found even in our manuals and textbooks then in use.
Much time has passed since the shocking discovery. The present situation in ELT keeps changing for the better, and most of those mistakes are no longer recurring: EL teachers in Russia gained access – so longed for – to a lot of authentic teaching materials, and often have the opportunity to consult native speakers of English. However, there are certain tendencies and stereotypes of erroneous word usage that, owing to mere inertia, take long to be eliminated. The occurrence of those stereotypes could be accounted for by the fact that not only an improper choice of words or idioms should be taken into consideration when learning a foreign language, but also deeper cultural divergences manifesting themselves in the mode of expression. Examples abound. Take, for instance, addressing an audience as comrades or friends, so characteristic for the pre-perestroika times, and so strange for foreigners; or the lack of coincidence in naming well-known notions pertaining to the sphere of education, such as faculty, school, chair, department, which stand for quite different realia in the two languages; or the misuse of requests and orders, ever-present in the classrooms; or the mixture of styles and variants of English, etc.
The test and classroom phrases submitted below are based on the authentic material mentioned above which was duly reviewed and reconsidered. The test illustrates typical instances of divergences in the mode of naming similar notions by native speakers of both languages and contains some mistakes in otherwise grammatically correct sentences. Classroom phrases help vary our teachers’ vocabulary through different stages of a lesson.
1. Many overseas students visit Russia to study at the Institute of Russian named after Pushkin in Moscow in the hope of improving their Russian.
2. To be admitted to a university students must first of all be graduates of a middle school.
3. Irina works at the faculty of geography as a teacher of French.
4. How do you do, Charles? I haven’t seen you in ages.
5. There was so much noise in the street last night that I couldn’t get to sleep till one o’clock in the night. How do you like that?
6. – Where does Boris Ivanovitch work?
– To my mind, he works at the chair of Italian in the philological faculty.
7. You know, this year the students of the first course are so keen on English that they’ve set up their own English club.
8. Pay attention now, comrades, for we shall discuss the formation of the subjunctive in English.
9. I’m just dashing off to the library to get on with my scientific work on the structure of English verbs.
10. Be so kind and open the door for me please.
11. It seems to me, she has gone to the lingaphone cabinet to learn some more Japanese language.
12. The students’ assignments were checked up by their teachers.
13. I’ll meet you at noon today in a week, if that’s all right by you.
14. Marina travelled to Scotland, remained there for half a year and decided that it had been the best travel she had ever made.
Answer keys:
1. the Institute of Russian named after Pushkin – the Pushkin Institute2. a middle school (only for children aged 11 to 13) – secondary
graduate (only from a university/college) – must complete secondary education/ finish school
3. faculty (generic name) – department would be more common for the British
4. How do you do? (wrong use) – How’s it going?/ How are things? (cf. Rus. как дела?)
5. one o’clock in the night – morning
6. to my mind – I think
he works at the chair of Italian – department (chair usually presupposes one person, e.g. a vacancy)
7. the students of the first course – the first year students
8. pay attention; also be attentive (misuse of orders)– would you pay attention please
comrades (for the native speakers it evokes a picture of retired old people, possibly communists)
9. scientific work refers only to sciences and is usually carried out in the laboratory
10. be so kind for– would/will you open the door for me, please.
11. it seems to me – I think
the lingaphone cabinet (wrong use of both words) – the language laboratory
Japanese language – Japanese
12. checked up – checked
13. today in a week – a week today
14. travel (wrong use of a noun) – trip/ voyage;
half a year – 6 months would be more common for the native speakers