Take Risks!
Put Your Foot into the Water!
“Ever dreamt of perfect, well-balanced English language text-books for all secondary school levels, with clear explanations for teachers, a stack of optional materials and assessment guides? Put your foot into the water! Write it yourself!” This challenging possibility was given by the British Council and Russian Ministry of Education to eighteen secondary school English teachers who had undergone a tough selection procedure.
We are now at the University College of St Mark and St John to the north of Plymouth brewing just such a stew of approaches, strategies, and activities. We are very careful to consider most modern methods alongside the old ones so as not to throw out the baby with the bathwater.
Frankly speaking, we are head over heals in love with our charming baby, though it is not yet born. As caring and ambitious parents we believe in its happy and fruitful fortune. We are trying to make our eighteen hearts a great motherly ONE, and eighteen heads a great wise ONE.
Our major concern at present is the baby’s health, so we carefully think of the lay-out and presentation, add-ons, integrated language skills, cultural content, syllabus design, cross-cultural links, tasks and activities in accordance with communicative, learner-centred, topic and task-based approaches.
Rod Bolitho, Director of the International Education Centre at the university, and his colleagues are navigating the newly built task force: of teachers-writers past the rocks to the lighthouse. (That could be the name of our future creation, could it not? What do you think, dear readers?)
Why was this very College chosen for the training programme? The College of St Mark and St John is a Church of England University of Exeter college, with a distinguished history going back nearly 160 years. It started on the Chelsea site in London and moved to Plymouth in 1973. The College is an academic community of about 6000 people: 600 staff and 5,000 students. All this we learnt from the College Principal Dr. John Rea. He also mentioned that the College’s mission is to help all its students (and we are students again) to reach their full potential by providing intellectually challenging courses within a friendly active community and within a Christian context. For this purpose there is a chapel in the centre of the premises, that provides opportunities for service, worship and the serious study of Christianity.
The College is famous in Britain for its teacher training and trainer training courses. The International Education Centre provides courses designed to meet the specific requirements of governments and of educational and commercial institutions in relation to many aspects of education. Now similar textbook writing projects are being supervised by College tutors in such countries as: Morrocco, Shri-Lanka, Bangladesh, Rumania, Uzbekistan. As Rumanian teachers are ahead of us, we use their experience in this field.
In addition to brewing the methodological and cultural stew, we are anxious to build
up trusting and secure relations among the team.Many ice-breakers and warm-ups helped us on our way. Now meet other team members.
By Olga Boltneva
WE COULDN'T CHOOSE A BETTER PLACE!
We couldn’t choose a better place!
Yes, Plymouth is the best in space –
The sea, the fish, cream tea, the Dome
We are at home though missing home.
We couldn’t choose a better team –
All colleagues very friendly seem.
They’re always ready to support
To help, to laugh, to share a lot.
We couldn’t choose a better way
To start a training course in May,
Work through the whole month of June
And it is July – so soon!
We couldn’t meet a better group
Of teachers helping to bear fruit,
Facilitating every task
And coaching us from dawn till dusk.
We couldn’t get a better chance
All our knowledge to enhance.
We’re working hard, we’re learning fast –
For us new coursebooks are a must!
By teachers from St Petersburg:
Natalia Kazyrbaeva, Natalia Novikova,
Olga Dvoretskaya; teacher
from Zhodino Natalia Iuhnel
and Grodno teacher Olga Povargo.
Note: Olga and Natasha are from Belarus. Their aim is not yet to start a coursebook-writing project, but to implement the knowledge at the teacher training level.
A LETTER FROM PLYMOUTH: GREAT EXPECTATIONS
A team of Russian teachers writing an English textbook . . . It sounds amazing, doesn’t it? But isn’t it natural and reasonable, as nobody could feel the demands and troubles of the Russian school better than we, practising teachers. We do want our students to enjoy learning the English language and to acquire an excellent command of it. The College of St Mark and St John hosted us, giving a helping hand. One couldn’t have expected a warmer reception, better organization and heartier care. We feel involved in a challenging and promising activity. A lot of things still seem vague and ambiguous, but under the guidance of such experts as Rod Bolitho, Diana Lubelska, Jane Spiro and other tutors, we are sure to come up with the best solutions about the future English course syllabus. We are on the threshold of a long and difficult road; that is why a good starting point is so important. “Well begun is half done” – this famous saying is quite applicable to what is being done for us by our friendly Plymouth hosts.
By Krasnoyarsk teachers Olga Groza,
Marina Mitchourina, Elena Privalikhina, Tatyana Ryzhkova and Tambov teacher Elena Nossonovitch.
Great new information! Our colleagues in Rumania have successfully finished their seven year work on an English coursebook for grades 5 to 12.June 3 Rod Bolitho, who facilitated the Rumanian project, returned after visiting his “first family” of teachers. He informed his “second family”, us, that he is satisfied with the end product, and so are the secondary school teachers in Rumania. Now our work has started, and the Russian coursebook is to be much better as not only Rod’s instructions will help us, but all our Russian teachers’ advice and wishes for which we ask.
Dear teachers, will you write to this newspaper addressing the course-book writing team concerning:
– what you think the textbook for your level should include,
– what name it could be given,
– what could be its size, composition, outline, etc.
All your thoughts are very important so that this opportinity of giving our schools a really up-to-date and culturally appropriate English Language secondary school coursebook for Russian learners not be missed.
TEXTBOOK PROJECT List of Winners
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