English For Pleasure

Till recently in Indian cinema was only one and the same plot: a guy meets a girl, they fall in love and after some time they get married and live happily, everybody dances and sings.

Nowadays, the streets of Indian cities and towns are decorated with posters with ads of new films. A lot of posters have grinning faces, expressing fear, cruelty and aggression. It is strange to see such things in the country, where the main religion preaches nonviolence. The energy of cruel films influences so, that a schoolboy can take a knife and kill the rude classmate. Such things happen not often. Imitating the main hero of the film, a young man wants to be cool, to have the same muscles, the same costume, the same car or motorbike. A girl wants to look attractive too, to have expensive dresses and make-up.

A lot of Indians pay skeptical attention to the modern blockbusters. There are protest forums in Internet and also the whole public movements, trying to stop the production of the films, demonstrating the violence.

The film industry of the State of Karnataka lost over 100 millions rupees last year, because the spectators refused to go to the cinema. Nevertheless, the cruelty of Indian films adds speed, trying not to be inferior in the quality of torn dead bodies.

And there is the other danger, the most terrible. Watching one after another cruel films, the people change their world view. They forget, what is love and sympathy. Murders, explosions, violence, wars, terrorism. And what do you want? This is a very cruel world. But stop! It is shown on TV and the people believe in it, losing the habit step-by-step to react negatively to evil.

We have no choice to think, to what do prepare India Indian films? And to what do Hollywood`s action films prepare Americans, Hong Kong`s – Chinese, and Russian – us?

My career of teaching English began, when I was a student of the third course of the Pedagogical University. It was the most difficult course, because I must study two languages: German and English. I studied English from the first course and on the third course I continued studying it. There were no thought about work, I only thought about my study.

One day I was called by the dean of our faculty. She suggested me and my friend to work at the technical college. We had to go by bus two times a week there. The way took about 10 minutes. The dean was asked to find two students from our faculty by the director of the college some minutes ago before our meeting. Nobody agreed in our and other groups. And she decided to suggest us, me and my friend. I promised her to think one day and then to give her an answer. I took up all the variants of my future, how to connect work and study. Next day I agreed and my friend too. Our dean was very happy and we were very happy too.

My first day of working at the technical college began. I was so nervous before the lessons; I had different bad thoughts in my mind. I thought about the students, especially about their future attention to me. I had three pairs, 6 lessons. I had two groups. I began my lesson from introducing myself and asking some questions about students` knowledge in English. The students were very interested in me from the first minutes of the lesson. I was liked by them and I liked them too. We became friends. We met two times a week at our lessons and when we had a break from our lessons at the University we went by bus to meet our students. I worked the whole year at the college.

Then I changed my place of work, being a student of the fourth course. I wanted to work at school and I got this opportunity. I became a teacher of English of one of the town school in the town, where our University was situated. I had to go to school only one time and teach the pupils from the ninth form. They were such pupils, who didn`t want to study English. They used to mock at teachers. They didn`t have the constant teacher. All the teachers refused to teach them. I worked at this school over three month and then left it. I was so disappointed, I was sorry myself; I had a thought not to go to school to anymore.

Two months later my good friend, my teacher of German, she taught me at school, rang me and suggested to work at my school and I agreed. I came to an agreement with the dean of the University and began working. I taught German and English lessons were only as optional courses. The students were so curious they studied foreign languages with pleasure.

Nowadays, I continue working at my native school as a teacher of English and

I am the only one. I teach English for pupils from the second till eleventh form. I love my pupils very much and their parents too. The pupil`s parents help me in difficult minutes, giving advice.

As we know, movement can be used to great effect to reinforce language at all levels. At primary level, I have great fun with parts of the body and instructions to make a very good gymnastics pause. Here are some elements I combine to make my own gym pause.

Head, shoulders, knees and toes…

Introduce the words from the song. Practice them by repeating and touching. Vary the volume of your repetition – sometimes loud like a scary gym instructor, sometimes quiet like a little mouse. Get pupils to touch the part of the body you say.

When you feel the pupils are well practiced, sing the “Head, shoulders, knees and toes…” song. As homework, ask pupils to teach the song to someone at home.

When I see my pupils after the lessons, they remember this song and sing it for me. They also teach their friends. They sing it on the street, at home, by one word everywhere. They like it very much.

Holidays are a really important topic at the beginning of the school year. When talking about holidays, pupils need to be able to talk about past holidays. They should also show that they can operate in different tenses. The teachers are pupils` assistants with ideas and vocabulary.

Prepare a short presentation about a holiday you went on once. You can show them some photos to make your presentation come alive. Put these headings on the blackboard:

destination;

food;

lodging;

activities;

the best day;

Ask pupils to listen carefully and make as many notes as possible.

When you have finished see if you can all recreate what you said together. Write it up on the blackboard. This can be a model for them. Then ask them to prepare their own presentation about their holidays, using the headings and the model on the blackboard.

E.g.: I was in Nizhniy Novgorod to visit my relatives last summer. This city is situated on the river Volga, has a long interesting history, a lot of beautiful sights. I have stayed by my relatives for three weeks and I have really enjoyed my holidays and rest.

Every day I got up at 9 o`clock, greeted my aunt and then had breakfast. I had only a cup of tea with cakes. After breakfast I went shopping to buy food: bread, milk, and fruit. Some minutes later I went to dacha to help my uncle. In the evening I stayed at home, watched TV

or walked with my niece on the beach. There was a beautiful birch grove near the sea, where we liked to spend our time.

My best and unforgettable day was, when I visited the concert of the Moscow group “Banderos” for free. It was really cool.