Главная страница «Первого сентября»Главная страница журнала «Английский язык»Содержание №20/2005

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Step-by-Step to Great Results:

Cambridge Competition for Teachers of English

In September 2004 Cambridge University Press office in Moscow announced a competition for those teachers of English who use Cambridge materials for First Certificate preparation. The competition was held together with the Studio Cambridge Language School that was celebrating its 50th anniversary by offering a number of scholarships for teachers of English worldwide. Cambridge University Press and Studio Cambridge decided to share the expenses so that the winners could come over and have a free two-week teacher-training course in Cambridge in July 2005.

The competition had two stages. The first stage was writing a one-page informal report in English about teaching productive writing within an FCE preparation course. The reports were to focus on both achievements and problem areas in developing productive writing skills, illustrated by at least three papers written by students and sent to the CUP Moscow office by 15 January 2005.

We received many reports from teachers of secondary schools, universities and language schools and enjoyed reading all of them. But we had to send them to Cambridge where they were assessed by ELT professionals who selected several best reports. Their authors were invited to participate in the second stage of the competition – their FCE-preparation classes were attended by a young colleague from Cambridge in April 2005. On the basis of her observations, three winners were selected and they turned out to be Pavel Krichevsky, a teacher from Secondary School No. 3 (the town of Chekhov, Moscow region), Tatyana Kuznetsova, a teacher form Novopodrezkovo Secondary School (Moscow region), and Olga Vinogradova, a teacher from Secondary School No. 57 (Moscow). All three winners were also teacher-trainers and methodologists in their schools and regions, with long experience of preparing students for international exams, FCE in the first place.

In her report on teaching writing, T. Kuznetsova writes: “Effective writing is focused on the topic, has an organizational pattern that enables the reader to follow the flow of ideas; it has a beginning, middle and end, contains supporting ideas that are developed through the use of details, examples, vivid language and mature word choice, and follows the conventions of standard written English”. Tatyana’s students had problems understanding the differences between various genres of writing, particularly between article, report and composition. Teaching these differences is an important part of FCE preparation, and Tatyana gave samples to her students to analyse and practice at home as well as in class.

O. Vinogradova believes that writing is not only important for exam preparation but also necessary for current and future life. She writes: “The aim of a teacher is to help students master the structures conventional in English-speaking culture, as well as promote development of logical thinking and creative expression of ideas”. To achieve this, she uses different types of assignments: from purely reproductive tasks through guided writing to creative work, such as writing a story or an essay in which students give opinions and generate ideas to support them.

P. Krichevsky distinguishes between a training approach and testing approach to writing: “The latter involves setting students a large number of compositions and then simply marking them. The problem with this approach is that students are interested in their marks more than in analyzing their strengths and weaknesses and, as a result, their skills are not developed properly”. Pavel prefers the training approach, that includes writing the first draft, which the teacher reads and gives back to the student for revising and editing: “The teacher’s feedback is a crucial stage in the writing process”. The students’ papers provided by P. Krichevsky to illustrate his ideas contained detailed teachers’ comments on the content, vocabulary, register, paragraphing, cohesion and other aspects of writing.

By Ludmila Gorodetskaya

Below is Pavel Krichevsky’s account of his stay in Cambridge.

From the 4th till the 16th of July 2005 I was studying in the Studio Cambridge school of English in the U.K. as one of the winners of the scholarship provided by Studio Cambridge together with Cambridge University Press in Russia.

We arrived in London on the 3rd of July and at 8.45 the next morning, just in time for the first lecture, we were at the Abbey College in Cambridge where our classes were due to take place.

There were two groups formed at our course, with representatives from Poland, Italy, Spain, Japan, Mexico, Brazil and Russia. Our teacher trainers were all high professionals but, as it usually happens, some of them made greater impressions on me mainly because of my personal interest in the material they were delivering.

The curriculum of the course contained practically all the most important spheres of ELT: analyzing different methodological approaches (including Meaningful Games, Providing Learner Autonomy, Drama Activities, etc.), studies of British life and culture (here the most exciting lectures were about British humour, youth culture and Cambridge writers), teaching grammar, pronunciation, reading, register, writing, fluency, using videos, etc. What I liked a lot was that special attention was paid to different aspects of teaching and learning vocabulary. Those were: techniques for learning new vocabulary and collocations, contemporary language. Idiomatic and colloquial language, its functional and social varieties, were also under consideration.

We were all fascinated with the content of the lectures, as well as the relaxed and informal way in which they were delivered. We also enjoyed extracurricular activities, both intensive and exciting, that were offered practically every day. They were equally captivating, though not a single one repeated another: a tour of colleges together with the history of Cambridge, Stratford-upon-Avon and a visit to Shakespeare’s birthplace, Shakespeare Festival in the College Gardens with plays staged just on the lawns under the crowns of trees, a visit to Ely Cathedral and Oliver Cromwell’s house… We also had an opportunity to get acquainted with such an old Cambridge traditional fun as punting, and to have a cup of cream tea and listen to the poetry recited by our respected teachers in Grantchester – a place, so much appreciated by Lord Byron, Rupert Brooke, Virginia Woolf and other remarkable literary figures.

There were other professional impressions which are worth mentioning. I mean receptions at Cambridge University Press and its bookshops. A new wonder of teaching engineering was introduced to us – Hitachi Whiteboard, which at once became a sweet dream of everybody witnessing this magic and a hospitable place. As for Cambridge bookshops, it goes without saying that by the end of the trip our luggage consisted mainly of new catalogues, textbooks and other teaching materials, as well as English poetry and modern prose.

Speaking about our visit to Great Britain I can’t but mention two social events, which coincided with our stay – appointing London the home city of the Olympic Games 2012 and the most dramatic day – the 7th of July – the day of blasts and carnage made by terrorists in London. Of course, we were a bit upset when London and not Moscow won in the Olympic competition, but at the same time it was difficult not to share the pride and joy which the faces of common people expressed. But alas – not long… The twist of fate – we were just studying British Life and Institutions and the question under discussion was: “How has the UK, unlike the USA and Spain, managed to avoid terror attacks?” when it appeared to be that, no, Britain hasn’t managed to avoid terrorist attacks and suffered from them that very morning… From that day on and till the end of our stay in Britain we were following newspapers and TV news trying to be in the know of the investigation and of course sharing grief and sorrow with the British people.

Days are passing, but the impressions of the gripping time spent in Cambridge are still becoming brighter and more vivid. Isn’t it proof of the great professional luck we experienced?

By Pavel Krichevsky