English for All - Алексей Конобеев's Blog

I was recently searching for some interesting material to use in class when we talk about professional qualities and future jobs, and came across a number of jobs that are really strange. Here's a short list which you may want to use too:

1. Elephant tender - someone who takes care of elephants in the zoo

2. Hot Walker - a person that walks the racehorses around after a race.

3. Dinosaur hunter - a person who searches for fossilized dinosaurs

4. Cereal box author - the author of advertising on cereal boxes

5. Dog walker - someone who walks dogs professionally

6. Odor Tester - someone who checks if deodorants and anti-perspirants really work as planned

7. Citrus Fruit Dyer - a person who dyes (colours) citrus fruits to make them look better in shops

8. Fortune Cookie Writer - someone who writes predictions to be put inside fortune cookies

9. Fountain Pen Repairer - someone who, well, repairs fountain pens 9some of those pens are very expensive)

10. Wrinkle Chasers - someone who makes sure that new leather shoes have no wrinkles

11. Chicken Sexer - someone who sorts baby chicken into male and female ones

12. Oyster Floater - a person who floats oysters on a barge in running water until they are completely free of impurities.

13. Dog Food Tester - in some countries testing dog food on dogs is prohibited, so there is a professional dog food tester who actually inspects dog food to see if it is good.

14. Whiskey Ambassador - someone who is responsible for choosing only the finest whiskeys and teaching clients the proper way to taste and admire them.

15. Weed Farmer - someone who grows weeds to sell them to horticulture schools and labs so various people can do research and studies in them.

And, talking about weird job titles: in the 19th century there was a position in Royal palaces in the UK that was called a Necessary woman. Can you guess what job it was and what it is called now? the first person to guess correctly will get an audiobook and tasks for it from me via e-mail. The audiobook is in public domain, but I've designed the tasks myself so hopefully you'll be able to use it directly as a listening exercise for your pupils.

В этом году я попал только на последний, третий день семинара. В первый и второй я вел семинар в Петербурге и постоянно говорил слушателям: "В это самое время в Обнинске выступает Мерем Забатовна Биболетова" или же "А в это время идет мастеркласс авторов курса Millie". И все равно, даже один только день позволил погрузиться в совершенно особую атмосферу семинара. Думаю, каждый, кто хоть раз побывал на одном из Всероссийских семинаров, подтвердит: атмосфера всегда не только рабочая, но и очень дружеская, так как на семинарах встречаются многие коллеги из разных городов и регионов, которые видят друг друга раз в год в Обнинске, но переписываются в течение года, общаются на форуме и держат связь. Мне было особенно приятно пообщаться во время перерывов с теми, кого давно знаю по форуму, по совместным разработкам, с кем и раньше встречался на семинарах. Успели сфотографироваться с Еленой Юрьевной Замотаевой и Яниной Михайловной Банбан, поговорить с Татьяной Геннадьевной Митюгиной, обсудить онлайн-мастеркласс с Татьяной Михайловной Капрановой, увидеть Маргариту Константиновну Захарову из Ярославля... Где еще могут собраться столько профессионалов и Учителей из таких отдаленных регионов? Всегда приятно увидеть лица друзей, познакомиться с новыми людьми и понять, что вместе мы все делаем одно большое и важное общее дело - помогаем детям открыть для себя дверь в мир английского языка, культуры и огромного количества интересной и важной информации. Уверен, что каждому участнику найдется что рассказать о любимых моментах семинара, о тех людях, с которыми удалось познакомиться или встретиться снова, и, самое важное, о том, чему удалось научиться. Могу сказать за себя - после таких встреч возвращаешься к работе с особенным удовольствием и интересом. Спасибо огромное всем тем, кто подошел поговорить, кто задавал вопросы, спасибо за добрые пожелания. Надеюсь, что все добрались домой благополучно и еще не раз будут вспоминать добрым словом творческую атмосферу и дни, проведенные на семинаре.

Знаете, я практически не смотрю телевизор. Не хочется. Совсем. Ну разве что новости, пару документальных передач в неделю и по утрам просто фоном идет самая страшная передача под названием "Доброе утро". Вообще, телевидение как-то давно разочаровало, и, похоже, именно из-за того, что все время то убийства, то насилие, то еще что-то страшное показывают, вроде Филиппа Киркорова. Так что телевизор у меня работает часов 5-7 в неделю, вряд ли больше.Но иногда думаешь: было бы англоязычное (или на французском языке) телевидение, смотрел бы чаще. Хотя при этом каждый раз вспоминаю, что ни в США, ни, в общем-то, в Англии по ТВ тоже смотреть особо нечего, несмотря на обилие каналов. А недавно купил себе мультимедийный проигрыватель. Примерно такой, который будет одним из призов на конкурсе "Золотые Уроки России" в этом году. Есть у такого проигрывателя маленькая, но приятная особенность: он не только практически любые видео и аудиофайлы читает с флешки и показывает их по телевизору вместо DVD-плеера, а еще подключается к интернету и позволяет выбирать каналы интернет-радио и онлайн-тв. Так что теперь вместо убийств у меня в телевизоре то американские, то австралийские, то британские телеканалы. И как-то лучше стало - и для языка полезно, и разные точки зрения слышишь, а порой и какие-то незнакомые фильмы удается посмотреть. В общем, вещь интересная. А вы как часто ТВ смотрите? Есть ли что-то, что порекомендовали бы посмотреть?

Here's another story I wrote in the USA. It was really interesting to see the reactions of those Americans who read it as it gave them a totally different perspective on the place from what they were so used to having.

The headache was growing stronger, and everything looked fuzzy in the whirls of the hot air. We walked on, trying to find a free bench under a tree to hide away from the sun. But all the seats had long been taken. The old fortress rose nearby, intimidating, with its turrets and thick walls, and beautiful, with the gold cathedral domes peering from behind it. The Kremlin seemed to be soaked in blood, and the sun was gleaming on the red paint of the walls and shining on the cupolas. My younger cousin kept whining about how tired he was. After all, he was only seven years old. I was already twelve, and, being the “grown up” that I was, kept silent. I did not want to tell my aunt about the headache so as not to make her worry.

We were traveling to Kirov, a large city in the North of Russia, where my aunt lived, and we had to change trains in Moscow. We had the whole day to spend there, and she decided to take her son and me to the Kremlin.

I remember how excited I was. I had been in Moscow several times by then, but I had never ever happened to actually walk into the fortress. But by the time we got to the walls, I was ready to give up the idea. After all, we had spent the night on the train, and arrived in Moscow at 6 in the morning.

Finally, we found a tiny café, where, thank God, there was a free table. We sat down, and my cousin stopped complaining immediately. I sat stooping in the chair, waiting for the ‘expedition” to be over.

As it turned out, all the tickets to the Kremlin had been sold out for the day. They were never easy to get, and aunt looked really disappointed. Silent, quiet joy began to fill me. I was just a tired kid, after all. “Aren’t we going to see anything, mummy?” - the little brat was going to start sobbing. Sometimes cousins are harder to put up with than younger brothers, especially when the age gap is that big. Six years make a lot of difference when you are only twelve. “Not again!” thought I, as another arrow of pain shot through my head. But it was too late. Aunt has always loved me no less than her own children, and she was set on doing something enjoyable for us. “I know!” she said, - “we can go and see Lenin!”

The idea fascinated me. Lenin was the leader and the mastermind of the Bolshevik revolution, and also the founder of the Soviet Union. When he died in 1924, people loved him so, as I was told at school, that they preserved his body and built a mausoleum for him. A tired excitement began to grow. It was like going to a museum, and I always loved museums! “Yes, auntie,” said I, - “can we go?”

We rose from the bench and stepped out into the heat. The garden near the Kremlin wall is a popular place, and there were many people there. But at one end of it there was a huge crowd. It was only when we came up to the crowd that I realized that all those people were waiting to see Lenin too. It was only the beginning of the queue, which, like a huge live serpent, encircled half of the Kremlin, and went all the way from behind up to Red Square.

The queue was motionless. There were different people there – old ladies with grandchildren, young men, pensioners and tourists. For many years they had heard stories about Lenin, and it felt now that they knew him as if he were a close relative. Few people were chatting. Most of them kept a revered silence, obviously preparing to see the “founding father” of the state.

Soon a policeman motioned to the queue to move on. We started to walk – ever so slowly, every step like the ones you would take at a funeral, except that the dead person was already in his grave We walked past the garden… slowly we moved on, past the Egyptian obelisk with the names of famous socialist revolutionaries on it, and on and on, past the eternal flame and the tomb of a soldier killed during WW2. There, at least, was something to see! There was a guard, standing in the blazing sun, holding a rifle. He did not move, and his face was stern and motionless, like that of some strange automaton.

The queue was still moving on. We were turning into Red Square now. We walked by the three hundred-year old building of Moscow University, now a museum, and stepped on the cobbles of the square. There was shade. To the right there were blue pines growing along the wall. Above the huge gates of an ancient tower there was a white square indicating the place where an icon used to be for centuries. “Every tower is named after a saint” quickly whispered aunt into our ears.

We were now coming closer. From Red Square you do not see quite as many cathedrals as from behind the Kremlin, but you can see the Grand Palace of Catherine the Great, who ruled Russia two centuries ago. At that time the red Soviet flag was floating on top of it, and I remember thinking that the ancient name really suited the square.

The mausoleum seemed to slowly grow in front of us. Dark granite and polished marble sent sparkles on the cobbles. Two sentinels were guarding the entrance. The small black gates were open, and people were slowly pouring in. By then the sun had risen high in the sky, and it felt as if melted lead was pouring on my head. I was feeling almost sick and longed for the darkness behind the doors.

We stepped in. What looked dark from the outside was a dimly lit hall with steps leading down, underground. Except for the same dark granite of the walls, it looked very much like some of the palatial stations of Moscow underground, so it did not feel like anything special at all. My cousin, who until then was preoccupied with staring at other people, wanted to say something, but my aunt pulled his hand quickly. “You are not supposed to talk here!” she whispered, and even that was enough to make one of the guards inside turn and look at us. Obviously, we were showing bad manners.

It was growing slightly cooler. We very soon reached the bottom of the stairs, and turned a corner. And there… I almost gasped. The huge hall was dark. On the reddish-brown granite walls there were zigzags of black marble. Several guards were lined along the walls, and their white gloves seemed to shine in the darkness. The place was silent, but it looked as though some solemn music ought to sound there.

There was reddish light in the centre of the hall. As we were approaching it, I saw a cube of transparent glass. Inside the crystal sarcophagus, on the bier, lay a short man, dressed in a dark suit. One of his hands was lying on his chest, the other was stretched along his body. He looked so small, and yet so important, all alone there, on the pedestal. A wreath of reddish hair set off his huge bald head, and I just had time to notice his polka-dotted, old-fashioned tie, the likes of which you could see in old photos and books.

People were moving on. If someone tried to slow down, one of the guards would say in a quiet but strict voice “Do move on”. I wanted to better see the person who changed the whole empire, but we were already emerging from the mausoleum into the blaze of the sun, near the Kremlin wall.

I did not feel much, neither did I think much. For some reason, the image of the great person, imprinted into us in the school, seemed utterly out of touch with this short man, lying there, under the ground, as if asleep. I was still thinking about it when we passed Stalin’s tomb and the tombs of other people who once led the country.

It was only when we walked back into the square when my cousin suddenly said: “I need the lavatory”. I realized that he had been silent all that time, and it amazed me more than the dead person we had just walked by. I looked around. Whether the cold of the underground, or the sensation of seeing history come true, but something melted the headache away, and the weak traces of it did not really bother me. I recalled the steps that led on top of the Mausoleum, the ones that the government members used to go up during demonstrations – and suddenly I shuddered. How could they do it, thought I, just go and stand above a dead person like that, and look happy, and smile, and wave their hands? I turned and looked at the Kremlin. The empirial glory still seemed to shine on the gold decorations of Catherine’s palace, but the Soviet flag was harder to see. Without the wind it was powerless. Some non-conventional thoughts began to form in my head, but my cousin demanded to be taken to the toilet, and we hurried along. The ancient fortress looked smug and arrogant, with the small tomb at her feet. These were the last years of the Soviet Union.

I do not remember the first time I travelled on the metro in Moscow, but I've always thought that this is what an underground train system should be like. My opinion changed only when I got to travel on underground transport in other countries. The Tube in London is the oldest in the world, the first trains ran there in January 1863 and the first electric trains ran there in 1890. With this long history, it still looks a lot like it used to a hundred years ago. Many lines go long distances on the ground, and very often you can see trains going along different lines on one and the same platform. For someone who is used to the Moscow system of having one platform for one line, it can be quite confusing. even more confusing is the fact that some trains do not go to the end of the line, or if they do and the line splits into two different directions (anyone who went to Heathrow by the Tube knows that), you have to be very careful and read what the sign on the train says, otherwise you may end up somewhere totally different from your destination point.

Trains are comfortable, however. The seats are soft and there is enough standing room for the rush hour. By the end of the day the seats are often littered with the free newspapers you can get at the station entrances.

While in Moscow each station is individually designed, and many of them are decorated with marble, granite, bronze and mosaics, Tube stations in London look rather unimpressive. The walls are tiled at Victoria Station, you can pictures of Sherlock Holmes at Baker Street station, but many other stations have just red brick walls and look gloomy.

Not every station has an escalator. For example, in Covent Garden you have to use a huge lift, but when there are many people travelling, it if very far from being efficient and comfortable. You can also walk up the emergency steps, but there staircase is somewhat narrow and winding and all in all there are 193 steps. A walk up takes time and a lot of effort, so if you are at Covent Garden and want to go up, use the lifts by all means.

Lifts are often used to go up from the underground in the UK. I remember using a lift in Liverpool underground, although I do not remember which station that was.

Sometimes trains stop between stations. I've seen that happen in London and once I missed the bus to Liverpool from Newcastle-upon-Tyne because of the train. It stopped between two stations in Newcastle Underground and stayed there for about 15 minutes. When I arrived at the coach station, I saw the back of my bus and had to buy another ticket.

Underground (or Subway) in the USA is much more modern-looking that that in the UK. Escalators take you down to the station in Washington DC, there is plenty of information about everything on the electronic panels and on the walls, air conditioning is just fine, trains are comfortable, but the light at the stations is not as bright as in Moscow. If you do not like darkish spaces, then you feel better on the train than at the station.

As I said, I used to think that Moscow metro is nothing special, just something what it should be. But now I realise that underground train systems can be very diffferent. The Metro in Moscow is not as hi-tech as that in Washington DC, it is not as old as that in London, the trains are not as comfortable, but it is often more reliable than in some countries and the stations are more like underground palaces and are far more beautiful than what you would normally see under ground. All said, there is something to enjoy everywhere, and my advice is to keep looking for it, because it is always there.

Almost every British city has a High street. Every High street is the main shopping and often tourist area. Some High streets are longer, some are shorter, but only one such street is in fact a whole succession of several streets and is exactly one mile long, albeit a Scottish mile. This street is called "The Royal mile", you can find it in edinburgh, and it goest from the Castle Rock, on which Edinburgh Castle stands, all the way down to the palace of Holyrood House and the remains of Holyrood Abbey.

The Royal Mile is exactly one Scottish mile long. A Scottish mile is 1.8 km long, and such miles were used in Scotland until 1824. The buildings in the Royal Mile are old. Some of them are only slightly younger than the castle itself, so you can drop in a 300 years old shop or dine in a pub which dates back to 1500-s. You can tell the age of the buildings not only by their architectural styles, but also by the dark, sometimes black stones, some of them only roughly hewn, and by the narrow, winding passages that lead to the Royal Mile.

The Royal Mile is not all shops and pubs (by the way, do remind me to tell you about Deacon Brody's tavern, the gallows and the strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde). To the right of the Royal Mile, if you're standing with your back to the castle, in a broad street, there is "The Elephant", the pub in which JK Rowling wrote large portions of her harry Potter books. Right on the Royal Mile, looking majestic, is St. Giles High Kirk (cathedral), where the knights of the Order of the Thistle gather, presided by the Queen, in the oak-panelled Thistle Chapel. Facing the palace of Holyrood House is the Scottish Parliament, and although it is only a 300-metres walk from the palace, this year the Queen was driven there in a State limousine to make a speech on the occasion of the parliament''s 10th anniversary. I do not know whether the drive was due to the Queen's desire to show respect to the Scottish parliament, or because she was having a heavy cold in early July.

As I said earlier, the Royal Mile is comprised of several streets, which are Castle Esplanade, Castlehill, Lawnmarket, High Street, Canongate and Abbey Strand. Castle Hill, Castle Esplanade, lawnmarket together with the lower-lying Grassmarket are all parts of the Old Town of Edinburgh. As the name suggests, there is also a New Town, with beautiful Georgian houses. The New Town was built in the 18th century, so perhaps it is not quite so brand-new after all.

Visitors are admitted daily to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, when the Queen is not there. I will tell about this palace tomorrow, as, although it is part of the Royal Mile, it is a sight in its own right.

The Palace of Holyroodhouse is one of the oldest but also the most rarely used royal residences. The Queen spends there a week each summer and then moves on to Balmoral for her holiday.

The palace is built next to the ancient Abbey, now in ruins, and it stands right at the end of the Royal Mile as you walk downhill from Edinburgh castle. Across the street from the palace there is the Scottish Parilament, a modern building, and right in fromnt of the palace there is the Queen's gallery. If you want to go inside the palace, you buy tickets in the Royal Collection shop (as well as doing some shopping on the way, judging by the majority of visitors there) and walk on to the palace gate. With your tickets checked, you move on into the palace yard. The peace and quiet there is amazing, you immediately forget that you are in the middle of a tourist area of a large city. On your right there is a mountain, and on your left there stands a monument to Edward VII. In front there're tourists having their pictures taking, so it's not easy to take in a good view of the palace. Photography is allowed only outside the palace, so no pictures could be taken inside, but this seems to be almost the only restriction there is. As you come into the palace, you expect to see lots of security cameras and lots of guards everywhere, but in fact you don't notice any cameras and there are several guides inside, but not in every room. Almost all tourists rent audioguides where you can choose your preferred language, so you just move from room to room, dial the number you see on a small stand inside the room and the audioguide tells you about the room. Invariably, every recorded story ends with the words "If you'd like to learn more about this room, the guide will be happy to help you".

The guide walks into the room a couple of minutes after you've appeared there and stands patiently and very quietly in the corner. In many rooms there are chairs you can sit on while you're listening to your audioguide, and only some chairs are roped off because they are too old for the general public to sit on them.

The tour is designed in such a way that you proceed from the "everyday use" rooms like the dining room with the table fully set, a couple of drawing rooms with Victorian furniture and drapings, through the Throne room to the older rooms. The guides are really eager to help you. On the two thrones in the Throne room there are the monarchs' initials: GR, which obviously stands for Gerogius Rex (King George in Latin), and MR (the Queen's name and the first letter of the word Regina, "Queen" in Latin). I couldn't remember which of the Georges had a wife whose name started with an M, so I asked the guide when the thrones were made. He told me that they were made around 1922 for George V and his wife Queen Mary (do I hear you say "duh"?) and asked me whether I'd like to know what firm made them. Of course I said yes, so the guide took the rope off, walked to the thrones, brought back the Queen's footstool, turned it over and showed it to me. There was the label and the hallmark of some London firm which made the throne. I touched the hallmark and the footstool, thanked the guide and walked on through the long portrait gallery to the historical chambers.

The portrait gallery is interesting in itself. It is very long and the walls are hung with portraits of all Scottish kings. Now, the portraits look strikingly alike, and the audioguide tells you that they were all painted by one and the same artist and his task was not to convey the true looks of old kings, but to show that the reigning monarch (Charles II) was a true successor of the old Scottish kings, so every portrait looks a lot like Charles II.

From there you move on to the Royal Apartments. You go past the Queen's drawing room and then take a steep stair up through the room where Queen mary of Scot's private secretary was murdered. From there you get into Queen mary of Scots' bedchamber. The Royal Apartments are maintained in the same style as they used to be from the beginning, so the bedchamber reflects the yesra that mary spent at the French court in her youth. In the bedchamber you see some of Queen Mary's needlework and her scissors, as well as her purse. Then you get into a small museum, although every room is already a museum in its own right. The only thing that reminds you that this is a working royal residence and that the Queen actually lives there for a small part of the year is that the pictures there have no plaques under them, like you wouldn't really put up plaques underneath pictures in your own home. Now, this museum room is full of rather gruesome exhibits, such as a medallion with a lock of Queen mary's hair, a button in which you can see a tiny part of a handkerchief with the blood of the executed King Charles I etc. The room is darkish, but still you can spend hours there.

Telling about the other rooms would take up too much time. I am working on an article about Scotland now, so there you will find more information, stories and photos. What I'll say for now is when you leave the palace, you get to go past the Abbey. The Abbey was built in the 12th century and many Scottish kings are buried there, but since it was a catholic abbey, a riotous crowd destroeyd most of it in 1688, and the roof fell in in the 18th century, so now the Abbey is a picturesue ruin. From the Abbey you go through the palace garden (a small but still nice one), past the large white tents where the Queen had given garden parties just a few days before our arrival, and there you are, right next to the exit. You can do some shopping in the royal collection shop if you want, but to tell the truth, your head is still so full with the things you've just seen in the palace that you feel that a lunch in some quiet place would do it more good than any other activity.

Every time I think of a good teacher (and I am lucky to have known such teachers personally), I cannot help noticing that although they are all very different, they have one thing in common: they all do research. The research I mean is not always formal, in fact, many of them have problems trying to formalise their research or to describe its results, but they keep doing it anyway. For some of them research means a constant search for new words and meanings, new ways of putting things in English. This helps them to keep up their proficiency in English, although very often this is not enough for any serious development as teachers. Other teachers, apart from brushing up their English, try to learn as much as possible about new things they read in new textbooks, like what is zorbing ("Enjoy English" 10) or who Squanto was ("Happy English.ru" 9) etc. This is also a kind of research because to do it you need to find some internet sites or books with the information, you need to compare the information you've got from different sources and put it together to be able to explain it to the pupils, so just using a dictionary will not be enough. Some teachers try to do formal research. There are teachers who do it because their methodological unit requires it, and there are those who do it because they are truly interested. Something tells me that the majority of our forum members belong to the latter group.

A frequent problem that such researchers encounter is that they just read whatever they can find on a certain topic and then put the information together. This is what makes it difficult for them to formalise the results of their research. In fact, such an approach would make it difficult to achieve significant results as well.

So how could a teacher work if she/he wants to do some true research, in the academic sence of the word, something that could be formalised, described and published or presented at conferences?

The first step would be to formulate a hypothesis. Of course, to be able to do that a researcher should already have substantial background knowledge of the field she/he is going to research, but since we are talking about professional teachers and research in methodology, this should not be a big problem. A hypothesis is usually formulated around a "what if" idea. That is, what happens if I use this method? Will my teaching become more effective if I use ICT? What will happen if I combine ICT and the process-oriented approach to teaching personal letter writing in grade 8? You may have noticed that with every sentence the idea becomes more concrete, more down-to-earth and manageable. In fact, if we turn the last question into a statement, we will already get a hypothesis, namely: "Teaching 8th-graders to write personal letters will be more effective if we use ICT and the process-oriented approach." This is a research that can be carried out during one academic year, and now it is time to further break it down into smaller, easily identifiable and manageable chunks.

Breaking the work down is necessary because there are stages to go through, with an identifiable result for every stage. Now that you've got your hypothesis, you need to see what other people have done in this area. As likely as not, you will find that noone else has tackled this topic yet. This means that what you do will be very interesting for those who will follow in your footsteps. But if you do find that someone has already done something fairly similar (for example, used ICT and the process-oriented approach to teach essay-writing to 10th-graders), you will be able to see how that person's findings work in your particular classroom and what you can do to apply them to teaching personal letter writing to younger students. In fact, the result of this preparatory stage would be your knowledge of what has been done in this area and what other researchers think about this problem. If no research has been done in this area yet, you will have to find what other researchers mean by ICT, how the process-oriented approach to teaching writing is different from other approaches and how it can be used to teach personal letter writing. With this done, you are ready to plan practical action.

Practical preparation for action. The main aim of every research is to see if your hypothesis works, if it is correct. In our example it would mean to make sure that the use of ICT and the process-oriented approach to teaching writing will enable you to effectively teach your 8th-graders to write personal letters. You will have learnt from your previous background information study that ICT here may mean anything from specially designed learning software to the use of e-mail and blogs. Also, you will have read about the stages of the process-oriented approach to teaching writing. Now it's your job to decide how and when the ICT will come into your teaching in your 8th grade. For example, you may choose to teach students the process-oriented approach first and then introduce ICT, or you may combine the two things and use them simultaneously. You may prefer to go along with the logic of the learning software, or you may decide for yourself on the stages in teaching. You will also see what your students already know about writing personal letters (you can always give them a task and see how well they do it - and in the end you'll give them a similar task and see what has changed during the year). In any case, this is your planning stage. After the plans are laid, the next stage is the practical testing of your hypothesis, that is, the teaching.

Testing your hypothesis. Teaching is teaching. This is what teachers are for, this is what they are supposed to be good it. The only difference between your everyday teaching and teaching as part of your experiment is that here you pay a special attention to what makes your teaching more (or less, as the case may be) effective while using ICT and the process-oriented approach to teaching writing. And also you make notes, you describe what and how your students have learnt about writing personal letters. At the end of the year you should be able to see what progress your students have made and, based on your previous teaching experience you can tell what part of the progress can be attributed to new methods and approaches. So all you have to do now is describe your experiment.

Describing the outcomes. should not be too hard to do. First, you already have your hypothesis. You have tested it in your classroom. You have been taking notes about how the teaching was going and writing down your observations. Now you have a large part of the job done, some of it is already in writing and some is in your head. All you need to do now is write it down on paper, attach examples of students' work from all stages of the experiment, and prepare areport on what and how you have done and what you think will be effective in any other classroom, and what you would not recommend other teachers to do because it is not effective.

Hopefully, this will help some young teachers to begin to do research on a regular basis. By the way, what are you planning to study/research this year?

I learned this recipe from a British friend. She was spending the winter in Russia together with her Russian husband and this dish, it seems, can be easily made to suit Russian tastes, although it may be slightly different from the origina;l British recipe. But since I'm only sharing my own experience, do bear in mind that it is all suited - and sometimes adapted to Russia.

They say that years ago a shpeherd would spend the entire day in the fields, so he needed something to eat that would be nourishing and still taste good even several hours after it was cooked. I will give th eversion I tried in Russia first and then links to the original English recipe.

To make shepher'd pie you'll need the following ijgredients:

400 grams of minced beef or fresh chicken.

500 grams of potatoes

a glass of milk

50 grams of butter

an onion

pepper and salt to taste

any other spices you use with meat (optional)

200 grams cheese

300 grams of green beans or any other vegetables (optional).

Cooking method:

If you're using chicken: boil the chicken until it's very soft. Take the meat off the bones and cut in very small bits. Do not mince to preserve the texture. If you're using minced meat, warm a frying pan, add some vegetable oil. Chop the onion. Fry the minced meat with the onion until golden brown.

In the meantime peel and boil the potatoes. mash them with the milk and butter.

Grate the cheese.Boil the vegetables.

In an oven-proof dish put a layer of meat, then a layer of vegetables and mashed potatoes on top and cover with the grated cheese. Put into a hot oven and bake until the cheese is melted and golden on top. As Clauire told me, the dish is most delicious when each of the three layers is about the same size.

Serve like you'd serve a pie or a cake.

I've made this dish both with minced beef and with chicken, and I prefer chicken.

The original English shepherd's pie would be cooked like this:

http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1727,134184-248192,00.html

or like this: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/easy_shepherds_pie/

Scottish highlands are famous not onlyy for their mountains and wildlife, but also for their lakes. Practically anywhere you go in the south-west Scotland, you'll be near one loch (a lake) or another. But Scottish lochs do not look the same as Eastern European lakes. When we say the word "lake", as often as not we imagine a round or oval body of water, lying peacefully in a shadowy forest or in a very flat valley. In Scotland, for one thing, you'll hardly find a flat valley. What you do find is mountines, ravines, steep valleys, and the lochs are usually long and meandering. So you can drive along a loch for hours. For example, the famous Loch Ness is about 37 kilometres long and Loch Lomond is 39 kilometres long. So there is an abundance of fresh water in Scotland.

Apart from fresh-water lochs, there are plenty of seawater ones in Scotland. So unlike a lake, a loch may mean a body of eitherfresh or sea water. The shores of Scotland are famous for their cliffs and bays, sometimes going quite far inland, and the tide is particularly high there. Therefore when you see a loch in Scotland, you never know whether the water in it is going to be fresh or salty and if it connects to the sea, but whatever it is, all the lochs I've seen are immensely beautiful.

Years ago I used to hear from my English friends that food in Scotland is indigestible and not tasty at all. Every time I heard it I thought of English food and I couldn't possibly imagine how bad Scottish food must be if it was no good even as compared with English meals.This summer was my first chance to try a Scottish breakfast in Edinburgh and to see for myself whether my English friends were right.

A full Scottish breakfast differs from a full English breakfast only in a few details. It normally consists of eggs (fried, scrambled or boiled, the choice is yours), bacon (and bacon in Scotland is cut thicker than in England), a few mushrooms, fried whole, a spoonful or two of baked beans, a slice of black pudding (looks and tastes like a spicy blood sausage) and a bit of haggis. Since it was mainly haggis that I heard of as the worst bit of a Scottish meal, I was interested in trying it. Haggis is made from minced sheep's "pluck' (that is, liver, heart and lungs), onions, spices and the mixture is boiled in the sheep's stomach. The taste resembles a spicy liver sausage, only it has a harder texture. To tell you the truth, I found haggis quite tasty and often had it afterwards.

On its own, haggis can be served as a main course. In this case it is served with "neeps and tatties" (mashed turnips and potatoes, which come in layers" the bottom grey layer is haggis, the middle honey yellow layer is turnip, and the upper layer is mashed potatoes).

But another Scottish meal which impressed me was the traditional porrige with a "wee dram".

The most famous Scottish drink is whisky. You will find lots of local distilleries in Scotland, some are famous locally, others are well-known nationwide and internationally. And a 'wee dram" is a small shot of whisky ("wee" meaning "small" in gaelic). So porrige with a wee dram is in fact a bowl of porridge, served with cream and a small portion of whisky which you are supposed to put in your porridge. I had it only once, and decided that it really wasn't my cup of tea.

But all in all food in Scotland is lovely, if different from what we are used to in our country.

I am now travelling around Scotland. From the textbooks at the University and the books by Walter Scott I got an image of Scotland as some very dark, gloomy and not very happy country, with the history of the jacobute uprisings and the wars for independence lurking at the back of the mind together with the romantic history of the poor mary Queen of Scots. As it usually happens, the real life is different from the stereotypes. Edinburgh is a bustling city with lots of tourist shops, filled with fridge magnets, tartan and cashmere, the royal yaght Britannia and the palace of Holirood House are easily accessed without having to queue up, and the people ared incredibly friendly inspite of the articles about yobs and the overall moral degradation of teenagers that some newspapers love to publish.

The lake Loch Ness is beautiful but otherwise not very impressive. Long and narrow and surrounded by tiny villages, mentions of the monster and walking trails.

And the most beautiful part of Scotland is the Highlands. I've taken about 500 pictures so far and am surely going to take a couple hundred more before my flight to London. When I get back I will tell about the beauty of Scotland in my blog.

have you ever bought anything in a store and found, on return home, that it is not quite the thing you wanted? What do you do, try to use this thing anyway, since it's been paid for, or do you return it to the shop? While in Russia very often I think that returning something to the shop just isn't worth the effort, it can be done much easier in the UK and in the USA. The laws protect customers quite well, and there is customer satisfaction guarantee, which means that if you are not satisfied with what you've bought because you don't like the quality, or the colour, or the size doesn't quite fit, you can return it to the shop where you've bought it.

when it comes to chain stores, you can usually return the goods to other branches as well. When I was studying/teaching in the USA, I used to know a girl who would go shopping, bring loads of stuff from the store (mainly clothes), take a very close look at her purchases at leisure and then return most of them to the store. Very often, when she was travelling, she returned these things to other branches of the chain store where she bought them. The usual requirement is to have the packaging intact (that is, undamaged so that the item you're returning could be repacked and resold) and of course the good should be in the same condition as it was when you bought it.

Different shops have different return policy. For example, if you're buying something at a sale, these items are usually non-refundable, so you can not return them. This policy was probably introduced because many people buy far too many goods during teh sales period and in the end decide that they do not want them.

Some goods are non-returnable from the very beginning. Indeed, how could you return an opened bottle of medicine, or perfume or something of the kind? Reason and hygiene would not allow it.

Very often you can read the information on the receipt to see during which period you can return the item to the shop. For example, Waterstones (a large UK chain of book and music shops) allows you to return books and videos 21 days after the sales date. With other shops this period can be shorter or longer. Walmart, a famous American chain store, is famous not only for being probably the cheapest shop you can find, but also for accepting returns during very long times.

So if you've bought something in the UK or in the USA and feel that you do not really want this item, take it back to the store (or the local branch if it's a chain store) and you will get your money back, or, if you paid by card, the money will be transferred to your account.

Today I've written a short piece describing how I use discussions in the classroom. To get students talking I often use quotations with which they will either strongly agree or strongly disagree, and this helps to get a discussion rolling without risking to offend someone. At the same time this is a good reason to tell students more about some people and events from English-speaking countries and to provide background information in general. Hope you'll find these quotation useful. As a good source of quotations I use the Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations, which I heartily recommend:

1. Douglas Adams British writer: Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.

2. Alfred Adler Austrian psychologist: It is always easier to fight for one's principles than live up to them.

3. Pamela Anderson Canadian actress: When you have nothing to live up to, you can't disappoint anybody... When you form a full sentence, you're a genius.

4. Eddie Arcaro US jockey: When a jockey retires he becomes just another little man.

5. Jacques Attali French economist: Machines are the new proletariat. The working class is being given its walking papers.

6. Margaret Atwood Canadian writer: To live without mirrors is to live without the self.

7. Alan Ball English footballer and member of the 1966 World Cup team: I shall tell you what made us what we were. We had this wonderful feeling that we were still part of the people.

8. Roland Barthes French writer: All domination begins by prohibiting language.

9. Buzzie Bavasi American baseball manager: We live by the Golden Rule. Those who have the gold make the rules.

10. Francis Biddle American lawyer: The American Constitution has never greatly bothered any wartime President.

11. Conrad Black Canadian-born British businessman: Since when was greed a criminal offence?

12. Tony Blair Former UK prime minister: I am a pretty straight sort of guy.

13. Boy George English pop singer: New York is so clean now you could eat your dinner off its streets. I'll do London next, but I'll charge this time.

14. Gordon Brown UK prime minister: It will not be a surprise to you to learn I'm more interested in the future of the Arctic Circle than the future of the Arctic Monkeys.

15. Warren Buffett US businessman: It's only when the tide goes out that you learn who's been swimming naked.

16. George W. Bush US president: Yo, Blair. How are you doing?

17. David Cameron British politician: He was the future once. (of Tony Blair)

18. Jimmy Carr Irish comedian: On your way out, be aware of women and children - they tend to slow you down.

19. Joan Collins British actress: Older men treat women like possessions, which is why I like younger men.

20. Billy Connolly Scottish comedian: If you want to lose weight, don't eat anything out of a bucket.

21. Robin Cook Former Foreign Secretary and Leader of the House of Commons: I may not have succeeded in halting the war in Iraq, but I did secure the right of Parliament to decide on war.

22. Quentin Crisp English writer: Euphemisms are unpleasant truths wearing diplomatic cologne.

23. The Dalai Lama Tibetan spiritual leader: We are a part of humanity, so we should take care of humanity. And if we can't do that, then we should at least do no harm.

24. Philip K. Dick US science fiction writer: Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.

25. George Eastman American businessman: The rich man never really gives anything, he only distributes part of the surplus. It is the person of moderate means who really gives.

26. Dawn French British actress: If I were alive in Rubens's time, I'd be celebrated as a model and Kate Moss would be used as a paint brush.

27. Bill Gates American businessman: The world has had a tendency to focus a disproportionate amount of attention on me.

28. John Paul Getty American businessman: The best form of charity I know is the art of meeting a payroll.

29. James Goldsmith British financier: When you marry your mistress you create a job vacancy.

30. Hubert Gregg English songwriter: I'm blessed with total recall, apart from where I left my umbrella.

31. Matt Groening American humorist: You tried your best, and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try. (Homer Simpson) ...and: Kids are the best...You can teach them to hate the things you hate. And they practically raise themselves, what with the internet and all. (Homer Simpson)

32. Woody Guthrie American folksinger: I ain't a communist necessarily, but I been in the red all my life.

33. Robert Heinlein American novelist: More than three can't agree on when to have dinner, much less when to strike. More than six people cannot decide a thing.

34. David Hockney British artist: The reason you start painting yourself is that you are a model; a cheap model. I mean, you've always got yourself.

35. Peter Jay British journalist, economist and former diplomat: It makes one feel like the geography teacher who showed a map of the world to Genghis Khan. (claiming to have explained monetarism to Margaret Thatcher)

36. David Kay American weapons inspector: We have not yet found shiny, pointy things that I would call a weapon.

37. Peter Kay British comedian: Garlic bread - it's the future. I've tasted it.

38. John Kerry US politician: How do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam? How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?

39. Ann Landers US advice columnist: At every party there are two kinds of people - those who want to go home and those who don't. The trouble is, they are usually married to each other.

40. Nigella Lawson British cookery writer: Diets are like boyfriends - it never really works to go back to them.

41. Jay Leno American comedian: The US finally came up with an exit strategy. Unfortunately it's for the World Cup. (after the US soccer team were knocked out in the early stages of the World Cup)

42. Gary Lineker English footballer: Football is a simple game; 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and, at the end, the Germans win.

43. Ken Livingstone British politician: This was not a terrorist attack against the mighty and the powerful... It was aimed at ordinary, working-class Londoners, black and white, Muslim and Christian, Hindu and Jew, young and old. (On the suicide bombings in London, 7 July 2005)

44. Linda McCartney American photographer and animal rights activist: I don't eat anything with a face.

45. Denis MacShane British politician: I liken the French/British relationship to a very old married couple who often think of killing each other but would never dream of divorce.

46. Bill Maher American comedian: Suicide is our way of saying to God: "You can't fire me. I quit."

47. Warren Mitchell British actor: You don't retire in this business. You just notice the phone hasn't rung for 10 years.

48. Nick Park Animator and creator of Wallace & Gromit: I never thought that playing with plasticine would lead to such a glamorous life.

49. Philip Pullman British writer: I thought physics could be done to the glory of God, till I saw there wasn't any God at all and that physics was more interesting anyway.

50. John Reid Labour MP and former Home Secretary: Our system is not fit for purpose.

51. Andy Roddick American tennis player: Maybe I'll just punch him or something. (On how he might beat Roger Federer)

52. Anita Roddick British businesswoman: I watch where the cosmetics industry is going and then walk in the opposite direction.

53. Nicholas Serota British art expert: This is a plea for patience. Your scepticism will gradually diminish and your fear will turn to love... All art was modern once.

54. Felipe Scolari Portuguese football coach: Now there is so much professionalism, we have to revert to urging players to like the game, love it, do it with joy.

55. O. J. Simpson American football player: Fame vaporises, money goes with the wind, and all that's left is character.

56. Upton Sinclair American novelist: It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.

57. Linda Smith British comedian: I play all my country and western music backwards. Your lover returns, your dog comes back to life and you cease to be an alcoholic.

58. Lynne Truss British writer: Abuse is the currency of all reality shows.

59. Robin Williams US actor: There were a lot of doctors in rehab. It's rather like being in a fat farm with nutritionists.

60. Edward O. Wilson American sociobiologist: Wonderful theory, wrong species. (On Marxism, which he considered more suited to ants than to humans)

I've already written here that a good and controversioal quotation is a great way to start class discussions. Lower-level students can be asked to explain the meaning of the quotation, higher-level ones can be prompted to agree or disagree withteh quotation and explain why, and if your students like to make stories, you can even ask them to make a story to illustrate the idea o fthe quotation (but remember that this is good for a writing class and not for an everyday conversation lesson, as not everyone is happy with having to make up stories unless they're to explain why they haven't done their homework).So here're a few more interesting quotations which could be used as discussion starters:otes to Like!• Id rather be hated for who I am than loved for who I am not. - Kurt Cobain• The trouble with real life is that there is no danger music. - Cable Guy• If you are going through hell, keep going. - Sir Winston Churchill• Everything is okay in the end, if it is not ok, then it is not the end.• Never give up on something that you can not go a day without thinking about.• Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.• What you are is Gods gift to you, what you make of yourself is your gift to God. - Jewish Proverb• Every great achievement was once considered impossible.• A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. - Sun Tzu• The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. - Ghandi• No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. - Eleanor Roosevelt• Sometimes you just have to be alone until you are no longer lonely.• We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give. - Winston Churchill• Never tell your problems to anyone...20% don't care and the other 80% are glad you have them. - Lou Holtz• Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind dont matter and those who matter dont mind. - Dr. Seuss• People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day. - Whinnie The Pooh

Since I give seminars and workshops quite often, I have to be prepared for all sorts of questions. Most questions are related to ELT methodology and textbook features, but sometimes there are questions which do not seem to be connected with the topic of the seminar at all. Sometimes people need advice, sometimes theyt ask me if I could render assistance with something. Last week in Surgut a lady-participant asked me first how old I was, then why I was not wearing a wedding ring, and finally she proposed to find me a wife. It was really sweet of her to be taking such a personal interest in my well-being, even if it was hardly related to the topic of the workshop. Just as I said earlier: some questions are really unpredictable and I think I need to start collecting the most interesting or the funniest ones. So far the weirdest question asked was in Stavropol. Since it was asked in Russian, I'll write about it in Russian to preserve all the flavour of it.

A very middle-aged lady stood up during the seminar and said: - Я не одобряю всех этих тестов в учебниках. Какая у них воспитательная ценность? Вот скажите мне, как может воспитывать тест на выбор ответа?

Когда я пояснил, что задача тестов - контроль степени усвоения материала учениками или уровня сформированности знаний и умений у школьников, женщина осталась недовольна. "Нет!"- сказала она, - "тесты должны воспитывать! И еще у меня вопрос. А какая развивающая ценность у картинок в учебниках для 10 класса? Как они помогут развивать ученика?" И тут начался запланированный перерыв в программе семинара, и мы погрузились в дискуссию о том, что такое воспитание, что такое развивающее обучение и что именно нужно воспитывать и развивать в 10 классе. Интересно, а у кого-нибудь на заседаниях МО такие вопросы бывают? Я почему-то вспомнил, как защищалась моя первая диссертантка. После того, как она успешно и спокойно ответила на множество вопросов комиссии, поднялся один профессор из соседнего города и сказал: "Вот Вы являетесь соискателем степени кандидата педагогических наук. А каков лично Ваш вклад в педагогику как в науку?"

Так что вопросы бывают разными, и вполне непредсказуемыми. И сразу же начинает работать русская поговорка: "Каков вопрос - таков ответ".

The seemingly easiest way to introduce ICT into the language classroom is to use specially-created learning software. The advantages of such software are obvious – the content and the tasks are already there, the teacher does not need to design any tasks of his/her own, the software can be used both in class and by individual students, and it is readily available in the market. But the situation is not really as brilliant as it seems to be, and sometimes disadvantages of such software may outweigh any potential advantages that it may have. Let’s look deeper into this issue.

Types of software and their features

First of all, there are different types of learning software. Among others, one can find skills-building software, which is aimed at building students’ vocabulary, or grammar, or listening, or reading skills. Usually such software includes only one type of skills, although more and more often one can find different skills sections on a single disc, e.g. such as grammar and pronunciation building program. Such programs are good for individual practice if they suit the student by the language and conceptual level. However, very often, as it would sometimes happen with a grammar-and-vocabulary course, the vocabulary is either too low-level or too high-level for the grammar exercises and thus creates problems rather than helps students to get rid of them. Besides, as these programmes are too focused on particular skills, they are not easy to apply in a classroom where students are expected to be equally making progress in all types of language skills.

Another example of learning software is exam preparation or testing software. Usually it takes the form of a set of electronic tests, which provide immediate feedback to the user and explain the peculiarities of a particular type of task or an entire exam. Numerous TOEFL Preparation CDs belong to this type of software. These programmes are useful mainly for those who wish to prepare for a particular exam and are not very suitable for pupils studying English for General Purposes.

Probably the most frequent type of learning software are ready study courses. Such programmes are, basically, courses of English which are supposed to be ready for studying. They are usually arranged around certain topics (like Travelling, Eating Out, Checking In a Hotel, Buying Tickets and so on), contain exercises for learning vocabulary, grammar, reading, writing and simulating speaking activities and are designed according specific language levels. Some courses include a variety of features, such as images, games, glossaries, voice record and playback option and short videos. Other courses include mainly dialogues together with their audio version, vocabulary, grammar and writing games and exercises, mock role plays when a programme pronounces certain phrases and the student has to insert suitable phrases in the gap, sometimes using a feature allows students to record their own speech and compare it to the bits recorded by native speakers. Again, very much like with skills training software, such courses are best for use by individual students, who can select and adjust their pace of work as they go along. Using these courses in the classroom frequently leads to problems, as often the content of these courses does not fit the federal standard and the federal programme, the topical vocabulary is different from what the students have in their textbooks, the order of learning grammar issues also differs from what there is in a textbook or from what is required by the federal standard and programmes. In short, such digital courses clash with the textbooks in vocabulary, grammar, level of difficulty and pace of study, and the teacher has to spend a lot of time and effort to select the contents which would suit the class and make studies more effective rather than leading to failures.

A more suitable for a general audience type of software is multimedia, specially designed to go with a particular textbook. On the surface level the advantages of such multimedia supplements are obvious: they fit the lexis and grammar of the textbook, they suit the students’ language level, they do not confront the conceptual level of the textbook, and the exercises on CDs support and expand the exercises in the textbook by providing more practice on varying levels.

On the other hand, though, there still is a number of aspects to consider while analyzing the supplement to decide how to use it most effectively.

What makes multimedia supplement effective?

Multimedia supplement is most effective when it:

• Follows the topics of the textbook, thus helping students to expand their understanding of the material that they are studying;

• Fits the vocabulary, grammar and language level of the book, providing extra practice in the subject matter;

• Contains multi-level exercises so that both the more and the less-successful students would benefit from using the supplement;

• Provides various features that can not be included into the textbook: videos, animated cartoons, sounds, interactive games, puzzles, tests, other exercises for interactive practice;

• Provides instant feedback to students so that they know whether they have been successful in doing an exercise or a test. Some multimedia supplement rely on the teacher to give feedback to the students, which, instead of increasing learner autonomy, make the students even more dependent on the teacher, which is hardly effective from the point of view of applying ICT to teaching EFL;

• Contains additional resources, such as additional exercises, information, access to online resources (which is relevant only unless the textbook itself has a support website);

• Can be easily built into the learning process both on technology (that is, be used with a single computer and a data projector plus a smartboard if required, used in a computer classroom or by the students individually as part of their homework) and on methodology level (contains clear and concise instructions for the students on what to do and how to do the exercises);

• Helps the teachers to save time and better organize study process (that is, contains a detailed teacher’s guide which explains the overall uses and objectives of the supplement and contains instructions and recommendations for every single exercise, together with information on how they can be best fit into the lesson), contains a class management system;

• Is easy to use due to an intuitively understandable interface and does not require installation of any additional software or access to the internet to do the exercises.

The following checklist can help teachers to analyse learning software and easily decide if they want to use it in their classroom:

Analysing for Focus on Questions to consider How to find out

Target audience Age and level of students 1. What level of English is this software for?

2. What age of students is it meant for?

3. Are the instructions and tasks formulated clearly enough for your students to easily understand them? Check the annotation on the cover. Run a demo of the software to see if it suits your students.

Educational objectives Type of software and its objectives 1. What type of software is it? Is it a skills trainer? Is it meant for exam practice? It is an independent course? Is it a multimedia supplement to a textbook?

2. What is it supposed to prepare students for? Check the annotation on the cover. Check the index (the contents) page of the main menu of the programme. Run a random lesson to see what its objectives are.

Usability Equipment needed and technical difficulty/ease of the software 1. Does it need any extra software to be installed?

2. What equipment is needed can it be used only with a smartboard? Will it work if you have only a standalone computer and a data projector? Do you need a computer classroom to use it? Can it be used by individual students at home?

3. Does it require internet connection or special registration/activation key?

4. Can it run in a network, or does it have to be installed individually on each and every computer?

5. Do you need to obtain a license for using it on several computers?

6. Does the manufacturer provide technical support?

7. Is the interface (the layout of the screens and the elements on the screens like buttons etc) clear and understandable? Check the technical requirements information on the cover.

Check the booklet/inlay to see if it contains an activation key or any information on licensing.

Check the cover, the booklet/inlay for technical support contact information/website.

Content and features Content of the programme and what it can do 1. What features of the programme make it different from a textbook?

2. What type of resources does it contain? Does it contain videos, sounds, interactive images?

3. What type of exercises does it contain? Does it contain multi-level exercises? Does it contain interactive texts, quizzes, tests?

4. What skills does it focus on? Does it contain reading, listening, writing and speaking exercises?

5. Does it contain information and tasks for project work/case studies etc?

6. Does it increase learner autonomy through exercises for independent work, exploration and instant feedback? Check the booklet/inlay for information. Run a random lesson to see what it includes.

Management of the study process Information for teachers and students 1. Does the software include teacher’s guide in the booklet/inlay or on the disc?

2. Is the teacher’s guide written in clear, concise language?

3. Is there enough information in the guide on what stages of the lesson to use the software at?

4. Does the guide include pictures or video instructions that explain how to use the software?

5. Does the guide contain recommendations on how to use every single exercise?

6. Is the software fully compatible with your textbook and easy to build into your lessons?

7. Does the software include a Class Management System? Check the booklet/inlay for information. Run a random lesson to see what it includes.

This checklist may help you to analyse learning software and foresee most of the potential problems that you can face as a teacher. However, the importance of each of these issues is more visible when applied to a concrete example. Let’s do a case study of some learning software.

Learning software – a case study

The software we are going to study is called “Enjoy Listening and Playing 2”. We are going to quickly go over all the questions in the checklist, answer them and then decide whether this software is suitable for your classroom.

Target audience:

1. What level of English is this software for? – Beginner to elementary.

2. What age of students is it meant for? Grade 2 of Russian schools – 1-8 years old.

3. Are the instructions and tasks formulated clearly enough for your students to easily understand them? – The tasks are in Russian, written in simple language, formulated in the same words throughout the entire disc which makes them easy to understand for students. The instructions are written in white letters at the bottom of each screen. Besides, there is a button marked “?”, which makes more detailed instructions appear on the screen. Students should easily understand them.

Educational objectives:

1. What type of software is it? Is it a skills trainer? Is it meant for exam practice? It is an independent course? Is it a multimedia supplement to a textbook? – The software is a multimedia supplement to the “Enjoy Englis” Grade 2 textbook, as it says on the cover.

2. What is it supposed to prepare students for? – The main objectives of this software is to practise students’ listening and reading skills, with the main focus on interactive listening. Another objective is to help students memorise and practise vocabulary and grammar.

Usability:

1. Does it need any extra software to be installed? – No, no extra software is needed, the program will run “as is” on any computer, no installation is required.

2. What equipment is needed can it be used only with a smartboard? Will it work if you have only a standalone computer and a data projector? Do you need a computer classroom to use it? Can it be used by individual students at home? – This program can be used both with a standalone computer and a data projector, with a computer, data projector and a smartboard, in a computer class or individually by students on their PCs at home. Thus the programme is pretty universal in usability.

3. Does it require internet connection or special registration/activation key? – No, no internet connection or special activation key is necessary in this version.

4. Can it run in a network, or does it have to be installed individually on each and every computer? – One disc can be run in a class network without having to be installed on every single computer.

5. Do you need to obtain a license for using it on several computers? – Unless you use one disc for the class network, you need to have a separate disc for each computer.

6. Does the manufacturer provide technical support? – Two websites are listed on the cover as providing internet-support.

7. Is the interface (the layout of the screens and the elements on the screens like buttons etc) clear and understandable? – The interface is intuitively understandable. There are instructions on how to use the buttons on the inlay and in the teacher’s guide.

Content and features:

1. What features of the programme make it different from a textbook? – Although the programme is built on the audio from the textbook, it consists of fully interactive exercises, animated cartoons and contains additional exercises for extra practice to add to those you can find in the textbook.

2. What type of resources does it contain? Does it contain videos, sounds, interactive images? – The programme contains animated cartoons, sounds, interactive images, interactive listening tests and exercises.

3. What type of exercises does it contain? Does it contain multi-level exercises? Does it contain interactive texts, quizzes, tests? – The programme contains interactive listening exercises and tests.

4. What skills does it focus on? Does it contain reading, listening, writing and speaking exercises? – The programme focuses mainly on listening exercises, but also contains a large number of reading and some writing exercises. With most of the exercises students need to repeat new words and phrases, thus practising their pronunciation and speaking skills.

5. Does it contain information and tasks for project work/case studies etc? – Although the programme contains extra exercises, there are no project tasks as enough of such tasks are used in the textbook.

6. Does it increase learner autonomy through exercises for independent work, exploration and instant feedback? – The exercises provide instant feedback and can be done independently by learners. The programme will repeat words, phrases and dialogues as many times as needed until the learners get them right. Every timea learner does an exercise correctly, he/she gets a visual bonus (a short animated cartoon) which motivates learners to do the exercises.

Management of the study process:

1. Does the software include teacher’s guide in the booklet/inlay or on the disc? – The software contains a detailed teacher’s guide on the disc. The guide is in pdf format and can be viewed either on the screen or printed out for reference.

2. Is the teacher’s guide written in clear, concise language? – The guide is written in clear, concise language and is easy to understand.

3. Is there enough information in the guide on what stages of the lesson to use the software at? – The guide contains a description of the overall goals and objectives and use of the software as well as recommendations on what stages of the lessons the exercises can be best used.

4. Does the guide include pictures or video instructions that explain how to use the software? – The guide contains pictures and screenshots that make it very easy to understand.

5. Does the guide contain recommendations on how to use every single exercise? – The guide contains detailed recommendations for each and every exercise.

6. Is the software fully compatible with your textbook and easy to build into your lessons? – The software is fully compatible with “Enjoy English” Grade 2 textbook, the information in the Teacher’s Book and in the Teacher’s guide on the disc is enough to allow it to be easily built into the lessons or to be used by students for homework.

7. Does the software include a Class Management System? – No, this version of the software does not have a Class Management System. But it looks like ot does not need one either.

All in all, I spent only 3 days and a half in Krasnoyarsk, and it is not at all enough to fully enjoy the city and see everything there is to see.

The airport is some 40 km away from the city, so as you fly in in the evening, it is already getting dark and all you can see is the mountains. The mountains are not very tall, they look more like tallish hills, but these are the famous Sayany that go through Hakassia and to Tibet. The famous "poles" ("stolby") - very tall stones - can be seen from the city too.

The river Yenisey runs through the city. The Yenisey was the only one of the great rivers of Russia that I had not seen before, so it was especially interesting to see its leaden-grey waters and the lots of ducks that stay there all winter as the river does not freeze over in Krasnoyarsk.

The city lies on both sides of tyhe river, one bank being more business/trading/university/administrative area and the other one a more industrial/residential one.

One of the most beautiful streets in Krasnoyarsk is Prospekt Mira. As you walk along it, you feel like you are travelling in time. The end of the street which is closest to the Yenisey starts with a monument to Ryazanov and a concert hall, and as you walk through a tall arch, you find yourself in between two rows of wonderfully preserved late 19-th - early 20th century buildings. Most of these buildings were owned by local merchants, so they are large and built and decorated according to the fashions of St Petersburgh. On every such building you can now see a plaque which tells you whose house it used to be, who the architect was and whether this was a house in which someone lived or whether it was built as a school. Uncharacteristically of Russia of those times, many buildings in this street belonged no to men, but to women, who ran their businesses themselves.

The old houses go about halfway along the street, and then, afte a few more steps, you reach Stalin-era architecture. Massive Empire-style buildings with columns and Soviet symbols look stunningly different from what you have seen just a few minutes ago. Some of the buildings look gloomy, if imposing, but the people of Krasnoyarsk have found a wonderful solution to fight the darkness and gloom. Many of those period pieces are painted in bright colours. You will see a bright-green hospital with white columns which does not look like a typical hospital at all. The Federal Railway has several huge office buildings there too.

The street ends with some of the 1980-s and 1990-s buildings which hardly fit the overall looks and atmosphere of ythe street, but fortunately, there are not so many such buildings there.

Next to this street you can see several beautiful old churches, so when you are still in the 19-th centruy part, you feel like you are visiting a different era.

But what makes the streets of Krasnoyarsk special, is not the architecture, no matter how beautiful it is. What really stands out in the streets is a multitude of fountains, sculptures, artificial trees and small clock towers. Of course, the fountains are now covered for the winter, but as you walk past them, you can imagine how great they must look in the summer when it is hot. The sculptures are very diverse: you can see Alexander pushkin reading poems to Natalie Goncharova, a statue of a local artist in a battered sweater with his study album, figures of a nude woman and man, holding hands, and many other things.

All the clock mini-towers are not tall, they seem to be about 2 meters tall at best. They all look a bit like Big ben, but in fact they resemble the clock tower on the city administration building. Apart from those towers you can also see a couple of very special clocks, with huge round faces with a lot of dials that show time, holidays and jubilees of historic events.

And probably the most special thing about the streets of Krasnoyarsk is the artificial trees. They look like sakura trees, bonsai trees or laurels and cherries. For leaves and blossom they have tiny lightbulbs and in the evenings, when all is dark, they shine with different colours: green, yellow, violet, purple... They really make you feel as if it was Christmas.

I was in Krasnoyarsk only last week, but they already had snow. Last Friday was a sunny day, a bit chilly because of the wind, but the snow was shining brightly in the day, and in the evening everything was filled witht hlight of the trees. And if you have a chance to go to Krasnoyarsk, a walk along its streets in the evening is a must if you want to enjoy the city as much as it deserves.

This morning I had breakfast in the lobby bar and then went to the lift to go upstairs to my hotel room.

Well, there was a small crowd waiting for the lifts. The first people standing next to the doors were 4 women. They were discussing something. Meanwhile, the lifts weren't coming. I looked at the indicator and realised that no one had bothered to press the button to call the lifts

So I did that and almost immediately one of the lifts came. The women goty in, still chatting. They were discussing some man. I got in as well, and two more men

I pressed the button for my floor, one of the men pressed the button for a lower flor. The women kept talking, never looking our way

The lift stops, one of the men goes out. When the doors were already closing, one of the women said loudly: Oh, we're getting out! And they all rushed out. The doors closed, and when the lift was starting to go up, I heard one of the women say rather loudly outside: But where ARE we?

Do you ever feel nervous before speaking in public? Of course by the virtue of our profession we have to do it every day, but still I've met many excellent teachers who are extremely reluctant to speak at a conference or address an audience outside their classroom. I remember a couple of years ago at a conference in Murmansk a wonderful teacher who had taken part in an experiment to improve the quality of textbooks and who had done an excellent job, got so nervous just before she was to speak, that her blood pressure level rose dramatically and she had to stop in mid-sentence and go and take her medicine. I called her in the end of the day just to make sure she had got home safely and did not need any help, and she was upset that she had not made her speech as intended.

So why do we fail to speak in public sometimes? The reason is simple, it is called "stage fright". Speaking in class is different from speaking to general public or a professional audience because in these cases we are outside our habitual environment.

Although I give lectures and workshops in many different regions to lots of teachers, I get stage fright as well. So let me share some ways of overcoming it, perhaps you will find some of them useful.

First of all, you can never know if you will go down with the audience well. This idea makes many people extremely worried, although, in fact, the solution is quite simple. Any audience is there to listen to something new. Therefore if when you only begin your lecture/presentation/speech ask the people what they know what what they feel will be interesting for them to hear, it will help you a lot. In this way you'll be able to make your information relevant for the audience and ensure that people listen to you. In this way there is no need to fear that you will not be interesting to the audience.

Which brings up another point. Sometimes, no matter how interesting the speech is, it becomes boring very quickly. The reason, again, is simple: the speech is too quiet and monotonous. If you cannot speek loudly, why not come closer to the people? And intonations should not be too "academic": after all, the whole thing is about people enjoying listening to you, not about you enjoying speaking. I've heard several very clever and interesting people who, when they address an audience, immediately "put on an academic hat" and begin speaking as if they were addressing students, and not very clever students at that. They tend to forget that they are talking to professionals who can either help them by sharing their own experience, answering questions, agreeing or disagreeing with the speaker, but it will be a lively talk. Hardly anyone needs lecturing these days, but a conversation always works. Your lecture is worth only as much as how interesting it is for the people and how easy it is to hear you. So there i sno need to fear that you will lose the audience in the middle of your speech.

Some speakers get stage fright because they feel that they are not experienced enough or they don't feel that what they have to say has much value for the audience. Again, we have two simple solutions fo rthis problem. Solution 1: if you feel that you don't know what to say on this topic, choose another topic where you do know what to say. Solution 2: if you are sharing your own experience, it is always interesting. Just remember that your experience and ideas are worth no less than someone else's, and no one can tell about your experience better than you. I remember one of the times when I was working as an interpreter at a big economic forum. Most of th eforum perticipants were governors from different regions of Russia, including the mayor of moscow and I needed to translate what was being said to a British millionnaire and then translate his speech to the entire audience. Although this was by far not my first experience of simultaneous translation at important events, for some reason I felt nervous before going on the stage. But then I said to myself that although it's very likely that there are people in the hall who speak excellent English, I am still a professional interpreter and no one among those present would be able to do my job better than myself. To remind myself of my qualification was enough to drive away the stage fright.

Also, some of us have a fear that something will go wrong with the technical equipment, that the computer won't start, or the data projector will break down or there will be no sound from the speakers. Well, such things do happen. Therefore it is always a good idea to have some alternative variants of delivering a presentation. You can print out the handouts, you can ask the public to share their ideas and experience, you can do all sorts of content-related activities that we do in our classrooms every day. If you are prepared to be flexible, you needn't fear failures of technical equipment.

And finally, some people are afraid of not being able to answer some of the questions at once. In fact, there is nothing wrong with not knowing answers to each and every questions. Some questions do not have an answer. The answer to some questions is the short and simple "no". And when someone asks a question which you cannot even understand there is nothing wrong with asking this person to paraphrase the question, with asking experienced teachers among the audience if they have ever encountered similar problems and how they deal with them. You'll be surprised to see how many solutions will be offered immediately, and there is really no need to be afriad of questions because there are always many people around who want to help you.

These are just a few simple things, but I hope that they will help you to deal with stage fright if ever you get any.

Witty mockery is where sometimes the flexibility of language shows best. It is not easy to tell what you think about someone without being rude, but when you can do it, your words go down in history. Here's a short collection of famous put-down phrases:

"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire."

—Winston Churchill

"A modest little person, with much to be modest about."

—Winston Churchill

"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure."

—Clarence Darrow

"Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I'll waste no time reading it."

—Moses Hadas

"He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know."

—Abraham Lincoln

"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it."

—Groucho Marx

"I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it."

—Mark Twain

"He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends."

—Oscar Wilde

"I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play. Bring a friend . . . if you have one."

—George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill

"Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second . . . if there is one."

—Winston Churchill, in response

"I feel so miserable without you; it's almost like having you here."

—Stephen Bishop

"He is a self-made man and worships his creator."

—John Bright

"I've just learned about his illness. Let's hope it's nothing trivial."

—Irvin S. Cobb

"He is not only dull himself; he is the cause of dullness in others."

—Samuel Johnson

"There's nothing wrong with you that reincarnation won't cure."

—Jack E. Leonard

"He has the attention span of a lightning bolt."

—Robert Redford

"He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary."

—William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway)

"Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?"

—Ernest Hemingway (about William Faulkner)

"He inherited some good instincts from his Quaker forebears, but by diligent hard work, he overcame them."

—James Reston (about Richard Nixon)

"In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily."

—Charles, Count Talleyrand

"He loves nature in spite of what it did to him."

—Forrest Tucker

"Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?"

—Mark Twain

"His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork."

—Mae West

"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go."

—Oscar Wilde

"He has Van Gogh's ear for music."

—Billy Wilder

If you want me to read your mind, give me more to work with.

—One of Eric Slinn's coworkers

 

Уважаемые коллеги, издательство "Титул" начинает выпускать новую серию книг для дошкольников и младших школьников "К празднику". Вышла книга "Новый Год". Эта книга поможет детям своими руками подготовиться к новогоднему празднику, сделать яркую и оригинальную открытку, елочные украшения для друзей и родных, а также выполнить интересные задания и узнать о необычных новогодних традициях разных стран. Книга полностью на русском языке, она станет хорошим подарком любому дошкольнику. Завтра выложим для скачивания несколько заданий из книги. Книгой можно пользоваться как дома, так и в детских садах и центрах развития ребенка, материалов хватит на несколько занятий.

 

 

Source: Развивающие игры и поделки к Новому Году

One of the worst things about aiports is having to stand in long queues waiting to be checked in. Often, if you arrive at the aiport a little later than you should have, all the best seats are already taken and you may have to squeeze into the middle seat and remain crammed for the duration of the flight. Modern technologies provide a good way to deal with the queues and seating problems. You can always use a self-check-in terminal, if there company you're flying with provides such a service. With this terminal you can check in within minutes and also you can see for yourself which seats are still available and choose the one that you prefer. Not bad, eh? I've seen such terminals in Domodedovo, but they are not quite as efficient as the ones in many British airports. In Domodedovo you can currently check in through a terminal if you've got only carry-on (cabin) luggage. If not, you will still have to queue up to be checked in by the company's officer and have your luggage taken to the luggage compartment of the plane. In Britain the terminals work for you no matter how much luggage you've got on you. All you have to do is either type in your ticket confirmation code (for e-tickets, bought online), or swipe your passport through the scanner, or just type in the flight number and your name to get a boarding pass. Then you go on to the company's counter and drop your luggage there. Simple as that. When I was flying from Glasgow to London, all I had to do was type in my booking confirmation number, choose my seat and the borading pass was printed out by the machine. At the counter I showed the boarding pass and my luggage was taken and I was free to go through the security control and board the plane. Not once did I have to show my passport to anyone at all. So if you are flying somewhere and there are self-check-in terminals at the airport, my advice for you would be to use them as they'd save you a lot of time.

Are your pupils interested in their family history? Probably very few of them are. However, family history may become a very good topic for a lesson or a series of lessons, as it is closely related to lots of other topics. For example, when we talk about the anniversary of victory in WWII, we could make a project (anything really, from posters to cards to presentations) "My family in WWII". I am sure many interesting things will come out of it. I am lucky to be able to trace the history of at least some of my ancestors at http://www.konobeev.narod.ru/index.html, but a student could create his or her own genealogical tree as part of school research. This may call for a joint lesson with a teacher of history, but it may raise the students' awareness of the fact that each and every one of them is not only a person, but also an heir to many generations of interesting people. This could even become the basis for a joint Local Studies project. What do you think?

As you walk along the Royal Mile towards Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh there is a green-and-brown tavern/pub on your left. The tavern is called "Deacon Brody's" and the house is about 300 years old. On the wall there is a large board that tells the story of this tavern and Deacon Brody. Since this story is important for British literature, I think you may be interested to know it.

William Brodie (sometimes spelt as "Brody" was a cabinet maker and a deacon of a trade guild, so often he is referred to as "Deacon Brodie". In the 18th century Edinburgh he was a prosperous and respected man, so respected, in fact, that he was made a member of the burgh council and served on the jury as well. To better serve justice, he even designed and funded a gallows to be put up in the city.

But who was a respectable man in the daytime turned into a burglar and gambler at night. Since he was a very popular craftsman and locksmith, he was often invited to the homes of the richest people of Edinburgh to fix locks for them, which gave him excellent opportunities to see where the money was. At night he would disguise himself underneath a mask,, burgle the houses he had recently been called to, used copies of the keys he had made for the locks and take the money. His night-time "earnings" enabled him to gamble a lot, keep two mistresses and five children. When he was found out, he was condemned and hanged on the same gallows that he had so enthusiastically built. A legend has it that he tried to bribe the hangman and put a steel collar to escape the death by hanging, but the plan di dnot work.

Robert Louis Stevenson was so impressed by this man's adventures that he wrote his famous "The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde". So this was deacon Brody's involuntary input in British literature. And somehow the dark stones of the old houses in the Royal Mile make it easy to believe the story.