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Журнал для тех,

No. 4 кто преподает

и изучает английский язык
eng.1september.ru Учебно-методический журнал Английский язык

Around the English-Speaking World

Northern Ireland

There are two traditions in Northern Ireland. There are two

main religious denominations. But there is only one true moral
denomination. And it wants peace.
David Trimble
апрель
1september.ru 2016
АНГЛИЙСКИЙ ЯЗЫК Подписка на сайте www.1september.ru или по каталогу “Почта России”. Индексы: 79002 (бумажная версия), 12630 (CD-версия)
 INSIDE
NEWS IN BRIEF
выходит
The UK-Russia Year of Language 1 раз в месяц Издание основано в 1992 г.
and Literature 2016 .......................................... 3 Главный редактор: Елизавета Богданова
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT Консультанты: Stephen Lapeyrouse, Erin Bouma
Bottom-Up or Top-Down Approach Научный редактор: Г.Гумовская
in EL Teaching and Learning ............................ 4 Корректура: М.Гардер
Cognitive Dissonances ...................................... 6 Набор, верстка: Г.Струкова

Story Comes First: The Writing Readers ИЗДАТЕЛЬСКИЙ ДОМ “ПЕРВОЕ СЕНТЯБРЯ”
Генеральный директор
for the EFL Classroom ..................................... 8 Н.Соловейчик
METHODS OF TEACHING Главный редактор
А.Соловейчик
Педагогика удивления: новый подход Коммерческая деятельность
к обучению иностранному языку .................... 11 К.Шмарковский (финансовый директор)
Реклама, конференции и техническое обеспечение
Holistic Grammar Teaching ..............................12 П.Кузнецов
Mistakes as a Way to Improved Производство
Language Awareness ........................................15 С.Савельев
Административно-хозяйственное обеспечение
FOCUS ON LANGUAGE А.Ушков
Schemes and Scams .........................................17 Педагогический университет
В.Арсланьян (ректор)
Basic Vocabulary for Religion ...........................19
World Religions Vocabulary .............................19 ЖУРНАЛЫ ИЗДАТЕЛЬСКОГО ДОМА:
Английский язык – Е.Богданова,
Conversational Questions ................................ 20 Библиотека в школе – О.Громова,
Christian Religious Rites ................................. 20 Биология – Н.Иванова,
География – и.о. А.Митрофанов,
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES Дошкольное образование – Д.Тюттерин,
Folk Tales around the World .............................21 Здоровье детей – Н.Сёмина,
Информатика – С.Островский,
Malawi: Working with Smallholder Farmers...... 22 Искусство – О.Волкова,
Mali: Trees, Microcredit and the Environment .. 23 История – А.Савельев,
Классное руководство
April Fool's Day ............................................. 50 и воспитание школьников – А.Полякова,
Scared of Being Haunted ................................ 52 Литература – С.Волков,
Математика – Л.Рослова,
LESSON PLANS Начальная школа – М.Соловейчик,
Reading for Pleasure ....................................... 24 Немецкий язык – М.Бузоева,
ОБЖ – А.Митрофанов,
TOPICAL JOURNEY Русский язык – Л.Гончар,
Northern Ireland ............................................. 27 Спорт в школе – О.Леонтьева,
Технология – А.Митрофанов,
SCHOOL THEATRE Управление школой – Е.Рачевский,
Ronia the Robber's Daughter .......................... 40 Физика – Н.Козлова,
Французский язык – Г.Чесновицкая,
TESTS Химия – О.Блохина,
Five-Minute Tests .......................................... 45 Школа для родителей – Л.Печатникова,
Школьный психолог – М.Чибисова
PREPARING FOR EXAMS
Подписные индексы
Northern Ireland ............................................. 45 По каталогу Почта России:
FOR YOUNG LEARNERS бумажная версия 79002; CD-версия 12630

The Time to Rhyme ....................................... 53 Учредитель: ООО «Издательский дом “Первое сентября”»
Зарегистрировано ПИ № ФС77-58393 от 18.06.14
GOOD NEWS в Роскомнадзоре
A Foreign Language as a Friend Indeed ........... 54 Подписано в печать: по графику 20.01.16, фактически 20.01.16
Отпечатано в ОАО “Первая Образцовая типография”
TEXTS FOR READING Филиал “Чеховский Печатный Двор”
ул. Полиграфистов, д. 1, Московская область, г. Чехов, 142300
Northern Ireland: Myths, Stereotypes Сайт: www.chpd.ru. E-mail: sales@chpk.ru
Факс: 8(496)-726-54-10, 8(495)-988-63-76
and Marching Bands....................................... 56
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Unless otherwise indicated images in this issue are from shutterstock.com facebook.com/School.of.Digital.Age

Dear Reader!
Welcome to April issue of English!
We continue our journey around the English-speaking
world and this time we are embarking for Northern Ireland.
In daily talks with students and colleagues, and even in
our own reflections, we have often observed a slight lack of
understanding of the difference between the two Irelands.
How come there are two of them? And what is the difference
between them?
Getting down to making this issue, we were all full of fore-
tasting – how great, we are going to read and write about the
fairies, about Narnia and other nice stuff! To our huge amaze-
ment, the materials coming to our hands suggested a different
outlook. Northern Ireland, as you will discover in the Topical
Journey, even though a relatively young country, has managed
to accumulate all the possible conflicts and dramatic episodes
one could imagine. Not surprisingly, then, why the well-meant
course books modestly limit themselves to only mentioning
the national symbol and Belfast when it comes to talking
about Northern Ireland.
The historical reality of Northern Ireland, unfolded in all
sources, is more than thought-provoking. It made us deal with
controversial topics which are usually to be avoided in the lan-
guage classroom (if not prohibited, at least at schools). They
are religion-based conflicts, civil-right movements, and mass
media reporting of events.
As we decided to be consistent, we couldn’t avoid talking
about Northern Ireland. Nor were we willing to combine the
two Irelands together so that the Republic of Ireland could
brighten the images of the issues Northern Ireland endured.
The third option – presenting some wonderful landscapes and
no comments – was also unacceptable as we are publishing a
professional journal and not a photo album. Thus, we decided
that the moment has come to bring up some hot issues on our
pages and equip our readers with the vocabulary needed to
talk about political correctness, religious fights and social
tragedies. In case it is needed.
Luckily, Topical Journey is not all we are offering you this
month and we do have some texts which encourage a much
more optimistic view of life. Among them are Dr Antoinette
Moses’ article about writing readers for the EFL classroom,
Mistakes as a Way to Improved Language Awareness (an
interview with Ian Cook by Alexandra Chistyakova) and a
mesmerizing and consoling culturally-rooted text for reading
– NORTHERN IRELAND: Myths, Stereotypes And March-
ing Bands by Gary Shields.
One of the peculiarities of being an English teacher is our
ability to sustain communication even when the topic under
discussion might burn some fingers. We hope that our April
issue will come in handy in those moments when you and your
students face a need to talk about different denominations of
Christianity in a peaceful way.
Elizaveta Bogdanova
Editor-in-Chief
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English
NEWS IN BRIEF
THE UK-RUSSIA YEAR
3
April 2016
OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 2016
In October-November 2016, the British Coun-
cil together with CoolConnections will hold the
17thNew British Film Festival, with screenings set
to take place in 30 cities across Russia for the first
time.
As part of the UK-Russia Year of Language
and Literature and to mark the 400th anniversary
of Shakespeare’s death, a special programme of
films will be shown, including screenings of Max-
ine Peake’s Hamlet, staged at the Royal Exchange
Theatre in Manchester. There will be screenings
of a range of documentary and short films, and a
series of discussions and round tables on the de-
velopment of the international film industry with the
participation of invited experts and Festival guests:
New British Film Festival Talks.
Details of the programme will be announced in
autumn 2016 at www.ukfilms.ru.
Literature Seminar at Yasnaya Polyana
The British Council together with Russian part-
ners are delighted to announce the launch of a ma-
jor annual seminar dedicated to contemporary Brit-
ish literature. In autumn 2016, the first seminar will
be held at Yasnaya Polyana, the museum estate of
Leo Tolstoy. The seminar will involve leading British
writers, poets, critics, journalists, literary specialists
and translators. Participants will discuss how the UK
Publishing industry works, literary trends in prose
and poetry alongside academic approaches to the
study of literature. This project aims to facilitate the
development of professional dialogue between rep-
resentatives of literary and academic communities
in the UK and Russia, encouraging young special-
ists to conduct independent research and to create
platforms for knowledge and experience exchange.
As part of the seminar a series of presentations,
discussions and round tables aimed at wider audi-
ences are planned. Translators, publishers, univer-
sity staff, graduates, journalists, literary critics and
those with a professional interest in British literature
will be invited to take part.
Shakespeare Lives Summer Festival
One of the main events of the Year will be a large-
scale summer festival dedicated to Shakespeare.
The Festival will take place in June in one of Mos-
cow’s central parks, and the programme will include
music concerts, theatre productions, film screen-
ings, lectures, masterclasses and much more.
Specially for the Festival, the British Council, with
the support of the British Film Institute will prepare
a retrospective of screen adaptations of Shake-
speare’s plays. This will include classic and contem-
porary productions, as well as the very first archive
films on the playwright’s works, produced during the
silent film era. Audiences will also have access to
an extensive educational programme of lectures,
discussions and masterclasses.
Source: http://www.britishcouncil.ru/
 English PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
4
April 2016 Bottom-Up or Top-Down Approach
in EL Teaching and Learning
While working at Columbia University in
New York in the 1990s, one of my job privi-
leges was taking a course a semester for
free. Since I did not need to earn any credits,
I had complete freedom of choice, so I used
the opportunity to attend several courses I
was curious about. One of them was in psy-
chology, where I learned about the two cogni-
tive approaches, Bottom-Up and Top-Down.
Today, they are also used in EL teaching and
learning. Students are blissfully unaware of the
terms and the differences between them; most
teachers I asked do not have the faintest idea
either. What are they? Let us look at a few sim-
ple examples.
THE BOTTOM-UP APPROACH
Imagine you hear a noise and realize it
is actually human speech. You can discern
sounds only, and you try to understand the
situation based on them. Maybe somebody is
in distress; maybe they are scared or quarrel-
ling; maybe they are laughing. If you can make
out individual words, even without really under-
standing their meaning, you can deduce that
some people are speaking. Once you recog-
nize at least one word, you may figure out what
this is all about. A place name, for example, will
tell you that the speakers are discussing a pro-
jected or a completed trip, while proper names
will tell you who they are talking about.
When you come across an unfamiliar text,
the first step is to check whether it is in your own
or in a foreign language. What tells you that a
text is in Russian, for instance? The Cyrillic al-
phabet would be the first indicator. How do we
identify that a text is in some other language?
The Latin alphabet shows us that we are to
search among the European languages first of
all, if we do not recognize it at once; or it may
be American, Canadian, Australian, et cetera.
Totally incomprehensible hieroglyphics might
direct us to China or Japan.
I experienced the bottom-up approach my-
self in Hong Kong. At first glance, what I saw
all around me looked like drawings or decora-
tions. Though a trained linguist and educator,
it took me a moment to grasp that all those
lovely placards in the street, and all the pretty
drawings on transportation were in fact words.
While searching for a booklet with sample hi-
eroglyph writing (there is no special word for
the Russian прописи in English), I noticed just
what my daughter wanted near the cashier’s
desk, and asked them if I could buy that. The
polite Chinese clerk did not laugh at me, but
patiently explained in English that it was the
beautifully executed tablet simply informing
customers “Please pay here”. He brought me
lots of booklets from the stock, so I was able to
choose one as a souvenir.
For a listening exercise, I would play a me-
lodious song and ask my students to raise their
hands if/when they heard any familiar English
sounds. The song was a long one, but it con-
tained only one couplet which was sung in at
least five languages in turn. Again, this was
pure listening for sounds, as opposed to listen-
ing for gist or listening for details – the bottom-
up approach. Once my students mastered the
required skill, they had no trouble identifying
the correct place in the song; later they could
try to discern the words.
Of the many definitions to be found on the
web, I chose the following one in Google:
“Bottom-up processing happens when
someone tries to understand language by
looking at individual meanings or grammatical
characteristics of the most basic units of the
text (e.g. sounds for a listening or words for a
reading), and moves from these trying to un-
derstand the whole text. Bottom-up processing
is not thought to be a very efficient way to ap-
proach a text initially, and is often contrasted
with top-down processing, which is thought to
be more efficient.”
Reading aloud is an activity which encour-
ages the bottom-up approach, because stu-
dents will mostly concentrate on sounds, word
forms, and grammar structures but not mean-
ings, at least at first. My students of any age
and level always loved Chain Reading, with
one child beginning to read the first sentence
from a text, and the next one proceeding to
the second sentence, until the whole text was
done. We may ensure that the whole group
listens carefully by asking them to mark down

any mistakes, or any difficult sounds, or maybe
just one sound each time it crops up. It is a
useful activity for the teacher, too: while chil-
dren read, slowly and carefully, with pauses
and stumbles, we may jot down any problem-
atic sounds, word clusters and grammar forms.
What seems like a slip of the tongue may turn
out to be a real difficulty if repeated systema-
tically. We shall know what needs explaining,
and what needs training or drills. Listening and
reading comprehension can benefit from both
approaches. For instance, when students see
a lot of words connected to the noun ball, like
football, baseball, volleyball, they may deduce
that the text is about sports or ball games.
THE TOP-DOWN APPROACH
We may come across a text or a paragraph
written with an indistinct handwriting, or a com-
plicated printed text which at first glance tells
us nothing about its content. It may be espe-
cially hard to grasp the meaning of a text which
includes a lot of diagrams, charts, formulas and
illustrations. The learner’s attention becomes
fractured, they see separate text blocks but
not one text as a whole. Rather than looking at
separate words, we can try to read the whole
paragraph, leaving any of the accompanying
features to be worked at later.
If we need to translate an article for money
or for our own research, we can use a dic-
tionary and plod on until we get the meaning.
When we are faced with an exercise or an
examination task, quite often all we need is to
get the gist, the essence. In some cases, we
simply need to determine which area of human
expertise is referred to.
An even simpler example from my psycho-
logy course goes this way. Suppose you have
a partner whose field of research or whose
job is completely different from yours. Yet you
want to be able to converse with him/her, or
at least listen to them with an intelligent face,
and be able to insert some remarks to show
your understanding. “I needed to synthesize a
few catalysts, use them in a reaction, describe
the results; we also wanted to get some spect-
ers”, my friend told me. Well, I know she is a
chemist; I understand the basics; to wit, that
she needs to do some experiment which goes
in several stages. I recognize enough terms to
realize that, for instance, a specter is neither
a ghost nor the title of the new James Bond
movie. I get the essential information: she
needs to take some substances, use them to
create another substance, and then obtain or
describe the result.
In the same way, when confronted with a
text or an audio which at first may seem in-
comprehensible, students may try to grasp
the main idea, and then work with the text to
understand what it is all about. Any teacher
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT English
5April 2016
knows how difficult it is to teach children NOT Photos taken
to begin translating with the first word they see, by the author.
but rather to read at least a sentence, and then
try to render it into their own language. We may
demonstrate the top-down approach to them
using one of the numerous educational sites.
I usually show The Free Dictionary <the-
freedictionary.com> both to children and adults.
One of the daily exercises is the familiar Match
the Words one. I tell my audience that I chose
the Hard Level, so I may not be sure of ALL
the words. First, I look at the words themselves
on the left. Then I check their meanings on the
right: at times, I may know a meaning and con-
nect it to the corresponding word, instead of
cross-correlating the words to the meanings.
On occasion, one word remains a mystery or
an uncertainty. I connect all the other words
to their meanings; the two halves that remain
form the required pair. Look at the table and
see if you can connect all the words to their
meanings correctly, then check your knowl-
edge in a dictionary or on a site!
washed-out logy
groggy rude
unnameable unutterable
overblown bleached
uncivil portentous
(Source: <thefreedictionary.com>)
THE COMBINED APPROACH
To understand a written text or an utter-
ance, it is probably best to use both approach-
es. At first glance, learners may try to guess
the general meaning (bottom-up); reading or
listening for details, they may understand the
whole text or speech, especially if they know
the genre and understand the task (top-down).
By Nina M. Koptyug, Ph.D.,
Novosibirsk
 English
6
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Field Notes
COGNITIVE DISSONANCES
April 2016
I think in our teaching practices each of us at least once, has
faced a situation when a learner repeatedly failed a task for no
obvious reasons. You could have explained, demonstrated and
practised a certain task numerous times, but the weak students
kept on performing poorly.
When working with a group, we tend to give up in this situ-
ation. Naturally, teachers face the time limits of a lesson and an
enormous workload which hardly ever provides us with oppor-
tunities to cater for all learners’ needs, not to mention speciali-
zed needs which are rather obscure.
Still, once in a while, especially if you offer one-to-one les-
sons, you may encounter a struggler who badly needs your
help.
In my teaching career, there have been several instances
when I felt really perplexed by students’ performances. And
all these instances begin in a nightmarish way but, surprisingly,
turn into rather nice-looking trophies in my teacher-hunter’s
box of tales.
LOST IN WORDS
[…] I only read one book, but it’s a good book, don’t you know,
I act the way I act because the Good Book tells me so.
If I wanna know how to be good, it’s to the Good Book that I go,
‘Cos the Good Book is a book and it is good and it’s a book.
Tim Minchin, a Good Book
When working with students who are preparing for the USE,
I am more and more faced with a situation when a learner de-
monstrates a limited ability to differentiate between an opinion
and a fact. But for the requirements of one of the essay crite-
ria to provide arguments supporting different points of view, I
would leave the resolution of this problem to the teachers of
other subjects, where logic seems to play an important role.
However, when I again meet a student who knows grammar
well, with a good vocabulary, but can’t grasp the idea of an
argument, I feel not only pity, but also perplexed and puzzled
as well.
Not long ago I met a young girl who is very eager and will-
ing to pass the USE. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t
score more than 6 points in the essay. This was because of the
mixture of ideas in the third and fourth paragraphs, where one
should present an opposing point of view with an argument or
two and then explain why they do not agree with this point of
view. The conclusions of her essays would also leave a rather
mixed after-taste, and a lot of confusion.
For example, when writing about the ways extreme sports
can help build a strong character, the learner concluded that
‘everyone should have a hobby even if these hobbies are
strange’. The body of her text contained instances of sporadic
medicine-related associations with adrenaline and fearlessness,
which, even though true, are unrelated to the question of deve-
loping strong personality traits.
When the quantity of failed tasks reached the limit and sig-
nalled dire quality issues, I suggested an experiment; I asked
the learner to do the same task in Russian. My decision was
intuitive, rather than well-informed. I have never tried this be-
fore. But as I understand now, what I was trying to find out was
whether the task failure was the result of language incompe-
tence and over-drilled clichés uncontrollably jumping out on
paper, or something else. By this ‘something else’ I guessed
there was a gap in cognitive skills, in the ability to sequence
mental operations in order to achieve clarity of thinking.
When the learner handed in the essay in Russian, it became
crystal clear that my hypothesis was right. The text contained
the same flaws as its English precursors. Thus the problem was
in the faulty way the learner was thinking, not the way she was
using a foreign language to express herself.
In the following month we went through various rather odd-
ly-looking activities which I was devising and improvising to
illustrate the basic principles of logic. If you have A and B and
you need to explain why A is good for B, you should start by
going through the following steps:
– Describe what qualities or what components A has.
– Identify which of these qualities and components are good
for B.
The first crucial skill was a matter of identifying the parts of
the whole. How to do that? Let’s take apples. Green ones. They
will be A. And let’s take our health. It will be B. We need to
explain why apples are good for our health.
Step 1. Identify the qualities of apples:
1. They contain vitamins.
2. They are hard.
3. They are green/red/yellow.
4. They are round.
5. They are sour/sweet.
Step 2. Which of these qualities are good for our health and
why? Obviously (never use this word with such students!) it’s
#1 and (less obviously) it’s #2. Vitamins help our immune sys-
tem which is good for our health. The hard skin and pulp of
the apples help us train our jaw muscles which is also good for
our health. The fact that apples are green/red/yellow and round
is useless in building up such arguments. The fifth fact is also
rather questionable, although taste could be a factor.
Step 3. Which of the qualities are (or may be) not good for
our health?
Apparently, too hard apples can lead to certain dental acci-
dents. But what is more apparent (another word to avoid) is that
overeating of apples can cause problems with digestion. Thus,
we get a counterargument (so badly needed for paragraph 4).
Step 4. Use your common sense or at least appeal to it.
If the response to the counterargument is not straightforward
(for example, everyone understands why it is not desirable
to watch TV all the day or to smoke in front of children), the
only thing left is to ‘soothe’ the counterargument saying that
‘in reasonable portions or applied reasonably, this can’t do
you much harm’.
What I have found out is that a clarity of ideas leads to a
clarity of writing, while messy ideas lead to a mixture of collo-
cations, misused grammar and other disastrous effects. Clarity
itself can be achieved by ‘deconstructing’ the subject under dis-
cussion and explaining how the parts of the whole relate to the
second subject. If we are to visualise this process it will look
like this (you can draw, or use pencils and small figures which
I did in my lessons).

elf
As a follow-up activity, which I highly recommend as it
proved to be rather efficient, I advise doing oral essays, espe-
cially on topics that will-never-be-in-the-exam:
• Some people think that having a TV in the kitchen can
improve family relationships;
• Having plants in your house is good for your health;
• Reading a film review before going to the cinema can help
you avoid disappointment.
It is important to remember that this activity aims at develo-
ping logical thinking, not language skills. That is why it is cru-
cial to acknowledge the aim of the task to the students (so that
they don’t feel puzzled) and not to interrupt them when they
speak.
SLOW MOTION
The second case which attracted and held my attention (and
my mind in suspense) had to do with another Year 11 student.
The learner came to me several months ago, being at a very
good elementary level and wishing to prepare for the USE.
Despite my explanations that language learning takes time and
that the time available was not the same as the time we needed
to achieve any acceptable (not to speak about desirable) results,
the learner listened to me patiently and then said: Let’s try.
The personal traits and commitment to the goal of this student
amazed me. In just four months time, she managed to move to
strong pre-intermediate level, scoring 18 out of 20 in listening
and 14 out of 20 in writing. We managed to overcome the lan-
guage barrier and the girl started actually speaking English and
enjoying it, and even attending one of the English-speaking clubs
in Moscow, taking part in discussions and debates. However, the
moment came when we had to get down to the speaking part of
the exam, in particular to task 3 and task 4.
Despite all her efforts, the learner managed to cover only
half of the questions within the time limit. This happened again
and again, despite all the strategies I suggested. It was there
and then that I applied my L1 trick asking my learner to do the
speaking task in Russian. To our huge surprise and the follow-
up bewilderment, the learner, being rather intelligent and quick
and even gifted in literature studies, managed to utter exactly
the same number of phrases in the time give. On the one hand, I
felt pleased that in 4 months we had managed to reach the same
speed of speaking English as her native Russian. On the other
hand, this very quickly showed me that we would only succeed
if I could find a method to enable my student speak English
faster, faster than her natural pace of speech.
The question was not one of cognitive processes. It was
more about the physicality of speech, something to do with elo-
cution or mastery of speech, which I had no idea about. As soon
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT English
7
April 2016
as I understood that, I started consulting my colleagues, speech
therapists who suggested exercises that would include work on
lengthy (or prolonged) exhaling. They kept on explaining to
me, when suddenly I realized that the last time I heard about
prolonged exhaling had been in my choir classes (which I hated
with all my heart and soul). ‘So, maybe we should sing?’ – ‘Yes,
exactly!’ answered my colleague. The only task left was to find
songs where the singer would pronounce the words quickly.
Luckily, one of my favourite singers is Tim Minchin (which
you might have already noticed) and his pace of speech and
richness of vocabulary, in my opinion, are tremendous. Need-
less to say, that since then my learner started speaking much
more fluently.
TIME TO STUDY
There is one more case I would like to share with you. And
that is of an adult learner who appeared in my life last sum-
mer and changed a lot my perception of the teaching craft. The
learner is a 26-year-old lady who decided to study English to
be able to communicate while travelling, just for herself. She
was a true beginner so we got started. However, in three weeks’
time, I noticed that we were not moving anywhere. The mate-
rial we covered seemed to be slipping away from my learner’s
memory.
I also noticed some incongruities in her responses to oral
speech, both English and Russian. She was very eager to learn
and I was very eager to help her in that, but I had to admit to
myself (and then to her) that I didn’t see any obvious solution
to the educational puzzle we were facing.
It was again only due to my habit of sharing professional
concerns with my colleagues that I managed to quite acciden-
tally learn from one of the British specialists, that my learner
was very likely to be experiencing dyslexia. I keep on thank-
ing the Providence for sending me that nice specialist who not
only came up with a brilliant suggestion, but also sent me a
link on an online self-study course (which I eagerly share with
you http://www.dystefl.eu/) about teaching English to dyslexic
learners. Needless to say, that the course provided me with all
the needed directions and tools, and that the learner is now hap-
pily progressing in her language development, at last having all
the support and scaffolding she needs.
***
The three cases I described in this issue are all a result of
my initial perplexity when facing unexplainably poor perform-
ances or behaviour on the part of my learners. My inability to
come up with a ready-made suggestion, to use tools from my
teaching repertoire made me anxious or even angry – no one
likes facing their own powerlessness. But as soon as I admit-
ted I didn’t have answers on my own and turned to the Uni-
verse with the question ‘What should I do to help my learner?’
and started sharing my concerns with all my friends (not only
EL teachers), the answer very soon reached me. That is why
I decided to praise the moments of insights and professional
development that would have never happened but for the initial
cognitive dissonances.
By Elizaveta Bogdanova
 English PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
8
April 2016 STORY COMES FIRST:
THE WRITING READERS FOR THE EFL CLASSROOM
Dr. Antoinette Moses is a Lecturer in Literature and Creative Writing at the
University of East Anglia and a guest lecturer for Norwich Institute for Language
Education (NILE). She is a playwright and author and has published over 20 read-
ers for the EFL classroom, three of which have received the Extensive Reading
Award. She is also the Producer of UEA’s Festival of Literature for Young People
(FLY).
Teaching English undergraduates to write plays and sto-
ries and writing readers for the English Language classroom
might not appear to have a great deal in common. Of course
there is a continuity of language – English – and there are
stories and characters in both, but there may be people who
think that one is a rather more elevated pursuit than the
other. This is not the case. Writing takes skill, whoever is the
intended reader, and the stories in the best classroom read-
ers can be as compelling, contemporary and exciting as any
other form of literary endeavour.
First of all, it may be helpful to outline what I mean by the
term ‘reader’ and how it is used in the classroom. A reader
is a short work of fiction, or non-fiction, written for those
studying English as a foreign or second language and which
exists outside of the usual course books. There are a number
of publishers, both in the UK and internationally, who pub-
lish such series.
The readers I encountered some years back when I first
began to explore what was available for those who wanted
to read in English were like the books of the 1950s I read as
a child (there was an English publishing company called La-
dybird which specialised in them). In these books the father
went to work and the mother cooked cakes at home and they
had two perfect children and a dog. The dialogue went along
the lines of: “Hello Peter! Hello Jane! What are you doing
today?” I can’t remember what it is that Peter and Jane were
doing, but I imagine that they were probably playing with a
bright red ball in a perfect green garden with a lawn and neat
lines of flowerbeds. The visual images never strayed from
primary colours and the stories equally avoided any topic that
was not similarly bright and cheerful. There was no pover-
ty, there were no wars and there was also no hint of culture
or excitement. They were as dull as the stories I read when I
was young and which I very quickly gave up reading. I was
much more interested in making up my own stories in which
talking animals dealt with such day-to-day problems as the
arrival of dragons and princesses who needed to be rescued.
What I wanted then was a good story. I wanted a narra-
tive that reflected my own life and the world I knew, but also
excited me with ideas about worlds that existed outside the
narrow focus of my own home. The same is true when I read
for pleasure myself, and it is the advice of virtually all pub-
lishing houses for new writers. Give us a new, exciting story
that makes our readers want to turn the page. It is what I told
myself when I started to write readers.
What were these ‘readers’? Apart from the Peter and
Jane stories, the first books of fiction for the English lan-
guage classroom were mostly simplified versions of novels
which already existed. They took classics and other popular
books and made them shorter and simpler. They were rather
like fruitcakes with all the fruit and nuts and spices taken
out, plain and serviceable. I had no intention of writing such
books. I wanted fruit, nuts and lots of spices. I still do. I think
that fiction for young people is far too important ever to think
of offering something that is second best. I had (and have) no
intention of writing something that is less than a book that I
want to read myself.
I was lucky. At the time I started writing readers, Philip
Prowse, the inspirational editor of the Cambridge Readers
series, had been exploring, with other EFL writers and aca-
demics, the idea of reading for pleasure. As a result of this,
he persuaded Cambridge University Press to launch a series
of original fiction designed to be read for pleasure. Teach-
ers would be given guidelines on how to use the books in
such a way that students wanted to read them. They would
read the books for enjoyment, not in order to answer com-
prehension exercises and within their reading limit of
understanding so they could read quickly. They would read
for the story.
It sounds simple. In fact, I am certain that over the years
the series has been influential and in many cases revolution-
ary. Teachers have enabled students to read in a time that is
set aside for them to read. The students watch teachers read-
ing. They don’t have to answer questions about the reading;
the reading is an end in itself. How amazing! This is just how
we read books ourselves.
And why shouldn’t the fiction we offer to students be as
fun to read as those we read ourselves? Yet this has not al-
ways been the case. In the past it was as if the concept of
reading for pleasure was ignored in the drive to teach gram-
mar and vocabulary. Today I feel that many more teachers
realise that we need to have both and that reading for pleas-
ure should not be forgotten. With so many electronic distrac-
tions to lure students away from the printed page, it is surely
more important now than ever to make every word and every
story so exciting that students can’t drag themselves away to
check their phones or tablets.
Stories do that. Video games and films are all stories with
added movement, action and glitz. Even if the young do not
have the reading habit, they will almost certainly have what

the French writer Daniel Pennac calls “a thirst for narra-
tive.”1 In Reads Like A Novel, his imaginative work on how to
instil the reading habit in disaffected young French teen-
agers, Pennac notes that “a novel first and foremost tells a
story... a novel must be read as a novel, to quench, first and
foremost, [the students’] thirst for narrative. Whenever one
reads a book, in however inhibited a fashion,” he adds, “it’s
the pleasure of reading which presides.”2 The story comes
first. Content should always precede linguistic considera-
tions. As Ezra Pound put it, “Homer did not start by thinking
which of the sixty-four permitted formulae was to be used
in his next verse.”3 All readers should reflect what students
would want to read in their own language. The stories have
to be page turners.
The reason that Harry Potter remains popular, whatever
one might think of the quality of writing of some of the
books, is because the stories are brilliantly plotted. And be-
cause children can identify with the characters.
The content of these readers, therefore, is crucial. I believe
that you should never write down to a language level, but
write up to the level of the student. An elementary language
level should not be equated with lack of intellectual maturity.
It’s not always easy. However, I have written a reader for
beginners (with an English vocabulary of 400 words) about
a serial killer and still managed to include a bit of metaphysi-
cal speculation. The language I wrote was simple, but it was
structured to fit the character.
The books I write are not vacuous texts, used as a me-
dium for delivering vocabulary or grammar, but novellas,
short stories, science fiction and detective stories. Because
the aim of the books is to allow the learner to read fast and
with enjoyment, vocabulary and grammar are simplified,
but they are nonetheless subservient to the content of the
books. In other words, the story comes first. An important
factor for me in writing these readers is that I may be help-
ing create a new generation of people who enjoy reading
books.
Yet there exists a sense that books written for the class-
room are not meant to entertain. I found this recently in a
review on a popular website for one of my readers. While
I hesitate to criticise anyone who had the perspicacity and
judgement to give one of my books five stars, I was shocked
by his/her surprise that the book was readable. I was even
more disappointed that the reviewer thought it was ‘study
material’. It’s not. It’s a collection of short stories. The book
doesn’t exist for any reason other than to tell these stories as
simply as possible, taking into account linguistic and gram-
matical constraints. The books I write exist to take the person
reading the book into a number of different worlds and in-
troduce them to different characters. And to hook them with
a story. Or, in this case, several stories. To take them on a
journey.
So when I sit down to write a reader, the first thing I think
about is the story and the characters. And I cannot think of
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT English
9
April 2016
one without the other because I think that a strong plot comes
about when you have strong characters and put them under
pressure. If you have a good story and place your characters
inside it so that they exist only to enact the story, you will
have a flat narrative. Characters have to be more than plot
devices.
So how do I begin?
I begin with a character. If I’m writing a book that is
for beginners I may think of a character who would natu-
rally have limited speech: a robot or a parrot. I have not
yet written a book about a parrot who learns to talk, but it
would be fun to do. And the language would develop along
with the book in a way that felt natural. Another character
I wrote whose speech was limited suffered from amnesia
(John Doe). If the book is to be for advanced students, then
any character will work well. But if the books are aimed at
young students, then I may choose to have a teenager as a
protagonist. It is often a good idea when writing fiction for
young adults or children to create a character with whom
the readers can identify.
Once I have chosen a character, I do all the things that all
writers do. I start to go on a journey of discovery and find
out everything I can about them; that is to say I do my best
to make them into people and not characters. Students on
creative writing courses are encouraged to do this by writ-
ing diary excerpts, emails, school reports and notes from job
interviews. I then ask myself what is it they want and what is
stopping them. And then the story begins.
Students often ask me whether I know the story before
I start to write. Often I think I do, but then the character
takes me somewhere completely different. Once you start
to write, you don’t always know where it is you are going.
And that is part of the pleasure. It is like reading a really
enjoyable thriller: you go on reading to find out what hap-
pens. I write to discover what happens and it is just as
exciting.
And this kind of excitement I think is necessary because
it creates a pace within the story and prevents it from be-
coming flat and dull. And nobody should force a dull book
on to a student. Reading for pleasure is vital to the develop-
ment of literacy (as many recent studies have proved)4. You
cannot read a dull book with pleasure. The word ‘dull’ in
association with Charles Kingsley instantly takes me back
to my own school days and being forced to read a Victo-
rian moralistic tome called The Water-Babies by Charles
Kingsley.
Quality of language is another key factor when writ-
ing readers. I am convinced that lack of vocabulary does
not mean that figurative language should be ignored. In
fact it should be encouraged. In this way an appreciation
of illustrative language that shows rather than tells can
help students to appreciate literature in their own lan-
guage as well as in English. One of the greatest contem-
porary writers of children’s (and fantasy) books, Ursula
 English PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
10 April 2016
Le Guin, summarises it when she observes that “great
novels offer us not only a series of events, but a place, a
landscape of the imagination which we can inhabit and
return to.”5
When Le Guin uses figurative language the image burns
in the mind and this is the effect I strive for in my own writ-
ing. I think that this is one reason why I feel that Jojo’s Sto-
ry6 is my most fully realised book as well as my favourite.
The book tells the story of Jojo, who survives a massacre
in his village at the beginning of the story and ends up as
a child soldier, and is told from his point of view. Restric-
tions on vocabulary are surmounted through the style of the
child narrator:
The soldiers take my family out of the house and I don’t
want to look, but I do look. The soldiers have put blankets
over the bodies. There is no more blood. The soldiers speak
very quietly. They don’t want to wake up my family. They
understand that you have to talk quietly when you are talk-
ing to ghosts.
When Jojo meets the United Nations soldiers and a jour-
nalist, Chris, they give him food:
The soldiers give me some rice and beans. It’s very good.
‘Don’t eat it too fast or your tummy ache’, says Chris.
My mother often said that. I want to cry, but I can’t. The
tears are all inside my head like a big ball of rice that won’t
go down.
The story of Jojo’s journey comes from my creation of
him as a character in whom I believed. Everything else in the
writing of that book stems from that. So when I say that the
story comes first, I am also saying that the character comes
first. Stories are their characters and for students to enjoy
reading, creating characters they can empathise with is pos-
sibly the most important factor of all.
1
Pennac, Daniel. 1994. Reads Like a Novel. London, Quar-
tet Books, p.114.
2
ibid.
3
Pound, Ezra. 2010 [1934]. ABC of Reading. New York,
New Directions, p. 204.
4
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/research-
evidence-on-reading-for-pleasure
5
http://www.lordotrings.com/books/meditations.asp
6
Moses, A. 2000. Jojo’s Story. Cambridge, Cambridge Uni-
versity Press
:

ПЕДАГОГИКА УДИВЛЕНИЯ:
новый подход к обучению иностранному языку
Идея о том, что удивление и познание связаны, высказыва-
лась еще в Античности. Известно мнение Аристотеля, развитое
в дальнейшем Декартом, что познание начинается с удивления.
Действительно, наблюдая за растущим ребенком, мы видим,
что именно с удивления чем-то новым для себя следует попыт-
ка исследовать предмет самостоятельно или спросить взрос-
лого о его природе, то есть познать его. Психологи отмечают,
что в случае, если вызвавшая удивление ситуация оказывается
безопасной, то оно переходит в интерес, а если приятной – в
радость. Таким образом, удивление на уроке может стать от-
правной точкой для формирования внутренней положительной
мотивации к учению.
Выдвигая идею педагогики удивления, мы исходим из того,
что в современных условиях существует противоречие между
растущим объемом знаний и занижением их ценности со сторо-
ны учеников. В век, когда всю необходимую информацию можно
найти в Интернете, необходимость усвоения знаний подвергает-
ся сомнению. Наши ученики не хотят запоминать то, что можно
легко найти в сети, не готовы прикладывать усилия по самостоя-
тельному поиску закономерностей и анализу явлений, если это
есть в готовом для скачивания виде. Действительно, на совре-
менном уровне технологического развития получать необходи-
мые знания гораздо проще, чем раньше, и ключевым вопросом
становится не запоминание большого количества информации, а
способность к ее отбору и анализу. Удивление как реакция на но-
вое – один из механизмов такого отбора. Это признак небезраз-
личного отношения к той или иной информации, залог профес-
сионального и личностного роста человека. Любознательность и
способность удивляться позволяет расширить горизонт видения
и решать задачи на метапредметном уровне, пропуская инфор-
мацию через призму личностного восприятия человека. А ведь
это как раз одна из целей, которые ставит перед нами ФГОС.
Педагогика удивления в нашем понимании – это прежде всего
педагогика отношений, а не педагогика требований в том смыс-
ле, что эмоциональная реакция на преподаваемый материал
и его носителя-учителя создает поле для совместной работы,
особые взаимоотношения между учеником, учителем и учеб-
ным материалом. Это по своей сути диалогическая педагогика,
когда изучаемый материал становится поводом для диалога
между познающими и их наставником. Это также творческая
педагогика, где развитие идет не на уровне как можно более
точного повторения заданного образца, а в направлении поиска
нового и удовлетворения возникшего чувства удивления.
Мы выделяем четыре источника удивления на уроке: удивле-
ние фактом, удивление методом, удивление обучающей средой
и удивление собственными силами.
Любая область знания, учебная дисциплина или школьный
предмет содержит множество интересных фактов. Учитель ан-
глийского языка может использовать факты как самого языка,
так и культуры его носителей. Также интересно опереться на
метапредметный характер урока английского языка, который,
будучи средством общения, может охватывать материал любой
другой учебной дисциплины. Важно помнить, что удивление вы-
зывают факты, которые являются новыми и личностно значи-
мыми для обучающегося. Так, на уроке английского языка мы
обращаем внимание обучающихся на то, что слова, которые
они давно знают, на самом деле имеют вполне определенные
значения и могут быть использованы в более широком контек-
сте. Наших учеников удивляет тот факт, что слово bounty, из-
вестное по шоколадке, еще имеет значение “вознаграждение”,
а слово vanish, известное как марка бытовой химии, имеет зна-
чение “исчезать”. Эти факты мотивируют обучающихся к даль-
нейшему самостоятельному поиску слов, которые им знакомы,
но смысл которых им непонятен.
Второй источник удивления – удивление методом. Это то, как
учитель представляет материал, какие педагогические техноло-
гии использует. Так, на своих занятиях я использую специальную
прозрачную кружку, на которой расположены слова таким обра-
METHODS OF TEACHING English
11
April 2016
зом, что при наливании в нее жидкости получаются предложения
разного типа. На первом уровне это глаголы в повелительном на-
клонении (просьбы и приказы), затем – утвердительные предло-
жения, следующий уровень – общие вопросы и, наконец, полная
кружка – это специальные вопросы. Кружка, изображенная на
рисунке, может служить основой для составления более тысячи
предложений за счет комбинации частей. Метод подачи материа-
ла вызывает удивление, которое затем перерастает в интерес.
Третий источник удивления – образовательная среда, в ко-
торую попадает обучающийся, приходя на урок. По сути, учеб-
ный класс – это первое впечатление обучающегося о предмете,
если до этого он не преподавался. Особое искусство учителя
заключается в том, чтобы создать такие элементы обучающей
среды, которые бы вызвали реакцию удивления и в конечном
итоге породили бы вопрос. В контексте педагогики удивления
именно обучающийся, а не учитель становится источником во-
просов, задающий вопросы активный преподаватель сменяет-
ся инициативным интересующимся учеником. При этом роль
учителя заключается в том, чтобы создать ситуацию, которая
бы вызвала этот запрос на новое знание. Урок в системе пе-
дагогики удивления – это череда ситуаций, в которых с опорой
на реакцию удивления сначала происходит пробуждение любо-
пытства, а затем его удовлетворение.
В своей практике мы используем такие элементы необычной
обучающей среды, как цепочка из скрепок, прикрепленная к по-
толку, в которой каждая скрепка символизирует одно выученное
слово; лексические обои на стенах и потолке, где обучающиеся
пишут слова на английском языке и сопровождают их картин-
кой; грамматический ковер, перемещаясь по которому можно
составить предложения из комбинаций расположенных на нем
слов. Обучающиеся, удивленные такими элементами учебной
среды, сами задают вопрос об их предназначении и включают-
ся в сотворческую деятельность, в ходе которой совместно с
учителем совершенствуют их или создают принципиально но-
вые интересные элементы, которые удивят других ребят.
Четвертый источник удивления – собственный потенциал
обучающегося. Удивление собственными силами – важный шаг
в формировании мотивации. О потенциале этого источника
удивления емко сказал В.А. Сухомлинский: “Провести человека
через детство и отрочество по пути изумления собственными си-
лами – в этом кроется наша педагогическая мудрость. Там, где
есть изумление и восторг, есть и неудовлетворенность. Человек
безграничен в своих стремлениях, и чем выше становится уро-
вень его притязаний, тем глубже испытывает он недовольство
достигнутым. В этом чувстве заложен тот кажущийся крошечным
стимул, который открывает перед человеком понимание того, что
надо, трудно и хорошо – из одного корня”. Применительно к уро-
ку английского языка мы используем этот принцип на первом же
занятии при объяснении грамматики. Для первичного ознаком-
ления с прошедшим, настоящим и будущим временами группы
Simple мы предлагаем модель предложения ГрамИК.
Обучающиеся, впервые сталкивающиеся с иностранным
языком в принципе, с удивлением обнаруживают, что к концу
первого урока способны составлять 364 предложения в настоя-
щем, прошедшем и будущем временах группы Simple.
Важно отметить, что по-настоящему принять педагогику
удивления и применить ее может тот учитель, который сам спо-
собен удивляться окружающему миру и своим ученикам. Конеч-
но, работа по заданному алгоритму часто является более про-
стой и проверенной альтернативой постоянному поиску фактов
и методов, которые могли бы удивить обучающихся и заставить
их удивиться собственными силами, но с другой стороны, ис-
пользование шаблонных схем не способно принести того чув-
ства удовлетворения и радости, которое может испытать учи-
тель, работающий в системе педагогики удивления.
Петр Анатольевич Степичев,
к.п.н., доцент кафедры английской филологии РГСУ,
вице-президент MELTA
 English METHODS OF TEACHING
12 April 2016 HOLISTIC
GRAMMAR TEACHING
Rod Bolitho views the importance of voice.
What do our learners need to know about voice? Why do
so many coursebooks and teachers make such a big issue of
the passive as a structure? Are we making it more difficult for
learners than it really is?
There is nothing structurally difficult about the passive
voice in English. Once learners have a command of the parts
of the verb to be and the form of the past participle (V3),
they have the means at their disposal to construct passive
forms. And yet, for decades, structural syllabuses insisted
dogmatically on providing for teaching the passive tense by
tense, and for practicing it by asking learners to transform
active sentences into the passive. Recent coursebooks have
begun to focus much more on the uses of the passive in
English, and this is an important step forward as some lan-
guages use the passive less than English does making use
of other options such as impersonal constructions (German
man and French on, for example, and third person plural or
a reflexive, as in Russian). However, very few coursebooks
explore reasons for the choices of voice that writers and
speakers make as a text unfolds and, still less, the wider
notions of activeness and ‘passiveness’, which have their
ACTIVITY 1
Look at the following text and answer the questions alongside it.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU PRESS
THE ‘START’ BUTTON ON A PHOTOCOPIER?
Inside a copier there is a special drum. The drum acts a lot like a bal-
loon – it can be charged with a form of static electricity.
Inside the copier there is also a very fine black powder known as
toner. The drum, once it is charged with static electricity, can attract the
toner particles.
The drum, or belt, is made out of photoconductive material.
Here are the actual steps involved in making a photocopy:
1. The surface of the drum becomes charged.
2. An intense beam of light moves across the paper that you have placed
on the copier’s glass surface. Light is reflected from white areas of
the paper and strikes the drum below.
3. Wherever a photon hits, electrons are emitted from the photocon-
ductive atoms in the drum and they neutralize the positive charges
above. Dark areas on the original (such as pictures or text) do not
reflect light onto the drum, leaving regions of positive charges on the
drum’s surface.
4. The negatively charged, dry, black pigment called toner is then
spread over the surface of the drum, and the pigment particles adhere
to the positive charges that remain.
5. A positively charged sheet of paper then passes over the surface of
the drum, attracting the beads of toner away from it.
6. The paper is then heated and pressed to fuse the image formed by the
toner to the paper’s surface.
And your photocopy is ready – all in a few seconds!
equivalents in all languages. Here on pages 12 and 13 is a
straightforward sequence of activities (plus keys) at upper-
intermediate level designed to explore this area in greater
depth and to get learners thinking about it instead of re-
sponding mechanistically.
***
Each of these activities is designed to push learners far
beyond the immediate comfort zone of formulaic transfor-
mation exercises and simple rules of usage. They are de-
signed to be mulled over and discussed in pairs or groups in
order to help the learners to work towards a ‘feel’ for how
English speakers make decisions about active and passive
use. To do this, they need to work on whole texts like those
in Activities 1 and 2, where the writer has made considered
choices, but they will also benefit from becoming aware of
how ‘activeness’ and ‘passiveness’ underlie aspects of the
lexical system, as in the third activity. All this implies think-
ing and talking about English, and if this means that some of
the discussion takes place in the mother tongue, that should
not be a problem. It is the quality of the thinking and talking
that counts in cases like this.
1. Why does the writer address the reader directly
here?
2. Why does the writer choose the passive in
these two cases?
3. Who made it? Is it important to know?
4. Why ‘becomes charged’ and not just ‘is
charged’ here?
5. Why the active voice again here?
6. Look at the three verbs in this sentence. Why
does the writer switch from active to passive
and then back?
7. Do these adjectives imply that the toner and
the paper are charged during or before the
process? Can you see the ‘hidden passive’ in
them?
8. Can you see why this is sometimes called a
‘telescoped passive’? Can you find two more
examples in the text?
9. Why is the passive used so often in this kind
of text?

ACTIVITY 2
Look at this short newspaper extract and answer the ques-
tions alongside it.
TIGER MURDERED IN ARUNACHAL PRADESH
On January 7, a tiger was poisoned and bled to death by
inhabitants of Namuk, a village 30 km from Siang district
in Arunachal Pradesh. On January 8, the tiger was brought
to the village, where an environmental activist caught it on
camera before its coat was removed and presumably sold.
There is rumoured to be a flourishing trade in tiger skins
and other body parts in the area, but villagers refused to con-
firm this. They claim that the tiger was killed to protect their
farm animals from attack. The local police superintendent
promised a full investigation into this illegal activity, saying
‘If smugglers are involved, they will be severely punished
under the Forest Act’.
Over 200 tigers are believed to have been killed in
India in the last twelve months. Activists are trying to help
local people to understand that this rate of slaughter cannot
be maintained if the tiger is to survive. Far too many cases
never even get reported.
1. Why is the passive used in the headline and in the first
sentence of the report?
2. What does the first sentence tell us that is not in the
headline?
3. Who brought the tiger to the village on January 8? Who
removed its coat and sold it? Why doesn’t the journalist
name these people?
4. Why does the journalist start the second paragraph with
a passive construction: ‘There is rumoured to be…’?
Would a writer in your language use the passive here?
5. Why is there the switch to the active voice with ‘They
claim…’ at the start of the next sentence?
6. Who will punish the smugglers (second paragraph)? Do
we need to know?
7. ‘…are believed to have been killed…’ is this vague or
precise? Why does the journalist choose a passive con-
struction here? Would a writer in your language use the
passive here?
8. ‘…never even get reported.’ Why not just ‘…are never
reported’? What does ‘get’ add here?
9. Who do you think the journalist actually spoke to at first
hand, and which parts of his report seem to be based on
hearsay? How can you identify this difference?
10. Why do you think journalists find the passive so useful?
ACTIVITY 3
Which of the nouns and adjectives in the list opposite have
a ‘passive flavour’ about them? Try to use a passive con-
struction to define each of them and an active construction
to define the others. When you have finished, think about
words like these in your own language, and how they are
expressed and defined. Do you notice any differences?
a) loot i) travel agent
b) drinkable j) addressee
c) trainer k) soluble
d) employee l) trainee
e) incredible m) payee
f) manager n) manageable
g) patient o) victim
h) unrepeatable p) tolerable
METHODS OF TEACHING English
13
April 2016
(It may be best to do a couple of examples with the whole
class to get them started.)
KEY TO ACTIVITIES
Please note that in many of these cases there may be no ab-
solutely right answer. The process of thinking and discussion
that learners go through is far more important than the final
answers they come up with.
ACTIVITY 1
1. To attract the reader’s interest. To provide an informal and
personal way into the description of a technical process.
2. Probably because the ‘agent’, or doer of the action, simply
isn’t important here.
3. We don’t know and it’s not important to know.
4. It emphasizes a change of state (very common in scientific
and technical contexts).
5. To re-engage the readers and to remind them that this is
something they do regularly.
6. The choice here seems to be mainly stylistic; it allows
a ready sequencing of three interconnected phases in the
process, with the electrons as the subject of the second
and third main verbs and therefore the main focus for a
reader.
7. They were charged before this stage. You can spot the
‘hidden’ or underlying passive if you extend the noun
phrase into a clause in each case: ‘The toner which has
been negatively charged…’ and ‘The sheet of paper which
has been positively charged…’.
8. Sometimes also called a ‘telescoped relative’, it can be
readily expanded to ‘the image which has been formed
by the toner’. The other examples are: ‘a very fine
black powder known as toner’ and ‘the actual steps in-
volved’.
(Note: Learners often find it difficult to build this ‘tele-
scoping’ into their own writing as it is not an option in
many other languages. This is why it is good to take
every opportunity to raise their awareness of it in texts
like this.)
9. Because it is a description of a process in which the doer
of an action, or agent, is usually irrelevant to understand-
ing.
ACTIVITY 2
1. To keep the focus on the main ‘character’ in the story, in
this case the tiger.
2. More detail on the way the tiger died and who was re-
sponsible.
3. We don’t know and the journalist doesn’t name those
responsible, for any of the following reasons:
a) he doesn’t actually know exactly who did these
things;
b) he believes the names to be unimportant and irrele-
vant to the story;
c) he knows, but he is protecting himself from legal ac-
tion or revenge by not revealing the names.
 English METHODS OF TEACHING
issue on the grounds that killing tigers has become so

14 April 2016
4. Possibly because he doesn’t know, or wants to protect,
the source of these rumours.
5. Possibly because he is reporting exactly what the villag-
ers said to him. He seems to be sure of his ground here.
6. There is no need to include an agent here – there is an
assumption that every reader will be familiar with the
way the law works.
7. It is deliberately imprecise. The writer doesn’t have ac-
cess to exact statistics but still wants to make the point,
and so covers himself by using the passive ‘are believed
to have been killed…’.
8. A difficult one to answer, but the use of ‘get’ seems to
make the passive more ‘dynamic’ here, almost as if he is
accusing his fellow journalists of ignoring an important
common as to be uninteresting.
9. He seems to have spoken to some villagers and to the
police, and has used the active voice to report what they
said, even quoting the police superintendent’s exact
words. Much of the rest of the report seems to be based
on second-hand information and, here, he uses the pas-
sive to protect himself and to indicate a greater degree of
uncertainty.
10. For many of the reasons stated above. It can be used to
protect sources, to protect the writer or to focus on the
main character or incident in the story, especially where
the doer of an action is unknown or not relevant.
ACTIVITY 3
Some examples will suffice here:
• A trainee is someone who is being trained.
• If a substance is soluble, it can be dissolved.
• A victim is someone who has been attacked, hurt or killed.
• A travel agent arranges journeys and holidays.

By Rod Bolitho, rodbol44@yahoo.co.uk

After many years leading and tutoring on Masters Programmes at the university College of St Mark & St John in Plymouth and at
Norwich Institute for Language Education, Rod Bolitho is now freelancing as a trainer and educational consultant, currently work-
ing on national-level projects in Uzbekistan and Ukraine. He remains mainly interested in Curriculum and Materials Development,
Language Awareness and Continuing Professional Development. He was until recently UK consultant to the innovative ‘English for
Academics’ textbooks published by Cambridge University Press in association with the British Council in the Russian Federation.

This article was first published in English Teaching Professional Issue 75 (July 2011) and is reprinted here by permission of
Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd.
РЕКЛАМА
 METHODS OF TEACHING English

Mistakes as a Way 15 April 2016

to Improved Language Awareness

On Cambridge University Press Day at MPSU, Ian Cook,
Senior Marketing Manager at CUP and the key speaker at the
event, started his speech with wonderful words. He said, re-
member that “you have one mouth, two ears and two eyes.”
What might these words mean?
On the personal level, these words imply that we need to
open our eyes and ears to see and hear the world around us.
We need to listen and see twice as much as we speak. Very
often, though, we tend to do quite the opposite: in conversa-
tions, we sometimes just wait for our turn to start speaking
and often fail to hear what other people have to say to us. In
the bustle of our everyday life, we often pass by amazing
things that are going on around. So, in order to enrich our
lives and let the world in, we need to quiet the never-ending
inner and outer talk and mental noise and open ourselves up
to the life around us.
On the professional level, we, teachers, need to do exactly
the same thing – to hear and see much more than we speak.
And that doesn’t necessarily concern reducing the teacher
talk as such, but rather cultivating the ability to be mentally
and emotionally present in the lesson and be conscious of
the ever-changing mood and energy of the class. We need to
learn to see and hear the unvoiced messages that our students tion of data. For example, the online National British Corpus
unconsciously are sending to us. Added to that, we need to comprises 100 million words, the Wikipedia Corpus contains
be sensitive and flexible enough to be able to respond and ad- 1.9 billion words, and the Cambridge English Corpus con-
just accordingly. This way, not only will we build up a better sists of about 2 billion vocabulary items.
rapport with our students, but we will also be able to address Language corpora can be organized on various principles
their learning needs more effectively. and criteria. For instance, a corpus may represent all aspects
Finally, the idea of listening and seeing more can also be of a given language; alternatively, it may be designed to ex-
applied to learning languages. You may think that it’s some emplify a particular linguistic variety or sublanguage. The
sort of contradiction in terms to teach students to speak less Cambridge Learner Corpus can serve as an example of the
than they listen, or to observe, since the ultimate goal of latter as it focuses on the language use of international stu-
teaching and learning a new language is to be able to speak dents taking Cambridge exams and is based on the written
it. One would think that the more learners speak it the better. scripts of the students’ exam papers.
However, by guiding our students to be more attentive to Teachers can consult general language corpora to find the
the features of the language, to notice how language items most frequent and natural ways of using particular vocabu-
change under certain conditions, and, at large, to catch the lary, word combinations or grammar structures. They can
life and dynamics of the language, we will help our learners then create classroom language activities and tasks around
to develop that illusive but so much sought-after feeling of such material. As for a learner corpus, teachers can use its
the language and, as a result, we will help them to improve data to find out what the most common mistakes particular
their productive skills, and speaking skills in particular. groups of learners make and to focus their students’ attention
How can teachers help learners develop their language on these mistakes in the first place.
awareness? According to Ian Cook, one way of doing this is For example, according to the Cambridge Learner Cor-
to provide students with rich real-life context and numerous pus, the five most frequent mistakes Russian students make
examples of natural language use. Using English Language in their exam papers are:
Corpora in lessons is the easiest and most natural way to • the misuse of or missing a determiner (such as a/an, the),
reach this target. • wrong spelling (such as “wich” instead of “which”),
According to the online Cambridge dictionary (diction- • an incorrect verb (e.g. “wish” where “hope” should be
ary.cambridge.org), a corpus (in other words a language da- used),
tabase) is a collection of spoken or written material stored on • an incorrect verb tense (e.g. the Past Simple instead of the
a computer and used to discover and analyze how language Present Perfect),
is actually used. The characteristic features of a language • incorrect prepositions (e.g. “depend of” instead of “de-
corpus are its considerable size and the systematic organiza- pend on”).
 English METHODS OF TEACHING
16 April 2016
Moreover, the learner corpus can provide invaluable in-
formation on what verbs and prepositions exactly are com-
monly misused, thus enabling learners to raise their aware-
ness and considerably improve their linguistic accuracy.
There is no doubt that the error correction and the work
on accuracy is highly important for achieving a good com-
mand of a language, especially for taking tests. However, as
our students go deeper into the language and start using it
extensively in their lives, they also need to develop a healthy
attitude towards mistakes they inevitably make every now
and then.
I was lucky to have a chance to interview Ian Cook and
ask him a couple of questions about the right attitude to mak-
ing mistakes and learning a foreign language in general.
1. What attitude to mistakes should teachers help their
learners to develop?
Ian Cook: As a teacher myself, I used to tell two things to
my students. One is “Don’t worry about making mistakes.
You learn from your mistakes. And as long as you are try-
ing to use the language, that’s the most important thing
and you can correct your mistakes later. But try and be
productive.” The other thing is “Consider the context.” If
you are talking to your friends in English, mistakes don’t
matter so much as long as the communication is not hin-
dered, as long as they don’t prevent communication. Mis-
takes are fine.
But where we have to be more careful is often with writ-
ten grammar in an academic setting or at work, or in the
exams where grammar matters much more. So it’s very
important that you understand what correct grammar is
even if sometimes when you are speaking informally, you
worry about it less. So it’s context. Sometimes grammar is
very important, sometimes less so. Sometimes communi-
cation and fluency are more important than perfect gram-
mar.
2. Should learners take risks in using a new language?
Ian Cook: You should take risks. You should try and have fun
with the language as well. Learning a language is about
communication, about enjoying it. If you don’t enjoy it,
if you don’t have fun with it, it takes all the joy out of
language learning. So I would always encourage people to
take risks, but again to consider the context and the situ-
ations I described earlier. If it was a work situation you
would be very careful about using language you aren’t
sure about. But in less formal situations or, certainly, in
learning situations, enjoy the language, have fun with it,
play with it, take risks.
3. In your opinion, what are the most effective ways of
learning English?
Ian Cook: I think number one is motivation. If you can think
about why you are learning English and have a reason
for learning, that, in my experience, is the most effective
way of learning. For some people, the motivation can be
to pass an exam, for other people, the motivation may be
because they want to watch films in English, or to read
in English. More and more students tell me they want to
learn English because they want to understand music they
are hearing in English.
So, for me, the most effective way is to think of the wider
reasons for studying, “why am I doing this?” instead of
focusing every day on grammar or vocabulary. And if you
have a passion, motivation, that makes the whole process
easier. You will want to remember things, not have to
remember things. That’s my experience of learning lan-
guages. I hated learning French and German because I
had to do it. Later in life, I lived in Japan for a while and
I wanted to learn because I wanted to speak to people, I
wanted to order food in restaurants, so suddenly I had the
motivation and it made it so much easier.
So there are three ideas about mistakes and language
learning that we can borrow from Ian and pass on to our
learners. They are the communication context as the key fac-
tor to careful or less careful use of language, the courage to
take risks and stretch your current language skills, and the
clear understanding of the reasons for learning a language as
a powerful motivational boost.
Coming back to Ian Cook’s opening words on hearing and
seeing more, I would also like to add, in conclusion, that
teaching students to be more observant and attentive to the
language they are learning can be a strong motivational and
energizing factor, too, which can help learners become more
independent, confident and even more adventurous users of
a new language. So why not to try this approach, too? To
paraphrase a popular motivational quote, I would say that to
be aware of a language is to care and love it, and, as a result,
to be more comfortable with it. So, let’s help our students
become more confident and aware of the language.
By Alexandra Chistyakova
Photos from Cambridge University Press ELT, Moscow.

SCHEMES AND SCAMS
Финансовый кризис обострил многие проблемы; одна
из них – рост числа различных финансовых махинаций.
В этой теме задействовано много весьма необычных и
важных слов. Давайте начнем с нескольких терминов:
swindle – обман, надувательство;
swindler – мошенник, жулик;
scam – жульничество;
scammer – мошенник;
scheme (это слово с “широким смыслом”: план; схема;
но нас сейчас интересует одно, особое значение) – не-
честный замысел, махинация;
ponzi scheme – так называют в Америке финансовую
пирамиду (по имени итальянского эмигранта начала XX
века, который впервые осуществил ее в массовом мас-
штабе);
swindle – наиболее общее из этих слов, употребляется
издавна;
а scam – новомодное словечко, еще недавно оно счита-
лось сленговым.
Конечно, есть еще более общее слово:
cheat – обманывать, надувать, но оно к современным
финансовым махинациям не применяется; его сфера –
бытовая; это отношения “один на один” и, раз уж мы его
упомянули, в нем самое интересное – предлоги:
She was cheating in the test. – Она списывала на экзамене.
I’m afraid he is cheating on her again. – Я боюсь, он ей
опять изменяет.
А теперь возьмем еще одно чрезвычайно популярное
и необычное слово:
con game – афера (его появление в языке точно докумен-
тировано. В 1849 году деяния одного жулика были на-
званы в газетах confidence game, подчеркивая этим, что
он “втирался в доверие” к своим жертвам, вымогая у них
под разными предлогами часы и другие ценные вещи
(впоследствии это слово просто укоротили, как это часто
бывает в американской речи). А для жуликов, которые
этим промышляют, придумали целых три слова:
Con gamer = con man = con artist – аферист. Последнее
из них подчеркивает изобретательность мелкого афери-
ста; аналогия у нас возникает немедленно; поэтому я по-
радовался, встретив такую фразу в одной американской
статье:
Photo: Free Wind 2014 / Shutterstock.com
FOCUS ON LANGUAGE English
17
April 2016
The name “Ostap Bender” has become an equivalent
for a con man in the Russian language. Его, кстати, там
назвали “semi-fictional character” – полувымышлен-
ным персонажем, напомнив, что прототипом нашего
любимца послужил Осип Шор, брат одного из друзей
Ильфа.
В Америке было немало своих веселых аферистов,
один из них явно достоин упоминания: Victor Lustig –
known as a man who sold the Eiffel Tower. Вот начало
этой саги (я дам лишь частичный перевод).
http://www.historyanswers.co.uk
In 1925, France had recovered from World War I,
and Paris was booming, an excellent environment for
a con artist (прекрасная среда для афериста). Lustig’s
idea came to him one spring day when he was reading
a newspaper. An article discussed the problems the city
was having maintaining the Eiffel Tower (проблемы,
возникшие у города с поддержанием в исправности
Эйфелевой башни). Even keeping it painted was very
expensive, and the tower was becoming somewhat run
down (башня стала приходить в обветшалое состоя-
ние). Lustig saw the possibilities behind this article and
developed a remarkable scheme (разработал замеча-
тельную махинацию). He invited six scrap metal dealers
(дилеров по металлолому) to a confidential meeting (мы
видим, что от одного слова confidence образовалось два
прилагательных: confident – уверенный и confidential –
секретный, доверительный). Он сообщил им, что прави-
тельство приняло решение разобрать башню (делаться
это должно втайне, чтобы не взбудоражить народ) и ему
поручено выбрать подрядчика для этой работы. Один из
этих дилеров вскоре принес ему крупную взятку, а когда
жулик исчез, он побоялся заявить в полицию. Это и сгу-
било афериста – он попытался повторить затею еще раз
и был пойман.
Если вернуться к литературе, на память сразу при-
ходит еще один персонаж – благородный жулик из рас-
сказов О.Генри. Тут надо сделать небольшое отступле-
ние. О.Генри – признанный мастер сюжета, остроумный
рассказчик, но язык его произведений очень усложнен и
старомоден (в России его, как и ряд других авторов, пере-
водила плеяда блистательных мастеров, и в русском ва-
рианте он звучит лучше). В частности, упомянутый цикл
 English FOCUS ON LANGUAGE
18 April 2016
http://www.e-reading.club
рассказов называется “The Gentle Grafter” – это слово
вы сейчас вообще не найдете в большинстве словарей.
Вот как характеризует Джефф Питерс своего напарника:
“That man was the most talented conniver at stratagems
I ever saw. Whenever he saw a dollar in another man’s
hand, he took it as a personal grudge”. (Это был наи-
более талантливый жулик, которого я когда-либо видел.
Когда он видел доллар в руке у другого человека, он вос-
принимал это как личное оскорбление).
Возьмем еще несколько строк из рассказа “Innocents
of Broadway” – “Простаки с Бродвея” (в этом абзаце я
привожу русский текст переводчика М.Беккер).
http://www.e-reading.club
“One summer me and Andy Tucker, my partner, went
to New York to lay in our annual assortment of clothes
and gents’ furnishings (Как-то летом мы с моим компа-
ньоном Энди Таккером отправились в Нью-Йорк, что-
бы пополнить наш ежегодный ассортимент костюмов
и мужской галантереи). We always... thought that looks
went further than anything else in our business, except
maybe our knowledge of railroad schedules. (Мы всегда
полагали, что внешность важнее всего прочего в нашем
деле, за исключением разве что знания расписания по-
ездов)”. “Me and Andy never cared much to do business
in New York. (Мы с Энди всегда избегали делать биз-
нес в Нью-Йорке). Catching suckers in that town, is like
dynamiting a Texas lake for bass. (Ловить ротозеев (сей-
час бы сказали “лохов”) в этом городе все равно, что глу-
шить окуня в техасском озере динамитом)”.
Итак, мы добрались до обратной стороны этой жиз-
ненной коллизии – где есть обманщики, должны быть и
их жертвы. A sucker is a person who is easily cheated.
Это колоритное американское словечко. Ему сопутству-
ют вполне понятные существительные:
sucker – леденец;
suckling – сосунок;
bloodsucker – кровопийца, кровосос.
Но вот в дополнение к этому возникло упомянутое
выше значение, которое лет сто назад закрепилось в
афоризме, известном каждому американцу (по одной
из версий, кто-то спросил владельца игорного дома, не
слишком ли много у него игральных столов; на что он
ответил):
Don’t worry about that, there’s a sucker born every
minute. – Не волнуйся, лохов всегда в избытке.
Сегодняшний день наглядно подтвердил жизненность
этого тезиса. Но вот еще поразительный языковой штрих.
Когда стало известно, что Бернард Мэдофф организовал
the biggest Ponzi scheme in history, один радиоведущий
в сердцах воскликнул:
Look how Madoff made off with the money. – Посмотри,
как Мэдофф упер денежки.
To make off with something means to steal something.
Это ж надо так подгадать: жулик по фамилии Жуликов.
Сейчас в прессе появляются тревожные статьи. Во-
преки логике люди обедневшие, потерявшие работу, не
меньше, а больше подвержены риску попасться на крю-
чок махинаторов.
Con artists follow the news closely and adapt their
schemes to whatever is the crisis of the day. – Аферисты
внимательно следят за новостями и приспосабливают
свои махинации к сиюминутному кризису.
Not only the number of potential victims is growing,
experts say, there are more scammers. – Не только стано-
вится больше потенциальных жертв, говорят эксперты,
количество мошенников также растет.
So, be on the alert – don’t get fooled! – Так что будьте на-
чеку – чтобы вас не одурачили!
Виталий Левенталь
Из книги “Занимательный английский”
Продолжение следует.
Адрес в Москве для получения других по-
собий В.Левенталя –
на сайте: www.EnglishMadeSimple.com
 FOCUS ON LANGUAGE
BASIC VOCABULARY
FOR RELIGION
An atheist – A person who does not believe that any gods exist.
The afterlife – What happens to a person’s soul after the body dies.
To bless – To show kindness and help. It can be done by a god or
people.
A convert – A person who believes.
A culture – The way we think and behave; learned from our soci-
ety.
A doctrine – The actual details that people believe about their reli-
gion.
To reach enlightenment – To have a very good undestanding / The
final stage in a religion when you no longer suffer.
To have faith – To believe in something even though you can’t see
it; to trust.
To fast – To not eat any food for a period of time (10 hours or one
day/week).
A founder – A person who started a religion; organization; school.
Holy – Sacred; pure and good.
An idol – A picture, statue or thing that is worshipped like a god.
Incense – A substance that has a pleasant smell when it is burned.
To meditate – To quietly and calmly think about life, god or to just
breathe slowly.
Monotheism – Belief that there is only one God.
Nirvana – Supreme (highest level of) happiness/enlightenment.
Polytheism – Belief that there is more than one God.
To practice – To follow; To live our lives according to the rules of
a religion.
To pray – To speak to God in order to give thanks or ask for help.
Rebirth – Life continues in a cycle / starting over in a new way/re-
incarnation.
A religion – Belief in something or someone greater than our-
selves.
A ritual – Ceremonies/actions that are repeated often/a fixed pat-
tern.
A sacrifice – Willingly give up or offer something to a god (money,
life, etc.).
A sect – A smaller group of believers that is part of a larger group of
the relision. Example: Islam – religion; Sunni – sect.
Secular – NOT about religion. Example: a country’s legal system
which is not a religious court.
Secular Humanism – Belief that people can use their intelligence to
live; they don’t need to rely on a religion.
A soul – Part of the person that isn’t physical. It contains our
feelings, thoughts and character. Many believe it exists after
death.
To worship – To show feelings of love, respect and admiration to
god. / To attend a meeting for this purpose.
Source: www.AACE-English.com
English
19
April 2016
WORLD RELIGIONS
VOCABULARY
Bahaism – A religion founded in Iran in
1863 emphasizing the spiritual unity of
all humankind, incorporating Islamic and
Christian tenets.
Buddhism – An Asian religion that teach-
es that suffering is caused by desire and
that suffering will cease when the desire
ceases.
Confucianism – Chinese philosophy de-
veloped from the teachings of the Chinese
philosopher Confucius.
Christianity – Acknowledging belief in
Jesus Christ or following the religion based
on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.
Faith – Confidence or trust in a person,
thing, or the supernatural that is not based
on scientific proof.
Hinduism – The dominant acient religion
of India consisting of the beliefs, customs
and values based on the worship of many
gods.
Islam – A religion practiced by Muslims
as a faith regarded as revealed through
Muhammad, the Prophet of Allah.
Jainism – An ancient Indian religion that
practises non-violence toward all living
things and teaches self-reliance.
Judaism – The Jewish religion based on
laws revealed to Moses and recorded in the
Torah/ Old Testament.
Prophecy – Supernatural messages recei-
ved by a prophet communicated to others.
Ritual – Actions performed for symbolic
spiritual value including traditions of a re-
ligious community.
Religion – A collection of beliefs and cul-
tural systems that answer the mysteries of
life and relate to human spirituality.
Symbols – Visuals and objects that repre-
sent something else.
Sacred – Dedicated as holy; set apart from
ordinary life as pertaining to deity.
Shintoism – An ancient religion of Japan
establishing a connection between present
day and ancient Japan.
Sikhism – An Indian religion founded in
the 15th century with principal beliefs of
faith and justice.
Source: http://www.teach-nology.com
 English FOCUS ON LANGUAGE
20 April 2016
CONVERSATIONAL QUESTIONS
• Where is Northern Ireland?
• Is Northern Ireland beautiful?
• What is another name for Northern
Ireland?
• What is the capital of Northern Ireland?
• What other cities do you know in North-
ern Ireland?
• What do you know about the geography
of Northern Ireland?
• What kind of land is Northern Ireland?
• How many counties are there in Northern
Ireland?
• What do you know about Northern
Ireland’s history?
• Do you know about the Northern Ireland
conflict between the Catholics and the
Protestants?
• When did the conflict between Protes-
tants and Catholics in Northern Ireland
start?
• Do Irish people speak Irish?
• What are the state languages in Northern
Ireland?
• What is Northern Ireland associated with?
• Where and when was Titanic ship built?
• What are the most popular sports in
Northern Ireland?
• What exactly is Gaelic football?
• What is Northern Ireland famous for?
• What is the Giant’s Causeway?
• What do you know about Northern
Ireland culture?
• What is the emblem of Northern
Ireland?
• What is the national holiday in Northern
Ireland?
• What is the most famous holiday in
March?
• Who is the patron saint of Northern
Ireland?
• What is the Ulster Fry made with?
• What currency is used in Northern
Ireland?
• Who are the most famous people of
Northern Ireland?
• Would you like to go to Northern
Ireland?
• What sights would you like to see?
• What places would you like to visit in
Northern Ireland?
Compiled by Tatyana Makhrina
CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS RITES
communion – причащение
Father (deacon) – Отец (диакон)
inauguration – инаугурация
Scripture(s) – Священное Писание
alliance by marriage – брачный союз
annul a marriage – аннулировать брак
anoint/anointing – миропомазывать/миропомазание
assumption – вступление (в должность)
baptism – крещение
baptismal name – имя, данное при крещении
baptistery – баптистерий
best man – шафер
bishop – епископ
bride/bridegroom (fiance) – невеста/жених
bride’s maid – подружка невесты
burial – похороны
catechumen – новообращённый; готовящийся к крещению
chrism – елей, миро (благовонные масла в церковных обрядах)
christening – крещение (церковное таинство)
civil wedding – гражданская церемония бракосочетания
coffin – гроб
conversion – обращение в веру
delubrum, shrine, font – крестильная; храм, церковь, святилище
duty – долг, обязательство; почтение, уважение, повиновение
emerald wedding – сорокалетие супружеской жизни
engagement – помолвка
font basin – купель
funeral – похороны
funeral home – помещение для гражданской панихиды
funeral repast / feast – поминки
godparent – крёстный родитель
godparenthood – статус крёстного родителя
grave – могила
headstone – надгробие
hearse – катафалк
inaugural address – инаугурационная речь
making one’s communion – причащение
marriage lines – свидетельство о браке
marriage of convenience – брак по расчету
marriage of unequals – неравный брак
married – женат, замужем
memorial service – поминальная служба
newly-wed – новобрачный
obituary – некролог
offertory – проскомидия, церковные пожертвования; деньги, собран-
ные во время церковной службы
original sin – первородный грех
passed away – умерший, покойный
priest – священник
requiem service – отпевание
sacrament – таинство
swearing-in – приведение к присяге при вступлении в должность
sympathy card – открытка с выражением соболезнований
unction – миропомазание
wedding – свадьба
wedding ceremony – обряд бракосочетания
Source: http://lingvotutor.ru/religion-en-ru
 CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES English

FOLK TALES 21
April 2016

AROUND THE WORLD

SOUP OF THE SOUP f. The stranger looked the evening meal.
Sufi Tale from Iran g. I will prepare between two bowls.
One evening Nasrudin Hodja and his wife were just sitting down h. I brought you plenty of rice left.
to dinner when there came a knock on the door. Hodja opened the
door to find his good friend Hassan from the next village standing on B. Match the word on the left with the word on the right from the
the doorstep. In Hassan’s hands was a fine rabbit. text:
“We will cook the rabbit and make a pilaf. We will have a feast.” a. clear meal
And they did. Hodja’s wife was a very fine cook so the rabbit and b. unusually familiar
everything was delicious. Hodja told stories and Hassan laughed. And c. fine voice
when Hassan went home, Hodja said to his wife, “There is plenty of d. evening cook
rabbit and plenty of rice left. We will have rabbit pilaf tomorrow.” e. hot quiet
But the next evening, just as they were sitting down to this fine f. faintly liquid
meal, there was a knock at the door. When they opened it, there was g. friendly water
Hassan’s neighbour with empty hands. “Greetings, Hodja,” he said.
“I am a friend of Hassan from the village.” Now, Hodja knew how C. Language
to be hospitable. “Come in,” he said. “We were just about to eat our The friend of a friend = the friend’s friend.
evening meal.” A. The brother of my mother = ___________________= my uncle
The meal was very good, but Hodja did not tell as many stories B. The boyfriend of my sister = ___________________________
and there was not as much laughter. The guest left soon after dinner. C. The ____________ of my _____________ = ______________
Hodja looked at the plates. “There are still the bones of the rabbit,” he D. The ____________ of my _____________ = ______________
said, “and plenty of rice and vegetables to make a fine soup.”
All the next day the house smelled of the wonderful soup that was D. Number and write clues for the words in the crossword.
cooking. In the evening Hodja and his wife sat down to eat it. But just F
as they picked up their spoons, there was a knock at the door. Hodja S T R A N G E R V ____________
opened it, and saw a man who looked faintly familiar. “I am a friend M BON E S ____________
of the friend of Hassan from the village,” he said in a friendly voice. I G ____________
Hodja thought how he wanted to eat two bowls of that good soup. L F E ____________
However, hospitality is a duty: so he said, “Come in. We were just S N I F F E D T ____________
about to eat our soup.” The guest enjoyed the soup very much, but P A T F E A S T ____________
Hodja was unusually quiet and he did not object when the man left as O R C B ____________
soon as he had eaten. He looked into the soup pot and found one large O H O S P I TAB L E ____________
spoonful of soup. “Tomorrow,” he said to his wife, “I will prepare the K N O C K I E ____________
evening meal. I will take care of everything.” F O L R S ____________
The next day there were no good cooking smells and Hodja and U O R AB BI T ____________
his wife did not sit down to eat at their usual time. But there came a L K F C ____________
knock on the door. Standing there was someone he had never seen E ____________
before. But the man smiled, “I am a friend of the friend of the friend
of your friend Hassan,” he said. “Really?” said Hodja. “Well, you E. Can you fill in the Story Chart?
must come in and share my meal.” “I would like that very much,” Food Guest Atmosphere
said the stranger. So Hodja led him to the table as the man sniffed 1. First Night Rabbit Hassan Lots of stories,
the air. Rice & vegetables laughter
“Don’t worry,” said Hodja. “I was just going to fetch the food.” 2. Second Night Rabbit Pilaf _________ _________
He went into the kitchen and scooped the spoonful of soup from the 3. Third Night _________ _________ _________
bottom of the pot. He carefully divided it between two bowls, filled 4. Fourth Night _________ _________ _________
each bowl up with hot water and carried the bowls to the table. He set 5. Fifth Night _________ _________ _________
one in front of the stranger and one in front of himself. Then he sat
down and smiled happily at the man. F. What do you think?
The stranger looked into his bowl. It was filled with a clear liquid 1. What is hospitality? ___________________________________
with two grains of rice and a shred of carrot floating in it. Hodja said: __________________________________________________
“O friend of the friend of the friend of my friend Hassan, here is the 2. How important is hospitality? ____________________________
soup of the soup of the bones of the rabbit.” __________________________________________________
The next night Hodja and his wife sat down to eat alone, in 3. What duties does the host have?__________________________
peace. __________________________________________________
4. What duties does the guest have?__________________________
ACTIVITIES _________________________________________________
A. Complete the sentences from the tale: 5. What kind of hosts do you like best? ______________________
a. Hospitality is to fetch the food. __________________________________________________
b. We will a gift. 6. What kind of guests do you like best? ______________________
c. I was just going into his bowl. _________________________________________________
d. There is have a feast.
e. He carefully divided it a duty. By Erin Bouma
 English CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

22 April 2016

The British Council is celebrating the diversity of Africa by bringing you this series of articles from
around the continent to help you with your English language studies. Today we visit Malawi.

Malawi: Working with

smallholder farmers Malaw
i

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Malawi depends on agriculture for most of its foreign trade as well as food security. Maize is the staple
food, while tobacco, tea, cotton and coffee are the main cash crops. About 80 per cent of farmland is
worked by smallholder farmers who live off their land and sell their crops at the market. Isaac Mambo
from the University of Malawi works with farmers helping them to improve their productivity and their
income. He agreed to talk to us about his work and his hopes for the future.

A smallholder farmer.
Can you tell us about your work
at the University of Malawi?
I teach agricultural extension and
rural sociology.‘Agricultural extension’
involves helping farmers with knowledge
and information to improve their farming.
This knowledge and information can
come from academic research or from
the farmers themselves.
So what first encouraged you to
work in this field?
My motivation is to work with smallholder
farmers. If I remember well, it all started
when I was at high school. I used to tell
people that I wanted to work with a non-
governmental organisation (NGO) in rural
development. So when I went to college
I chose to study Rural Development!
And then what did you do?
I worked with a local NGO called the
National Smallholder Farmer Association
(NASFAM), which helped organise
farmers into associations. By working
together they could sell their crops
collectively and we could assist them to
Photo credit: Isaac Mambo
buy farm‘inputs’such as fertilisers Can you give some examples of
and chemicals. improvements have you seen?
Yes. Their income has increased.
What are the main issues facing
Through collective marketing farmers
smallholder farmers in Malawi?
can sell their crops direct to the factory
Smallholder farmers are facing many
at a higher price instead of selling to
challenges, but I will attempt to pick what
intermediaries who often exploit them.
I think are the main ones. First, I would
Farmers can process and package their
say, limited access to good fertilisers and
crops to sell at local and international
chemicals – mainly due to high prices.
markets. Then there is what we call
Second, farmers are worried about
‘farmer empowerment’. Smallholder
changes in the climate: rainfall is erratic
farmers have gained a voice and can
and unpredictable, so sometimes there’s
lobby for better policies.
drought and sometimes there’s so much
rain there is flooding. Third, the problems Are you optimistic about the future
of soil erosion and loss of soil fertility. And for Malawi’s smallholder farmers?
one final problem, partly as a result of the The main threats to smallholder farming
others, is low levels of production. are climate variability, soil degradation
and inadequate infrastructure, so policy-
Can you describe your students
makers and development experts need
and study programme?
to come up with mechanisms to address
My students are undergraduates
these threats. I must also add that
both straight from high school and
farmers themselves need to see farming
mature students. The programme
as a business. But with a smile,
teaches the theory of agricultural
I would say I do see a brighter future for
extension, field work and practicals,
smallholder farming – though as you can
and student research.
see, a lot of work still needs to be done.

LEARNING ACTIVITIES FACTS WORDSEARCH

Activity 1: True or false Example: Through collective
Malawi’s farmers face (market) __marketing__ farmers C O F F E E X O F U
many problems. can sell their crops directly.

According to the article, are these 1. We help farmers with (know)

M B P L A N T A I N
sentences true or false? ______ and information to
improve their production.
Y A T O B A C C O V
1. Rainfall is unpredictable leading 2. An NGO is a non-governmental MALAWI
to drought or flooding. (organise) _________
R R I V I E S D R K
POPULATION: 14,901,000
2. The soil is poor and needs to 3. We help small scale farmers to CAPITAL CITY: Lilongwe I C D Z J T S R T C
be improved with fertilisers and buy (fertilise) ______ for the soil. AREA: 118,484 km2
chemicals. 4. Farmers are (worry) ______
3. Farmers often put too much about changes in the climate. C M W I E T E R L O
fertiliser on the soil. 5. We help them to bypass
4. If farmers avoid intermediaries intermediaries (buy) _________ E Y Q B O H Z A Y T
(= middle men) they can make and sell direct to the factory.
more profit. W V W H E A T O J T
5. By working together it is easier Over to you
to lobby for (= demand) better After drought and serious shortages O S O R G H U M G O
policies. of food in the past, Malawi’s farmers
6. Smallholder farmers must not are doing much better. Talk about F O O R H U G R R N
think of farming as a business. the different ways that farmers,
experts and politicians can work
Activity 2 Find these crops in the grid.
towards better food production for
Put the word in brackets into a country.
the correct form.
tobacco maize rice
cotton tea wheat
coffee sorghum plantain
Activity 2 1. knowledge; 2. organisation; 3. fertilisers/fertilizers; 4. worried; 5. buyers
Answers: Activity 1 1. true; 2. true; 3. false; 4. true; 5. true; 6. false
 CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES English

23 April 2016

The British Council is celebrating the diversity of Africa by bringing you this series of articles from
om
around the continent to help you with your English language studies. Today we visit Mali.

Mali: Trees, microcredit

and the environment iStoc
kPho
to

Mali

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Kayes, in Mali, is reputed to be one of the hottest towns in the world. The average daytime temperature is
about 35 degrees, sometimes reaching up to 46 degrees in April and May. With a population of more than
100,000, it is located on the Senegal River. Kayes and southwestern Mali are at the edge of the Sahara
Desert. Many people who live there now remember times when there were many more animals and many
more trees. Now the desert is taking over and action is needed, as we hear.

Women at work on an Aliniha project.
Photo credit: Alou Keita Aliniha
Why is the desert taking over
in southwestern Mali?
There are many reasons, including
global warming, but a very important
factor is that there are fewer and fewer
trees in the area.
Why are trees important to stop
the desert from taking over?
Again, there are many reasons: the
leaves and branches of trees stop the
wind from blowing more sand into the
area, while the roots of the trees hold
soil together and keep the moisture. If
there are no trees the soil turns to dust
and blows away.
Why are there no trees?
People are the main reason. People cut
down trees. In Mali many people cut
down trees to burn them and sell as
charcoal in the market. But now they
have to go further and further away to
find trees. Ten years ago women found
wood a few metres from their homes.
Today it can be a journey of days to
reach the trees.
What can be done?
A lot can be done. People cut down
trees because they are poor and need
the money for food, not because they
want to destroy the environment. To
save the trees, there has to be less
poverty. For example, an organisation
called Aliniha has turned to women
for their help in protecting trees.
Each woman in the programme plants
three trees and looks after them. In
exchange Aliniha helps the women by
providing microcredit.
What is Aliniha and what
is microcredit?
Aliniha is a not-for-profit organisation
which works in three countries and
is run by three social entrepreneurs:
Alou Keita from Mali who specialises in
microcredit, Ini Damien from Burkino
Faso, specialising in building women’s
organisations, and Jean Goepp from
Senegal, a specialist in the environment.
The purpose of Aliniha is to fight
poverty by helping women. For a
woman to get help from Aliniha, she has
to promise to save money and to help
improve the environment (that’s where
tree-planting and other environmental
activities come in).
Microcredit is the provision of small
loans for people who don’t have much
money. They are short-term loans made
to the women when they most need
the money.
How does that work?
Each woman is given a microcredit
facility, a savings account and three
small trees which they must plant
and look after. The women must go
to training courses, such as learning
to read and write or managing a
small business, while learning about
women’s rights and the protection of
the environment. The idea is to move
to sustainable businesses. Alou Keita
says that Aliniha has also been showing
films around the country to raise
public awareness of how humans are
destroying the environment and how to
stop this process.
Does it work?
So far more than 6,000 women have
signed the Aliniha charter. That’s 18,000
new trees and a lot of knowledge shared
on preventing erosion. By itself, that
won’t stop the Sahara Desert, but as the
word spreads, it’s a very good start.

LEARNING ACTIVITIES FACTS WORDSEARCH

Activity 1
Identify the missing words: C H A R T E R S K D
1. The ______ stop the wind from blowing sand into the area.
2. The ______ of the trees hold the soil together. E W D E R O S I O N
3. People ______ down trees to burn them and make ch______.
4. The soil turns to ______ and blows away. C H A R C O A L T I
5. There are now ______ trees in the area. MALI C K F R D Z J H R L
POPULATION: 14,517,176
Activity 2 CAPITAL CITY: Bamako
Are these statements true or false? K C Z H M E C O E O
AREA: 1,240,192 km2
1. Kayes is in the middle of the Sahara Desert. N B R G Q I S A E A
2. People in Mali now travel long distances to find trees for firewood.
3. Aliniha wants women to keep back the desert by planting trees. WESTERN
SAHARA
Z V C E G D N E S N
4. 600 women have signed the Aliniha charter.
5. Each woman plants and cares for three trees and is given microcredit. MAURITIANIA
MALI NIGER H F I R D D B G R S
SENEGAL

Over to you THE GAMBIA

GUINEA-
BURKINA
FASO J A P W F I L K F T
BISSAU GUINEA
Microfinance has been effective in many countries around the world to BENIN
NIGERIA
TOGO

SIERRA
IVORY
help poor people start small businesses. Do you know any examples in your LEONE
LIBERIA
COAST GHANA
G Z X V X O T Y R N
country? Discuss ways it can be used to help fight poverty. CAM

Find these words from the article in the grid.

desert charcoal erosion trees

warming loans charter credit

4. dust; 5. fewer/no Activity 2 1. false; 2. true; 3. true; 4. false; 5. true

Answers: Activity 1 1. leaves/branches; 2. roots; 3. cut and charcoal;
 English LESSON PLANS

24 April 2016 READING FOR PLEASURE

Series of Lessons
Reading for pleasure is a type of reading strategy, the main LESSON 1
goal of which is to develop students’ motivation to read in a BOOK REVIEW. INTRODUCTION
foreign language. The essential conditions for this type of Lesson objectives:
reading are the following: SWAT (students will be able to) understand what a book re-
• The books should be interesting to students, which means view is;
students should be given a chance to choose books on SWAT understand and identify the structure of a book re-
their own; view;
• The language of the books should be easy for students, so SWAT read a short story critically;
a teacher should help students to choose an appropriate SWAT begin to write a review of the short story in correct
level of reading; book review genre;
• Students should be monitored regularly; SWAT use appropriate language to express opinions in a
• Students should be given time in class for silent reading; piece of writing.
• Students should have a chance to share with their peers
what they are reading. 3 minutes. Teacher elicits from students if they read books
All the activities were planned by a team of EFL teachers in their mother language. In class, gather a few names of
before the start of term 4. books they have enjoyed. If any students don’t read books,
ask them why. (They may have a good reason!) Elicit the
Age of students: 15-17 years old idea that reading is a good way to learn a language (whole
Level of English: Intermediate – Upper-Intermediate class activity).
Number of students in a group: 10-15 5 minutes. In pairs or groups, students discuss a book they
Outline of Reading for Pleasure section. have read. Let the discussion proceed naturally but monitor
that English is being used (group activity).
№ Theme Resources, notes Teacher tells students they will write a book review by the
1. Book re- As the 4th term is mainly devoted to reading, stu- end of the term. A book review is a genre of writing and
view. In- dents should write a good book review by the end therefore there is a distinct process and format (whole class
troduction of the term. In the first lesson we should explain
activity).
what a book review is and show its structure.
7 minutes. Students are given the handout on writing a fiction
2. Book re- Reading and analyzing a short story. If it is pos-
view prac- sible, we can find one story but on various levels book review (A Walk To Remember by Nicholas Sparks) and
tice for differentiation. read it. Students brainstorm what parts a book review should
3. Book exhi- Together with the librarians, we present the consist of (individual, group activity).
bition books that students can choose to read during
the term. Then students return to the classroom A WALK TO REMEMBER (By Nicholas Sparks)
and, using laptops, find info about the author, A Walk to Remember will make you cry, laugh, and fall in
the genre, the plot and other details. love with it over and over again. The novel is by an American
4. Reading Every week 1 lesson should be devoted to writer Nicholas Sparks and was released by Warner Books
for pleas- checking students’ reading. Students should in October 1999. Sparks has written a number of bestsellers
ure have reading diaries to write their summaries, that have been made into films, including his books, Mes-
new words, book review drafts, etc. Teachers
sage in a Bottle and The Notebook.
should make notes about the books students are
reading and their progress. Set in 1958–59 in Beaufort, North Carolina, A Walk to Re-
5. Book re- Here we can practice some parts of a book member is a story of two teenagers who fall in love with each
view review, for example character description or other despite the differences in their personalities. The story
information about the author. begins in High School with Jamie and Landon. Jamie, a girl,
6. Reading In some of the lessons students can read, dis- and Landon, a boy, believe that they have nothing in com-
for pleas- cuss their books with each other and do other mon and that they are very different from each other because
ure activities based on their reading and reviewing of the way they dress, act and the people they hang out with.
the books. They soon find out that they are meant to be together.
7. Creating Students should be given some time in the class- Landon is the type of guy described as “cool”. Jamie, on the
a book re- room to create their written book review, plan other hand, is sweet, caring, and very religious, as her father is
view their poster and speech and be assisted by a
the Reverend of their hometown. Landon and his friends make
teacher or classmates.
fun of Jamie because of the way she dresses and because she is
8. Book re- Gallery walk. Students attach their posters to
view pres- the walls, jury (teachers) and other students
still so old-fashioned. The reason Jamie is still old-fashioned
entation walk around, presenters present their books and is because her mother passed away when she was born. Jamie
posters. Also they submit their written reviews has learned the hard way that it was not her fault for her moth-
to their teachers. er’s death but that it was God’s decision.

Landon is soon to be put in a difficult situation where,
in order to graduate, he has to get one more credit and the
only class open is Drama. He has to join a school play in
order to get the credit that he needs to graduate. Since Jamie
is in Drama and she is a good actor, Landon decides to ask
her for help. She accepts but has one promise that she needs
him to make, “Don’t fall in love with me”. Landon finds this
funny but agrees. However, he does not know what the fu-
ture holds.
For me, A Walk to Remember is a really emotional story.
I never thought that I could actually cry reading a book. I
loved how Sparks wrote the book and the way that he de-
scribed each character made the book so alive. With passages
like, “I held her close to me with my eyes closed, wondering
if anything in my life had ever been this perfect and knowing
at the same time that it hadn’t. I was in love, and the feeling
was even more wonderful than I ever imagined it could be.”
I actually felt I was experiencing and feeling what they were
going through. I really recommend this book to those who
are young now or those who want to remember how love felt
when they were young.
Source: http://highland.aps.edu/library-booktalks
15 minutes. Students are given an outline of a book review
(The process of writing a fiction book review), read it and
compare with their own ideas (individual, group activity).
The process of writing a fiction book review
Start your book report outline with the following five ideas.
Each idea should correspond to a paragraph:
1. Introduction
2. Summary of Book
3. Book Details: Characters
4. Book Details: Plot
5. Evaluation and Conclusion
1. Introductory Paragraph
Many book reports begin with the basic information about
the book: the book’s title, author, genre, and publication in-
formation (publisher, number of pages, and year published).
The first paragraph is also your opportunity to build interest
by mentioning any unusual facts or circumstances about the
writing of the book or about the author. Was the book a best-
seller? Is the author a well-known authority on the subject?
Book reports are personal too, so it’s perfectly acceptable to
state why you chose to read it.
1. What is the book about? In the body of the book report –
paragraphs 2, 3, and 4 – you will describe what the book is
about. This is your chance to show you have read and under-
stood the book.
LESSON PLANS English
25
April 2016
2. Summary: Start this paragraph by writing an overview
of the story, including its setting, time period, genre, main
characters, and plot. State who tells the story (point of view)
and the tone or atmosphere of the book. Is it a creepy tale of
suspense or a light-hearted adventure?
3. Character Details: In this paragraph, describe the main
characters and identify the major conflict or problem
the main characters are trying to solve. If there are many
relevant characters in the book, you can also write another
paragraph about them.
4. Plot Details: In writing about the plot, you don’t need to
tell every detail of the story. Instead, focus on the main se-
quence of events. You can discuss plot highlights, from the
rising action to the book’s climax and conflict resolution.
5. Personal Evaluation and Conclusion: You will like writ-
ing the final paragraph because it is here that you will be able
to offer your own opinion of the book. What are the book’s
strengths and weaknesses? Did the book hold your interest?
What did you learn from the book? How did the book affect
you? Try to be balanced in your opinions, and support your
statements with examples from the book. Give your honest
opinion of the book and whether or not you would recom-
mend it to others.
Source: http://www.time4writing.com/writing-resources/
writing-a-book-report/
10 minutes. Students match sentences taken from reviews
with the correct section of a review. More than one answer
may be possible. After doing this individually, compare with
a partner (individual, group activity).
1. Even though Hazel & Augustus are both riddled with
cancer, somehow they never let it beat them.
2. This is a book peopled with a group of characters that
you really care about. At its core are the star-crossed lov-
ers, Hazel (with terminal cancer) and Augustus (a cancer
survivor).
 English LESSON PLANS

26 April 2016

3. It is definitely a moving, entertaining and thought-pro-

voking book.
4. John Green is an award-winning, New York Times best-
selling author whose many accolades include the Printz
Medal, a Printz Honor, and the Edgar Award.
5. This is a story suitable for all ages.
6. JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit is, of course, one of the great-
est children’s books to have been written in the twentieth
century.
7. I must make it clear from the start that I will not review
the story of The Hobbit, but just this hardcover edition
published by HarperCollins, revised edition released on sled The men put their food and equipment on a sled and
7 April 2003. pulled it across the ice.
8. It follows the adventures of one Bilbo Baggins, as he sets mate I have been married to my mate for 20 years.
off with thirteen dwarves and a wizard to recover a great magic He made the rabbit disappear. It must be magic!
treasure stolen from the dwarves by Smaug the dragon. witchcraft I am sure that woman can cause illness just by
9. Tolkien wrote this book for his own children. looking at you, or saying some secret words, or other
10. I found the beginning of the story a little confusing. kinds of witchcraft.
11. The Dursleys return also and still treat Harry like dirt; evil spirits Don’t go into the forest! You can’t see them but there
even on his own birthday. are lots of evil spirits there who will hurt or kill you.
spy I will follow that man and find out where he goes. He
5 minutes. Teacher asks students if any of them have read won’t see me because I can spy very well.
The Fault in Our Stars or The Hobbit which these review growl The dog didn’t like it and growled at me angrily when
sentences are about. If they have, elicit information about I tried to take his food away.
them using vocabulary encountered – character, plot, con- whale The whale is not a fish. It is the biggest animal in the
flict, problem, summary etc. Note contributions on board sea.
(whole class activity).
Based on the sentences above, guess the Kazakh and Rus-
Reading. The Story of Keesh by Jack London sian meanings of the words. Do not use a dictionary!
Pre-reading activities English Kazakh Russian
15 minutes. Teacher gives students a handout on new words council
for the story and has them guess the Kazakh and Russian igloo
meanings for them. No dictionaries! (Individual work) spear
New words from The Story of Keesh sled
council The village council of elders decided to build a new
mate
meeting house.
magic
igloo Although it is made of ice, an igloo is quite a warm
house. witchcraft
spear The hunter threw the long, sharp spear and killed the evil spirits
lion. spy
growl
whale

20-25 minutes. Students read The Story of Keesh in class. (In-

dividual work) (http://www.online-literature.com/london/97/)
Home assignment: students write a brief review of The Story
of Keesh based on the handouts and guidance already given.
(Written works are assessed formatively. It means that no
marks are given, the teacher only writes notes and recommen-
dations for students, indicates language mistakes. If there are a
lot of mistakes, students should rewrite the reviews).

By Valeriya V. Golovintseva,
Nazarbayev Intellectual School, Pavlodar, Kazakhstan
Photos taken by the author.
To be continued.
 TOPICAL JOURNEY English

Northern 27
April 2016

Ireland Anyone born and bred in Northern Ireland

can’t be too optimistic.
Seamus Heaney

A person from Northern Ireland is naturally cautious.

Seamus Heaney

The reality of life in Northern Ireland is that if you were

Protestant, you learned British history, and if you were
Catholic, you learned Irish history in school.
James Nesbitt

The basis on which the Good Friday agreement was

constructed was in addressing those problems
in the history of Northern Ireland, the social
and constitutional problems as well as the military
problems that have been unaddressed for centuries.
John Reid
Obviously one of the things that poets from Northern
Ireland and beyond - had to try to make sense of was
what was happening on a day-to-day political level.
Paul Muldoon
On the other hand, at some level the mass of unresolved
issues in Northern Ireland does influence the fact that
there are so many good writers in the place.
Paul Muldoon
“ When I told the people of
Northern Ireland that I was
an atheist, a woman in the
audience stood up and said,
‘Yes, but is it the God of the
Catholics or the God of the
“
Protestants in whom you don’t
believe?
Quentin Crisp
TOPICAL JOURNEY
The Troubles ................................... 28
History in Brief................................ 28
Why is Northern Ireland Part
of the United Kingdom? .................. 29
Political Correctness ........................ 30
Introducing Euphemisms
to Language Learners....................... 30
Word and Their Euphemisms ............31
Catholicism vs. Protestantism ........... 32
Religion Glossary............................. 32
Titanic ............................................ 34
Contemporary Belfast ...................... 34
Northern Ireland in Two Poems ........ 36
The Cities and Towns
of Northern Ireland .......................... 32
 English TOPICAL JOURNEY
28 April 2016
HISTORY IN BRIEF
Northern Ireland is a constituent unit
of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland in the northeast of the is-
land of Ireland. It is variously described
as a country, province, region, or “part”
of the United Kingdom, amongst other
terms. Northern Ireland shares a border
to the south and west with the Republic
of Ireland. In 2011, its population was
1,810,863, constituting about 30% of the
island’s total population and about 3% of
the UK’s population. Established by the
Northern Ireland Act 1998 as part of the
Good Friday Agreement, the Northern Ire-
land Assembly holds responsibility for a
range of devolved policy matters, while
other areas are reserved for the British
government. Northern Ireland co-operates
with the Republic of Ireland in some ar-
eas, and the Agreement granted the Re-
public the ability to “put forward views
and proposals” with “determined efforts to
resolve disagreements between [the two
governments]”.
Northern Ireland was created in 1921,
when Ireland was partitioned between
Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland
by an act of the British parliament. Unlike
Southern Ireland, which would become
the Irish Free State in 1922, the major-
ity of Northern Ireland’s population were
unionists, who wanted to remain within
the United Kingdom, most of whom were
the Protestant descendants of colonists
from Great Britain; however, a significant
minority, mostly Catholics, were nation-
alists who wanted a united Ireland inde-
pendent of British rule. Today, the former
generally see themselves as British and
the latter generally see themselves as
Irish; some people from both persua-
sions describe themselves as Northern
Irish.
For most of the 20th century, when
it came into existence, Northern Ireland
was marked by discrimination and hostil-
ity between these two sides in what First
Minister of Northern Ireland David Trimble
called a “cold house” for Catholics. In the
late 1960s, conflict between state forces
and Protestants, and Catholics, erupted
into three decades of violence known as
the Troubles, which claimed over 3,500
lives and caused over 50,000 casualties.
The 1998 Good Friday Agreement was a
major step in the peace process, including
the decommissioning of weapons, although
sectarianism and religious segregation still
remain major social problems and sporadic
violence has continued.
The Trou
The Troubles refers to a violent thirty-year conflict framed by a civil rights
march in Londonderry on 5 October 1968 and the Good Friday Agreement
on 10 April 1998. At the heart of the conflict lay the constitutional status of
Northern Ireland.
The goal of the unionist and overwhelmingly Protestant majority was to
remain part of the United Kingdom. The goal of the nationalist and republican,
almost exclusively Catholic, minority was to become part of the independent
Republic of Ireland.
It was a territorial conflict, not a religious one. At its heart lay two mutually
exclusive visions of national identity and national belonging. The principal dif-
ference between 1968 and 1998 is that the people and organisations pursuing
these rival futures eventually resolved to do so through peaceful and democratic
means. This ascendancy of politics over violence was not easily achieved.
During the Troubles, the scale of the killings perpetrated by all sides even-
tually exceeded 3,600. As many as 50,000 people were physically maimed
or injured, with countless others psychologically damaged by the conflict, a
legacy that continues to shape the post-1998 period.
DIRECT RULE RETURNS
In 1968, the Northern Ireland parliament had been dominated by unionists
for over 50 years. Its attempts to solve social and political ills, such as institu-
tional discrimination against Catholics, were too slow for nationalists and re-
publicans and too quick for many unionists. This gave rise to growing tension
and violence between the two communities.
The scale of the disorder led successive UK governments to intervene. In
1969, the situation was so grave that British troops were sent to help restore
order. By 1972, things had deteriorated so badly that the British government
suspended the Northern Ireland parliament and imposed direct rule from Lon-
don. Relegated to the margins of UK politics for half a century, Northern Ire-
land had suddenly reclaimed centre stage.
THE ‘LONG WAR’
At this time, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) – the main re-
publican paramilitary organisation in Northern Ireland – was uninterested in any
solution short of British withdrawal and Irish unification. The ‘Provisionals’ had
split from the ‘Official IRA’ in 1969 and are referred to here as the IRA.
For them, the ‘long war’ was the only option. This strategy had been gaining
traction since the introduction of internment (imprisonment without trial) in
1971 and the killing of 13 people on Bloody Sunday the following year.
When secret talks with the UK government in 1972 collapsed, the IRA lead-
ership resolved to erode the British presence in Northern Ireland through a war
of attrition. The major loyalist paramilitary organisations of the Ulster Defence
Association (UDA) and the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) had resolved to use
violence to resist republican paramilitaries and to oppose Irish unification. It
was against this backdrop of violence and increasingly entrenched positions
that moves to find a lasting solution began.
SUNNINGDALE’S FROSTY RECEPTION
Direct rule by British ministers was viewed as a short-term measure and a
process to restore self-government to Northern Ireland was soon underway. The
first attempt was the 1973 Sunningdale Agreement, which provided for both a
devolved, power-sharing administration and a role for the Irish government in
the internal affairs of Northern Ireland – the so-called ‘Irish dimension’.
Together with the UK and Irish governments, just three Northern Ireland
political parties participated in the Sunningdale talks – the Ulster Unionist
Party (UUP), the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) and
the centre-ground Alliance Party. The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) was
wholly opposed and did not participate. Representatives of the ‘extremes’ –
loyalist and republican – were not invited.
Sources: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/troubles
 TOPICAL JOURNEY English

oubles
Sunningdale’s political institutions collapsed in early 1974, toppled by the
29
April 2016

Ulster Workers Council (UWC) strike, a near-insurrection spearheaded by a WHY IS NORTHERN IRELAND
coalition of unionists and loyalists that effectively brought Northern Ireland to a PART OF THE UNITED KINGDOM?
standstill. Although Sunningdale was ultimately a failure, it contained the seeds Ireland became part of the United King-
of the much more successful Good Friday Agreement twenty-five years later. dom in 1801. But Ireland’s sectarian divi-
sions, which had opened up during religious
THE ANGLO-IRISH AGREEMENT wars in the 17th century between Protes-
As the cycle of violence escalated, further efforts were made by succes- tants and Catholics, were exacerbated by
sive UK governments to devise a political settlement that was “legitimate” and economic problems in the 19th century.
non-violent.
The Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1985 was an attempt to achieve a political
accord to resolve the “Irish question”. It gave the Irish government an advisory
role in the affairs of Northern Ireland and determined there would be no change
in Northern Ireland’s constitutional status – no Irish unification in other words
– without the consent of its people. Nonetheless, the treaty broadly alienated
the unionist community, which opposed Irish involvement and rejected the
proposal for a devolved, power-sharing government.
Sinn Féin, the “political wing” of the IRA, was as vociferously opposed to
the agreement as unionists. The party had grown in prominence and influence.
It adopted the strategy known as “the armalite and the ballot box” in which the
IRA would continue the “armed struggle” while Sinn Féin contested Northern
Ireland elections.
Crucially, when the IRA announced a ceasefire in 1994, mainstream repub-
lican leaders had recognized that the ‘long war’ was unwinnable. Sinn Féin’s Britain’s shift to free trade from the
commitment to politics and the electoral process enabled it to enter negotia- 1840s onwards mainly benefited the indus-
tions aimed to end the Troubles and restore self-government. trial northeast of Ulster, where Protestants
PEACE PROCESS made up a majority of the population. But
the rest of the country, which was more
Cross-party talks began in 1996. In almost all quarters, a combination of
reliant on agriculture, suffered badly from
political realism and war-weariness cleared the path to negotiation. Negotiat-
falling global food prices and the Irish Fam-
ing with Sinn Féin was unpalatable for many unionists and loyalists. The UUP ine of 1845-50. The result was the rise of
agreed to participate. Representatives of loyalist paramilitaries also agreed Irish nationalist movements, drawing much
to take part. By contrast, DUP, abandoned the talks, opposed the subsequent of their support from the Catholic south,
agreement and viewed the whole process as unacceptable. which wanted a new Irish Parliament and
Nevertheless, the Good Friday Agreement marked a shift in Northern Ire- to re-introduce protectionist measures.
land’s political landscape. The UUP and SDLP agreed to accept power-sharing.
All signatories to the agreement endorsed the “consent principle”. This
meant that any change in Northern Ireland’s constitutional status – Irish uni-
fication – would happen only if popular majorities voted in favour in separate
referendums held at the same time on both sides of the border.
AFTER THE GOOD FRIDAY AGREEMENT
If the Good Friday Agreement and the return of self-government to North-
ern Ireland had been an enormous challenge for all concerned, so was its fit-
ful implementation. Many significant issues remained unresolved in 1998, not
When William Gladstone, then Britain’s
least the decommissioning of republican and loyalist weapons. prime minister, proposed Irish legislative
These and other matters were now susceptible to the force of argument rath- independence (called Home Rule) in 1885,
er than the argument of force. the northeast exploded with sectarian riot-
Even so, the first phase of devolved power-sharing was to prove fragile and ing against his proposals. Ulster Protes-
short-lived, requiring the re-introduction of direct rule from 2002 until 2007. tants feared that “Home Rule means Rome
Only then had sufficient trust been developed between the communities to en- Rule”, thinking they would lose the religious
able the restoration of devolution. and economic freedoms they enjoyed as
When government returned to Stormont buildings in Belfast, this time it part of the United Kingdom by becoming a
minority in a mainly Catholic Ireland.
involved a fully inclusive power-sharing arrangement that embraced both the
When the rest of Ireland gained independ-
DUP and Sinn Féin – now the dominant parties within their respective elector- ence as the “Irish Free State” in 1922, north-
ates. east Ulster did not want to join them. The Brit-
This partnership of constitutional opposites is perhaps the most remarkable ish government was forced to partition the six
outcome of the Troubles, and one that underlines the triumph of politics over most northeastern counties of the new Irish
violence in post-conflict Northern Ireland. state to form Northern Ireland, in fear that Prot-
estant civil unrest in Ulster would otherwise
Submitted by Tatyana Makhrina
turn into a civil war against the new state.
 English TOPICAL JOURNEY
30 April 2016
INTRODUCING EUPHEMISMS
TO LANGUAGE LEARNERS
The Purpose of Euphemisms
Euphemisms are words we use to sof-
ten the reality of what we are communicat-
ing to a given listener or reader. They are
a universal feature of language usage; all
cultures typically use them to talk about
things they find terrifying (e.g., war, sick-
ness, death) because, anthropologically,
“to speak a name was to evoke the divinity
whose power then had to be confronted”
(Neaman & Silver, 1983, pp. 1–2). Similar-
ly, we use euphemisms to express taboos,
as we feel, on some instinctual level, that
the euphemism keeps us at safe distance
from the taboo itself. Another use of euphe-
misms is to elevate the status of something
(e.g., using “educator” for teacher, “attor-
ney” for lawyer); but in general, we use
euphemisms to express what is socially
difficult to express in direct terms.
Latinate Roots of Euphemisms
A great number of euphemisms in Eng-
lish come from words with Latinate roots.
Farb (1974) writes that after the Norman
Conquest of England in 1066, “…the com-
munity began to make a distinction be-
tween a genteel and an obscene vocabu-
lary, between the Latinate words of the
upper class and the lusty Anglo-Saxon of
the lower. That is why a duchess ‘perspired
and expectorated and menstruated’ – while
a kitchen maid sweated and spat and bled.”
(p. 80)
The linguistic differences between
earthy, direct Anglo-Saxon words and
elegant, often euphemistic Latinate words
have been largely ignored in language
learning, despite the fact that knowledge
of these differences is essential to natural,
native like use of English. Similarly, euphe-
misms themselves – Latinate or otherwise
– have been ignored in language learning,
even though they are usually semantically
opaque to learners and continue to be in-
vented and employed.
Below is a short glossary of common
words with some of their current, popular
euphemisms. (Some euphemisms, it will
be seen, have become euphemized them-
selves.)
Sources: https://aggslanguage.wordpress.com; http://iteslj.org
Political Cor
Political correctness (PC) is a term used to describe language, ideas, poli-
cies, or behaviour seen as seeking to minimize any offence to gender, racial,
cultural, disabled, aged or other identity groups. The term “politically incor-
rect” is used to refer to language or ideas that may cause offence or that are
unconstrained by PC orthodoxy.
The Political Correctness movement is an intellectual effort to use language
to allow and encourage social progress. It has suffered from a great deal of
ridicule and scorn, and it has also been confused by many.
The theoretical foundation of the PC movement is this: language creates
categories for thought, and words can create either opportunities or bounda-
ries. The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis is a widely accepted part of this theory. All
of language is a construct that attempts to signify abstract meaning, and any
construct will be lacking. The language we use affects not just the messages we
communicate, but the fundamental ways that we think and act. The problem
arises when the linguistic constructs we use influence our way of thinking in
negative ways. These negative influences from language can be called politi-
cally incorrect.
The three categories of this kind of language:
1. Subtle: Words like policeman, mailman, fireman; referring to all people
as man; referring to an androgynous individual as “he”. These exclusionary
words subtly influence our way of thinking. The first three imply that these are
roles for men only. This kind of language can keep women from being com-
fortable aspiring to these positions. The other general references of “man” and
“he” are simply inaccurate and unnecessarily exclusionary. They imply that
masculinity is the default and superior gender trait.
2. Offensive: Words like “gay” or “retarded” to refer to something undesir-
able; words like “fag” or “retard” to refer to people. The first set shows how
these descriptions inherently link certain types of individuals to anything bad
by using terms that refer to them as insults for other undesirable concepts. The
second set is offensive because of the pejorative connotations implied by these
slurs. There are appropriate ways of referring to individuals that does not un-
necessarily demean them.
3. Blatant: The “n-word” to refer to black people or the “c-word” or “b-
word” to refer to women. These words are highly offensive and indicate a great
deal of disdain. They objectify and belittle entire groups of people based on
one trait.
At its core, the PC movement is not about censorship. People should be
allowed to use almost any kind of language that they want to. But the much
more important question is what kind of language they should use. The PC
movement operates well within the open marketplace of ideas, as enlightened,
tolerant people shoot down politically-incorrect speech because of its detri-
mental effects. We need to be able to recognize language that can be subtly or
openly offensive and oppose the usage, but choose to use language in precise,
effective, and non-offensive ways.
The terms ‘politically correct’ and ‘political correctness’ entered the lan-
guage via the U.S. feminist and other left-wing movements of the 1970s. The
use of ‘PC’ language quickly spread to other parts of the industrialized world.
The terms had been used previously, though the meaning was ‘in line with pre-
vailing political thought or policy’. i.e. the terms previously used ‘correctness’
in its literal sense and without any particular reference to language that some
might consider illiberal or discriminatory.
The use of, or even the definition of, ‘political correctness’ as seen by the
liberal left is strongly disputed by those of other political views. Some view
the very term ‘politically correct’ to be pejorative in that it portrays a political
stance that they oppose as ‘correct’.
 TOPICAL JOURNEY English

orrectness
There are strong views on both sides. It isn’t difficult to find examples of
31
April 2016

moves to modify language that are clearly misguided. For example, the at- WORDS
tempt by some in the UK to discourage the use of the term ‘nitty-gritty’, which AND THEIR EUPHEMISMS
was mistakenly thought to be disparaging to black people. On the other side of accident, crisis, disaster – incident
the coin there are many examples of gender biased language – e.g. chairman addict; addiction – substance abuser; sub-
used when the person chairing a meeting is female – that are linguistically in- stance abuse, chemical dependency
adulterous – extramarital
correct (although some would dispute that, too). This topic of gender neutrality
arrest (v) – apprehend
is possibly the area that is most contentious. Some would argue that any use beggar – panhandler, homeless person
of the word ‘man’, e.g. manhole, is biased and should be avoided. Others are bombing – air support
quite happy with female chairmen. break-in – security breach
According to the theory behind Political Correctness, using “inclusive” and brothel – massage parlor
“neutral” language is based upon the idea that “language represents thought, cheap – frugal, thrifty, economical
and may even control thought”; per the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis, a language’s coffin – casket
grammatical categories shape the speaker’s ideas and actions. Other cognitive complaint form – response form
psychology and cognitive linguistics works indicate that word-choices have confinement – detention
criminal (adj) – illegal
significant “framing effects” on the perceptions, memories, and attitudes of
criminal (young) – juvenile delinquent
speakers and listeners. crippled – disabled, physically chal-
The relevant empirical question is whether or not sexist language promotes lenged
sexism, i.e. sexist thought and action. As well as are the rights, opportunities, custodian – building maintenance staff
and freedoms of certain people restricted because they are reduced to a stereo- dead – departed, deceased, late, lost,
type? gone, passed
Stereotyping largely is implicit, unconscious, and facilitated by the avail- death insurance – life insurance
ability of pejorative labels and terms. Rendering the labels and terms socially death penalty – capital punishment
unacceptable, people then must consciously think about how they describe death – demise, end, destination, better
world, afterlife
someone unlike themselves. When labelling is a conscious activity, the de-
deaths – body count
scribed person’s individual merits become apparent, rather than his or her die – pass away, pass on, expire, go to
stereotype. heaven
Critics argue that political correctness is censorship and endangers free drugs – illegal substances
speech by limiting what is considered acceptable public discourse. Other crit- drunk (adj) – intoxicated, inebriated, tipsy
ics say that politically correct terms are awkward euphemisms for truer, origi- exploit (land) – develop
nal, stark language, comparing them to George Orwell’s Newspeak. fail – fizzle out, fall short, go out of busi-
Some critics of political correctness claim it marginalizes certain words, ness
phrases, actions or attitudes through the instrumentation of public disesteem. false (adj) – prosthesis
false teeth – dentures
Others argue that it is a form of coercion rooted in the assumption that in a
Fat, obese – overweight, chubby, portly,
political context, power refers to the dominion of some men over others, or stout, plump
the human control of human life. This argument holds that correctness in this fire (v) – lay off, release, downsize, let go,
context is subjective; they claim that by silencing contradiction, their oppo- streamline
nents entrench their views as orthodox, and eventually cause it to be accepted garbage collector – sanitation engineer
as true, as freedom of thought requires the ability to choose between more garbage dump – landfill
than one viewpoint. Modern Political Correctness has often encouraged social genocide – ethnic cleansing
hyper-sensitivity and can be carried to ridiculous extremes. It also has a way of hyperactive – Attention Deficit Disorder
silencing open public debate and readily labeling anyone daring to use certain (ADD)
illegal worker – undocumented worker
terms as “racist”, “anti-woman” or “homophobic”.
imprisoned – incarcerated
Some conservatives refer to political correctness as “The Scourge of Our informer – confidential source
Times.” jail – secure facility
Critics of political correctness have been accused of showing the same jungle – rain forest
sensitivity to choice of words they claim to be opposing, and of perceiving juvenile delinquent – problem child, at-risk
a political agenda where none exists. For example, a number of news outlets child
claimed that a school altered the nursery rhyme “Baa Baa Black Sheep” to kill – put down/away/out/to sleep
read “Baa Baa Rainbow Sheep.” The spurious claim was widely circulated and kill on a mass basis – liquidate
later amplified into a suggestion that similar bans applied to the terms “black killing of innocents – collateral damage
lawyer – attorney
coffee” and “blackboard.”
lazy – unmotivated
So we have seen that the phrase «political correctness» is on everyone’s lie (n) – fib, fabrication, cover story, story,
lips. It is a highly complex topic with many aspects, sources, influences, and untruth, inaccuracy
manifestations. A simple definition and outlook are not really possible, since make love, sex – sleep with
the phrase encompasses a whole range of attitudes which have undoubtedly money – funds
affected both behaviour and language. mortuary – funeral home/parlor
Submitted by Tatyana Makhrina See more in additional materials.
 English TOPICAL JOURNEY

32 April 2016
Catholicism vs.
Catholicism and Protestantism are two of the largest religions in the
RELIGION GLOSSARY world. One rich in tradition and unwaveringness, the other in diversity and
A.D. Anno Domini. The term Anno Do- modernity. Both have the same basis, but at the same time are vastly dif-
mini is Latin for In the year of the Lord. It ferent.
is sometimes specified more fully as Anno
Domini Nostri Iesu (Jesu) Christi (“In the Both Catholicism and Protestantism are based on the belief that Jesus Christ,
Year of Our Lord Jesus Christ”). Son of God, was born of the Virgin Mary, died on the cross, rose from the dead,
Advent: The period of approximately four and ascended into heaven where He is now with God the Father. They also
weeks before Christmas. believe in the Holy Trinity, that is three persons in one, God the Father, Jesus
All Saints Day: The day on which Catholics
the Son, and The Holy Spirit.
remember all the saints of the Church. It is
celebrated on November 1st and followed The first, and maybe the most radical, difference between the two religions
by All Souls Day on November 2nd. is the beliefs of the afterlife, or more simply put, “who’s going to heaven.”
Amen: A Hebrew word meaning “it is so;” Both Protestants and Catholics believe that Jesus died on the cross to enable us
“let it be done.” to have the chance at eternal life – “For God so loved the world that he gave
Annunciation: The visit of the angel
his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might
Gabriel to the Virgin Mary to inform her that
she was to be the mother of the Savior. The have eternal life.” John 3:16. However, Protestants believe that all one must do
feast day is March 25. is believe in Jesus and he/she will receive eternal life. Good deeds are not con-
Apostle: means “one sent.” sidered meritorious; rather, they are a result of divine grace. This is because,
Ash Wednesday: The first day of Lent. By they say, humans are free to do only evil, and good acts are inspired by God.
tradition Catholics have ashes (are made In contrast, Catholics believe that one must also act according to Gods word
by a mixture of Holy Oils and Ashes from and his or her good deeds, along with Jesus’ sacrifice, will ensure them eternal
burnt palms) sprinkled on their foreheads life in heaven. Good acts are meritorious because man has freewill to choose
to mark repentance. good or evil.
Atheism: The denial that God exists.
Ave Maria: Latin words meaning; “Hail A second difference between Catholicism and Protestantism is the struc-
Mary”. ture of the churches. Catholicism is comprised of one holy, Catholic, and
Bishop: From the Greek word episcopos apostolic church. Roman Catholicism is considered by most people to be
meaning overseer who is in charge of the the only Catholic church, but some other churches, such as the Eastern and
Church in a local area.
Russian Orthodox Churches, consider themselves to be Catholic, however,
Blasphemy: Speech, thought, or action
insulting to God or the Church, or persons the respective church’s origins and belief systems suggest otherwise. The
or things dedicated to God. Blasphemy is Roman Catholic Church is headed by the Pope, currently Pope Francis.
a sin. The church has a set order of leaders, from priests to deacons, bishops and
Blessing: A short prayer, usually accompa- cardinals. On the other hand, the Protestant church is not one church, but
nied by the sign of the cross, asking God’s many denominations. These denominations have come about from splits
favor on persons or objects. within the Protestant church, and have resulted in over 34,000 separate
Canonization: The process by which a de- denominations that are still considered Protestant. The church has no over-
ceased catholic becomes a Saint. arching leader. Instead, each individual church has its own pastor, and the
Cardinal: Appointed by the Pope and con-
congregation under the guidance of the pastor makes the decisions within
stitute a kind of senate of the Church, and
aid the Pope as his chief counselors. the church. In the Catholic Church, the church’s Archdiocese makes the
Cathedral: The Greek word cathedra decisions.
means chair or throne; the bishop’s “Chair” Another difference between the two faiths is the authority of beliefs.
symbolizes his teaching and governing au-
Catholics look to both the Bible and to tradition, tradition such as a
thority.
Catholic: Greek word for universal.
Pope, sets of rules and guidelines handed down through the ages. Protes-
Clergy: A term applied to men who have
been Ordained for ministry within the
Church (e.g. Bishops, Priests and Dea-
cons).
Conclave: The meeting of the Cardinals in
complete seclusion, when they assemble
to elect a Pope.
Confession: A private statement to a priest
about the bad things that you have done.
Convent: The place where a community of
Nuns live.
Creed: From the Latin word credo – “I be-
lieve.”
Crucifix: A cross with the figure of the cru-
cified Jesus upon it.
Disciple: Those who accepted Jesus’ mes-
sage and follow his teachings. Sources: http://www.teenink.com
 TOPICAL JOURNEY English

. Protestantism 33
April 2016

Ecclesiastic/Ecclesiastical: From the

Latin: ecclesia – church.
Eternal Life: Living forever with God in the
happiness of heaven.
Fruits of the Holy Spirit: The perfect gifts
that the Holy Spirit gives us (twelve fruits
of the Holy Spirit: Charity, Joy, Peace, Pa-
tience, Goodness, Kindness, Long-suffer-
ing, Humility, Faithfulness, Modesty, Con-
tinence, & Chastity).
Gospel: The “good news” of God’s mercy
and love revealed in the life, death, and
resurrection of Christ.
Hierarchy: The food chain within the Cath-
olic Church: Pope-Cardinal-Bishop-Priest-
Deacon-Lay Ministers.
Holy Trinity: Three persons in one God: God
the Father-God the Son-God the Holy Spirit.
Incarnation: The fact that the Son of God
tants believe in “Sola Scriptura”, or the Bible alone, as the basis of their was born and lived on the earth.
beliefs. Last Supper: The last meal, which Jesus
In Catholicism, the Bible contains the Apocrypha, a set of books that were ate with his disciples before he died.
Lent: The season of forty days which be-
added by the Church after the completion of the Scriptures because it believed
gins with Ash Wednesday and ends with
that they would help better guide members of the Church to leading a holy life.
the Paschal Mystery (Easter Triduum).
Protestants disavow the Apocrypha because they believe it was not divinely Liturgy: The set prayers, readings, and
inspired, and therefore does not have a place in the totally-divinely inspired rites for the Catholic Masses and services.
Bible. Lord’s Prayer: The prayer of petition for
both daily food (for Christians means the
A major difference between Catholicism and Protestantism concerns
Eucharistic) and the forgiveness of sins.
Saints and Mary, mother of Jesus. Many people mistakenly think that Catho- Martyr: A person killed for being faithful to
lics worship Saints and the Mother Mary the same way they worship Jesus. God.
This is simply not true. Catholics ask the Saints in heaven as well as the Mortal Sin: Has three conditions: serious
Virgin Mary to pray to God for them, to intercede on there behalf. Catholics matter, full knowledge of the act, and full
also believe that Mary, mother of Jesus, is higher up than any other saint consent of the will.
in heaven and is also ever virgin. In contrast, Protestants do not believe in Original Sin: The sin by which the first hu-
having saints, but that only God and Jesus should be asked for help. They man beings disobeyed the commandment
also believe that Mary was not ever-virgin, but only virgin before the birth of God and followed their own will.
Prophet: One sent by God to inform the
of Jesus.
people of the coming of Jesus.
Transubstantiation means the change of the substance of bread and wine Psalm: Latin word meaning song.
into the body and blood of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. Catholics believe in Relic: Any part of the physical remains of
transubstantiation; Protestants believe that the change from bread to body is a saint or items that have touched the body
of a saint.
only figurative and not literal.
Requiem: A Mass for the dead. In Latin
The priesthood is a major difference between the Catholic and Protes- “Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine.”
tant religions. Protestantism teaches that the faithful are a “priesthood of (Lord, give them eternal rest.)
believers”, and therefore each congregation is lead by a pastor, or spiritual Sacrifice: The act of giving up something
for another person.
guider of the people. In Catholicism, Priests are selected members of the
Saint: The “holy one” who leads a life in
faith who must go through 8+ years of schooling and dedicate their lives union with God through the grace of Christ
solely to God and His Church. The other members, or lay people, are just and receives the reward of eternal life.
as important to the church as clergy, or ordained members, but have dif- Salvation: Being saved from sin and its’
ferent roles. consequences.
Sanctuary: That part of the church where
In conclusion, Protestantism and Catholicism are based around the same,
the altar is and the Mass is celebrated.
monotheistic beliefs. They both worship Our Lord, Jesus Christ, and worship Stigmata: “tattoo” or “branding” (Greek).
him fully and truly. However, since the split in the Church and the creation Wounds of Christ appear on one’s body.
of the two religions, both faiths have been fighting over their differences and Temptation: Giving into sin when it is pre-
ignoring their similarities. These differences we must learn to put aside and sented.
worship together, as one. “Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not: for he that is Theology: The study of God.
not against us is for us.” Luke 9:50 Vow: A deliberate and free promise made
to God.
Submitted by Tatyana Makhrina Worship: Adoration and honor given to God.
 English TOPICAL JOURNEY
34 April 2016
CONTEMPORARY BELFAST
Belfast has been a port for nearly a
thousand years. Its name – Beál Féirste in
Irish – means ‘mouth of the sandy ford’.
A mixture of sand and silty mud known
as ‘sleech’ forms rather wobbly foundations
of the city itself.
Much of Belfast’s architectural charac-
ter comes from the 19th century industrial
boom, when shipbuilding, engineering, rope
works and linen made it Ireland’s industrial
heartland. The wealth and confidence of
this era is reflected in its buildings. The City
Hall takes centre stage, but there are a host
of other wonderful civic buildings, such as
the Custom House, the exquisitely opulent
Grand Opera House and the architectural
gem, the Crown Bar.
The city itself can be divided into four
quarters, each with their own unique stories
to tell. The Queen’s Quarter, is filled with
charm and is named after the renowned
Queen’s University. Richly endowed with
architecture, shops, bistros and cafés, this
area has a vibrant nightlife and attractions
to suit all tastes.
It also boasts a lively calendar of cultural
events throughout the year, the best known
being the Belfast Festival at Queens which
provides a range of theatre, dance, music,
literature and visual arts and is the largest
of its kind in Ireland. On a smaller scale,
the Queen’s Quarter also has some of the
city’s funkiest bars, comedy venues and
pubs with live music and traditional Irish
music sessions.
The Gaeltacht quarter of Belfast centres
around the Falls Road where Irish language
and culture has flourished since the 1960s.
This area offers much to those who have an
interest in people who have shaped local his-
tory. The Cultúrlann provides a varied pro-
gramme of music, dance and drama through-
out the year and Féile an Phobail (West Bel-
fast Festival), Europe’s biggest community
festival, with its Spring and August Festivals,
provides a huge opportunity for visitors to tap
into the rhythms which define this vibrant,
creative and unique quarter of the city.
Titanic Quarter focuses on the shipyard,
where the giant twin cranes of Harland and
Wolff stand guard over the city. One ship is
synonymous with Belfast: RMS Titanic. Spe-
cialist Titanic and Maritime tours take you
According to some views, The Royal Mail Steamer “Titanic”, the product
of intense competition among rival shipping lines in the first half of the 20th
century and the largest movable manmade object in the world for that time,
was doomed from the start by the design so many lauded as state-of-the-art.
The Olympic-class ships featured a double bottom and 15 watertight bulk-
heads equipped with electric watertight doors which could be operated indi-
vidually or simultaneously by a switch on the bridge. It was these watertight
bulkheads that inspired Shipbuilder magazine to deem them “practically un-
sinkable.” But the watertight compartment design contained a flaw that may
have been a critical factor in the Titanic’s sinking: while the individual bulk-
heads were indeed watertight, water could spill from one compartment into
another. Several of the Titanic’s Cunard-owned contemporaries, by contrast,
already boasted innovative safety features devised to avoid this very situation.
Had White Star taken a cue from its competitor, it might have saved the Titanic
from disaster.
The second critical safety lapse that contributed to the loss of so many lives
was the limited number of lifeboats carried on the Titanic. Those 16 boats,
along with four Engelhardt “collapsibles,” could accommodate only 1,178
people. The Titanic, when full, could carry 2,435 passengers, and a crew of
approximately 900 brought her capacity to more than 3,300 people. As a result,
even if the lifeboats were loaded to full capacity during an emergency evacu-
ation, there were available seats for only one-third of those on board. While
unthinkably inadequate by today’s standards, Titanic’s supply of lifeboats ac-
tually exceeded the British Board of Trade’s requirements.
THE TITANIC SETS SAIL
The largest passenger steamship ever built, the Titanic created quite a stir
when it departed for its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, on April
10, 1912. After stops in Cherbourg, France, and Queenstown (now known as
Cobh), Ireland, the ship set sail for New York with 2,240 passengers and crew
– or “souls,” the expression then used in the shipping industry, usually in con-
nection with a sinking – on board.
As befitting the first transatlantic crossing of the world’s most celebrated
ship, many of these souls were high-ranking officials, wealthy industrialists,
dignitaries and celebrities. First and foremost was the White Star Line’s man-
aging director, J. Bruce Ismay, accompanied by Thomas Andrews, the ship’s
builder from Harland and Wolff.
The wealthiest passenger was John Jacob Astor, IV. Other millionaire pas-
sengers included the elderly owner of Macy’s, Isidor Straus, and his wife Ida;
industrialist Benjamin Guggenheim; and widow and heiress Margaret “Molly”
Brown, who would earn her “unsinkable” nickname by helping to maintain
calm and order while the lifeboats were being loaded and boosting the spirits
of her fellow survivors.
The employees attending to these esteemed First Class notables were
largely traveling Second Class, along with academics, tourists, journalists and
others who would enjoy a level of service equivalent to First Class on most
other ships. But by far the largest group of passengers was in Third Class: more
than 700, exceeding the other two levels combined. Some had paid less than
$20 to make the crossing. It was Third Class that was the major source of profit
for shipping lines like White Star and Cunard, and the Titanic was designed to
offer these passengers accommodations and amenities superior to those found
in Third Class on any ship up to that time.
Sources: http://www.history.com/topics/titanic; Photo above: LMspencer / Shutterstock.com
 The Titanic’s departure from Southampton on April 10 was not without TOPICAL JOURNEY English
some oddities. A small coal fire was discovered in one of her bunkers – an
alarming but not uncommon occurrence on steamships of the day. After assess-
ing the situation, the captain and chief engineer concluded that it was unlikely
it had caused any damage that could affect the hull structure, and the stokers
were ordered to continue controlling the fire at sea. Another unsettling event
35
April 2016
took place when the Titanic left the Southampton dock. As she got underway,
she narrowly escaped a collision with the America Line’s “S.S. New York”. through the shipyard where she was built.
Superstitious Titanic buffs often point to this as the worst kind of omen for a See the slipway down which Titanic was
ship departing on her maiden voyage. launched and the dock where she was fit-
ted out, virtually unchanged since May 1911
when Titanic sailed away from Belfast.
DISASTER STRIKES ABOARD THE TITANIC
That encounter took place roughly four days out, at about 11:30 p.m. on
April 14. The Titanic was equipped with a Marconi wireless, and there had
been sporadic reports of ice from other ships, but she was sailing on calm seas
under a moonless, clear sky. A lookout saw the iceberg dead ahead coming out
of a slight haze, rang the warning bell and telephoned the bridge. The engines
were quickly reversed and the ship was turned sharply, and instead of making
direct impact the iceberg seemed to graze along the side of the ship, sprinkling
ice fragments on the forward deck. They had no idea that the iceberg’s jagged The city’s oldest quarter is called Ca-
underwater spur had slashed a 300-foot gash well below the ship’s waterline, thedral Quarter. It takes its name from St.
and that the Titanic was doomed. Anne’s Cathedral, the ecclesiastical heart
By the time the captain toured the damaged area with Harland and Wolff’s of the city and is full of fascinating architec-
Thomas Andrews, five compartments were already filling with seawater, and ture, ranging from distinguished banks and
the bow of the ship was alarmingly down. Andrews did a quick calculation and public buildings to cosy pubs and ware-
estimated that the Titanic might remain afloat for an hour and a half, perhaps house restaurants. Some of these, such
slightly more. At that point the captain, who had already instructed his wireless as the Custom House, occupy a prominent
public location, but other equally interest-
operator to call for help, ordered the lifeboats to be loaded.
ing buildings are tucked away down narrow
Exceeding Andrews’ prediction, the Titanic stubbornly managed to stay cobbled streets and alleyways that give this
afloat for close to three hours. Those hours witnessed acts of cowardice and area its intimate feel. Cathedral Quarter
bravery. Hundreds of human dramas unfolded: men saw off wives and chil- has also become the focus of Belfast’s bur-
dren, families were separated and selfless individuals gave up their spots to geoning arts and craft scenes and is home
remain with loved ones or allow a more vulnerable passenger to escape. to many visual and performing artists.
The ship’s most illustrious passengers each responded to the circumstances For a more formal introduction to the
with conduct that has become an integral part of the Titanic legend. Ismay, City of Belfast there are guided tours to ca-
the White Star managing director, helped load some of the boats. Although ter for every interest – historic pub tours,
open top bus tours, boat tours along the
no women or children were in the vicinity when he abandoned ship, he would
shipyard and walking tours. Visitors can fol-
never live down the ignominy of surviving the disaster while so many others low in the steps of the literary greats; Louis
perished. Thomas Andrews, the Titanic’s chief designer, was last seen in the MacNeice, Seamus Heaney, CS Lewis and
First Class smoking room, staring blankly at a painting of a ship on the wall. Jonathan Swift. It also boasts an altogether
Although offered a seat, Isidor Straus and his wife refused any special consi- different type of artistic endeavour - the
deration, retired to their cabin and perished together. Benjamin Guggenheim descriptive wall murals throughout the city
and his valet returned to their rooms and changed into formal evening dress; have their own story to tell and have been
emerging onto the deck, he famously declared, “We are dressed in our best and listed as the UK’s best tourist attraction by
are prepared to go down like gentlemen.” The Independent newspaper in 2007.
There’s a good range of pubs and restau-
The Titanic, nearly perpendicular and with many of her lights still aglow,
rants catering for every taste with local spe-
finally dove beneath the icy surface at approximately 2:20 a.m. on April 15. cialities such as champ, potatoes, Irish stew
Throughout the morning, Cunard’s “Carpathia”, after receiving the Titanic’s and specialty breads available. At the other
distress call at midnight and steaming at full speed while dodging ice floes all end of the culinary scale, chefs Paul Rankin,
night, rounded up all of the lifeboats. They contained only 705 survivors. Michael Deane and Nick Price have placed
The ship historian John Maxtone-Graham has compared the Titanic’s story Belfast firmly on the gourmet map.
to the Challenger space shuttle disaster of 1986. In that case, the world reeled Throughout the city on the first Thursday
at the notion that some of the most sophisticated technology ever created could of each month, various Belfast art galleries
explode into oblivion along with its crew. Both tragedies triggered a sudden stay open in the evening giving visitors a
chance to explore at their leisure, using a
and complete collapse in confidence, revealing that we humans are vulnerable
dedicated map and brochure, the vibrancy
despite our modern presumptions of technological infallibility. of Belfast’s visual art scene. For further
information on public and private galleries
and to obtain the dedicated map and bro-
chure visit www.belfastgalleries.com.
Today, Belfast is a city transformed. Visi-
tors from every continent can be found in
its streets, drawn to a city with heart, where
people have time to smile.
More information on www.discovernorth-
Submitted by Tatyana Makhrina
ernireland.com or www.gotobelfast.com
 English TOPICAL JOURNEY
36 April 2016
SEAMUS HEANEY
Seamus Heaney (1939-2013) is the best-
known of modern Irish poets. He won the
Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995, and served as
Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory and
Emerson Poet in Residence at Harvard, and as
Professor of Poetry at Oxford.
A Catholic from Northern Ireland, Heaney,
however, rejected his British identity and lived in
the Republic of Ireland for much of his later life
until his death in 2013.
Born in County Derry, Ireland, Heaney insist-
ed that he was an Irish poet, not British. Even
today he has the reputation of being “the most
important Irish poet since Yeats.” He received
the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995 for what
the Nobel Committee described as “works of lyri-
cal beauty and ethical depth, which exalt every-
day miracles and the living past”.
In his Nobel lecture, Heaney said: “The
American poet Archibald MacLeish affirmed that
‘A poem should be equal to/not true.’ As a defi-
ant statement of poetry’s gift for telling truth but
’telling it slant,’ this is both cogent and correc-
tive. Yet there are times when a deeper need
enters, when we want the poem to be not only
pleasurably right but compellingly wise, not only
a surprising variation played upon the world,
but a re-tuning of the world itself. We want the
surprise to be transitive like the impatient thump
which unexpectedly restores the picture to the
television set, or the electric shock which sets
the fibrillating heart back to its proper rhythm.
We want what the woman wanted in the prison
queue in Leningrad, standing there blue with
cold and whispering for fear, enduring the ter-
ror of Stalin’s regime and asking the poet Anna
Akhmatova if she could describe it all, if her art
could be equal to it. … poetry can be equal to
and true at the same time, an example of that
completely adequate poetry which the Russian
woman sought from Anna Akhmatova and which
William Wordsworth produced at a correspond-
ing moment of historical crisis and personal dis-
may almost exactly two hundred years ago.
Northern Ireland
Since the state of Northern Ireland was created in 1922, its literature formally in-
cludes writings produced in that part of Ireland prior to that date and later. It is also
literature written by authors who were born there but emigrated elsewhere. The literary
languages of Northern Ireland are English, Irish and Ulster Scots.
The literature of the Republic of Ireland is not considered to be British, while any
fiction or poetry written in Northern Ireland can be called Irish or British. The naming
of the territory has always been a politically charged activity. The identity of Northern
Ireland itself has been questioned again and again, so its Irish writings are not quite
Irish, British are not quite British, and Scottish are not quite Scottish. It is believed that
it should be possible ‘to found a national literature on this scutching1 vernacular’.2
The outbreak of the Troubles in the 1960s provided a theme for writers: some were
engaged in the social and political background, others reacted against the tensions by
looking at nature. Prose as well as poetry reflects the confusion and frustration of the
population.
These two poems tell us about Northern Ireland more convincingly than any mass
media.
LIMBO (By Seamus Heaney)
Fishermen at Ballyshannon
Netted an infant last night
Along with the salmon.
An illegitimate spawning,
A small one thrown back
To the water. But I’m sure
As she stood in the shallows
Ducking him tenderly
Till the frozen knobs of her wrists
Were dead as the gravel,
He was a minnow with hooks
Tearing her open.
She waded in under
The sign of her cross.
He was hauled in with the fish.
Now limbo will be
A cold glitter of souls
Through some far briny zone.
Even Christ’s palms, unhealed,
Smart and cannot fish there.
According to the Roman Catholic Church, Limbo is the region between Heaven and
Hell where the un-baptised and illegitimate babies go after death as they were born
“sinful”, though they have not actually sinned themselves. As Heaney was raised as a
Roman Catholic, he would have been familiar with this idea.
In the first stanza, the voice of the poet is that of an indifferent reporter who informs
us of an event and a place. The word Ballyshannon3 tells us at once that the poem is set
in Northern Ireland. A child has been brought with fishers’ nets as the word “infant” can
mean only a human child, not an animal. The night-time setting makes the scene sinister,
and the fact that the infant was found along with salmon, makes the atmosphere even
more dramatic as though the infant is not human and its death is not extraordinary.
However, the scene recalls ‘the fishers of men’ from the New Testament. When Jesus
asked the apostles to follow him, and help him preach the word of God, they told Jesus
that they could not, because they were but humble fishermen. To this, he replied, “I will
make you fishers of men”.
A lot of words are connected with fishing: fishermen, netted, night, salmon, and
spawning. This semantic field continues throughout the entire poem and structure.
In the second stanza, the poet tells us the infant was thrown back into the water as if
it was too small a catch, of no use to anybody. To imitate the action of throwing ‘back’
and ‘To’ are placed on different lines.
‘Ducking him tenderly’ sounds paradoxical. It conjures the image of the mother,
although killing her child, still loved him. The act of ducking might be associated with
the act of baptism. Perhaps, the mother was baptising the baby as well as killing it? She
was sending him to Limbo which seemed less terrible than the troubles that were in
store for him in life as an illegitimate, sinful child.
Then the speaker’s tone grows more emotional. The words sound frightening: fro-
zen, dead, gravel. The consonants ‘z’, ‘s’, ‘r’ and ‘d’ produce an effect of something
Photo sources: http://navigatingtheglobal.weebly.com; http://inside.umf.maine.edu
 TOPICAL JOURNEY English

nd in Two Poems 37
April 2016

unbearable. As the killing of her baby was so painful, the mother was morally hurting
herself and killing a part of her. CIARÁN CARSON
The use of the word ‘waded’ suggests the resistance of the water. Besides, we learn Poet and novelist Ciarán Carson was
that the Christian mother is killing her child; the words ‘her cross’ promise her much born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1948.
agony. There is a cruel question: did she kill her child to protect it or to protect herself He was a young man in Belfast when the
from future hardships and accusations, being unmarried? Troubles began in1969.
The poem goes on and again we see contrasting words: ‘cold’ which suggests empti- ‘The Troubles’ refers to almost 30 years
ness and loneliness, whereas ‘glitter’ suggests something rather sparklingly beautiful, of violence between the nationalists (main-
like gold or jewels. Perhaps, human souls are precious even in Limbo. ly Roman Catholic) who wanted independ-
In the line, ‘Through some far briny zone’, we imagine the people in Limbo floating ence from the UK and the unionists (mainly
in a sea of tears, as brine is salty. Protestants) who believed in strengthening
The poem ends on a rather poignant note as the souls in Limbo are beyond the help the political ties between Northern Ireland
of Jesus. and Britain. Armed paramilitary groups,
The first reaction might come as anger at the rigorous Catholic rules condemning including the Provisional Irish Republican
women who have children out of wedlock. However, the readers in Northern Ireland Army (IRA), made Belfast a terrifying place
have also interpreted the word Limbo as a description of the situation in their country to live between 1969-1997and much of the
where the Catholics and the Protestants are suspended between peace and war, without violence took place around the Protestant
any understanding what the future result will be. Shankill Road and Catholic Falls Road ar-
Belfast Confetti is a poem about the aftermath of an IRA bomb by Ciarán Carson. eas. The British government claimed that
The poem won the Irish Times Irish Literature Prize for Poetry. its forces were in Northern Ireland to keep
BELFAST CONFETTI law and order, but Irish republicans object-
Suddenly as the riot squad moved in, it was raining exclamation ed strongly to the presence of the British
marks, soldiers.
Nuts, bolts, nails, car-keys. A fount of broken type. And
the explosion
Itself – an asterisk on the map. This hyphenated line, a burst
of rapid fire...
I was trying to complete a sentence in my head, but it kept
stuttering.
All the alleyways and side-streets blocked with stops and
colons.

I know this labyrinth so well - Balaclava, Raglan, Inkerman,

Odessa Street –
Why can’t I escape? Every move is punctuated. Crimea Street.
Dead end again.
A Saracen, Kremlin-2 mesh. Makrolon face-shields. Walkie
talkies. What is
My name? Where am I coming from? Where am I going?
A fusillade of question-marks.
This poem describes the explosion of a homemade bomb in Belfast, and the British
Army riot squad moving in. It is unclear who the speaker is: an innocent resident? a vic-
tim of the explosion? a police suspect on their own or in a group? Or a terrorist himself?
According to the poet’s explanation, ‘he is an eye on the scene’.
The poem explores the reality of urban warfare – fear, confusion and violence. We
are thrown into the action with the opening word ‘Suddenly…’ ‘Nuts, bolts, nails, car-
“I write in English, but the ghost of Irish
keys’ are falling down from the sky like ‘exclamation marks’. The poem ends in ‘a
hovers behind it; and English itself is full
fusillade of question-marks’. The whole scene looks and feels like an incoherent text.
of ghostly presences” – the poet says and
The poet is trying to escape the area but finds it impossible. Here, the idea of the
suggests two influences on his poetry: his
mythological ‘labyrinth’ is a key image. Every time he tries to escape, his attempts are
bilingual upbringing, and an unusual alert-
thwarted by security forces and confusion. The language changes from past to present
ness to language. He shows language be-
tense between the first and second stanza to show the narrator’s inability to escape. The
ing used to enforce, to spy, and – broken
short sentences and broken lines give a sense of being trapped. He is lost for words and
into its almost meaningless constituent
nearly forgets his own identity.
parts – to commit physical violence, when
Throughout, the punctuation metaphor is central to the poem. The title itself is multi-
the bombing ‘Belfast Confetti’ is loaded
layered. Confetti is usually associated with festivities, but in this context it could suggest
with not only ironmongery but “a fount of
the uncomfortable marriage of Protestants and Catholics. The phrase refers to the bomb’s
broken type.” Violence, or its effects, often
shrapnel which is pictured as punctuation. The confusion of the blast is mirrored by the
makes an appearance in Carson’s poetry,
narrator’s unfitted sentence in his head ‘stuttering’ almost like a machine gun fire.
whether this is found in historical warfare
NOTES: or the more recent conflicts of Northern Ire-
1
scutching – shaky, vague, uncertain land.
2
A quote by Tom Paulin - a Northern Irish poet and critic of cinema, music and literature. The poet also explains: “…I see those
3
Ballyshannon (Irish: Béal Átha Seanaidh, meaning “The Mouth of Seannachs ford”) is a town poems as being very much just as if I were
in County Donegal, Ireland. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballyshannon) an eye on the scene. As if I were alert to the
sounds of the time and what was going on
See glossary for the poem Limbo in additional materials. By Olga Sventsitskaya at the exact time.”
 English TOPICAL JOURNEY

38 The Cities and Towns

April 2016

of Northern Ireland
1 I
2 R
3 E
4 L
5 A
6 N
7 D

1. A town situated in the northeastern part of Northern Ireland. It lies on Belfast Lough. Its name means rock
of Fergus;
2. The second largest city in Northern Ireland. It is usually called Derry by its Roman Catholic population;
3. The fourth largest city in Northern Ireland and the eighth on the island through which the Clanrye River
runs;
4. The capital city of Northern Ireland;
5. A large town near the mouth of the River Bann in County Londonderry;
6. The third largest city in Northern Ireland. It lies on the southern side of Belfast Lough;
7. A town in County Down. It lies on the shore of Belfast Lough. The town hosts an annual blues and jazz
festival.

Key: 1. Carrickfergus; 2. Londonderry; 3. Newry; 4. Belfast; 5. Coleraine; 6. Bangor; 7. Holywood

By Tatyana Ivanova
РЕКЛАМА English

39
 English SCHOOL THEATRE

40 Ronia the Robber’s Daughter

April 2016

(Based on Astrid Lindgren’s book)

Количество участников: 30–50 человек Разбойники мечутся, разбегаются по краям сцены. Все
Длительность: 60 минут стихает. Звучит спокойная музыка.
Уровень владения языком: от beginner до intermediate. Вбегает Мэтт, он раскрасневшийся и запыхавшийся.
Действующие лица:
Мэтт Разбойники Мэтта: Matt: My child is born! Do you hear me – I’ve got a child!
Ловиса Ноддл-Пит Bumper: What sort of a child is it?
Роня маленькая Шэгги Matt: A robber’s daughter, joy and gladness! A robber’s
Роня-подросток Пель daughter – here she comes.
Берк-подросток Фулокс
Борка Джеп Входит Ловиса со свертком в руках. Она осторожно
Ундиса Наклз держит его, любуется им. Мэтт осторожно берет
Разбойники Борки Нотт сверток из рук и поднимает над головой, потом прижи-
Серые гномы Тэппер мает к себе крепко-крепко.
Друды Торм
Неземные существа Бампер Torm: What will you call her?
Папа лис/Мама лисица Малыш Снип Lovis: Ronia, I chose the name a long time ago.
Лисята Knott: What if it had been a boy?
Lovis: If I decide my baby is to be called Ronia, it will be a
СЦЕНА 11 Ronia!
На сцене экран для театра теней. На экране силуэт Matt: You, baby, you are already holding my robber heart in
замка. Вылетают горные друды (Harpies) поют и those little hands.
танцуют (“Nemo” by Nightwish (http://www.youtube.com/ Knuckles: Now, to Ronia!
watch?t=8&v=9hmzR1CKGtA).2
Все разбойники поют:
Harpy 1: We love stormy weather like this. Shrieking and Ronia the robber’s daughter
hooting in the storm is so much fun. Yo-ho-oo-oo! Yes, it’s your name now, dear
Harpy 2: Those stupid goblins and grey gnomes in Matt’s Ronia the robber’s daughter
forest are creeping in terror back to their holes and Welcome to this world.
hiding places. Ha-ha-ha! Ronia the robber’s daughter
Harpy 3: Guess what I just heard, sisters. There, in Matt’s You have come to stay here
forest, Lovis is singing. She is having a baby! Ha- Ronia the robber’s daughter
ha-ha! You’ll be brave and bold!
Harpy 4: Matt’s going to have a baby tonight! That beast of
a man! That horrible robber we like so much! Слышится детский плач. Ловиса поет колыбельную
Harpy 1: Ho-ho-ho! A thunder and lightning baby, small (“The Voice” by Celtic Woman, http://www.youtube.com/
and ugly it’ll be, ho-ho-ho! watch?t=12&v=iSf_9hpymu8) и уходит за сцену.
Matt (голос из-за сцены): Be off with you, harpies!
СЦЕНА 2
Друды разлетаются. Появляются разбойники. У них в Ловиса появляется с маленькой девочкой. Та видит Мэт-
руках кубки. Они веселы и радостны. та и выбегает к нему на встречу, бросается ему на шею.

Noddle Pete: That robber baby had better come soon. I am
old and rickety, my robbing days will soon be over. It
would be fine to see a new robber chief here before
I’m finished.
Shaggy: I want to raise my glass to our chieftain who is soon
to be a father! To Matt, the greatest robber chieftain!
All robbers: To Matt!
Разбойники поют и пляшут. Танец разбойников. Слышен
звук грома, замок распадается на две части.
Jep: The castle is breaking down.
Jutto: It’s breaking into two parts! Help!
Ronia: Daddy! Good morning!
Matt: Ronia mine, my little pigeon. You’ve grown even
since yesterday. Lovis, our child must learn what it’s
like living in Matt’s forest. Let her go!
Lovis: And so you’ve seen it at last. It would have happened
long ago if I’d had my way.
Matt: You may wander at will, Ronia, but first I have a cou-
ple of things to say. Watch out for wild harpies and
grey dwarves and Borka robbers.
Ronia: Who are the Borka robbers?
Noddle Pete: Borka robbers are all dirty devils! And it’s a
good thing that soldiers hunt for him in the woods and
not for us. Ha-ha. Borka is an old scoundrel!

All robbers: That’s true! Right, Noddle Pete!
Ronia: How will I know which are wild harpies and grey
dwarves?
Matt: You’ll find out. And watch out you don’t tumble into
Hell’s Gap.
Ronia: What shall I do if I tumble into Hell’s Gap?
Matt: You won’t be doing much of anything.
Ronia: All right, I shan’t fall into Hell’s Gap. Is there any-
thing else?
Matt: There certainly is. But you’ll find out bit by bit. Go
now.
Роня уходит, прощаясь с родителями.
СЦЕНА 3
В лесу Мэтта. Звучит таинственная музыка.
Роня гуляет по лесу с полотенцем, пьет воду из родни-
ка, прыгает в озеро (со сцены), вылезает обратно, от-
ряхивается, встряхивает волосами, как будто только
что искупалась, вытирается, потягивается и ложится
спать. Сзади подкрадываются серые гномы.
Grey dwarf 1: Grey dwarves all! Human here in grey
dwarves’ wood.
Grey dwarf 2: Grey dwarves all, bite and strike!
Grey dwarves, come here, Grey dwarves come here
The human is here. The human is here.
Grey dwarves, come here, Grey dwarves come here,
Let’s tear her flesh apart. Let’s bite to see her blood.
Гномы поют, топают ногами, тянутся к Роне руками,
как будто хотят разорвать. Роня от них уворачивает-
ся, пятясь. В какой-то момент ей становится некуда
пятиться, и она начинает кричать.
Ronia: A-a-a-a! Help!
Услышав крик, гномы прекращают топать, они мечутся
из стороны в сторону. Появляются вооруженные луками
и стрелами разбойники Мэтта.
Knuckles: Be off, grey dwarves! Go, before we slaughter you!
Появляется Мэтт с мечом. Он разгоняет оставшихся
гномов. Роня бросается ему на шею.
SCHOOL THEATRE English
41
April 2016
Little Snip: And remember, that this is Matt’s daughter!
Grey dwarves
Grey dwarves, we must now release her
We cannot keep her here any longer.
But we’ll remember forever,
And we’ll look for her everywhere,
And if we find her scared to death,
We’ll sing together.
We must leave now
The robbers are here.
We must leave now
But we’ll be back again!
And if we smell then,
Your horror and fear,
Then you’re ours –
Forever and a day!
Серые гномы уходят.
Matt: Now you know what grey dwarves are.
Ronia: Yes, I do.
Jutto: What you don’t know, though, is how to deal with them.
Fooloks: If you are frightened, they can feel it a long way
off. That’s when they become dangerous.
Shaggy: Yes, it’s true about all sorts of things. So the safest
thing is not to be frightened in Matt’s Forest.
Ronia: I’ll remember that. I think I’ll start practicing not be-
ing frightened right now.
Little Snip: I suppose you should wait for tomorrow, right
Matt?
Matt: Little Snip surely knows what he’s saying. Your mom
is waiting for us with a good supper.
СЦЕНА 4
Вылетают маленькие друды и поют “Little Harpies”
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWMS3y9ywGMRobin).
Harpy 1: Sisters, have you ever seen a child like this before?
She’s been told to be careful not to fall into the river!
And do you know what she does? She hops, skips
and jumps over the most slippery stones very close
to the river!
Harpy 2: Yes, and she chooses the place where the river
rushes most fiercely. The more dangerous the better!
Harpy 3: Not long ago I saw her near the waterfalls. At first
she was frightened but bit by bit she became more
daring. I heard her saying she “was practising not be-
ing frightened”!
Harpy 4: She was so small and fragile! But she has grown
into a healthy little animal, strong and agile.
Harpy 5: You’re right, she’s afraid of nothing. Neither of
grey dwarves, nor of getting lost in the forest, and nor
of falling into the river.
Harpy 6: And what is worse, she’s not afraid of us, wild
harpies!
 English SCHOOL THEATRE

42 April 2016

Harpy 1: She is a tasty lump that girl. But I’m afraid there’s
no way to get her.
Harpy 2: Wait and see. Someday she must make a mistake,
and that’s when we shall act!
Harpy 3: Someone is coming, let’s get out of here! Come
on, sisters.

СЦЕНА 5
Ronia: Daddy told me to watch out for Hell’s Gap. That’s
what I am going to do now. That’s the only way to
practise not being frightened of it. I shall lie on my
stomach… like this… (Ложится на живот и под-
ползает к краю сцены, заглядывает вниз.) Oof!
It’s much worse that I thought!

Роня смотрит вперед и видит, что по другую сторону

пропасти кто-то сидит.
Ronia: Oh my! Someone is sitting there! About my own
size… It must be another child. I think it’s the one
who will turn into Matt when he is big.
Birk: I know who you are! You are that robber’s daughter
who runs in the woods. I saw you there once.
Ronia: Who are you and how in the world did you get
there?
Birk: I am Birk Borkason, and I live here. We moved in last
night.
Ronia: Who’s we?
Birk: Borka and Undis and me and our twelve robbers.
Ronia: Do you mean that the whole of North fort is full of
dirty devils?
Birk (смеется): No, there are only decent Borka robbers
here but over there, where you live, it’s stuffed full of
dirty devils. That’s what they always say.
Ronia: Death and destruction! You wait until Matt hears
about this and then you’ll see all the Borka robbers
scattered with one blow!
Birk: That’s what you think! (Делает вид, что собирается
прыгать на ее сторону.)
Ronia: If you come here I’ll give you such a punch your
nose will fall off!
Birk: Ha, ha! (Прыгает.) Follow that if you can.
Роня очень злится, но разбегается и перепрыгивает на
другую сторону.
Birk: You are not so bad! But you were going to punch me,
why didn’t you? I am coming! (Прыгает обратно к
Роне.)
Ronia: So I see. (Не дожидаясь, прыгает от него.)
Они прыгают через пропасть несколько раз, все время
оказываясь друг напротив друга. Берк поскальзывается
и соскакивает в пропасть.
Birk: A-a-a!
Ronia: Oh my! (Заглядыает в пропасть.) Oh, thank god
you’re still there! Hang on!
Birk: Well there’s not much else I can do here.
Роня развязывает веревку, обвязывает ею себя, а сво-
бодный конец бросает Берку.
Ronia: Get this around you so you can then climb up. Now!
Берк выбирается из пропасти.
Ronia: Done enough jumping now?
Birk: No, I’ll have to jump once more to get home to Bor-
ka’s keep.
Ronia: Not until you take off my rope. I don’t want to be tied
to you any longer than I have to.
Берк развязывает веревку.
Birk: Here. But after this, perhaps I am tied to you all the
same. Without a rope.
Ronia: Not on your life! You and your Borka’s keep, get out
of here! (Убегает.)
Birk: Hey, robber’s daughter, I’ll be seeing you around!
СЦЕНА 6
Разбойники Мэтта сидят за едой, кто-то играет в
карты, кто-то пьет и ест, кто-то играет на гитаре.
Мэтт и Ловиса сидят в центре, перед ними Роня.
Shaggy: Your daughter, Matt, has a good sense of humour!
Pelle: A bit of pretending may be fun sometimes.
Jutto: Borka robbers in Matt’s fort? What rubbish!
Matt: It makes my blood boil enough, though I know it’s a
lie!
Ronia: It’s not a lie!
Matt: You are lying! In the first place Borka hasn’t got a
boy. He can’t have any children! That’s what they al-
ways said!

Fooloks: Well, chieftain, but they do say he has a boy all
the same.
Jep: They say Undis gave birth to him in sheer terror on
the night there was such a bad storm. When Ronia
was born, too, remember?
Matt: And no one had told me! (Швыряет тарелку.) And
he and his dog of a father have moved into the North
Fort with the whole of his robber scum? (Швыряет
чашку.)
Knuckles (в страхе): Yes, and Ronia says now it’s called
Borka’s keep!
Мэтт швыряет еще что-то. Ловиса встает и уходит.
Она возвращается с корзиной яиц.
Lovis: Here you are. But you’ll have to clean up after your-
self, remember!
Мэтт начинает швырять яйца во все стороны. Ловиса
выпроваживает разбойников. Мэтт исступленно бро-
сает яйца, потом вдруг останавливается и начинает
реветь.
Matt: I was safe here like an eagle in its nest! And now…
(Он бросается на пол, проклинает все и кричит.)
Lovis: Now that’s enough. If you’ve got lice in your coat,
roaring won’t get rid of them. Get up and do some-
thing about it.
Ronia: Don’t be sad. All you have to do is to kick them out!
Matt: And that may be hard.
Разбойники осторожно возвращаются.
Knott: What I don’t understand is how they managed to get
into the North Fort without a single one of us noticing
anything.
Tapper: Everyone who wants to reach Matt’s fort has to pass
through the Wolf’s Neck and we all know that a watch
is kept there night and day, isn’t it, Torm?
Torm: What are you hinting at, Tapper?
Bumper: He’s saying that we were on the watch yesterday,
when those snakes crept into the fort. But I swear Matt,
we didn’t blink an eye, nobody passed us there!
Torm: I can swear too!
Little Snip: No one saw hide or hair of a Borka robber.
Noddle Pete: Well, what did you think, idiots? They’d come
strolling through the Wolf’s Neck and tell the guard
sweet as you please, “Step aside, friend, we are plan-
ning to move into the North Fort this very night!”?
They came from the north side, of course, where we
don’t have a guard!
Shaggy: Why should we keep a guard there? There’s no
entrance to the fort and just sheer rock wall besides.
Pelle: Do you think they are flies who can climb straight up
into the air?
Matt: That Borka’s too nervy. One day he’ll come rushing
over the Hell’s Gap like a wild bull and drive us out
of Matt’s fort, lock, stock and barrel. But now enough
speculating! I am going to bed now, to think and to
curse.
Fooloks: Borka’s sent a messenger. He’s waiting for you at
Hell’s Gap.
SCHOOL THEATRE English
43
April 2016
СЦЕНА 7
По обе стороны от разлома собрались разбойники –
Борки с одной стороны, Мэтта с другой.
Borka: It’s a good thing you came uncommonly fast.
Matt: I would have come before but there was something I
had to finish first.
Borka: What sort of thing?
Matt: A poem that I was writing early this morning. It’s
called “Lament for a Dead Borka Robber”. Undis
might get a bit of comfort from it when she becomes
a widow.
Undis: You should be thinking more about comforting Lovis,
who has to put up with your big mouth all the time.
Borka: Now you listen to me. There was no staying in Bor-
ka’s Wood any longer. Soldiers are swarming there
like flies and I had to take my wife and child and all
my robbers somewhere.
Matt: Maybe, but occupying someone else’s place without
asking is called stealing!
Borka’s Robber 1: Strange talk from a robber. Haven’t you
always taken what you liked without asking?
Borka’s Robber 2: Luckily now we live here, and our Chief-
tain knows this Fort even better than you do.
Jep: How can you know it better than we do? That’s non-
sense!
Borka: Your chieftain must remember how we used to catch
rats in the old pigsty when we were kids. That was
before his father found us and taught me with his fists
that every member of Matt’s clan was my enemy,
dead or alive.
Matt: We belong to different clans and I don’t care what
happened between us when we were silly kids. Now
you will leave Matt’s fort by the way you came.
Borka: I’ve made a home in Borka’s keep now and here I’ll
stay.
Matt: We’ll soon see how things turn out.
Разбойники грозят друг другу кулаками, замахиваются,
но расходятся.
Notes:
1
Текст сценария – адаптация книги “Ronia the Rob-
ber’s Daughter” by Astrid Lindgren (Oxford University
Press). Перевод со шведского выполнен Патрисией
Крэмптон.
2
Здесь и далее приводятся названия песен, использован-
ных в постановке “Лингвастарт” со ссылками на со-
ответствующие ресурсы Интернета.
By Anna Beregovskaya,
Linguastart Language Learning Centre
Illustrations by Ilon Wikland.
See continuation in additional materials.
 Министерство образования Московской области z Издательский дом «ПЕРВОЕ СЕНТЯБРЯ»
Электронные учебники –
каждому ученику!
Дорогие коллеги!
В самом конце 2015 г. стартовал проект
с крайне длинным, но конкретным назва-
нием «Оказание услуги по обеспечению
доступа обучающихся общеобразователь-
ных организаций Московской области к
электронным учебникам и электронным
приложениям к учебникам».
Инициатором проекта выступило Ми-
нистерство образования Московской об-
ласти. Исполнитель – Издательский дом
«Первое сентября».
Как следует из названия проекта, его
целью является предоставление электрон-
ных учебников всем учителям и ученикам
Московской области. Для этого в течение
2016 г. (до 31 декабря 2016 г. включи-
тельно) ученики 5–11-х классов обще-
образовательных организаций Москов-
ской области могут бесплатно получить
электронные учебники на свои устройства
(компьютеры, ноутбуки, планшеты), ра-
ботающие на популярных платформах:
Windows, Android (Google), Apple (iOS).
Сегодня трудно представить инфор-
мационно-образовательную среду шко-
лы без цифровых образовательных ре-
сурсов. Компьютеры, проекторы, ноут-
буки, планшетники, собственный инфор-
мационный контент в школе становятся
делом обычным, привычным. С недав-
них пор частью среды стали электронные
учебники. Это достаточно новое явление
постепенно внедряется в школьную
Более подробная информация и страница для обмена опытом на сайте digital.1september.ru/etutorial
практику, давая и учителю, и ученику воз-
можность учить и учиться по-другому.
Проект Министерства образования
Московской области позволит выяснить
желание и готовность учеников учиться с
использованием современных образова-
тельных подходов не только в школе, но
и дома.
У электронного учебника много преи-
муществ:
• наглядность (этот важный принцип
обучения реализуется при демонстра-
ции иллюстраций, проведении лабора-
торных работ, интерактивном модели-
ровании изучаемых процессов);
• мультимедийность (учебный материал
подается комплексно, например, тер-
мин или слово можно прочитать и по-
слушать, как оно произносится);
• интерактивность (например, трениро-
вочные тестовые задания с моменталь-
ной обратной связью);
• гипертекстуальность (каждый специ-
ально обозначенный термин в тексте
параграфа можно снабдить подроб-
ной дефиницией, открывающейся по
клику)
• удобная навигация.
А ещё: портфель ученика становится
значительно легче. Все нужные учебники
и вспомогательные материалы помеща-
ются в одном планшете.
С января этого года каждый ученик
5–11-х классов любой из школ Москов-
ской области может попросить своего
педагога выдать электронные учеб-
ники на принесенное из дома устрой-
ство.
За два с небольшим месяца с начала
проекта доступ к электронной форме
учебников по иностранным языкам по-
лучили 17372 ученика и учителя. (Доступ
к учебникам английского языка получили
10229 человек, к учебникам немецкого –
3509, к учебникам французского – 3628 и
испанского – 6.)
Использование новых технологий в
образовании открывает перед учителем
новые методические и дидактические
возможности. Но чтобы воспользоваться
этими возможностями, чтобы задейство-
вать их в повседневной работе с учени-
ками, нам всем нужны некоторая доля
бесстрашия перед новым и готовность
делиться друг с другом своим опытом,
который, особенно на первых порах, у
каждого свой.
Расскажите о своем опыте работы с
электронными учебниками:
• об опыте получения учебника на свои
устройства и на школьные устройства,
• об опыте раздачи электронного учеб-
ника на устройства учеников,
• об опыте использования учебников на
уроке,
• об опыте использования ЭУ учениками,
• об опыте использования ЭУ дома – вне
стен школы.
 PREPARING FOR EXAMS TESTS
NORTHERN IRELAND
READING
I. Six sentences in the text are incomplete. Choose from the list A–F
the one which fits each gap (1–6). There is one extra letter in the list
which you don’t need to use.
COUNTIES
Northern Ireland consists of six counties:
• County Antrim
• County Armagh
• County Down
• County Fermanagh
• County Londonderry
• County Tyrone
These counties are no longer used for local government purposes;
instead there are twenty-six districts of Northern Ireland which have
different geographical extents, even in the case of those named after
the counties from (1)__________. Fermanagh District Council most
closely follows the borders of the county from (2)_______________.
Coleraine Borough Council, on the other hand, derives its name from
the town of Coleraine in County Londonderry.
Although counties are no longer used for governmental purpose,
they remain a popular means of describing (3)_______________.
They are officially used while applying for an Irish Passport, which
requires the applicant to state their ‘County of Birth’ – which then
appears in both Irish and English on the Passport’s information page,
(4)_____________ in the United Kingdom Passport.
The county boundaries still appear on the Ordnance Survey of
Northern Ireland Maps and the Phillips Street Atlases, among others.
With their decline in official use, there is often confusion surround-
ing towns and cities (5)____________, such as Belfast and Lisburn,
(6)__________ between counties Down and Antrim (the majorities of
both cities, however, are in Antrim).
A. which lie near county boundaries
B. where places are
C. which are split
D. which it takes its name
E. which they derive their name
F. as equivalent to Northern Ireland
G. as opposed to the town or city of birth
II. Read the article about the problems facing schools in Northern
Ireland and mark the sentences as T (True), F (False) or NS (Not
stated).
1. An ‘open market’ for GCSEs means that England, Wales and North-
ern Ireland have several exam boards. _____ ª 4. well; 5. beautiful.
English
45
April 2016
Five-Minute Tests
1 I
Read the texts below and think of the word
which best fits each space. Use only one
word in each space.
THE SHAMROCK
In ancient Ireland the shamrock
(1)________ thought to have magical
power. It was probably made most famous
(2)________ St. Patrick, the Patron Saint of
Ireland. He used (3)________ to help explain
the mystery of (4)________ Holy Trinity to
the pagans in his quest (5)________ bring
Christianity to the country.
Key: 1. was; 2. by; 3. it; 4. the; 5. to.
2 I
Open the brackets.
Years ago, all Irish people (1)_________
(speak) Gaelic, and this language still
(2)__________(speak) in some parts of
Ireland, although today all Irish people
(3)__________(speak) English as well. Evi-
dence of Gaelic still__________(find) in
place names, for example ‘bally’ (town),
‘slieve’ (mountain), ‘inis’ (island), ‘drum’
(mountain top).
Key: 1. spoke; 2. is still spoken; 3. speak; 4. is still
found.
3 I
Use the word given in capitals to form a
word that fits in the sentence.
If one asks an (1)_________(IRISH)
away from home what he misses most
about Ireland, he will probably tell you
“the (2)________ (GREEN)”. Irish poets
put it in a different way when they call Ire-
land “the Emerald Isle”. Is the grass really
(3)________(GREEN) in Ireland? The fact is
that the winds usually blow in from the Atlan-
tic Ocean and make the air and soil warm and
dump. Grass grows (4)________ (GOOD) in
such a climate and it makes the island look so
(5)______(BEAUTY).
Key: 1. Irishman; 2. greenness; 3. greener;
ª
 English TESTS PREPARING FOR EXAMS

46 April 2016
2. All exam boards operating in Northern Ireland give their results
using the letters A* to G. _____
3. English examining boards are going to give their results in the
form of numbers. _____
4. English examining boards will agree to operate a separate alpha-
betic grading system for Northern Ireland. _____
Five-Minute Tests 5. Education Minister John O’Dowd believes that his decision to
4 I continue with the established practice of awarding using letters
allows to avoid needless intricacy. _____
Write the prefix dis-, mis-, non- or un- in 6. Irish young people work hard and have remarkable achievement.
front of each word to chande it in to the op- _____
posite meaning.
1. ________aware 7. English boards like AQA and OCR have agreed to operate a
2. ________certain separate alphabetic grading system for Northern Ireland because it
3. ________lead is in their best interests. _____
4. ________order 8. New practice of awarding using a string of numbers is a challenge
5. ________loyal for CCEA only. _____
6. ________even
7. ________please
8. ________obey Unusually, England, Wales and Northern Ireland have several
9. ________behave exam boards, with schools and colleges able to freely choose be-
10. ________permanent tween them on a subject-by-subject basis. Currently, there are five
11. ________spell exam boards, all of which offer a broad range of qualifications:
12. ________cork
13. ________necessary • AQA (Assessment and Qualifications Alliance);
14. ________toxic • CCEA (Council for the Curriculum, Examinations & Assessment);
15. ________connect • Edexcel (a UK company);
• OCR (Oxford, Cambridge and RSA Examinations);
Key: 1. unaware; 2. uncertain; 3. mislead; 4. dis-
order; 5. disloyal; 6. uneven; 7. displease; 8. dis- • WJEC (Welsh Joint Education Committee).
obey; 9. misbehave; 10. nonpermanent; 11. mis-
spell; 12. uncork; 13. unnecessary; 14. nontoxic;
15. disconnect.
GCSE GRADES IN NORTHERN IRELAND WILL NOT
CHANGE, EDUCATION MINISTER DECIDES
5 E Education Minister John O’Dowd has decided there will be no
change in GCSE grades in Northern Ireland.
Fill in the correct word.
Everyday Yesterday He said that all exam boards operating in Northern Ireland must
0. I think I thought give their results using the letters A* to G.
1. I ________ I sought In 2017, English examining boards will give their results in the form
2. I ________ I fought of numbers, where nine is the highest grade and one the lowest.
3. I ________ I brought
4. I ________ I bought
Around one in four GCSEs in NI is studied through an English
examining board.
Key: 1. think; 2. seek; 3. fight; 4. buy. There is currently an ‘open market’ for GCSEs where schools can
6 E choose which examining board to use.
If schools in Northern Ireland want to continue operating through
Match up the syllables in box 1 with box 2
English boards like AQA and OCR, those boards will have to agree
to form double consonnent words.
Box 1 Box 2 to operate a separate alphabetic grading system for Northern Ire-
les hap per tic land.
at bon mer pen There is no indication yet that they will agree to do so.
sum zip net son

1. _______________
2. _______________
3. _______________
4. _______________
5. _______________
6. _______________
Key: 1. lesson; 2. happen; 3. attic; 4. bonnet; 5.
summer, 6. zipper.

By Youdif Boyarskaya,
School No. 814, Moscow
 PREPARING FOR EXAMS English

The local examining body, CCEA, will continue to

award GCSEs from A* to G only.
Mr O’Dowd said the decision he had made would
47
April 2016
present “challenges” for awarding bodies.
“I believe that it will be in the best interests of learn-
to sit a small number of more advanced examinations
ers here to continue with the established practice of
and Scottish students tend to sit a larger number of
awarding using letters, and I believe we must avoid un-
(5)_______ advanced examinations.
necessary complexity as far as possible,” he told the
In general, the cut-off point for ages is the end of
assembly.
August, so all children must (6)_______ of a particular
“I appreciate that there is anxiety around the per-
age on the 1st of September (7)_______ order to begin
ceived risk to our young people going out into the world
class that month.
with a GCSE certificate that is anything other than a
string of numbers like their English counterparts.
III. Complete the text using words in the box. There
“I have confidence in our education system, and I
are two words which you don’t need to use.
have confidence in the hard work and attainment of our
young people.”
however, or, as, so, probably, furthermore,
By Robbie Meredith,
especially, then
BBC News NI Education Correspondent
THE COLOUR GREEN
USE OF ENGLISH
Believe it (1)_______ not, the colour of St. Patrick
I. Use the word given in capitals to form a word or a
was not actually green, but blue! In the 19th century,
proper tense of a verb that fits in the sentence.
(2)_______ , green became used (3)_______ a symbol
For seven centuries Ireland was a colony of Britain.
for Ireland. In Ireland, there is plentiful rain and mist,
Due to the colonial policy of Great Britain the Irish
(4)_______ the ‘Emerald Isle’ really is green all year-
nation was (1)_________ (FORCEFUL) partitioned.
round. The beautiful green landscape was (5)_______
As the result of the hard struggle of the Irish people
the inspiration for the national colour.
for (2)_________ (INDEPENDENT), the larger part
Wearing the colour green is considered an act of pay-
of Ireland (26 counties) gained the status of a British
ing tribute to Ireland. It is said that it also brings good
dominion in 1921. Much later, in 1949 it (3)_________
luck, (6)__________ when worn on St. Patrick’s Day.
(PROCLAIM) officially an independent state, the Irish
Many long years ago, playful Irish children began
Free State of Eire. The (4)_________(INDUSTRY)
the tradition of pinching people who forgot to wear
north-east (Northern Ireland with its 6 counties) was re-
green on St. Patrick’s Day and the tradition is still prac-
tained by Great Britain as its smallest component. But
ticed today.
certain forces of both the Irish Republic and Northern
Ireland are for the (5)_________(UNIFICATION) of
IV. Use the word given in capitals to form a word or a
the country, against social (6)__________(DEPRIVE)
proper tense of a verb that fits in the sentence.
which is at its (7)_________(BAD) among Catho-
IRISH SYMBOLS
lics. They believe that British (8)_________(WITH-
HARP
DRAW) from Ireland is the only way to achieve peace.
Have you noticed the harp (1)________
The Protestants in Northern Ireland wish to retain her
(APPEAR) on Irish coins? It even graces
links with Britain.
the Guinness, a popular Irish beer, bottle
labels. Centuries ago, the Irish were some
II. Read the text below and think of the word which
of the (2)__________(MAGNIFICENT)
best fits each space. Use only one word in each
harp players, sough after by (3)_______
space.
(NOBLE), kings and queens. To suppress
EDUCATION IN NORTHERN IRELAND
the Irish culture, Elizabeth I had many instruments
Education in Northern Ireland may differ (1)_____
destroyed and harpists executed. These symbols of
the system used elsewhere in the United Kingdom. Ba-
Ireland remain (4)_______(STRENGTH), even if
sically, there are two systems: one covering England,
the traditionally trained harpists died out (5)______
Wales and Northern Ireland and (2)______ covering
(LENGTH) ago.
Scotland. The two education systems have different em-
phases. Traditionally the English, Welsh and Northern
SNAKE
Irish system (3)______ emphasised depth of education
You may hear a legend during
whereas the Scottish system has (4)________ breadth.
your Ireland tour that says that
Thus English, Welsh and Northern Irish students tend
St. Patrick (6)______(DRIVE)
 English PREPARING FOR EXAMS
LEPRECHAUN

48 April 2016
all the snakes out of Ireland. In fact, there (7)______
(EVER) were snakes on the Emerald Isle. He did en-
courage many pagans to become (8)______(CHRIST).
The traditional sign for evil in (9)_______(CHRIST)
is the snake.
We couldn’t write about the symbols
of Ireland without a mention of the lep-
rechaun, meaning sprite or fairy. The
(21)_________(MYTH) creatures are
traditionally shoemakers. If you catch
one, you get three wishes and a pot of
gold. During your trip to Ireland, make sure you try to
spot one. It’s like hitting the lottery, only a way more
unique story to tell your friends.

CELTIC CROSS CROSSWORD. Find 9 Irish symbols.

Irish travelers love these symbols N O R C V M X U T A W F U S L E
of Ireland. In the history of St. Patrick L O G E A Q U P Y M D Y K H K S
E S R L J U R O U K D Z M A Y T
when he converted the pagans, he wanted
P I C T N A X W E E G C N M Q B
(10)_______(THEY) to adopt the Chris-
R Q E I H U G E R I M S O R K R
tian cross. To help the pagans, traditional E U N C I E D I L I S E A O E I
(11)__________ (WORSHIP) of nature, identify with C I T K N O R U G S T M A C J G
the Christian cross, he had a sun, a (12)_______(HIGH) H S U N M C J N O E P Q M K A I
revered pagan symbol, incorporated into the cross. A R R O C H I R [ K A U A C N D
U O E T L R C O V I T I C L B C
CLADDAGH N L M O D C U L A I R O U A O R
The claddagh is a traditional P H I W I G W I C J I E E D W O
Irish ring given as a token of A O L T T A A C O M C K L D L S
(13)__________(FRIEND) or Y L L M J L V U P A K A O A U S
X E E U A U Y E S X U F R G N I
love or worn as a wedding ring.
C Y N L H M T E O I B C E H E D
The design features two hands
clasping a heart, and usually surmounted by a crown. KEY:
The elements of this symbol (14)_______(SAY) often READING
to correspond to the qualities of love (the heart), friend- I. 1. E; 2. D: 3. B; 4. G; 5. A; 6. C.
II. 1. T; 2. T; 3. T; 4. NS; 5. T; 6. NS; 7. F; 8. F.
ship (the hands), and (15)_________(LOYAL) (the USE OF ENGLISH
crown). The origin of the Claddagh ring is one of the I. 1. forcefully; 2. independence; 3. was oficially proclaimed; 4. in-
(16)___________(TRADITIONAL) Irish love stories dustrial; 5. reunification; 6. deprivation; 7. worst; 8. withdrawal.
II. 1. from; 2. one; 3. has; 4. emphasised; 5. less; 6. be; 7. in.
you’ll ever hear. III. 1. or; 2. however; 3. as; 4. so; 5. probably; 6. especially.
IV. 1. appearing: 2. most magnificent; 3. nobility; 4. strong; 5. long;
6. drove; 7. never; 8. Christian; 9. Christianity; 10. them; 11. wor-
ST. BRIGID’S CROSS shipers; 12. highly; 13. friendship; 14. are often said; 15. loyalty;
Taking a trip to Ireland on 16. most traditional; 17. were created; 18. is not clearly defined;
February 1? That’s St. Brigid’s 19. continuing; 20. endless; 21. mythical.
CROSSWORD
Feast Day. A contemporary of St.
N C S E
Patrick, St. Brigid converted her L O E P H K S
father to Christianity. The cross- E R L R A T
es, woven from thrush, (17)__________(CREATE) at P T A N M B
R I H S R R
the beginning of spring to help protect a farmer’s hold-
E C E S O I
ing. You’ll notice these symbols of Ireland in promi- C K R S T C G
nent places on farms, like the house and barn. H N N O P K I
A O R x A C D
U T C I T L C
CELTIC KNOT N C R A R
These symbols of Ireland have I I E D O
no beginning and no end, like T C L D S
nature. It (18)__________(NOT L K A S
E G N
DEFINE) clearly where they C H D
came from or what they mean,
1. Leprechaun; 2. Celtic Knot; 3. St. Patrick; 4. Shamrock; 5. Cladd-
exactly. Suffice to say, they agh; 6. St. Brigid Cross; 7. Harp; 8. Celtic Cross; 9. Snake.
sometimes ward off evil. They sometimes signify the
(19)__________(CONTINUE) life cycle. Regardless, By Youdif Boyarskaya,
they are always (20)_________(END). School No. 814, Moscow
 журнал

Английский язык – Первое сентября

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 English CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
50 April 2016 APRIL FOOLS’ DAY
American author and satirist Mark Twain summed up the
nature of the holiday thus: “The first of April is the day we
remember what we are the other 364 days of the year.” It
is a day for harmless tricks and good laughs. The origin of
April Fools’ Day or All Fools’ Day goes back to the dilemma
faced by many Europeans in 1562 when Pope Gregory in-
troduced a new calendar, one which shifted the start of the
new year from its traditionally warm nesting place of April 1
to the cold and dreary date of January 1.
This change was so dramatic, and, considering the su-
preme power of the church, so universal in its sweep, that
very soon those who hadn’t heard of or didn’t believe in
the calendar change, and continued to celebrate the new year
on April 1st, were christened “April Fools”. They became
the targets of ridicule and the brunt of some pretty serious
jokes and pranks. In fact, one must judge for oneself just
how merry and fun those first April Fools’ days must have
been, and in what other ways people were “encouraged” to
conform. While it is not officially recognized as a holiday,
many celebrate by pranking, or pulling practical jokes on
their colleagues or by organizing larger-scale hoaxes.
However, the tradition of practical jokes had been well es-
tablished by 1632, when legend states that the Duke of Lor-
raine and his wife escaped a prison at Nantes by dressing as
peasants, walking right out the front gate. When the guards
were alerted to the escape, they laughed at what they thought
was an April Fools’ prank. One of the first April Fools’ pranks
occurred in 1698, when citizens of London were tricked into
attending the lion-washing ceremony at the Tower of Lon-
don, a ceremony that did not actually exist.
I’M A NUT
I’m an acorn, small and brown
Lying on the cold, cold ground.
Everyone steps on me.
That is why I’m cracked, you see.
CHORUS:
I’m a nut (knock, knock)
I’m a nut (knock, knock)
I’m a nut! Yeah!
Called myself on the telephone.
Just to hear my golden tone.
Asked me out for a little date.
Picked me up about half past eight.
CHORUS
Took myself to the movie show,
Stayed too late and said, “Let’s go,”
Took my hand and led me out,
Drove me home and gave a shout.
CHORUS
Hunt-the-Gowk Day is Scotland’s version of the holiday,
where one sends a messenger back and forth between two
people, each time saying that they need to contact the other
before the issue can be resolved. However, this practice is
dying out in modern times. The Persian New Year falls on
April 1st, which is marked in Iran with one of the oldest
pranking traditions that still exist. This is actually another
theory as to the holiday’s origin.
There are a few other theories as to the precursors to the
holiday tradition. Hilaria, a Roman festival, which celebrated
Cybele, an Anatolian goddess, was celebrated around March
25th. The Feast of Fools was a term given to many medieval
festivals celebrated during the 5th–16th centuries in Europe,
but particularly at the end of December. These celebrations
developed a tradition of practical jokes, especially when ob-
served in Spain.
 CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES English

51
April 2016

THE LIMERICK SONG THE WITCH DOCTOR

CHORUS: I told the witch doctor I was in love with you,
Ay, yai, yai, yai! I told the witch doctor I was in love with you,
China they never grow chile. And then the witch doctor he told me what to do, he said,
So sing me another verse
That’s worse than the first verse. CHORUS:
Be sure that it’s foolish and silly. Oo ее oo ah ah, ting tang, walla walla bing bang. (4 times)

A canner exceedingly canny
One morning remarked to his granny,
“A canner can can anything that he can
But a canner can’t can a can, can he?”
CHORUS
A tutor who tooted the flute
Tried to tutor two tooters to toot,
Said the two to the tutor “Is it tougher to toot
Or to tutor two tooters to toot?”
CHORUS
A certain young fellow named Beebee
Wished to marry a lady named Phoebe.
“But,” he said, “I must see what the minister’s fee be,
Before Phoebe be Phoebe Beebee.”
I told the witch doctor you didn’t love me true,
I told the witch doctor you didn’t love me nice,
And then the witch doctor he gave me some advice, he said,
CHORUS
You’ve been keeping love from me just like you were a miser,
And I’ll admit I wasn’t very smart.
So I went out and found myself a guy that’s so much wiser,
And he taught me the way to win your heart.
My friend the witch doctor he told me what to say,
My friend the witch doctor he told me what to do,
I know that you’ll be mine when I say this to you.
CHORUS

CHORUS

Today in the United States, both children and adults play

little tricks on each other. Among some common tricks are
trying to convince someone that their pants or skirt has a rip
down the center back seam, or pointing down to a friend’s
shoe and saying “Your shoelace is untied.” Putting salt in
the sugar bowl is another common prank, so beware. If the
trickster is still around he or she may take credit for his deed
by shouting “April Fool!” but probably not before you’ve
spoiled your cup of morning coffee or tea. If you are the in-
nocent victim of such mischief, your first reaction may be to By Meline Vardanyan,
“wring the scoundrel’s neck.” However, in the interests of Gymnasium No. 1476, Moscow
allowing a cultural tradition to survive at least one more year,
please consider the date and “take it with a grain of salt.” Photos taken by the author.
 English CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

52 April 2016 SCARED OF BEING HAUNTED

Reading + Speaking Activity
Classroom activity: whole class
interaction
Language level: intermediate, up-
per-intermediate, advanced
Age: 15+
Time: 30–40 minutes
Target: speaking practice, back-
ground knowledge of haunted
places, ghosts, Northern Ireland
Anticipated problems: As far
as the activity involves the whole
class at a time the teacher might be
short of time to follow all the mis-
takes the students might be making
during the discussion. Therefore, it
is advisable that the teacher should
take notes while listening to what
the students say.

PROCEDURE
Before the activity starts, the teach-
er must read a pre-story – some
interesting fact about the haunted
castle in Northern Ireland. The
students express their mind about
what they hear and then get the
cards with questions connected to
the topic of ghosts. The activity is
aimed at speaking – students are
supposed to share their thoughts
and show their background knowl-
edge about the subject.

Picture Resources:
1. http://www.graphicsfactory.
com
2. http://www.freestockphotos.
biz
3. http://www.clipartof.com
4. http://www.clipartclipart.net
5. http://www.clipartpal.com
6. http://reillynichole.weebly.
com
7. http://www.deguisement-mag-
ic.com
8. http://it.123rf.com
9. http://joyfulpublicspeaking.
blogspot.ca
10. http://www.z31.net
11. http://halloween.phillipmartin. By Anastasia Pozhidaeva, Moscow
info
12. https://www.pinterest.com See full-scaled cards in additional materials.
 FOR YOUNG LEARNERS English

THE TIME TO RHYME 53

April 2016

МОЙ ЧЕМПИОН завоевать последнее из призовых пятое место и получить

Привет! Меня зовут Эдвард Шоул. Я родился и вырос свою первую наградную розетку из разноцветных атласных
на ферме в пригороде Белфаста, Северная Ирландия. У нас лент. Конечно, нашей единственной sole [sqVl] целью goal
на ферме всегда были лошади. Они играли в нашей жизни [gqVl] всегда будет первое место, но, думаю, для первого
очень важную роль role [rqVl] – помогали обрабатывать зем- раза и такой результат можно считать достойным.
лю, а также перевозить урожай, каменный уголь coal [kqVl] Еще целый whole [hqVl] год мы с Чемпионом трениро-
для печи, другие тяжести. Поэтому я с детства люблю ло- вались, прежде чем снова решились принять участие в со-
шадей и знаю, как за ними ухаживать. А еще, сколько себя ревнованиях по конкуру. Перед соревнованиями мне при-
помню, я всегда мечтал о породистом скакуне. Я представ- снился странный сон, будто я, размахивая лыжной палкой
лял, как мы с ним будем тренироваться для участия в со- ski pole [skJ pqVl], скачу на Чемпионе по льдинам прямо
ревнованиях, как мы будем завоевывать престижные призы к Северному полюсу pole [pqVl]. К чему бы это? Сон ока-
и прославимся. И для покупки породистого жеребенка foul зался счастливым предзнаменованием, ведь на этот раз мы
[fqVl] я не один год откладывал небольшие суммы с каждой заняли… первое место! Под звуки барабанной дроби drum
зарплаты payroll ['peIrqVl]. roll [drAm rqVl] нам вручили большой золотой кубок bowl
Наконец моя мечта стала сбываться. Мне предложи- [bqVl], почетную грамоту в виде свитка roll [rqVl], scroll
ли прекрасного породистого полугодовалого жеребенка. [skrqVl] и солидную денежную премию. Премия оказалась
Палево-пегий, рослый, быстрый, и в то же время забавный очень кстати, ведь последние месяцы нам приходилось вы-
droll [drqVl], с умными глазами и родинкой mole [mqVl] на живать на мое пособие по безработице dole [dqVl]. Теперь
морде. Долго не раздумывая, я приобрел его, назвал Чем- я смогу купить себе новые ботинки вместо старых, с истер-
пионом и стал заботиться о нем денно и нощно. За нашим шимися до дыр подошвами sole [sqVl]. А Чемпиону куплю
домом я подготовил для моего любимца небольшое паст- новую упряжь и лакомства – он их заслужил!
бище – леваду. Для этого пришлось засыпать землей мно-
жество ямок, дырок, норок hole [hqVl]. То ли кроты mole bowl [bqVl] кубок, миска
[mqVl] перерыли здесь всю землю, то ли сказочные тролли coal [kqVl] уголь, каменный уголь
troll [trqVl] приходили из леса и перекопали весь участок в console [kqn'sqVl] утешать; консоль, пульт
поисках клада, но потрудиться мне пришлось изрядно. Вы-
control [kqn'trqVl] контроль, контролировать
ровненный участок земли я обнес оградой из соединенных
dole [dqVl] пособие по безработице, раздавать
друг с другом шестов pole [pqVl] и засеял сочной травой.
droll [drqVl] забавный
Левада готова!
Прошел год, мой Чемпион подрос и окреп. Мы с ним drum roll [drAm rqVl] барабанная дробь
начали готовиться к соревнованиям по конкуру. Конкур – enroll [In'rqVl] записываться, регистрироваться
это бег с препятствиями. Наш сосед-поляк Pole [pqVl] – extol [Iks'tqVl] превозносить, восхвалять
опытный берейтор – помогал мне тренировать Чемпиона. foul [fqVl] жеребенок
А ветеринар регулярно контролировал control [kqn'trqVl] goal [gqVl] гол, цель
здоровье моего любимца. Я привязался к Чемпиону hole [hqVl] отверстие, дырка, нора
всей душой soul [sqVl]. Нас связывали не только трени- mole [mqVl] крот
ровки. Чемпион разделял мои радости и утешал console mole [mqVl] родинка
[kqn'sqVl] в горестях. Нередко мы с ним неспешно про- patrol [pq'trqVl] патруль, дозор
гуливались stroll [strqVl] по окрестным полям. Иногда на payroll ['peIrqVl] зарплата
прогулках нам составляли компанию мой друг Чарльз и поляк (гражданин Польши)
pole [pqVl]
его конь по кличке Головастик tadpole ['txdpqVl]. Чарльз
pole [pqVl] шест
с Головастиком не участвовали в соревнованиях, но они
pole [pqVl] полюс
состояли на службе в конном патруле patrol [pq'trqVl]
местного отделения полиции. poll [pqVl] опрос, голосование, анкетирование
Когда Чемпиону исполнилось три года, я впервые решил role [rqVl] роль
принять с ним участие в соревнованиях по конкуру. По Ин- roll [rqVl] рулон, свиток, булочка
тернету я зарегистрировал enroll [In'rqVl] нас как участни- scroll [skrqVl] прокрутка, свиток
ков и перечислил небольшой обязательный сбор toll [tqVl] ski pole [skJ pqVl] лыжная палка
на счет организаторов соревнований. Я редко пользуюсь sole [sqVl] подошва
Интернетом, поэтому придумывание паролей, заполнение sole [sqVl] единственный, исключительный
строк в опросах poll [pqVl] для наездников и прочие фор- soul [sqVl] душа
мальности отняли у меня много времени. stroll [strqVl] прогулка, прогуливаться
Но вот все трудности регистрации позади, в указанное tadpole ['txdpqVl] головастик
время мы прибыли на поле для конкура, расположенное
toll [tqVl] пошлина, сбор, потери, урон
рядом с ипподромом. Соревнования начинаются. Так вол-
troll [trqVl] тролль, блесна
нительно первый раз участвовать в них! Столько зрителей,
whole [hqVl] целый
столько лошадей с наездниками! И каждый из присутству-
ющих расхваливает extol [Iks'tqVl] своего фаворита на все
лады. На этих соревнованиях нам с Чемпионом удалось Ксения Зайцева
 English GOOD NEWS
54 April 2016 A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
AS A FRIEND INDEED
Приветственное слово и.о. ректора МГАВТ А.Г. Галая
On November 27, 2015 the third festival of foreign lan-
guages took place in Moscow State Academy of Water Trans-
port (WSAWT). It was arranged by the department of foreign
languages for the students who love foreign languages, who
seek the opportunity to express themselves, and who want to
show their skills, ability and even dreams.
Роберт Тэйлор, Британский Совет
The motto of the event was “A foreign language is your
road to a career.” The Academy trains students for profes-
sions needed for sea and water transport, shipbuilding, and
maritime law. It is 35 years old and has branches in Ufa,
Rostov, Rybinsk, and Veliky Ustyug. The number of students
is more than 8,000.
About 300 participants assembled in the main hall of
the Academy: students, teachers and professors, as well as
guests. They came to see and judge video clips sent by stu-
dents from different regions, cities, schools, and universities
of Russia. Their short films are in English and German. In
their clips students tell about their life and learning foreign
languages, they show their skills, talents and demonstrate the
need to master foreign languages for achieving success in
their working careers.
Е.Л. Куницын
Before starting the program, the Rector of the Academy,
Alexander Galay, Vice-Rector for Scientific Research Oleg
Solyakov, and Ambassador-at-large of the Foreign Affairs
Ministry of the Russian Federation, Sergey Gubarev, took
the floor. All of them spoke about the importance of master-
ing foreign languages which are used today in nearly every
profession.
Knowledge of a foreign language is like gold stock in per-
son’s life. Currently, international relations are widely de-
veloping and the English language has become the means of
international communication so it is very important to study
it thoroughly. Foreign languages are included in universal
knowledge and are not any longer a dead weight.

They then gave their opinion about 14 video clips. Thir-
teen judges were chosen and I was among them. The assess-
ment criteria were:
1. Time (3–4 min.)
2. Development of the subject
3. Good foreign language
4. Creativity
5. Acting (1–3 pers)
6. Directing
At first seven video clips were shown and we had to put
marks from 0 to 5 and give our data to the Chairman of Jury,
Robert Taylor (Deputy Director Russia and Cultural Atta-
che of the British Embassy in Moscow, The British Coun-
cil). While he and his assistants counted the marks, amateur
singers and dancers of the Academy were performing for the
audience.
Then, there was another session of viewing the clips and
again the interval for tallying the marks. During that break,
the floor was given to the members of the Jury. I was the first
speaker.
Участница художественной самодеятельности.
GOOD NEWS English
55
April 2016
Ведущие фестиваля языков
I told the audience about my 35 years of working with the
Baltic Shipping Company (Leningrad, St. Petersburg) when
our company was very big and strong. We had 172 cargo
vessels and 10 passenger ships. I worked on board passenger
ships as purser and chief purser.
The ship’s officers spoke English fluently. They studied
the language at maritime institutions. As to the crew, espe-
cially waitresses and stewardesses, we had a problem. We
taught them almost daily the English they needed for their
professional duties.
When going ashore, our seamen were representatives of
their country, people’s ambassadors of Russia. In all the for-
eign ports, local people judged our country by the conduct
of our crewmembers. I was pleased to hear from a British
customs official that the most disciplined seamen were Rus-
sians. They never broke the customs rule. The worst smug-
glers were Polish and English sailors.
Perfect knowledge of foreign languages allows one to
quickly learn the new culture, the way customs work and
rules of the host country, and avoid culture shock.
In conclusion, I said that in all countries strangers who
try to speak the country’s language are treated with respect.
After my talk, five of the other judges spoke, wishing the
students to be proficient in mastering foreign languages.
At the end of the festival, Robert Taylor announced the
winners taking the three first places! Samara (1), Moscow (2
and 3). Certainly the most important thing was participation
in that festival.
That competition demonstrated that the number of en-
thusiasts who are interested in studying foreign languages
thoroughly is growing. They were from places not connected
with the Academy: Kaluga, Tambov, Lipetsk, Stavropol and
others. Next year some foreign countries such as Poland,
England, Germany want to take part in the fourth festival of
foreign languages in the Academy.
By Evgeny Kunitsyn
Photos taken by the author.
 English TEXTS FOR READING
56 April 2016
Myths, Stereotypes an
Northern Ireland is a land full of mythological tales, its
people often shrouded in misconceptions and stereotypes –
victims or agitators of the violent ‘troubles’.1 Take for in-
stance, the Protestant tradition of ‘Marching Bands’; these
are often portrayed in the media as creating occasions for
conflict and the bandsmen as angry men trying to pick a fight
with their neighbour.
In mythological terms, a re-enactment of the conflict
between Finn MacCool and Benandonner: Finn (the Irish
giant) was worried that Benandonner (the Scottish giant) was
encroaching upon his territory and so he grabs chunks off the
Antrim Coast and throws them into the sea – intent on build-
ing a causeway to Scotland in order to teach old Benandon-
ner a lesson. Upon hearing the Scot’s booming voice in the
distance, he starts to worry that his neighbour must be much
bigger than he is and terrified, he retreats in haste. Luckily
his wife is quick-witted and disguises him as a baby so that
when the angry Scot arrives he decides that if the child is that
big, the father must be massive, and quickly departs home.
The point is, ‘stones were thrown’ and this not only marks
the geology of the ‘Antrim Coast’, Northern Ireland’s land-
scape at the Giants Causeway, but is reflected in divided
communities that sporadically engage in stone throwing.
However, most are not as intolerant of the other’s culture
and beliefs as stereotypical representatives would suggest.
In certain ‘troubled’ areas and among embittered individu-
als who hold fast to extremely sectarian viewpoints, tensions
can and do flare up.
Across every political and religious divide, music-making
abounds throughout Northern Ireland and in the current pe-
riod of ceasefires, disbanded paramilitary organisations and
bridge building, it is not unheard of to have both a traditional
Irish musician and a loyalist 2 marching band perform at the
same venue. The significance of this rests in the fact that in
the heat of the ‘troubles’ the idea of getting Catholics and
Protestants together to make music would have been difficult,
to say the least – most staying within their own communities
and fearing to travel into the other’s territory. Nevertheless,
NORTHERN
over the past number of years it has become apparent that
both communities are intrigued with each other’s traditional
instruments and the ways in which these skills are passed on
to the next generation. Whether it is a young Protestant with
their first Bb marching band flute, or a young Catholic with
their first traditional Irish ‘D’ flute against their lips, certain
skills have to be learnt and the methods of teaching are simi-
lar across the religious divide.
Normally a senior player would be given the task to pass
on their skills and experience to those who have come for-
ward to learn the instrument. However, many novice flutists
supplement this by listening to recordings of others playing
the pieces they are learning – this is as true of marching band
students as it is of the Irish flute player. The difference in
these two types of flute players is simply a question of per-
sonal perspective. While the Protestant band member sees
himself as distinctly British and the martial spirit as heredi-
tary, the Irish flutist is normally Roman Catholic by religion
and has a closer affiliation with traditional ‘Irish’ methods
of music-making. This is very clear when we examine the
particular percussion instruments which each uses to accom-
pany the flutes. The flutes in a Protestant marching band are
accompanied by military style snare and bass drums, while
the Irish flutist uses the traditional bodhrán. In both tradi-
tions, while a larger proportion cannot read music, a signifi-
cant change has occurred in that some are reaching a higher
level of musical education as more opportunities for univer-
sity study have opened up.
I belong to this category, having both began my musical
apprenticeship in a marching band that placed some im-
portance on becoming musically literate and advancing to
university studies, completing both Honours and Masters
degrees. While I have travelled to conducting Masterclasses
both in Budapest and London and gained a great deal from
directing professionally orchestras, I gladly return to help
educate and improve the standard of playing within the ama-
teur band scene in my own country. This is not always an
easy task as often poor methods and misconceptions of flute
playing have been passed on, creating preconceived notions
of what constitutes a good performance and good flute play-
ing. Without question, the flute is one of the central sounds of

N IRELAND:
and Marching Bands
music-making in Ireland, however the types of flutes that are
played in both traditions are simple system flutes and come
with their own inherent problems. At the top of the list of dif-
ficulties have to be ‘Intonation’ 3 problems. Within the ranks
of marching band members this is often overlooked and un-
fortunately even by adjudicators who seem to have replaced
a higher level of competence on the instrument with simple
entertainment value. Within melody part bands we have the
added difficulty that many of the bands have evolved from
the typically robust ‘Blood & Thunder’ 4 bands, with their
emphasis on volume of sound and little respect for musical
finesse.
As you will by now have realized, there is much diversity
in the types and styles of marching bands whose sounds pen-
etrate the air each marching season in Northern Ireland. This
brings us back to the recurring myth that Protestant marching
bands are only interested in coat-trailing.5 While it is evident
that the parades which bands take part in are an expression
of the performer’s cultural identity, it is also obvious that
these are not organized with the intention of provoking those
of another religion. If a broader picture of the activities of
marching bands in Ulster is examined, we will learn that
throughout the year these musicians are engaged in a wider
range of music-making than is often understood – from street
fares to indoor contests. If we consider a melody-part band
like Lisburn Young Defenders, who themselves evolved from
a traditional ‘Blood and Thunder’ band to become repeated
winners of the Northern Irish Band Association’s champion-
ship, we will discover that there is much more to the typical
marching band than is often perceived.
In the spring and summer months, Lisburn Young De-
fenders like every other loyalist flute band in Ulster, spends
a vast amount of time participating in street parades. This
can range from those organized by Lodges of the Orange
and Black institutions6 and for which the bands receive pay-
ment, to road contests and other parades which flute bands
organize themselves. The latter is participated in freely and
shows a great deal of mutual cooperation between march-
ing bands to ensure that these parades are a success. As far
TEXTS FOR READING English
57
April 2016
as the competitive element of these parades is concerned, it
can be a simple matter of the band who organized the event
awarding prizes to bands who they are especially friendly
with or adjudicator led results based on a supposed knowl-
edge on the part of the judge. Each type of parade displays
a great deal of pageantry and each band member takes per-
sonal pride in their own band’s style and appearance. Here
the stereotypical view of the Ulster bandsman as an untidy
drunken thug parading to intimidate Roman Catholics is
seen to be without any real substance. This is not to deny
that certain individual band members have sometimes dis-
graced themselves by having too much to drink and getting
too hot-headed. The fact is that under circumstances like
this they have more often fought among themselves than
with those of a different religion.
The marching band parade in Northern Ireland is not
about provoking or intimidating any member of a differ-
ent religion but is a disciplined affair which displays both
marching skill and the ability of band members to perform
well as a unit. This pageant of colour, rhythms and sounds
that move steadily forward in a well staged procession re-
veals something about the intrinsic nature of music and pa-
rading to the Ulster Protestant – musical parading is part of
a shared identity. The band uniforms are military in style,
some almost identical to regimental bands of the British
Army and other uniforms resembling American military
styles. To members of these marching bands, putting on a
uniform and marching is part of a long tradition in the North
of Ireland and is in their blood. Each band practices on a
weekly basis, some even twice a week to hone their skills in
preparation for these parades. Not only is the band’s play-
ing scrutinized but also their marching skills. As prizes are
also awarded for style and appearance, the quality of the
procession becomes as important as the music. On these
occasions the marching band would generally perform mil-
itary marches. These could be British, American, Austrian
or German, however the repertoire is more diverse than is
often assumed. Loyalist songs, music from the movies or
television shows, pop songs and jigs are interspersed with
the traditional march.
 English TEXTS FOR READING
58 April 2016
An examination of the repertoire for ‘Road Work’7 is par-
ticularly revealing in an effort to dispel the myths surround-
ing the marching bands of Ulster.8 Among the most popular
pieces performed in the outdoor arena is ‘Penny Arcade’ and
‘The Yellow Rose of Texas’ both of which could not in the
slightest be referred to as sectarian. ‘Penny Arcade’ is of
course a Roy Orbison hit, which shot him back to the top
of the charts in 1969. Its theme centres around the colourful
lights of arcade machines in an amusement park:
“Step up and play” each machine seemed to say
As I walked round and round the penny arcade
Just ring the bell on the big bagatelle
And you’ll make all the coloured lights cascade.
The song has been adopted by Glasgow Rangers football
fans in Scotland and as a consequence loved by football
fanatics in Northern Ireland. Many of the members, both
young and old, within the Ulster flute band scene are avid
football fans. Given the songs popularity, I was asked to
arrange it for Lisburn Young Defenders a couple of years
ago. This required some rewriting as the song in its original
version is in quadruple time (4 beats in a bar) and needed to
be in duple time (2 beats in a bar), otherwise it could not be
performed at parades with the necessary two-step required
for marching. It is characteristic of the pieces performed by
flute bands in Northern Ireland that they have been adopted
for use in ‘road work.’ There are many fine music arrangers
among Northern Ireland and Scotland’s flute bands. This
has come about by necessity as the need for new pieces
to perform is constant and the supply of music from rec-
ognised music publishers is non-existent. The basic rea-
son for this is due to the peculiar instrumentation which is
employed in melody-part bands, this will be discussed at
a later stage. Much of it has to do with having a suitably
pitched flute that can be heard during a street parade with
surrounding noise from weather conditions and over exu-
berant crowds of spectators.
‘The Yellow Rose of Texas’ is a traditional American
folksong which first appeared in Christy’s Plantation Melo-
dies No.2 in 1853, it is a firm favourite among flute bands
in Northern Ireland and has recently been used by a loyalist
flute band in tackling racism against ethnic communities in
Belfast. The choice of this song to combat racism has par-
ticular resonance, given the original lyrics of the song and
subsequent changes. The words are written in the first person
perspective and describe an African American, (who refers to
himself as “Darkey”) in his longing to find the “Yellow girl,”
presumably a bi-racial sweetheart, whom he had left. The
song became popular during the American Civil War when
the coloured protagonist was replaced by a soldier who had
gone to war leaving behind his yellow haired Rose of Texas
but longed to return to her. The song was popular among
Confederate forces, many of whom believed that slavery was
an integral part of Southern society. This was the first piece
on the playlist, when a flute band from the staunchly Protes-
tant Shankill Road began their concert with fellow musicians
from across the world, in a joint project against racial attacks
among ethnic communities who had set up home in Northern
Ireland.
The feelings and concerns expressed by the band’s
chairman, David Thompson, as they headed into central
Belfast in full uniform and Shankill Road Defenders clear-
ly visible upon their bass drum, highlight the misunder-
standing and prejudice that the Northern Ireland marching
band community often has to deal with. Mr. Thompson
relates that the band was decidedly nervous and worried
that they would be viewed with suspicion, even though
they were performing along with musicians from over-
seas. Relating the story of the band’s involvement in a
community project that had the band playing for eight
months alongside people, including Muslim musicians,
from a wide range of countries across the world, such as
Jamaica, India, Slovakia, Ghana and Kurdistan, the band’s
chairman comments, “The way the present situation is go-
ing with the loyalist bands – we can’t walk here and we
can’t walk there – we feel our culture is in danger. We
are misinterpreted. We thought Music Unite9 would be an
opportunity to show that we are not a sectarian mob and
we are not racist. We are working-class people who go
to work and then try to express ourselves through music.
We can feel sympathy with the multi-cultural people who
live here and who are fighting the same battles as we are
against bigotry and stereotyping.”
It is clear from the proceeding comments that there is
much frustration among Northern Ireland’s marching bands
due to the negative image that is perpetually portrayed in
the media. This is always disappointing to this writer, as
it overlooks the skills and discipline that these musicians
display on a regular basis. This brings us to a discussion of
the contests that melody bands organize and participate in
after their busy marching season. In October Shankill Road
Defenders hold their annual indoor10 contest for melody
bands followed in March by Lisburn Young Defenders an-
nual indoor contest.
Although there are many other smaller indoor contests
throughout the province, these two are the biggest and at-
tract both local melody bands and those from across the
Irish sea, with bands from Scotland attending these events.
In the banding community this creates a great deal of ex-

citement and anticipation but more importantly a great
deal of serious rehearsal on the part of each band com-
peting in the contests. ‘Adjudication’ however, is often a
concern among performers and conductors alike, this is
often a result of marking systems that are not adequate
for the job or personal preferences over musicality and
informed decision making. The limited focus of the com-
ments and lack of clarity often point to adjudication that is
not based on a solid and well thought-out criteria. Unfor-
tunately, loyalist bands have not been willing to take seri-
ously the need for qualified and well-trained adjudicators
that have their aural skills well tested. Perhaps a model
based on the criteria used by examiners of the Associated
Boards of the Royal Schools of music would provide a
more consistent level of adjudication. Two contests that
have always showed a greater level of adjudicatory skills
are those run by the Northern Ireland Band Association
(NIBA) and the Flute Band League. In the typical North-
ern Irish flute band contest, a very wide range of music
can be expected.
Before considering this wider repertoire, it is necessary
to understand the instrumentation. The modern melody-part
band consists of an Eb Piccolo, 1st & 2nd Bb flutes, and F
flutes, occasionally Bb Basses are added. Some bands don’t
use F flutes, but their use is becoming much more the norm
in the melody-part bands of Northern Ireland. The reason
why the word ‘melody-part’ band is used, has to do with the
history of melody bands in that they originated from bands
that merely played the melody line but have subsequently
developed into part playing bands. This evolution within
melody bands has occurred partly as a result of the member-
ship of music readers who had learnt their trade from mu-
sically literate bands and then moved to the melody band
scene, as well as the desire of other members to introduce
parts into their bands, this has also often meant the intro-
duction of conductors who are able to direct and solve any
ensemble problems.
The instrumentation as used by Lisburn Young Defenders
consists of:
An Eb Piccolo,
1st & 2nd Bb Flutes,
F flutes,
and occasionally Bb Bass.
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59
April 2016
The latter depends on the size of the band at the time. The
usual ensemble of flutes in Lisburn Young Defenders both
for ‘Road’ and ‘Indoor’ performance are the above flutes
with the exclusion of Bb Bass, this is similar to other bands
within the melody-part band scene. The band’s instruments
are made of blackwood by Peter Worrell of Norwich, Eng-
land. The density of this particular wood gives the instru-
ment a great clarity of sound. The function of the flute within
Ulster’s marching bands means that they are produced at a
higher pitch than the standard UK pitch of A = 440hz. For
example, Worrell’s model is a Hawkes Crown AZ flute at A
= 452.5hz. Here the necessity of being heard in an outdoor
venue is paramount to the choice of instrument which is se-
lected by melody bands throughout the North of Ireland.
The 1st Bb flutes make up the bulk of the band and they are
pitched a sixth higher than the standard orchestral flute. The
2nd Bb consists of 4 or 5 players and tend to play harmonies
to the 1st’s melody line. The F flutes are pitched a fifth lower
than the Bb flutes and are really the bass instruments of the
four-part instrumentation. These tend to play counter-melo-
dies, along with harmonisations. Above everything sings the
Eb Piccolo with its pitch another fifth above that of the Bb
flutes, when played well, these can be a very effective addi-
tion to any melody band but are often abused by being over-
blown. This is not the case among Lisburn Young Defender’s
ranks with a female piccolo player who plays with control
and sweetly balances with the band. Of course, these flutes
are accompanied in performance by side drums, cymbal and
bass drum, with the occasional addition of tenor drum and
other percussion instruments for concert work.
Returning to the question of band repertoire it might be of
interest to our readers to learn that Lisburn Young Defenders
have performed a piece called ‘The Cossack Patrol’ (Poly-
ushko Pole) by Lev Knipper, which has been performed by
many a Russian artist. A few years ago the band also per-
formed a composition by their conductor in the melody sec-
tion of the flute band league contest entitled ‘The Battle of
Poltava’ which depicted one of the decisive victories of Peter
the Great. Below is a picture of the band performing this
work and gaining second place in the Flute Band Association
of Northern Ireland’s Annual contest.
As you will notice from the picture, the band performed
with the addition of Tubular Bells, Timpani, Tenor and the
 English TEXTS FOR READING
60 April 2016
usual snare drum. The unusual ‘Thunderer’ (pictured below)
was also added to help create the noise of canons sounding
in the distance.
As you will by now understand, contesting is very impor-
tant within the band movement in the North of Ireland. The
pride with which individual members feel as they mount a
stage to perform with their band cannot be underestimated
and creates not only a sense of tradition but also of being
part of the culture of music-making within loyalist bands.
While each band is strongly competitive, there also exists a
comradeship among bands and a joint desire to promote the
cause of the marching band throughout Ireland and beyond.
A significant honour was given to Lisburn Young Defenders
this year in being asked to represent the melody-part bands
at the Belfast Tattoo. This is a prestigious event held in the
Belfast SSE Arena. When a band has the privilege to perform
at this venue they will be among some very top class bands
indeed. An international line-up with some 600 performers
taking to the floor, showcases some of the finest marching
bands, musicians and dancers from across Northern Ireland
and beyond. In the 2015 Belfast Tattoo Lisburn Young De-
fenders had the privilege of performing alongside the Band
of HM Royal Marines in a two-hour show that concluded
with a grand finale that saw all the artists come together
with Massed Pipe and Drums to bring the show to a grand
climax.
Lisburn young Defenders are pictured above performing
‘Marching to the Cavern’ at the Tattoo. Simon Toole, who
plays an F flute in the band (beside his father, Alan) is a big
‘Beatles’ fan and I had promised him an arrangement of some
‘Beatles’ Medleys for some considerable time. With the Tat-
too looming it seemed to be the right time to add such a piece
to the band’s repertoire. Simon was certainly the main insti-
gator of the title ‘Marching to the Cavern’ which both hinted
at ‘the Beatles’ early performance history in Liverpool at the
Cavern Club and of a marching band’s adaptation of their
music. I certainly didn’t make it easy for both the band and
myself with changing tempos that had to be worked into a
march routine. In the end, the piece went down with spec-
tacular success and was a credit to all involved and showed
the band’s ability to adopt to challenges placed upon them.
‘Marching to the Cavern’ commences with ‘A Hard Day’s
Night’, moves to the slower ‘Let it be,’ then a slight lift in
the tempo for ‘When I’m Sixty-Four’ before slowing again
with the familiar strains of ‘Hey Jude’ which itself develops
into a climactic return of ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ in the form
of a coda.
The band also performed the ever popular ‘Penny Arcade’
which was mentioned earlier in our discussion. The band
captain, (Robert Geddis) was particularly keen to have this
number performed due to its popularity and the cheers from
the crowd as the band entered the arena, with the strains of
Orbison’s hit echoing in the ears of 5,000 odd spectators,
affirmed that a good choice had been made. Many of the
spectators had never heard an Ulster melody band perform
such pieces and the expectation would have been that the
band would play military style marches, especially given the
marching arena in which the performance took place. Preju-
dices and stereotypes seem to have been shattered among the
audience during Lisburn Young Defender’s performances at
the Belfast Tattoo given the feedback that emerged over the
following weeks. In terms of the type of music that melody-
part bands perform and the disciplined nature of the Loyalist
marching band, many myths were broken.
Returning to the subject of band captains within melody-
part bands. This office is important in melody bands and not
only highlights the discipline that the bands maintain but
also the necessity of good working relationships between the
conductor and official representatives of the band. A differ-
ent perspective from outside the musical director’s closed
world of sitting arranging music at their computer can be
a useful one. This was confirmed to me a few months ago
when I had arranged the theme from the television fantasy
series ‘Game of Thrones’ for SRD’s11 indoor contest. I had
written a gentle ending, which faded away on a diminuendo,
but the band captain suggested that I write a different con-
clusion which ends with a crescendo. After setting about on
this the inspiration came and although the ending wasn’t as
simple as his suggestion, both myself and the band approved
of the final result.

In conclusion, while this “insiders” view of the tradi-
tion of marching bands in Northern Ireland has focused
upon some of the stereotyping and myths that bands regu-
larly encounter, it has not drawn attention to some of the
underlying causes. This would require further research
and a more detailed analysis than the pages of this short
article would allow. Nevertheless, the mainly negative
image in which the media have chosen to portray Loyal-
ist marching bands and the difficulty of ‘Irish’ Catholics,
(whose culture does not possess a marching tradition) to
understand the Protestant martial spirit, is at the heart of
the problem. Unfortunately, most have only heard and
seen the selected prejudicial clips that are shown on tele-
vision and know nothing of the wide repertoire and var-
ied work which the Ulster marching band engages with.
It is also true that in a divided community which is still
coming to terms with the challenges of co-operating and
co-existing together, there are some who will simply not
want to understand or reassess Ulster’s marching bands.
However, it is the hope of this writer that many will come
to understand that it is not music that divides us but rather
that music-making should be appreciated in its own terms
as a way of expression and of a shared humanity. In a
land of breathtaking scenery, scattered with Norman cas-
tles, Christian and Celtic monuments, beautiful coastlines
with valleys and mountains resplendent in ‘fifty shades’
of green, Northern Ireland can be an idyllic place but one
that needs to rise from the mythological debris of past
prejudices and stereotyping.12
NOTES:
1
‘The Troubles’ refers to a violent thirty-year conflict in
Northern Ireland framed by a civil rights march in Lon-
donderry on 5th October 1968 and the Good Friday Agree-
ment on 10th April 1998.
2
The term ‘Loyalist’ in Northern Ireland is typified by a
strong opposition to Irish republicanism and is a politi-
cal ideology found primarily among working class Ulster
Protestants. Loyalists are attached to the monarchy of the
TEXTS FOR READING English
61
April 2016
United Kingdom and support Northern Ireland remaining
within the United Kingdom.
3
‘Intonation’ has to do with a musician’s realization of
pitch accuracy and his ability to produce musical tones
in relation to the pitch of notes within a particular key or
harmony.
4
‘Blood & Thunder’ refers to a genre of marching band
that is characterized by brash, thundering drums, (often
the bass drum is beaten with such force that it is not un-
common to see blood smears across the drum skin) and
overblown flutes, that produce a seriously shrill sound.
5
‘Coat-trailing’ refers to behaviour that is deliberately pro-
vocative.
6
The ‘Orange’ and ‘Black’ institutions are loyal orders of
an international Protestant fraternal organisation based
primarily in Northern Ireland but which extends through-
out the globe.
7
‘Road Work’ is an expression used by Ulster bands to
refer to street parades.
8
‘Ulster’ is a term often used by Protestant band members
but refers to more than the six Counties of Northern Ire-
land. The nine Counties of ‘Ulster’ include Cavan, Don-
egal and Monaghan, which after territorial divisions re-
sides under the jurisdiction of the Republic of Ireland.
9
‘Music Unite’ is a project developed by Beyond Skin and
the Centre for Democracy and Peace Building to engage
Loyalist flute bands.
10
‘Indoor’ is a term used by marching bands to distinguish
between types of contests, some of which are held out-
doors and are part of their ‘Outdoor Work.’
11
‘SRD’ is a shortened form of the name Shankill Road
Defenders. Melody bands often shorten their name to the
first letter of each word, hence Lisburn Young Defenders
becomes ‘the LYD’.
12
Two typical flute players from Northern Ireland expressing
their culture in music at the 11th July bonfire celebrations.
By Gary Shields
Photos taken by the author.
 English TEACHERS FORUM
62 РЕЧЕВОЕ РАЗВИТИЕ УЧАЩИХСЯ
April 2016
на уроках иностранного языка средствами игровой технологии
(на примере УМК FORWARD под ред. Вербицкой М.В.)
Зажечь искорку интереса в глазах ученика, сделать учение
посильным и радостным – непростая задача для каждого учи-
теля. При подготовке к уроку я тщательно продумываю, чем се-
годняшнее занятие будет отличаться от вчерашнего. Меняются
в зависимости от возрастных особенностей учащихся исполь-
зуемые мной приёмы и виды работ, направленные на развитие
интереса и потребности в занятиях.
Выбор игровой технологии предшествовал моим разду-
мьям:
– Как учить, чтобы вызвать у детей желание войти в культу-
ру изучаемого языка?
– Как организовать процесс обучения, чтобы в его центре
оказался ученик?
– Как добиться, чтобы ученик творил, был честным, силь-
ным, умел удивляться, чувствовал мир, радовался жизни?
Ответ на эти вопросы я нахожу в УМК серии “Форвард”,
где значительное место уделено формированию ценностных
ориентиров и эстетических идеалов в соответствии с ФГОС.
Деятельностный характер предмета “Английский язык” соот-
ветствует природе младшего школьника, воспринимающего
мир целостно, эмоционально и активно. Это позволяет вклю-
чать иноязычную речевую деятельность в другие виды дея-
тельности, свойственные ребенку данного возраста (игровую,
познавательную, художественную, эстетическую и т.п.), и дает
возможность осуществлять разнообразные связи с предмета-
ми, изучаемые в начальной школе, и формировать общеучеб-
ные умения и навыки, которые межпредметны по своему ха-
рактеру.
Это значит, что, прежде всего, нужно создать – мотив, то
есть, поставить учащегося в такие условия, чтобы у него по-
явилась необходимость, потребность и желание включиться в
работу на английском языке. Применение игровых техноло-
гий эффективно решает эту проблему. В игре человек пробует
свои силы, в ней происходит процесс самоутверждения. Игра-
ющие получают удовольствие от игровых действий и процесса
общения. Несмотря на условность ситуации в игре, чувства в
ней обычно являются подлинными, реальными. Увлекатель-
ный мир спектаклей, песен, игр, импровизаций, имитаций,
представленный в УМК “Форвад”, может оказать учителю нео-
ценимую помощь в формировании и развитии языковой компе-
тенции, решении задач эстетического воспитания, в развитии
творческих способностей детей.
Важным моментом в развитии произношения и фонемати-
ческого слуха является использование музыки и песен. Музы-
ка дает настрой спектаклю, а песни способствуют развитию
у школьников чувства языка, помогают активизации лексики.
Музыкальный ритм помогает легче усваивать грамматические
структуры. Разучивание коротких и несложных песен с часты-
ми повторами помогает ребенку закрепить не только слова, но
и правильную артикуляцию, правильное произношение звуков,
ударения, ритм. Следовательно, музыка, являясь одним из наи-
более эффективных способов воздействия на чувства и эмоции
детей, служит в спектакле сильнейшим психологическим побу-
дителем. Сцена приучает детей к четкой, правильно оформлен-
ной грамматической, интонационно фонетически речи. Через
ролевую игру, моделированную ситуацию и физическое дей-
ствие коммуникативным путем:
• обогащается и активизируется лексический запас;
• ликвидируются пробелы грамматических структур;
• осваивается новый грамматический материал коммуника-
тивным путем;
• корректируется произношение и интонация, формируется
фонематический слух;
• улучшаются аудитивные навыки путем погружения в языко-
вую среду;
• развиваются все виды речевой деятельности;
• повышается языковая компетенция.
Драма близка ребенку, так как динамична, действенна и на-
поминает мир игры, в котором он живет. Это то, во что мы во-
влечены в повседневной жизни, когда сталкиваемся с разными
ситуациями. Соприкосновение с игрой и искусством делает
общение ученика с учителем ярким и запоминающимся. Зани-
маясь одним общим делом, учитель и его ученики становятся
единомышленниками, а значит:
• разрушается непонимание между учителем и учеником;
• учитель становится менее доминантным;
• создается атмосфера доверия, и улучшаются отношения
учителя с учениками;
• дети становятся свободнее, увереннее в себе;
• дети учатся работать в команде, терпимо относиться друг к
другу;
• формируется чувство взаимопомощи и ответственности за
свои знания;
• ситуация успеха побуждает ребенка к дальнейшей деятель-
ности;
• игра будит творческую фантазию
Драма, несомненно, помогает развить у учеников языко-
вую компетенцию, даже если языковая подготовка детей на-
ходится не на самом высоком уровне. Поэтому для поддер-
жания интереса к языку, внимания детей на уроке, я исполь-
зую занимательные сюжеты, игровые ситуации. Участвуя в
спектакле, дети слушают, слышат и понимают друг друга. А
ведь аудирование - один из самых важных и сложных видов
речевой деятельности. Именно поэтому любая дополнитель-
ная возможность в практике аудирования может быть полезна
ученикам. Ведь сценическое действие помогает понять смысл
происходящего, и в результате у зрителей развивается языко-
вая догадка.
Учителя не должны бояться показаться непрофессиональ-
ными с точки зрения режиссуры и драматургии, так как конеч-
ная цель постановки не создание театрального шедевра, а во-
влечение детей в творческий процесс обучения языку.
При использовании игр на уроке улучшается дисциплина,
появляется заинтересованность ребят в работе, концентриру-
ется их внимание, повышается активность, так как в урок вно-
сятся элементы соперничества и соревнования.
Для учителя развитие способностей школьников – трудная
задача и большая нагрузка психологического характера. Я де-
лаю однозначный выбор: сделать учение посильным и ра-
достным для каждого ученика.
Г.М. Бувдевская,
учитель английского языка
ГБОУ СОШ № 210, г. Санкт-Петербург
 Издательский дом «ПЕРВОЕ СЕНТЯБРЯ»

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 2 – 11
К Л А С С Ы

О. В. Афанасьева, И. В. Михеева, К. М. Баранова

ЛИНИЯ УЧЕБНО-МЕТОДИЧЕСКИХ КОМПЛЕКСОВ

АНГЛИЙСКИЙ ЯЗЫК

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 Э л е к т р о нн ы е у ч е б ни к и – кажд о м у у ч е ни к у !
Министерство образования Московской области l Издательский дом «Первое сентября»

«Новые средства – только добавление

возможностей, а не замена дидактики
и имеющегося опыта»
Электронные формы учебников (ЭФУ) • контент учебника должен быть избы- • тренажеры,
используются в школах страны относитель- точным и вариативным (чтобы отвечать • «плитки» – мультимедийные наглядные
но недавно. Сейчас – период приобрете- нуждам и потребностям как слабого, так объекты.
ния, накапливания личного опыта в работе и сильного ученика); Рассмотрим возможности их использо-
с ЭФУ. Важны общие усилия в этом направ- • учебник должен быть интерактивным и вания на уроке.
лении всего педагогического сообщества. мультимедийным; Словарь терминов – это не новшество
Необходимо пробовать, анализировать и • учебник должен содержать разнообраз- ЭФУ. Словари есть и в печатных учебниках.
обобщать полученный опыт, обращая осо- ные виды КИМов и домашних заданий; Их можно открыть, термин можно найти,
бое внимание на трудности в использова- • учебник должен позволять интеграцию прочитать, выучить, запомнить, выписать в
нии ЭФУ – как технические, так и дидакти- или встраивание других материалов, в тетрадь… И все-таки электронный учебник
ческие. т.  ч. из открытых источников, собствен- позволяет интенсифицировать процесс ра-
Сегодня уже трудно представить шко- ных. боты со словарем, поскольку термин и его
лу без информационно-образовательной Существующие ЭФУ вполне покрывают дефиницию не обязательно переписывать
среды: без компьютеров, ноутбуков, план- спектр пожеланий и требований учителей. в тетрадь, а можно просто скопировать и
шетов, интерактивных досок, проекторов. Главное – найти верный ход и использовать поместить в заметки. Каждая заметка при-
В этих новых условиях перед учителем сто- то, что в ЭФУ уже заложено, чтобы новые вязывается к соответствующему параграфу,
ит задача найти баланс в триаде «устрой- формы, новые технологии служили под- но есть возможность просмотреть все за-
ство – содержание – методика». При этом спорьем мастерству и творчеству педагога. метки сразу. Этот удобный инструмент реа-
нельзя пренебрегать и вопросами здоро- В электронные формы учебников встро- лизован в каждом электронном учебнике
вьесбережения. ены: всех издательств. Кроме того, в заметки
Исследования использования ИТ в клас- • словарь терминов, можно вносить свои комментарии, записы-
се показывают, что учащиеся, пользующие- • заметки, вать формулы, термины, тезисы, домашние
ся компьютером умеренно (до двух часов
в день), учатся лучше своих сверстников,
использующих компьютер часто (до шести
часов в день). У ребят, сидящих перед экра-
ном свыше шести часов в день, могут даже
возникнуть психологические проблемы.
Следовательно, оправдан умеренный
подход в использовании технологий.
Эффективное использование ИКТ-среды
позволяет лучше вовлекать ученика в рабо-
ту с учетом его образовательных возмож-
ностей и потребностей для достижения
новых образовательных результатов.
Электронный учебник, развиваясь, все
больше выходит в центр образовательной
ИКТ-среды. Методические требования к
ЭФУ:
 Э л е к т р о нн ы е
Министерство образования Московской области l Издательский дом «Первое сентября»
задания и обращаться к ним в случае не-
обходимости. С помощью заметок ученик
создает свой конспект учебника в соответ-
ствии со своим собственным пониманием.
Для ученика это возможность осознанного
учения, отбора важной информации, ее
классификации. Заметки – инструмент, по-
зволяющий подстроить содержание учеб-
ника под себя, индивидуализировать учеб-
ный процесс.
Электронный учебник ценен наличи-
ем тренировочных тестов (в профес-
сиональном сообществе их уже называют
«тренажерами»). За выполнение этих те-
стовых заданий отметка, как правило, не
выставляется. Но ученик сразу видит ре-
зультат тестирования, видит свои сильные
и слабые стороны, понимает, что нужно
выучить или повторить. Тренажер помо-
гает выявлять дефициты в знаниях учаще-
гося. Выполняя тесты, фрагменты тестов
или отдельные задания, ученик «трениру-
ется», лучше запоминает материал. Мож-
но какие-то вещи, факты запомнить или
выучить, обращаясь только к тренажеру,
идя к правильному ответу через ошибки,
задумываясь, почему тот или иной вари-
ант ответа неверный.
Следует отметить, что в ЭФУ предлага-
ются разные виды закрытых и условно от-
крытых тестовых заданий. Это и задания с
множественным выбором правильного от-
вета, и задания на выстраивание последо-
вательности, на поиск соответствий. В дру-
Более подробная информация и страница для обмена опытом на сайте digital.1september.ru/etutorial
у ч е б ни к и – кажд о м у
гих заданиях ответ может быть введен в
соответствующее поле с клавиатуры.
В электронном учебнике после каждого
параграфа имеется некоторое количество
проверочных или контрольных вопросов.
Из них для каждого ученика формируется
свой набор из трех-пяти вопросов, ответ на
которые позволяет понять уровень усвое-
ния материала. В конце урока ученики уже
могут не подвергаться заключительному
фронтальному опросу. Каждый из них про-
сто выполняет свои задания и тут же полу-
чает результат.
Важно отметить и эмоциональную со-
ставляющую такого быстрого тестирова-
ния. Ученик получает мгновенную обрат-
ную связь, получает подтверждение или
опровержение своих представлений об
успешности своего обучения на данном
уроке (несколько модифицируется этап
рефлексии). Кроме того, неуспевающий
ученик имеет возможность не выставлять
свое незнание на всеобщее обозрение, как
это могло бы быть при заключительном
фронтальном опросе. Еще один положи-
тельный момент подобного тестирования:
в отличие от фронтального опроса, когда
возможно охватить лишь некоторое число
учащихся, в тестировании с помощью тре-
нажера принимают участие все ученики.
Стопроцентный охват с обратной связью за
пару минут!
Как отмечалось выше, тренажер мож-
но использовать не только как инструмент
у ч е ни к у !
(пусть даже и безотметочного) тестирова-
ния, но и для тренировки, например, когда
нужно довести до автоматизма какие-то
навыки, решить некоторое количество по-
хожих, однотипных задач или примеров.
Использование технологий позволяют по-
добные, по своей сути скучные, задания
превратить в захватывающее, увлекатель-
ное действие. Использование технологий
делает возможным создание на уроке так
называемой win-win-situation, ситуации
без проигравших. Отметки за выполнение
заданий не выставляются, но оценивание,
фиксация верных и неверных решений про-
исходит. К примеру, на планшетах учени-
ков, правильно выполнивших задание, мо-
жет появиться сообщение «Молодец!» (как
это было реализовано на уроке алгебры в
7-м классе гимназии № 1520 им. Капцовых
учителем А.В. Дорониным. См.: http://www.
youtube.com/watch?v=NOFhYThwEyM). Уча-
щиеся, не получившие такого сообщения
или получившие сообщение «Есть ошиб-
ки», понимают, что что-то выполнили не
так, сами ищут ошибку или повторно вы-
полняют задание. В подобной ситуации
ученики учатся оценивать себя, находить и
исправлять свои ошибки. Ученик анализи-
рует свои шаги, действия – проводит реф-
лексию.
Мгновенная обратная связь, которая
возможна при использовании ЭФУ, – это
один из ключевых моментов в сегодняш-
нем обучении. Она позволяет этап рефлек-
сии на уроке сделать более осознанным,
осмысленным. Ученик видит, с чем он
справился или какой учебной цели он пока
не достиг, и пытается найти путь для ее до-
стижения.
ЭФУ дает большие возможности для
работы с иллюстративным материалом.
Наглядность важна при работе как с юны-
ми обучающимися, так и со старшекласс-
никами. Мультимедийность ЭФУ и любые
другие технологические возможности
электронных учебников – не самоцель. Все
имеет смысл в ракурсе достижения цели
урока и методических задач, решаемых
учениками самостоятельно.
В заключение хотелось бы пригласить
коллег-учителей попробовать приобрести
электронный учебник, открыть его и для
начала не искать, чем он отличается от того,
чего вы от него ждали, а найти в нем то, что
могло бы помочь в проведении умных, ин-
тересных, захватывающих уроков.
 Э л е кт р о н н ы е
Министерство образования Московской области l Издательский дом «Первое сентября»
Bring Your Own Device
Электронный учебник – это содержание плюс устройство
Для воспроизведения электронных
учебников требуется устройство (план-
шет, ноутбук, лэптоп, стационарный ком-
пьютер и т.п.).
Современные электронные формы
учебников проигрываются на широком
спектре устройств и практически на всех
популярных операционных платформах.
Таково требование Министерства образо-
вания и науки РФ, выполнение которого
необходимо для внесения электронного
учебника в Федеральный перечень.
И если обеспечить школу электронными
учебниками (лицензиями на пользование)
в любом необходимом объеме (любой ти-
раж) не составляет проблем, то снабдить
всех учеников класса мобильными устрой-
ствами, соответствующими нормам Сан-
ПиНа и техническим спецификациям про-
граммного комплекса, – непросто.
Это проблема не только нашей стра-
ны, это всеобщая проблема, пришедшая к
нам вместе с новыми технологиями. Где-
то эту проблему пытаются решить через
централизованные закупки необходимых
устройств хотя бы в пилотные школы, но
нарастающий всемирный тренд решения
этой проблемы – технологического обе-
спечения работы с электронными учебни-
ками – получил говорящее название «Bring
Your� ����� �������������������������������-
ский язык означает: «принеси в школу, в
офис своё собственное устройство».
Гипотеза состоит в том, что универсаль-
ные мобильные устройства во всё в боль-
шем количестве приобретаются пользова-
телями для собственных нужд: личный ор-
ганайзер, игры, чтение книг, электронная
почта, интернет, соцсети.
Практически все устройства, входящие
в класс «планшет», достаточно функцио-
нальны не только для обслуживания лич-
ных (персональных) задач пользователя
в повседневной жизни, но и для учебных
целей, включая воспроизведение элек-
тронных учебников или обслуживание
электронной образовательной среды. Ис-
следования рынка подтверждают, что у всё
большего количества старшеклассников
Более подробная информация и страница для обмена опытом на сайте digital.1september.ru/etutorial
у ч е б н и к и – кажд о м у
либо уже есть планшеты, ноутбуки, лэпто-
пы, либо родители готовы их приобрести,
особенно для нужд учёбы.
Так или иначе, современный сценарий
централизованного предоставления элек-
тронных учебников ученикам в классе мо-
жет выглядеть следующим образом: шко-
ла закупает лицензии на использование
электронных учебников, а учитель в классе
объявляет, что теперь есть возможность
передать ЭФУ на устройства тем ученикам,
кто готов использовать личные устройства
в учебных целях.
В рамках проекта Министерства обра-
зования Московской области «Оказание
услуги по обеспечению доступа обучаю-
щихся общеобразовательных организа-
ций Московской области к электронным
учебникам и электронным приложениям к
учебникам» был создан сайт-витрина элек-
тронных учебников, который поддержива-
ет такой сценарий передачи электронных
учебников ученикам. То есть задача ви-
трины ibook.1september.ru – предоставить
электронные учебники для использования
не только на школьных устройствах, но и на
личных устройствах учителей и учеников.
Пошаговая инструкция на сайте – текстовая
и видео – позволяет каждому учителю Мо-
сковской области в течение всего 2016 года
реализовать такой сценарий предоставле-
у ч е н и ку !
ния электронных учебников ученикам сво-
его класса за счет бюджета области.
Успешность подхода «������
br �� � �-
�����������
vice�����������������������������������-
тов у учеников и от их готовности использо-
вать эти устройства не только в игровых, но
и в учебных целях. Проверка актуальности
такого подхода и составляет одну из целей
проекта по обеспечению учеников Мо-
сковской области электронными учебника-
ми (электронными формами учебников) в
2016 году. Проект инициирован Министер-
ством образования Московской области и
реализуется в сотрудничестве с Издатель-
ским домом «Первое сентября».
Какое количество устройств на руках
учеников в классе является достаточным
для успешного урока? Это предмет ис-
следования и опыта. В следующих статьях
мы рассмотрим сценарии уроков, когда
устройства с электронной формой учебни-
ка есть:
1) только у учителя,
2) у малого количества учащихся,
3) у половины учеников,
4) у всех учеников,
5) когда устройства есть у учителя и всех
учеников, и эти устройства связаны в еди-
ную технологическую сеть.