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ИЯ ЖУР
ЕРС инете
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и ч н о м кабе
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b e r.
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.1 s e
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Журнал для тех,

No. 5–6 кто преподает

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

What you do with your resources in this

life is your autobiography.
Randy Alcorn

RESOURCES
май–июнь
ь
1september.ru 20
017
АНГЛИЙСКИЙ ЯЗЫК П о д п и с к а н а с а й т е w w w.1s e p t e m b e r. r u и л и п о “ К а т а л о г у р о с с и й с к о й п р е с с ы ”. Ин декс: 79002
 INSIDE
NEWS IN BRIEF Сдвоенные номера выходят 1 раз в 2 месяца
10 Ways to Search Google Издание основано в 1992 г.

for Information That 96% of People Главный редактор:

Don't Know About..................................... 3 Елизавета Паремузова (Богданова)
Консультанты:
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Stephen Lapeyrouse, Erin Bouma
Critical Thinking Skills................................ 4 Редактор:
Plea for V1, 2, 3......................................... 6 Е.Андросова
On the Death of a Craft .............................. 8 Корректура:
М.Гардер
METHODS OF TEACHING Набор, верстка:
Why can’t they sit and be quiet? Г.Струкова
Helping Students with Attention Deficit ИЗДАТЕЛЬСКИЙ ДОМ “ПЕРВОЕ СЕНТЯБРЯ”
Disorder in a Language Classroom ..............10 Генеральный директор
How to Gamify your English Class. Н.Соловейчик
Главный редактор
Step 3 .......................................................12 А.Соловейчик
Economics and Economy of EFL Classroom: Коммерческая деятельность
К.Шмарковский (финансовый директор)
Learning from Adjacent Fields ...................14 Реклама, конференции и техническое
TEACHERS FORUM обеспечение
П.Кузнецов
Out of My Comfort Zone ..........................16 Производство
Are You Afraid of Online Courses?............ 47 С.Савельев
Effective Time-Management Административно-хозяйственное обеспечение
А.Ушков
for Teachers: Useful Tips .......................... 50 Педагогический университет
FOCUS ON LANGUAGE В.Арсланьян (ректор)
English for Human Resources ....................19 ЖУРНАЛЫ ИЗДАТЕЛЬСКОГО ДОМА:
Vocabulary Booster ....................................19 Английский язык – Е.Паремузова (Богданова),
Библиотека в школе – О.Громова,
LESSON PLANS Биология – Н.Иванова,
Reading Rules ...........................................21 География – А.Митрофанов,
The Canterville Ghost ............................... 24 Дошкольное образование – Д.Тюттерин,
Искусство – А.Митрофанов,
TOPICAL JOURNEY История – А.Савельев,
Resourses ................................................. 27 Классное руководство
и воспитание школьников – А.Полякова,
SCHOOL THEATRE Литература – С.Волков,
The Butterfly Lion .................................... 39 Начальная школа – Е.Тихомирова,
Русский язык – Л.Гончар,
TESTS Школьный психолог – М.Чибисова
Five-Minute Tests .....................................41 Подписной индекс
По “Каталогу российской прессы”: 79002
PREPARING FOR EXAMS
Учредитель: ООО «Издательский дом “Первое сентября””
Resources..................................................41 Зарегистрировано ПИ № ФС77-58393 от 18.06.14
FOR YOUNG LEARNERS в Роскомнадзоре
Подписано в печать: по графику 05.04.17, фактически 05.04.17
The Time to Rhyme ................................. 44 Отпечатано в АО “Первая Образцовая типография”
Филиал “Чеховский Печатный Двор”
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES ул. Полиграфистов, д. 1, Московская область, г. Чехов, 142300
Сайт: www.chpd.ru. E-mail: sales@chpk.ru
Proverbs and Sayings. Linguistic Game...... 45 Тел.: 8(499)-270-73-59

TEXTS FOR READING Цена свободная Заказ №

Тираж
The Wife From the Lark’s Nest ................ 52 900 экз. (бумажная версия)
21000 экз. (электронная версия)
Voyage on the Amazon River Адрес редакции и издателя:
to the “Paris of the Tropics” ....................... 54 ул. Киевская, д. 24, Москва, 121165
Тел./факс: (499) 249-3138
The White Gibbon ....................................57 E-mail: eng@1september.ru
Отдел рекламы: (499) 249-9870
www.1september.ru
This sign indicates that additional materials can be found in Издательская подписка: (499) 249-4758
Subscriber’s Personal Account on www.1september.ru. E-mail: podpiska@1september.ru
Unless otherwise indicated images in this issue are from shutterstock.com https://www.facebook.com/digital.september/

Dear Reader!
Welcome to the May-June issue of English!
To end our concept-based series on a major note we
decided to explore the topic of Resources – the very ba-
sis of our life and activities.
As you will discover in the Topical Journey, this
time our curiosity brought us far beyond conventional
interpretations of the topic under discussion. We have
managed to take a glimpse at the Queen’s handbag – a
resource of constant surmises – which turned out to be
much more than it seems at first sight. We were also very
eager to find out what resources a president might use
to get through all the challenges his work presupposes.
What’s more, we are delighted to invite you to enjoy a
story by Olga Sventsitskaya about the teaching resources
English teachers used to employ in Soviet times. And of
course, if you have never heard of TED talks, it’s high
time you fell in love with this wonderful contemporary
resource, which is described in detail by Ekaterina An-
drosova.
Trying to be resourceful as ever, we are offering you
some very much practice-oriented materials such as an
article by Maria Andrievich about the ways we can fa-
cilitate the learning of students with Attention Deficit
Disorder (ADD) and an article by Elena Peresada in
which she explains with crystal clarity the difference
between educational games and gamification. For those
inclined to deep rethinking of the essence of our teaching
profession, we offer a text by Vasiliy Gorbachev with a
promising title ‘On the Death of a Craft’ and it is an ab-
solute must. And to ‘digest’ all this meaningful input and
to keep, if not optimistically then at least realistically,
evaluative, you will be helped by a baseline article by
Nina Koptyug ‘Critical Thinking Skills’.
We would also like to remind you about the oppor-
tunity to win a free online course by Norwich Institute
for Language Education (NILE). In order to learn more
about what it feels like to go through such a professional
development experience, we suggest you have a look at
the article by Anastasia Marina – one of the winners of
our competition who is sharing her impressions from do-
ing an online course at NILE.
As the so-much deserved and desired summer holi-
days are coming, we wish you a full recovery from the
hardships of the finishing academic year. May you all
discover various and valuable resources to enrich and
add colours to your autobiographies!
Elizaveta Paremuzova (Bogdanova)
Editor-in-Chief
Уважаемые подписчики
бумажной версии журнала!
SPECIAL OFFER!
Все подписчики журнала имеют возможность
получать электронную версию.
Для получения электронной версии:
1) откройте Личный кабинет на портале “Первое
сентября” (www.1september.ru).
2) В разделе “Газеты и журналы/Получение”
выберите свой журнал и кликните на кнопку “Я
– подписчик бумажной версии”.
3) Появится форма, посредством которой вы
сможете отправить нам копию подписной кви-
танции.
После этого в течение одного рабочего дня
будет активирована электронная подписка на
весь период действия бумажной.
English
NEWS IN BRIEF
10 WAYS TO SEARCH GOOGLE
3
May–
June 2017
FOR INFORMATION THAT 96%
OF PEOPLE DON’T KNOW ABOUT
1. Either this or that
Sometimes we’re not sure that we’ve correctly re-
membered the information or the name we need to
start our search. Put in a few potential variations of
what you’re looking for, and separate them by typing
the “|” symbol. Instead of this symbol you can also use
“or.”
2. Searching using synonyms
If you need to find websites on a given subject rath-
er than those that include a specific phrase, add the “~”
symbol to your search.
For example, if you search for the term “healthy
~food” you’ll get results about the principles of healthy
eating, cooking recipes, as well as healthy dining op-
tions.
3. Searching within websites
Sometimes you read an interesting article on a web-
site and find yourself subsequently wanting to share it
with your friends or simply reread it. The easiest way to
find the desired piece of information again is to search
within the website. To do this, type the address of the
site, then a key word or entire phrase from the article,
and it should come up immediately.
4. The power of the asterisk
When our cunning memory decides to prevent us
from recalling that one key word, phrase, or number
we need in order to find what we’re looking for, you
can turn to the powerful “*” symbol. Just use this in the
place of the word/phrase you can’t remember, and you
should be able to find the results you’re looking for.
5. When lots of words are missing
If it’s the lengthier half of the phrase you can’t re-
member rather than a single key word, try writing out
the first and last words and putting “AROUND + (the
approximate number of missing words)” between them.
For example, “I wandered AROUND(4) cloud.”
6. Using a time frame
Sometimes we urgently need to acquaint ourselves
with events that occurred during a certain period of
time. To do so, you can add a time frame to your search
query with the help of three dots between the dates.
7. Searching for a title or URL
To help find the key words and name of an arti-
cle, type “intitle:” before the search term, without any
spaces between them. In order to find the words from
a URL, use “inurl:”.
8. Finding similar websites
If you’ve found something you really like online and
want to find similar websites, type in “related:” and then
the address of the site, again without a space between
them.
9. Whole phrases
Framing the search term within quotation marks is
the simplest and most effective way to find something
specific and in the exact order you typed it in.
10. Unimportant search words
To remove unimportant search words from your
query, write a minus symbol before each one. For ex-
ample, if you want to find a site about interesting books,
but you aren’t looking to buy them, you can write the
following: Interesting books – buy.
Adapted from: https://brightside.me
 English PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
4 May–
June 2017
CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS
Education is not the
learning of facts, but
training the mind to think.
Albert Einstein
Illustration from:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com;
http://cdn2.hubspot.net
Critical thinking skills, according to the many
existing definitions, include observation, inter-
pretation, analysis, inference, evaluation, ex-
planation, and metacognition. This last one, as
defined in The Free Dictionary, means thinking
about one’s own mental processes. The notion
is widely used in psychology. Many educators
now believe that a curriculum aimed at devel-
oping thinking skills in general may benefit the
learner, the society and the world at large. Let
us look at the various ideas and stages and try
to understand what critical thinking may mean
for education. Every year during the entrance
exams, I see the same large slogan hanging in
the Novosibirsk State University main building:
“We’ll teach you how to think!” Is it indeed pos-
sible to teach students not only a certain set of
skills, a volume of knowledge as specified in the
national curriculum, but also to evaluate the said
knowledge and to be able to apply that in real
life? Moreover, can we teach them how to think
about their own thinking processes?
STAGE 1. Learning. How to use the critical
thinking approach to oneself, the teacher.
How many teachers check their own knowl-
edge of a topic before introducing it to their
students? Does it even occur to a person with
several years or even decades of experience to
do it? In our system, a teacher is more or less
God. If a pedagogical university instructor mis-
pronounced or misused a word, most listeners
would go on into their own professional life and
do the same, perpetuating the mistakes. Heaven
forbid teachers are corrected at a lesson.
The most powerful tool in the classroom is of
course the class manual, the journal. A student
may get a bad mark for “interrupting” the proc-
ess; there may be a notation about “disruptive”
behaviour; parents may be called. Children learn
fast. “Why should I learn the topic when there
are so many mistakes in it?! Look, it says, “It
quickens my heartbreak”. Did she mean “heart
rate”? And here, “There are computers and a lot
of in our school”. Many times while visiting a les-
son I have heard a teacher reply to questions in
that “Teacher knows best” categorical voice, “Im-
prove? It means доказать.” A colleague made
her whole class recite in a chorus, “It aches to
move”.
When I was a beginner teacher at the univer-
sity, I was made to visit a senior colleague’s les-
son. At the end of each lesson she would say
with a nice smile, “And now ze last sin”. I politely
tried to correct her after a session, and acquired
an enemy for life. At a school Olympiad I asked
a leading teacher why she counted a correct an-
swer as a mistake and subtracted points from a
very good essay. “But I’ve never seen such an
expression!” And so on. My many experiences
taught me a few things, and now I restrict my-
self to listing some glaring examples of teacher
mistakes at every teacher refresher course or at
a workshop, and suggest that they use a diction-
ary or an educational site. It also seems to me
that I and many other authors have been writing
about the subject forever, and yet I get the same
questions from parents, students and teachers.
“What can I do if my grand-daughter’s teacher
says /ouwen/ when the word is oven?” Unfortu-
nately, in most cases the only thing one can do
is teach the child at home.
STAGE 2. Teaching. Your students should
use critical thinking while learning.
If you manage to give them the basics, they
may use those acquired skills later in life and
achieve considerable success in whatever they
are doing. For instance when you start a new
topic, underline all the words which have more
than one meaning, and explain to your students
that in English most words have more than one
meaning. For instance, when they learn the
words which describe a face, you may tell them
that nose may be used as a noun and a verb.
Cheek is another word worthy of mentioning.
“He/she has cheek” shows us that it is an idi-
om because there is no article and the singular
form is used. Spend a few seconds on a game,
ask your students how many cheeks they have,
are they classified by size, big and small, or by
sides, left and right. Proceed to the ears, elicit
the responses: left and right. And then ask them
if they also have left and right lips which will im-
mediately result in laughter. Aha, but when you
ask them how to denote the two lips they will
flounder trying to use the familiar “up and down”
notion which clearly does not apply here. Once
you turn the sometimes boring process of learn-
ing the new lexis into a game it will become eas-
ier to remember the topical vocabulary.
STAGE 3. The main question children ask
once they learn to speak is probably “Why”.
Why do we need to learn this topic? Why
should we learn those grammar rules? Why must
I study English if I may never use it in my future
life? The answers are many and various. True,
 PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT English

the Internet and the ability to read in at least

two languages broadens up one’s horizons im-
mensely. But let us remember that an absolute
majority of school children in the world (85%)
list communication with their peers as the main
reason for attending school. Primary school chil-
dren are often brought to school by their parents,
so they come into the classroom a few minutes
before the bell rings. Teenagers are quite inde-
pendent. They often come to school once the
building opens, sometimes a whole hour before
the lessons begin. The sole motivation is often
the desire to meet their friends, not necessarily
from their own classes.
One of the ways to motivate students and to
help them develop their thinking skills is through
communication. Find an international project
partner, arrange a correspondence with the
same age group in a different country or anoth-
er region of your own country. Another way is
working through an individual student’s interests
and aspirations. I would bring various texts into
my classroom for instance and distribute them
among students to read, understand and com-
ment upon. Thus we would all benefit by listening
to a future pediatrician, a specialist in bees, and
an avid car lover at the same lesson. Watching
their own peers present their findings on diverse
topics is good motivation for the whole class.
STAGE 4. Critical vs Criticizing.
While we may acquaint our adolescent stu-
dents with the main principles of critical thinking
and help them interpret, analyze, evaluate and
apply their new knowledge in life, it is equally
important to explain that critical does not mean
criticize. Many students would refuse to speak
5May–
June 2017
up and express their ideas for fear of ridicule.
If a teacher has a habit of scolding or making
fun of a child who happens to make a mistake,
then any attempt at developing critical thinking
will fail. Younger children would not be able to
formulate their resentment so they will keep
silent. Teenagers would indeed internalize, as
they would build up whole speeches against a
teacher in their heads. The feeling of resentment
may only grow; it is never a good companion to
successful learning.
STAGE 5. Re-thinking skills.
If we manage to teach our students how to
think, how to approach the new data creatively
and how later to apply their knowledge in the
future, we may produce some very productive
members of any society. Consolidation will then
become a life-long process of using one’s edu-
cation for the greater good. It is never possible
to predict which skills exactly will be most useful,
as we have no way of knowing how this or that
branch of science, this or that area of human
activity may develop. Look at the Internet and
its amazing growth. The ability to think, evaluate
and re-think if/when needed is a great skill which
we may foster and nurture even in very young
children.
By Nina M. Koptyug, Ph.D.,
Novosibirsk

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 English PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

6 May–
June 2017
PLEA FOR V1, 2, 3
Johanna Stirling is the NILE Online Academic Manager. She is responsible
for coordinating and developing all academic aspects of NILE Online.
She is a NILE Associate Trainer who teaches, trains teachers, writes ma-
terials and gives presentations about English language teaching. She has
written teaching materials for Cambridge University Press and self-published
Teaching Spelling to English Language Learners (British Council Award for
ELT Writing – Special Commendation and nominated for an ELTon Award
for Innovation in Teacher Resources). Johanna also wrote and tutors on the
Materials Development module on NILE’s Masters in Professional Develop-
ment for Language Education.
Her professional special interests are teaching spelling, materials devel-
opment, ICT and working with teachers. To find out more see her website,
The English Language Garden<http://www.elgweb.net/> and The Spelling
Blog<http://www.thespellingblog.blogspot.co.uk/>

When it comes to grammar terminology should we fol-
low those who have gone before us and use the terms that
have become familiar? Doing this certainly helps teach-
ers and learners to recognise and research new language
easily. But how about if we find this terminology lack-
ing in terms of accuracy, clarity and user-friendliness?
Should we use it anyway?
Take the three forms of verbs, which are usually re-
ferred to as ‘infinitive’, ‘past simple’ and ‘past partici-
ple’. As a teacher, I find these beset with difficulties:
• If you ask teachers (or learners) what the infinitive of
‘written’ is, some will insist it is ‘write’ while others
will be equally adamant that it is ‘to write’. And it mat-
ters if you are analysing the form of a language struc-
ture. For example, it would be easy to make the fol-
lowing two statements in a lesson: “after modal verbs
we use an infinitive” and “after ‘like’ we can use a ger-
und or an infinitive”? They can’t both be right, but are
both seen. Of course we can make it clear whether ‘to’
is included or not by talking about the ‘bare infinitive’
and the ‘to infinitive’, but the truth is we often don’t
specify.
• So if the infinitive is ‘write’ (or ‘to write’) what is
‘wrote’? The ‘past simple’ of course. But what a dread-
ful name for it! As Nick Hall and John Shepheard il-
lustrated so neatly in The Anti-Grammar Grammar
Book some years ago, it is often used not to refer to
the past. Why should a teacher have to tell her pre-
intermediate learners ‘So you can see we use the past
simple to talk about the future’ (If I woke up tomor-
row with a headache, I wouldn’t come to school.’ ‘It’s
time I went home’.) Or ‘Yes, that’s right we can also
use the past simple to talk about the present’ (‘I wish
my grammar was better’). Or ‘We can be more polite
by using the … umm … past simple’. (What was the
name please?). It’s enough to turn a student to Espe-
ranto!
• And that leaves us with the past participle. Problem?
Most of my learners can’t say it! I’ve heard ‘past par-
ticle’, ‘past parcel’ (a new grammar party game?) and
often ‘past par…..’ (the rest is an embarrassed mum-
ble). Some avoid the problem by calling is ‘pp’ but
that of course can be confused with present participle,
present perfect, or past perfect.
So all in all this terminology does not seem to serve
us too well. However, it is very prevalent. In a search
through a random selection of six (UK adult) ELT
coursebooks I found they all used this conventional ter-
minology.
For years I and many of my colleagues (and many
other teachers worldwide) have been talking about
Verb 1, Verb 2 and Verb 3 (or V1, V2 and V3). Learn-
ers are so used to seeing the three columns of irregular
verbs in the back of their coursebooks, for example,
that they can immediately relate to this. Even if they
are initially unsure what it means, after less than 1
minute’s explanation they’ve ‘got it’ and in my expe-
rience use it readily (no embarrassing pronunciation
problems here).
Why is it so much better?
Verb 1 is, for example, ‘write’. If we want to describe
‘to write’ we say ‘to + V1’. So no confusion there: ‘make
somebody + V1’ and ‘persuade somebody + to + V1’.
Verb 2 then is ‘wrote’. By removing any reference to
the past we avoid the confusion of ‘using the past to talk
about the present/future’. This neutrality makes English
grammar seem so much less illogical. V2 becomes a form

that just happens to be used for the past simple as well as
some other constructions. Keep time out of it!
Verb 3, as in ‘written’, is easier to say (even with the
tricky ‘th’ sound).
To find out what other teachers felt about this, I con-
ducted some small scale research and asked English
teachers from different countries about the terminology
that they used. Of the 34 respondents, only 60% said that
they usually used the term ‘infinitive’, 24% used ‘Verb
1’, ‘V1’ or ‘first form’. The others used ‘base form’ or
something different. A higher percentage, 73%, said they
usually referred to ‘past’ or ‘past simple’ (for ‘wrote’,
for example), and most of the rest (25%) said they used
‘Verb 2’, ‘V2’ or ‘second form’.
And as for the so-called past participle, 69% used this
terminology, while the other 31% preferred ‘Verb 3’,
‘V3’ or ‘3rd form’.
So we can see that the traditional terminology still has
a clear majority. However, it seems for a significant mi-
nority, over 25%, they choose to use alternative termi-
nology that found in nearly all coursebook and grammar
books (at least the ones I surveyed). Considering that fol-
lowing the status quo, that is using the terminology from
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT English
7May–
June 2017
the teaching materials, would be the simplest way, it is
interesting to note that many seem to feel it is worth using
the alternatives.
I went on to ask why they used the terminology they
used. Most of those using the conventional infinitive/past/
past participle names said they did so because it was what
was in the books, what the students had learnt before or
because it was what they had learnt themselves. Some
actually said they would prefer to use V1, V2 and V3,
but they were worried about deviating from terminology
used in their coursebooks. It does make you wonder if the
cart is leading the horse here.
Following my article on this subject in another maga-
zine, I conducted a short poll on the English Language
Garden website (http://www.elgweb.net) in which I
asked people to vote on this question: “Should English
language teaching materials refer to verb forms as Verb1,
Verb 2 and Verb 3?”. 76% said yes. I promised to pass
the results on to materials writers. Many teachers around
the world would appreciate terminology that is clear, ac-
curate and user-friendly, even if it is less conventional.
Please, if there are any materials writers out there, this is
what teacher would like.
:
 English PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

8 May–
June 2017
ON THE DEATH OF A CRAFT
As the previous academic year was drawing to an end, I posted this text on my Facebook page hoping to see
how many of my colleagues share my feelings about, and vision of, the role in store for the English teacher in
the changing ELT landscape. It instantly triggered some positive feedback – not much – but, what was most
precious for me, responses came from the ELT professionals whom I know as innovators. The original text
bore the provocative title On the Death of a Craft, which my Facebook readers immediately renounced as
extreme and irrelevant. However, I am sticking to my guns: I believe that teaching English as a craft that we
used to possess is close to extinction. Here is why.

Today, language teachers have completely lost the three
“unique selling points”, three monopolies that have secured
them high demand for several centuries, firstly – among the
few privileged and later – for a relatively short time – among
the general public:
1) a monopoly on the knowledge of language itself;
2) a monopoly on the methodological knowledge or the skill
to teach a foreign language; and
3) the exclusive opportunity to facilitate practice of a foreign
language.
In other words, this profession used to thrive solely be-
cause the learner’s success in mastering a language totally
depended on the language teacher as a bearer of the three
requisites for this success.
These days, however, the knowledge and skills that my
colleagues possess have ceased to be sacred or exclusive.
To begin with, the knowledge of any foreign language in the
world no longer belongs only to a professional community.
Moreover, the language (and English to a larger extent than
others) has left even the broader domain of the liberal arts,
let alone the formerly inherent linguistic domain. As for Eng-
lish, it consecutively transgressed the borders of Great Brit-
ain itself and of the British Empire and ended up destroying
all global boundaries altogether. The present day status of
English makes any claims of its unique knowledge or com-
mand simply ridiculous.
With the emergence of the global network, and particularly
of the broadband connection, with digitalization of both the
virtual space and individual mind, English teachers have lost
another key monopoly – their methodological knowledge.
Nowadays, traditional, groundbreaking, original, pseudosci-
entific, and downright quackish methodologies of language
acquisition are openly available and competing for students’
brains. Now learners can enjoy choosing systems of, and ap-
proaches to, teaching. Their choice of a methodology is no
longer dramatic: if one system fails, just go find another one,
as a possible mismatch will never imply wasting too much
time or money.
Finally, in the global world where native speakers of dif-
ferent languages move freely, and powered by a surge in
communication technologies, the English teacher’s role as
the most natural source of language practice provider has
been reduced to a minimum. Faced with the dilemma wheth-
er to chat in English with her Russian teacher Maria Davy-
dovna or the Canadian Mary Davidson on Skype (or even, if
Mary is an expat – in the local conversation club), the learner
shows little hesitation. After all, knowledge yearns for pro-
bation. Again, because of its global status, English in par-
ticular can be accessed more easily than any other language
in the world.
The former English teacher has become useless, as the
content, the methodology, and the practice are delivered to
the learner instantly once they press their touchscreen. The
craft has passed away.
Having felt the cutthroat trend, the English Teaching
profession has switched on a self-defense mechanism. On
a global scale, it has tried to rescue itself with patched
up adjustments rather than deep reforms: utilizing inter-
national language tests, ESP, and CLIL. In other words,
there was an attempt to substitute artificial demands for
the genuinely unique points gone for good. Now it is only
extending the agony of the craft, but a fatal outcome is
certain.
In June, I conducted another brief survey among my stu-
dents about the results achieved in the academic year. A
short questionnaire with a humorous undertone was aimed
at gathering feedback on the benefits and drawbacks of the
course I had facilitated. I conduct this activity in some form
annually; one thing remains unchanged: all the questions
on the survey are open to the great possible extent. Here is
the main trend I have seen recently: the percentage of stu-
dents appraising their substantial development of language
skills has dropped several-fold. It is happening despite the
fact that my students are learning English both for active
use in life (for example, daily academic life) and for spe-

cific formal purposes (examinations, interviews, business
correspondence).
Instead, I have observed a comparable surge in the in-
dex of learners highlighting the following aspects as strong
points of my courses: interesting content, broad range of
themes, inspirational components, comfortable psychologi-
cal background, interactivity, and extensive use of technol-
ogy. Therefore, the development of the skills, believed to be
consequential among language teachers, has turned into a
priority for learners. It is now obvious to me that most of
my adult students appreciate our lessons not for the lan-
guage knowledge gained, and not even for the opportunity
to practice the language in a comfortable environment, but
most importantly, for broadening their outlook on life and
understanding themselves through the medium of the Eng-
lish language.
This underlying transformation of learners’ needs will soon
lead to four aftershocks critical for us, English teachers.
• Firstly, the unconditional acceptance of inter- and multi-
disciplinary nature of the subject and, hence, boosting
your general knowledge to “the sky is the limit”. CPD
(continuous professional development) has stopped being
an advantage in the trade; now it is an indispensable re-
quirement for success in ELT.
• Secondly, we will soon have to acknowledge the death of
the baseline course book for any course as none of them
is capable of meeting the diversity and unpredictable
change in the vector of learners’ demands and interests.
Publishers’ recent attempt to merely move content online,
conserving the restrictive and cumulative approach to its
organization and design, makes teaching even more for-
mal and lifeless.
• Thirdly, ESP and EAP will pass away. Modern life has
become a succession of specific purposes, and CPD is no
longer separable from personal growth.
• And, finally, we can forecast an approaching demise of the
language tests in the conventional format, where only lan-
guage skills are assessed either separately or only slightly
integrated.
Under these circumstances, the role of the language teach-
er changes dramatically. Instead of instruction and teaching,
another role is being mandated by learners, namely ‘a lan-
guage curator’. The teacher of adults in the modern language
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT English
9May–
June 2017
classroom is primus inter pares – first among equals. Here
is an incomplete to-do list for a language curator: 1) under-
stand the vector of students’ interest; 2) find and/or design
materials with the language aims and objectives in mind; 3)
motivate learners to be pro-active both in and outside the
classroom; 4) inspire students to make them confident and
avoid forming language barriers; 5) create a comfortable en-
vironment for language practice, and 6) facilitate both group
and individual identity. If these conditions are met, the mod-
ern language learner is almost doomed to success.
However, in order to meet these conditions, the language
curator has to move beyond the learners’ language needs
themselves. The curator will have to push the limits of un-
derstanding of the learners’ life, be aware of it in a broader
context; only then will language classes appeal to them
as relevant. Only then will learners themselves create a
language environment in their life, will start a relationship
with the language, and will see an inherent link between
the language and their success, both personal and profes-
sional.
Ask yourself if there has been a single occasion in your
life when a confusion between Present Simple and Present
Continuous played a vital role, e.g. disrupted communica-
tion, ruined a project, kicked you out of an important group.
I bet you it has not. However, one of the following may have
been the cause of real issues in communication: you were too
shy where your voice was needed, or you lacked confidence
or a can-do attitude, or you failed to recognize the oppor-
tunity by its attributes, or you ignored the (cultural or pro-
fessional) conventions, etc. A language curator could have
helped you do much better in all these situations.
I would hate this text to sound like an obituary, although I
have used some strong words like ‘death’ and ‘passed away’.
In any change, there is also an opportunity, and we should do
our best to see it. These days it has unveiled itself through our
learners’ demands, so the ball is in our court. The challenge
is to change our fundamental approach to language teaching,
especially the teaching of adults. The potential of language
curatorship is massive, and learners expect us to assume the
role, for the previous one has lost all its appeal.
By Vasiliy Gorbachev
Illustration from http://2.bp.blogspot.com/
 English METHODS OF TEACHING
10 May–
June 2017
WHY CAN’T THEY SIT
AND BE QUIET?
Helping Students with Attention Deficit
Disorder in a Language Classroom
This article deals with learners displaying signs of ADD,
Attention Deficit Disorder (or Difference). Although this term
is now widely used not only by medical professionals but also
by educators in general, it seems important to understand right
from the beginning that used in reference to a student, this
label is more of an umbrella term to refer to a generally recog-
nized type of learners’ behavior, rather than a diagnosis. Very
often we, as teachers, have limited access to our learner’s pro-
files and in absence of a document from a neurology specialist
might wish to deter from announcing this or that has ADD.
However, being able to recognize certain patterns of behav-
ior to plan more suitable learning procedure for a student is
an essential part of a teacher’s job. In this case, using a term
might help with teacher research, professional discussions and
generally sharing experiences – the latter being the purpose of
this article.
What kind of behavior are we talking about?
Commonly, in professional literature students who might
have ADD are described as those who have difficulty staying
(sitting, mostly) still and concentrating, that is, keeping their
attention on one item for a given amount of time and control-
ling their impulses (hence over-emotional reactions). Such
learners can be easily spotted in class where they shout out
answers out of turn, impulsively get up from their places and
move around the room, constantly ask to repeat instructions
or miss out whole chunks of lessons not being able to write a
single letter in their notebooks. Clearly, sustaining attention,
as the name of the condition suggests, is the main challenge
for such learners.
However, although ADD is commonly associated with
fidgety individuals who are restless, but quick to react, there
is the other side. Learners who take longer to produce any
kind of reaction and generally seem “lazy” and unrespon-
sive, usually also can be expected to have ADD. This slower
mode of behavior is explained by hypodynamic processes in
individuals’ physiology, once again to remind us that typical,
repeated behavior is very often defined by a person’s physi-
cal state, not their will. Without further neurological detours,
let us keep in mind this duality of ADD and continue to look
at approaches that could prove to be helpful with this educa-
tional difficulty.
So what can a teacher do to help?
Classroom management with ADD learners usually seems
rather challenging: they are likely to react impulsively, inter-
rupt, make silly comments, move around the class, ask to
repeat instructions again and again and generally are slow to
follow up with the classwork. All of the above can turn out
to be distracting for other learners in the group as well, so in
planning classroom management for such groups, it is worth
keeping in mind not only the educational support necessary
for SEN learners, but also the way for them to interact with
their peers throughout the class to ensure productive work
on both sides.
In cases of both hyperactive and hypodynamic children,
general recommendations will typically include routines.
These might take form of a fixed lesson form for younger
learners or a repertoire of learning activities familiar to learn-
ers for older students. Knowing what comes next or how cer-
tain tasks are done can help reduce anxiety in hyperdynamic
learners and will also support hypodynamic students by pro-
viding a familiar framework for a task.
However, at the same time, teachers dealing with ADD
learners will need to be prepared to show sensitivity and
flexibility while carrying on with their established routines.
Most professionals who have worked with ADD learners
typically observe that this SEN group might at times display
uncommon behavior and either refuse to complete tasks or
carry them out quickly and efficiently in the same condi-
tions for no particular reason. This could be the result of a
variety of factors, such as weather outside, amount of sleep
a learner gets, family issues or late breakfast. Typically, if
an ADD learner seems to be struggling with the lesson or
refusing to complete a particular task, a teacher might wish
to try negotiating the issue mildly but if unsuccessful from
the first or second attempt, it is recommended to offer an al-
ternative task or even let a learner rest for several minutes.

Insisting, confronting or disciplining such learners is very
unlikely to bear any productive results: if their nervous sys-
tem requires a little break, such students will physically not
be able to proceed with your instructions. To go around this
problem, a teacher might offer help and actually engage
in doing the task with the learner (firstly, modeling it
themselves and then shifting the initiative to the student) or
provide a micro “plan” for work: please, copy these words
here. Done? Now, copy this and that. Very good, and now,
let’s read this question and write the answer here. However,
if a learner is refusing to complete a task, it might be bet-
ter for everyone to let them switch to another exercise or
simply clean the board.
To aid their active learners “survive” till the end of the
lesson, a teacher might wish to offer them opportunities to
move during the class without distracting others: distribute
copies, sort out pencils from pens, bring that book from the
shelf and similar small tasks. Doodling, even playing with so
called “fidget toys” like hand gum or squeeze balls can help
such individuals recharge and stay seated.
Situations when an ADD learner overtly, repeatedly and
sometimes even aggressively refuses to complete a task are
not rare – it generally means that their nervous system is
exhausted and is currently unable to cope with any input.
However suspicious this might look, especially with younger
learners, I personally prefer to let the student take some rest.
It usually happens towards the end of the lesson, but basi-
cally signals the amount of productive time this ADD student
is able to spend on task. This amount of time will be seen
growing during the school year and while short and rather
unproductive in primary, in secondary school it is typical to
see even ADD learners sitting (however fidgety, but sitting!)
through the whole lesson.
In the light of what has been discussed in the previous
paragraph, it is clear that observing classroom rules is
one of the biggest difficulties for such learners: waiting for
their turn, raising a hand to speak, staying in the same place
throughout a lesson are a challenge. From my experience
with ADD learners – young children or teenagers – disciplin-
ing them or introducing any sort of “punishment” such as ex-
tracting points from a group, not rewarding their work with
a sticker or even giving them bad marks has never proved
to be effective. Logically, it is the behavior that suffers as a
result of ADD, so although all attempts are made to support
learners and help them develop their self-control skills, it is
clear that very often they still fail to stop themselves from
disruptive behavior. Monitoring such learners throughout the
class and directing their energy (eitter on a task, if you think
they are still within their productive slot of attention, or on
something else, when attention is exhausted) in a friendly,
but directive manner and a calm voice usually seems to be
working better. Confrontation might cause hysterical reac-
tions which will generally take more time and attention from
a teacher to resolve, than a reminder to get back to their place
or raise a hand.
To help a learner with ADD start learning about classroom
rules and appropriate behavior, you might want to introduce
“self-talk”. If a student is known to behave disruptively be-
cause of ADD, you can briefly but convincingly explain that
everyone needs working atmosphere in class during the les-
son, and to contribute to it, the learner will need to practise
watching their own behavior. It is not very easy, but one thing
METHODS OF TEACHING English
11May–
June 2017
you can do is remind yourself what to focus on. For example,
“I should raise a hand before shouting things out”. Do you
agree? Can you repeat it, please? Then, during the class, a
teacher can remind the learner to repeat the “rules” they have
discussed before – perhaps, quietly and to themselves.
Praise in such cases plays a great role. It is important
to support your ADD students in every effort (conscious or
not) to sustain their attention and to behave in a way that
will allow others to study productively. Every time an ADD
learner produces work in time and successfully completes a
task without disturbing anybody deserves praise. When they
are struggling, encouragement is also known to be extremely
efficient.
Another way to introduce quieter moments in your class-
room with ADD learners is to offer breathing exercises.
These do not have be sophisticated yoga-like sequences, but
simple exercises for children which will help them switch
attention, recharge and change pace. If you see your class
and ADD learners in particular are struggling to focus, you
might suggest they stand up, slowly breathe in and raise their
arms, stretch and close their eyes, perhaps. You can look for
“mindful breathing” on the Internet to get more ideas, but
basically trying it out with your class and looking at their
reaction is a great start.
Drama activities are a great way to vary classroom dy-
namics and allow ADD learners to take up roles and express
their emotions in ways that throughout regular activities
would be distracting to others. Drama activities can be in-
cluded into practically any lesson at different levels and with
different ages, whether it’s acting out a song or a story with
younger children, or role-playing a dialogue from a course
book. More ideas can be taken from a book by S. Hillyard
“English through Drama” (Hellbling, 2016).
Resources
Learning more about ADD and ways to interact with and
support such students can significantly empower a teacher
and help them build professional and effective approach to
teaching such individuals. The author highly recommends
looking at the following two titles to enjoy an informative
and highly practical read on the subject: “Special Educa-
tional Needs” by Marie Delaney (OUP, 2015) and a Russian
book (“Дети-тюфяки и дети-катастрофы”) by Ekaterina
Murashova (Samokat, 2014).
By Masha Andrievich,
teacher trainer and English teacher,
Lyceum No. 1524, Moscow
 English METHODS OF TEACHING
12 May–
June 2017
HOW TO GAMIFY YOUR
ENGLISH CLASS. Step 3
In the previous articles we talked about two approaches to
motivating millennial teens. When you apply gamification to
your lesson, it is a good idea to start with extrinsic motiva-
tion and introduce PBL (points-badges-leaderboard) first.
To maintain a long-term interest in our lessons, we employ
intrinsic motivation. According to D. Pink, intrinsic motiva-
tion consists of Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose, which we
discussed in the second article, as well as the ways of apply-
ing them to our lessons.
So gamification helps us to reconsider the traditional les-
son plan and it demands a lot of energy and dedication from
the teacher. Can we find a less stressful and time-consuming
method of motivation?
EDUCATIONAL GAMES AND GAMIFICATION
Very often when teachers hear the word gamification they
think that we will talk about playing educational games at
the lessons. Which is not correct. Gamification is the use of
game elements and game principles in the classroom. It is a
long-term process, which takes a series of lessons.
Unlike gamification, educational games are normally em-
ployed to practise target language at some point at the lesson.
Educational games are easy to find and they don’t need lots
of preparation.
Gamification has become a buzz word over the last six
years or so, while educational games are a mainstream teach-
ing technique. The first researches on the association between
games and learning date back to the mid-twentieth century.
The benefits of games are obvious: they enhance motivation,
provide authentic output for the language, all while improv-
ing students’ social skills. Still many teachers try to mini-
mize the use of games at their lessons.
I conducted a survey among my colleagues regarding
the frequency they used games at their lessons. The results
showed that, on average, English teachers spend about 10%
of their lesson time playing games, mostly as warming up
activities, or as a rewarding activity in the end of the class.
In answer to the question why they don’t play in the class-
room, teachers say that their students are too adult to play.
But if you ask the same students how they spend their per-
sonal free time, you’ll definitely receive an answer – play-
ing video games, card and board games with their friends.
An average young adult in the UK spends 22 hours a week
playing computer games. So I strongly believe that it’s our
preconceived ideas that prevent us from playing games at
the lessons.
GAMES VS ACTIVITIES
There is another category of teachers, who after a few at-
tempts, have come to the conclusion that their students don’t
like games. The problem here lies in the common miscon-
ception that any interactive activity is called a game. One of
the best definitions of a game states that the game is a series
of meaningful decisions which influence the outcome of the
game. If a player doesn’t feel that his actions affect the flow
of the game, they lose both interest and motivation.
When I analysed the games that I found on the Internet
for the query ELT games, most of them turned out to be dif-
ferent activities, not real games. Let’s have a look at some
really popular games and activities which are used at English
lessons.
Role-play In a café. This is an activity where one student
performs the role of a waiter and another is a guest. They act
out a conversation in a café. Unfortunately, this type of simu-
lation activity will not engage anyone older than 4 years old
unless you add elements of strategy to this simulation.
By adding some extra rules and players’ goals, you turn
a simple simulation into a game, which is interesting for
teens and adults to play. For example, a student has a cer-
tain amount of money and he needs 2000 calories; he goes
to a café and tries to buy a more nourishing meal for less
money.
Various crosswords are also very popular. Is a crossword
puzzle a game? In fact, it is not a game, it is just a puzzle. As
there is only one correct answer and the player can not make
any meaningful decisions which influence the outcome, you
either know the correct answer or not. That’s why cross-
words are not very engaging for teens and adults along with
word searches and other puzzles, unless you add some game
elements to them.
The most obvious thing is to add a competitive element
when you divide the group into two teams and the group who
completes the task first is the winner. Or you can set a time
limit and the person who could come up with the greatest
number of correct answers within, let’s say, two minutes is
the winner.
The truth is that competitions as well as puzzles are not
real games. Actually they just measure the intellectual abili-
ties of our students. The good thing is that they are anyway
much more enjoyable than boring exercises from course-
books.
HOW TO GAMIFY YOUR COURSEBOOK
If you are not ready to go into full gamification or only
want to enhance your gamification framework, try to turn the
most common exercises from your coursebook into games
and competitions.
Let’s have a look at the most popular exercises and how
we can transform them. Video illustrations to these activities
can be viewed on Youtube.
Match a word and a picture exercise is often found in the
beginning of the vocabulary section in the coursebook. Here
are some activities to be used instead of matching exercises.
1) Print the new words on separate stripes of paper and put
them on the table face up. Ask your students to walk round
the table. You show them a flashcard and they have to slap
the corresponding word card on the table.

2) Put wordcards and picture flashcards into two separate
piles on the table face down. A student turns over the first
wordcard and flashcard and if they match, they can keep
them. The winner is the person with the largest number of
wordcard/flashcard sets.
3) Bingo. Ask your students to write down any 5 words from
your target vocabulary. When your students are ready, start
showing them the flashcards one by one. When a student
identifies the flashcard which matches one of the words
they have got on their list, they cross it out. The first per-
son to cross out all the words and to cry out “Bingo” is the
winner.
Although the activities above refer to competitions, stu-
dents like playing them.
Pelmanism is an example of a real game, based on mem-
ory mechanics, which we can use to replace a matching ex-
ercise.
Put wordcards and flashcards on the table face down. Stu-
dents take turns to play. At their turn they open two cards,
one flashcard and one wordcard, of their choice from the lay-
out. If they match, a student keeps these two cards. If they do
not match, a student turns them face down, without changing
their position in the layout, and it is the next students’s turn.
The winner is the person with the largest number of match-
ing pairs.
Repeat the words is another boring exercise from the
coursebook. How can we spice it up?
1) Line up the students in two teams. Give the two students
at the front each a flash card. When you say go, the first
in line says the word and passes the flash card over their
head, the next student says the word and passes the card
under between their legs, etc. The last student in line races
to the front to hand the flashcard to the teacher and says
the word. The first team to complete the activity gets a
point (submitted by Sarah Litwin-Schmid).
2) Clever parrots. The teacher shows a flashcard and names
what is on it (teacher may say a different word deliber-
ately). Students should repeat the word if it matches the
flashcard and keep quiet if it doesn’t. Eliminate the stu-
dents who have made a mistake. The last student who is
left is the winner.
METHODS OF TEACHING English
13
May–
June 2017
Illustration from http://slideplayer.com
3) Fast Train Bomb. Put students in a circle and start a bomb
timer, show a flashcard, name it and send it round the
circle. While the bomb is ticking, students pass round a
flashcard and repeat the word on it. Students as a team
get a point for each flashcard which returns to the teacher
before the bomb explodes.
Unscramble the words as stated above is a puzzle. How
can we turn it into a game?
Print out the words from your Unscramble the words ex-
ercise on separate stripes of paper and put them on the walls
around your classroom. Divide your students in pairs where
one student is a writer and another is a runner. The runner
looks for the words, comes back to the writer and spells the
words. The first pair to spell 5 correct words is the winner.
Make true sentences about yourself.
Basketball. Place a line of flashcards on the floor and a
basket far away. To shoot the basket from far away is hard, so
students need to say a sentence with the word from the card
and make their way closer and closer to the basket. When
they feel comfortable throwing and hitting the basket, they
make their attempt. If they make a mistake, they throw the
ball standing next to the last flashcard where they produced a
correct sentence. Give one point for each successful hit.
Comprehension check questions after the text.
The teacher cuts a worksheet with questions to the text
into stripes (one stripe – one question) and puts them on the
blackboard/desk. Students in turns pick up a question and
answer it. If they answer it correctly, they get a point. If they
make a mistake a point is taken from them. The question
they couldn’t answer is put back.
After each round let students go back to the texts and read
them once again. Set a time limit. With each round give less
time for reading the texts.
As you see, any coursebook exercise can be turned into an
exciting game or activity. After some practice you’ll be able
to come up with dozens of games at the click of a finger and
become the teacher over 9000 level!
By Elena Peresada
to be continued
 English METHODS OF TEACHING

14 May–
ECONOMICS AND ECONOMY
June 2017
OF EFL CLASSROOM:
Learning from Adjacent Fields
PART 3
The other extreme of the potential meaning quantity
continuum would be a classroom with very little con-
trol on behalf of the teacher and no planned input for
the lesson. The teacher’s intervention is ‘just enough to
maintain a minimum of discipline to guarantee safety
in the lesson’ (a comment by an anonymous teacher on
a teachers’ forum http://www.efl.ru/forum/teaching/).
This kind of lingvonomy can be compared with the so-
called laissez-faire ‘economic system with only enough
government regulation sufficient to protect property
rights against theft and aggression’ (Wikipedia: http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laissez-faire). Examples of such
a lingvonomy could be a kind of conversational club
session: students come just to talk about anything, the
teacher’s role is to maintain this conversation by listen-
ing and prompting the language to help the student ver-
balise their thoughts and exchanges.
The most dangerous traps of this lingvonomic system are
fossilized mistakes and low development of the cognitive
potential – limited exposure due to restricted contact with the
out-of-the-classroom world. Another negative consequence
is the phenomenon of drop-outs – learners who choose to
leave the classroom and stop learning the language. The
principle ‘use it or lose it’ is at work.
The listed above disadvantages are used by “traditional-
ists” to criticise communicative teaching and make proph-
ecies like this, ‘Students will speak pidgin English, on the
level of gastarbeiters and market vendours’.
These dangers are illustrated in the table below. The arti-
facts are taken from the times of the Great Depression in the
United States in the period between 1929 and 1939.

Having little contact with the target language

and lacking corrective feedback (as long as
the message is clear, the form doesn’t really
Organised crime (mafia):
matter), the learner ends up speaking broken
English full of fossilized mistakes that be-
come systematic.
Al Capone: a Chicago gangster convicted of tax
evasion in 1931.

A great number of neurons in the brain turn

out to be extra, they get pruned, and as a
result, the language connectome doesn’t
Unemployment: develop to its full potential due to the lack
of sufficient exposure to the target language
which may be confined to the teacher talk
only.

Great Depression. New York City. May 1936.

Students leave the classroom as they do not

see their expectations met. The “flesh” of the
language, the declarative knowledge of lexis
Emigration/migration:
and structures, is not presented systemati-
cally, something they expect a proper class-
room should always do.

Dorothea Lange photographs of the Dust Bowl Mi-

gration (from the Oakland Museum Archives).

It should be noted that similar processes were in their prime
in the 90s (‘the time of troubles’) in Russia – organized crime,
a huge wave of emigration, and rocketing unemployment.
Such classroom lingvonomies a-la laissez-faire might
be able to exist, though the very nature of language, i.e. the
norm-referenced identity of its elements which ensures un-
derstanding of a word by all members of a language commu-
nity (Bakhtin, 1998), and the necessity to align to the existing
norms in order to be understood, assumes the teacher’s active
intervention and monitoring students’ output with corrective
feedback. Nevertheless, they will always stand outside the
mainstream educational establishments, either private or
state: with no expected outcomes specified by national min-
istries of education or international exam syndicates, making
them an alternative “underground” methodology.
Yet, the most successful economies in the world are those
which are able to find the proper balance between the state
and the private sectors. They are so-called mixed economies.
The examples are:
• USA: substantial market regulation, agricultural subsi-
dies, extensive government-funded research and develop-
ment, Medicare.
• France (“Thirty Glorious Years” under Charles de
Gaulle): transportation, energy and telecommunication
infrastructures.
• Germany: public services, welfare, proper working con-
ditions, employment regulation (Wikipedia).
The regulation of certain sectors in the economies in all
these examples is planned by state authorities and supported
with tax collections for the reason that these branches are
essential for an economy’s mere survival and existence. Sec-
ondly, scientific research work, police and army, welfare sys-
tems, environmental protection are too costly for the private
sector. It may take a long time for a private enterprise to ac-
cumulate sufficient capital to launch a research project, for
example space exploration, and besides, the accumulation of
revenues may take a century for something like transporting
natural resources from the Moon.
But what is given to the market is production of consumer
goods, retail trade and services because “the only way to de-
termine what society actually wants is by allowing private
enterprise to use their resources competing to meet the needs
of consumers” (Wikipedia).
To reconcile the two extremes, I would suggest creating
a mixed lingvonomic system in which both the teacher and
students direct the study process, combining both planned
and market systems. Analysing the real mixed economies
existing in today’s world we may define the following areas
for the planned sector:
• ‘investing into scientific research work’ and developing
learners’ cognitive abilities;
• ‘building a welfare system’ by creating a non-threatening
atmosphere in the classroom;
• ‘maintaining high employment standards’ by regulating
student participation and selecting topics and tasks that
will engage students to participate;
• ‘developing infrastructure’ by establishing rapport and
shortening the social distance among the group members;
• ‘constructing heavy industry’ by helping students to detect
language patterns, raise their language awareness and thus
‘solve the riddle of the new language’ (Bakhtin, 1998);
• ‘maintaining competition’ through dynamic assessment.
METHODS OF TEACHING English
15
May–
June 2017
The market sector should be responsible for creating a
motive to act verbally under “the given circumstances” (Sta-
nislavsky’s expression quoted in Leontiev 2014), supplying
the required form-meaning composites as ‘consumer goods’
and selling them through ‘retail trade’ of focus-on-form ac-
tivities.
In conclusion, by using the concept of complex systems
and drawing an analogy between seemingly unrelated areas
of economics and EFL methodology, it is possible to trace
how a classroom situation may reflect a country’s econom-
ic policy. It also allows us to work out an optimal balance
between carefully planned input and spontaneous demand
for more language in the course of the lesson. In the long
run, this should ensure a maximum interaction in the les-
son among the students, the teacher, the materials and the
new language. The interaction is stirred by students’ activity
to use the new language as a tool to express their potential
meanings. This interaction turns the lesson into a never-end-
ing polyphonic dialogue, a microcosm condition for creating
a language.
If the student has a chance to convert his potential mean-
ings into the target language at any point in the course of the
lesson, this lesson can be rightfully called communicative.
The approach the teacher claims to adhere to is irrelevant as
long as there is a demand for more language input on behalf
of the student and this demand is met. The true difference
between a traditional lesson and a communicative one can be
measured by the quantity of students’ realised meanings that
the lesson generated.
References:
Council of Europe. Common European Framework of Refer-
ence for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2001.
Dornyei, Z. The Psychology of Second Language Acquisition.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Ellis, R. Task-based Language Learning and Teaching. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2009.
Larsen-Freeman, D. and L. Cameron. Complex Systems and
Applied Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
Richards, J. C. and T. S. Rodgers. Approaches and Methods
in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2014.
Thornbury, S. and P. Wilkins. The CELTA (Certificate in English
Language Teaching to Adults) Course. Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-
versity Press, 2007.
Willis, J. A Framework for Task-Based Learning. Longman,
1996.
Бахтин, М.М. (под маской). Маска третья. Волошинов В. Н.
Марксизм и философия языка. М., 1998.
Глухов, В.П. Психолингвистика. М., 2016.
Зимняя, И.А. Психологические аспекты обучения говорению
га иностранном языке. М., 1984.
Леонтьев, А.А. Язык, речь, речевая деятельность. М., 2014.
Английский в начальной школе (Retrieved in November 2011
from http://www.efl.ru/forum/threads/51904/)
By Svetlana V. Zhavoronkova,
Moscow State Pedagogical University,
chair of Foreign Languages in Primary School,
Institute of Childhood, senior teacher
 English TEACHERS FORUM
16 May–
June 2017
OUT OF MY COMFORT ZONE
IF EVERY CHILD IS PRECIOUS SHOULD THEY ALL
RECEIVE GOOD GRADES?
Everybody is different, nobody is the same. This is the
motto of the innovative German school pilot project on which
I worked for the past two years. In the past two issues I have
described the specific nature of this school and the specific
materials which we developed. This final article will take a
look at the ultimate challenge of how to live up to our aspira-
tion of individual support for every single child in their indi-
vidual skills and talents and at the same time providing a fair
assessment. In order to enable meaningful and holistic learn-
ing processes we were trying to do without the pressure of the
meritocracy around us that would favour the gifted children
but discourage slower learners.
There is a famous German cartoon by Traxler which il-
lustrates the dilemma of a fair assesment brilliantly. In an
outdoor classroom a teacher is addressing their students, a
group of several different animals, amongst them a bird, a
monkey, an elephant and a goldfish: „In order to guarantee a
fair selection the examination task is the same for all of you.
Climb up the tree!“ Some have interpreted this cartoon in
favour of the tripartite school system. The elephant and the
goldfish are neither able to nor should they be expected to
climb on the high tree of a university entrance qualification
so their achievements should not be judged against the high
standard of the A-levels (Abitur). The monkey on the other
hand should be trained at climbing trees from a very young
age onwards in order to achieve his full potential and should
be graded accordingly. Others have interpreted the cartoon
in favour of a comprehensive school system. Because all the
different animals have different strengths and cannot be rea-
sonably allocated into a single swimming school (duck and
goldfish), a single running school (elephant and leopard)
and a single climbing school (monkey and cat). They like-
wise cannot be expected to work on the same tasks at the
same time. The answer would be an individualised learning
culture with an individualised assessment. The same cartoon
has been used by proponents and opponents of the compre-
hensive school reform alike which shows the inherent prob-
lems of a fair assessment.
There were several ways in which our school broke fresh
ground in assessment. Most importantly, we did not give any
grades from the first grade to the ninth grade. Instead we of-
ten had feedback conversations with the students to reflect on
their work and future goals. Twice a year these conversations
were held on a larger scale in front of the student’s parents.
The students prepared for the semester and the end of the year
conversation a week in advance and reflected on their work
ethics and their social skills and on their achievements in the
lessons in other projects or free time activities. The students
and the teachers evaluated whether they had reached their
goals and what they wanted to work on in the coming semes-
ter, how their success would be measured and what help they
might need. Another interesting part about these conversa-
tions was that we usually started with the personal highlights
of the semester. Many great memories were revived and beau-
tiful work products or excellent tests were looked at. These
conversation days were always very stressful to prepare and to
conduct but at the end of the day we all left with raised spirits
due to the positive tone of the conversations.
Positive language was a very important part of our assess-
ment culture. Instead of simply marking the mistakes made
in tests or talking about skills or behaviour that had to be im-
proved, we focused on the achievements and what the chil-
dren were able to do already. This was very effective for shy
and quiet children but it could be odd to praise an impetu-
ous and lazy student once more for the good start they made.
Talking about expectations for the proper behaviour of the
children or about basic limitations to the freedom of learning
was rather difficult. For once if every child was different and
was learning in their individual way and along their individual
ways then it became almost impossible to reprimand them for
an unacceptable work attitude because what should be the
standard they should be measured against? The entire notion
of age-appropriateness lost every meaning in our multi-age
learning groups where we encouraged individuality.
Of course, there were some standards after all. In my pre-
vious article I have described the competence grids which
we developed in order to label the differentiated exercises
within the task-based projects we worked on during the year.
We had taken all the skill descriptors from our state curricu-
lum and created a matrix with labels from A1-B4. B4 would
be the level which grammar school students should reach at
the end of year 10 in order to enter the final two years of the
sixth form. B3 would be the level of 10th graders at a mid-
dle school, B2-10th graders at basic school and B1 the lowest
possible diploma to be attained at the end of the 9th grade at
basic school. This way we were able to translate the tasks our
students were working on in their mixed-aged groupings back
into regular school year levels. If the tasks were well designed
or chosen, that is. Generally, we rejected every idea of sorting
our students in ready-made boxes of the traditional regular
school system. On their report card the students would find
full moons, half moons or crescents to visualise how many
of the skills on the different levels had already been acquired.
What made this system very intransparent though is that some
subjects would give a general feedback on the skills that the
children could have worked on in theory and mark them as
successfully achieved, others were mainly commenting for
the quantity of tests that had been written and others would fo-
cus more strongly on the quality. In English, we indicated the
different levels which we were able to attest for the listening,
writing, reading and speaking skills but we would not be able
to give any feedback on the quantity of topics and thus vo-
cabulary areas or even grammar topics a student had worked
on. That meant that our students scored high on skill-based
tests, which were content-independent, even though they had
covered substantially less content than students at a regular
school would have.
Because our school focused on skills instead of content
learning, we had to rethink the way in which we would give
feedback on the quantity and quality of the learning outcomes.
When you assess content you can define a certain scope of
content as 100% and then count the percentage students were

able to reproduce. If you are assessing skills such as ‘I can ask
for directions’ instead of content, it becomes more difficult. It
was one of the core beliefs of our management that the mas-
tery of skills was a binary concept; you were either able to get
the directions or you were not. If you were thus considering
the problem-solving aspect of the skills concept, then the lin-
guistic quality of your way to getting the directions would be
content-fixed and pedantic. After all, what was it worth to be
able to perform well on a vocabulary or grammar test if you
could not make yourself understood in a communicative situ-
ation? If we held up the old standards and the beauty of being
able to communicate correctly, we were considered antiquated
and conservative.
Another problem of percentage-based feedback is that
it shifts the focus of attention to the deficits instead of the
achievements and fosters a competitive environment where
individual learning progress and the supportive community
spirit of the learning group are likely to be replaced by an
individualistic trial of strengths which creates a community
of winners and losers. Therefore we tried to evade summaris-
ing our assessment at all times possible and aimed to provide
an assessment as detailed as possible concerning the different
skills that were mastered.
An important pillar of our school which is connected to the
learning of skills was our culture of autonomous independ-
ent learning. If you consider the assumed binary nature of
the mastery of skills and the independent learning culture, we
were fostering, our solution might seem brilliant to you. In
order to give appropriate feedback on the mastery of the in-
dividual skills our checklists contained two construction zone
signs after every skill descriptor. One for the self-assessment
of the students – an important part of any independent learn-
ing environment – and one for the teachers. If the construc-
tion zone sign was crossed out completely this meant that you
were able to apply this skill completely on your own. If it
was crossed out halfway this meant that you were able to ap-
ply this skill with a little help. A sign in brackets meant that
you still needed a lot of help with applying this skill and an
unmarked construction zone sign or one that was highlighted
with an exclamation mark meant quite literally that this was a
construction site for you. The theory is very plausible but the
trouble starts when it comes to applying it. Assessing indi-
vidual learning processes which in a classroom of 25 students
you were hardly able to monitor in an appropriate reliable way
to then afterwards is impossible if you do not limit your as-
sessment to individual work products or tests. But how can
you possibly assess the degree of independence if you are not
looking at the process but at the product or test only?
One major issue for us, English teachers, were the tradi-
tional vocabulary tests. On the one hand. handing out vocabu-
lary lists was against the spirit of individual learning paths but
our experience showed that the active and the passive lexicon
of our students was insufficient – also in the eyes of students
and parents alike. Vocabulary tests can encourage learning and
provide quick feedback, at least on the rote learning skills. But
there is no arguing with the content-based and competitive
nature of these tests. Even if we were not allowed to note any
points, we would still count the correct words and use percent-
ages for feedback such as ‘a great test’, ‘well done’ or ‘you’ve
made the first step’, and of course students and parents were
able to count as well and would bluntly mock this untranspar-
ent system. It also paved the way to a broad definition on skill
descriptors. With ‘skill’ descriptors such as ‘I know the names
TEACHERS FORUM English
17May–
June 2017
of shops, products and shopping phrases’ we opened up the
door for entirely content-based descriptors such as ‘I can do
task 3 on page 4’.
What many of were in denial about was that most of our
testing culture was build upon testing content and then label-
ling it as competences. This also lead to the construction zone
signs being misused for quality indications instead of indica-
tors for autonomous learning. A lot of the time we used closed
and form-based test items so that it was not even possible for
us to do anything but count mistakes and give feedback on the
quantity of correct answers rather than the mastery of skills.
Another major obstacle for our realization of the new learn-
ing culture were external regulations and frameworks. Ger-
man school law is very definite about the amount and dura-
tion of exams that are to be held in every subject and in every
year and the final examinations are highly regulated as well.
Part of the examination grades are the grades that are achieved
during the final year and of course measured against the level
that the state curriculum has determined for that school year.
But how do you treat a student who is still working on a lower
level? Our management tried to work out conversion tables
but they would not work out because the complicated system
of state regulations and our own assessment were incompat-
ible with each other.
During these years I thought a lot about the purpose of
grades. After being a harsh critic of excessive and unreliable
grading I no longer have those same qualms about the grading
process. I remember when I stepped in to substitute for a sick
French teacher and was using traditional teaching materials and
how happy the students were when they found the vocabulary
lists and even begged me to write a test about these. Or the ninth
graders who were approaching their first ever exams and who
were so worried because they did not know where they stood
and they told me ‘Please, just tell us how bad we are so that we
can face it’, which shocked me a lot because these were actually
the few students who were actually doing really well.
Even though I might never get used to the selection pur-
pose of my grades, I have come to appreciate the benefits of
grades. A lot of children are motivated by the competition for
good grades. For some children and parents grades can act
as a wake up call and help to give an orientation of the kid’s
academic performance. Even more importantly, I have also
come to believe that the learning progress requires constant
feedback and that the more precise the feedback is the better
it is for learning. If you have to assess achievements in an
environment where you have no reliable standards because
everything is individual and if you do not have the language
to reprimand children for bad behaviour or idleness, you deny
children of any sense of achievement.
No assessment is perfect and no teaching is either. The
same is true for schools and workplaces. For me working
out of my comfort zone though was an incredible experience
though, one which made me grow much more than I would
have ever imagined.
Eva Drees,
Nelson-Mandela-Schule, Berlin
English РЕКЛАМА

18
 FOCUS ON LANGUAGE
ENGLISH FOR HUMAN RESOURCES
absentee рабочий, отсутствующий на работе без уважительной причины
absenteeism/absenteeism rate неявка на работу/коэффициент невыхода на
работу
accident at work, industrial injury производственная травма
application form анкета, заполняемая поступающим на работу
to apply for a job подавать заявление о приеме на работу
to appoint a person утвердить человека в должности
apprenticeship обучение; стажировка
aptitude test тест для проверки способностей
to ask for a rise просить об увеличении зарплаты
assessment of applicants оценка кандидатов
back pay плата за ранее выполненную работу
bargaining power возможность диктовать свои условия
basic salary основной оклад
to be dismissed/to be fired/to be laid off быть уволенным/быть уволенным
(временно)
to be on probation, to be on trial быть на испытательном сроке
business hours, office hours рабочие часы
clerical work, office work конторская работа; канцелярская работа
company bargaining/ company negotiation совещание компании
compensation for permanent disability пособие по инвалидности
concealed work; moonlighting незаконная работа по совместительству; нео-
фициальная подработка
contractual situation договорная основа
cost of living allowance надбавка за рост стоимости жизни
credentials документы, характеристики
direct labour труд производственных рабочих; живой труд
disability pension пенсия по нетрудоспособности
disciplinary measure, disciplinary sanction мера дисциплинарного взы-
скания
to dismiss, to fire уволить
part-time неполная занятость; полставки
partial disability частичная нетрудоспособность
pay formula, retribution diagram расчет заработной платы
pay increase for merit увеличение заработной платы за определенные
заслуги
payroll/payroll ledger/payslip платежная ведомость/расчетный листок
pension/pension fund пенсия/пенсионный фонд
period of notice срок уведомления; срок извещения
permanent disability инвалидность; постоянная нетрудоспособность
permanent job, steady job постоянная работа
personnel department отдел кадров
personnel requirements требования к персоналу
prevention предупредительные меры; меры предосторожности
public holiday (GB), national holiday (US) официальный выходной день
purchasing manager менеджер по закупкам
re-employment восстановление на работе
redundancy payment пособие по безработице
refresher course курсы переподготовки; курсы усовершенствования
relationship management управление по связям
remuneration оплата труда
resign (chairman); to give notice (employee) уволиться, отказаться от долж-
ности; делать предупреждение об увольнении
to retire уволиться; выйти на пенсию
dismissal отстранение от работы; расторжение трудового договора по ини-
циативе работодателя
dismissal for cause увольнение по причине
dismissal without notice увольнение без уведомления
early retirement досрочный выход на пенсию
employment agency агентство по трудоустройству; биржа труда
employment card, working papers разрешение на работу
employment contract, labour contract договор найма на работу
exit permit разрешение на выезд
family allowances пособия для семей
to fill a vacancy заполнить вакансию; занять должность
freelance работающий не по найму (внештатный сотрудник)
full-time employment постоянная работа; полная занятость
have an accident at work получить производственную травму
to hold a position занимать должность
independent unions независимые профсоюзы
index-linked wages индексированные заработные платы
indirect labour труд вспомогательных рабочих; непрямой труд ª the past.
English
19
May–
June 2017
VOCABULARY BOOSTER
PATTERNS OF BEHAVIOUR
It is a fact that, regardless of age or
culture, we have far more words in our
vocabulary that express negative rather
than positive emotions. Cross-culturally,
there are five to seven basic emotions that
show up in every language and seem to
have the same meaning. They are joy (the
only positive one!), fear, anger, sadness,
disgust, shame and guilt.
Some scholars believe that it has to do
with the negativity bias, also known as the
negativity effect, which refers to the notion
that, even when of equal intensity, things
of a more negative nature (e.g. unpleasant
thoughts, emotions, or social interactions;
harmful/traumatic events) have a greater
effect on one’s psychological state than do
neutral or positive things. In other words,
something very positive will generally
have less impact on a person’s behaviour
and cognition than something negative.
The scarcity of positive words can also
be accounted for by the fact that negative
words, like fear or anger, signal a threat or
a danger. Over the centuries people have
developed more words to describe nega-
tive emotions because survival and their
quality of life may be at stake. That makes
sense from an evolutionary standpoint.
When it comes to describing human
behaviour, negative vocabulary seems to
prevail. Whereas positive behaviour can
be easily rendered with the help of “act
+ adverb” pattern (e.g. act kindly/gener-
ously/graciously etc.), bad behaviour vo-
cabulary is characterized by more subtle
distinctions. What follows is a selection
of English verbs and phrases, together
with their Russian equivalents, that I offer
my students at our lessons devoted to pat-
terns of behaviour.
to fawn on/over someone – подлизы-
ваться, подхалимничать
I hate waiters who fawn over you.
to put on airs – важничать, зазнаваться,
задирать нос
The new boss put on airs by lying to his
employees about things he had done in
ª
 English FOCUS ON LANGUAGE
20 May–
June 2017
VOCABULARY BOOSTER
to sneer/jeer (at) – издеваться, насме-
хаться
She’ll probably sneer at my new shoes
because they’re not expensive.
to get on one’s nerves – действовать на
нервы
Stop whining. You’re getting on my
nerves.
to nitpick – придираться к мелочам
You’re always nitpicking – it’s so
annoying!
to mock – издеваться, насмехаться
He’s mocked as a mama’s boy.
to do something out of spite – делать
назло, в пику
I broke up with Sally last week, so
yesterday she returned all the gifts I gave
to her out of spite.
to intimidate – запугивать, внушать
страх
He intimidates his competitors into
thinking that they have no chance to win.
to condemn – осуждать
I condemn rude language and behav-
iour.
to put somebody down – принижать
He put me down in front of my own
friends.
to tell on someone – ябедничать
You ate the cookies, so I’m telling on
you!
to push someone around – третиро-
вать
When we were kids, my elder brother
liked to push me around.
to brag – хвастаться, похваляться
He bragged that he was sure of victory.
to put up with – мириться с...
I won’t put up with your insolence any
longer!
to look up to somebody – относиться с
уважением
He needed a role model, someone to look
up to.
to comport oneself with dignity – дер-
жаться с достоинством
Comport yourself with dignity, remember
what family you come from.
By Yulia Shcherbinina
industrial relations (GB), labour relations (US) производственные отно-
шения
industrial tribunal; labour court промышленный трибунал; суд низшей инстан-
ции по трудовым спорам
retirement/retirement age выход на пенсию/пенсионный возраст
to risk indemnity страховать от убытков
role clash конфликтная ситуация
salary заработная плата; жалованье; оклад
secondary job совместительство
senior clerk, senior employee старший служащий
severance pay, dismissal pay компенсация при увольнении
short-term employment кратковременная занятость
sick leave больничный лист
skilled labour/work квалифицированный труд
social costs социальные издержки
social insurance, national insurance социальное страхование
sole director единственный директор
staff costs, personnel costs затраты на содержание персонала
to take measures принимать меры
temporary disability временная нетрудоспособность
total disability полная нетрудоспособность
trade-union (GB), labour union (US) профсоюз
international regulations международные правила
irregular work, discontinuous work непостоянная работа
job application заявка о поступлении на работу
job description должностная инструкция
job evaluation оценка служебных обязанностей
job security гарантия занятости
labour disputes трудовые споры
labour force, manpower трудоспособное население
labour mobility текучесть рабочей силы
labour retraining переподготовка рабочих
learning by doing, learning by practice обучение на практике
letter of appointment приказ о назначении
lockout временное отстранение
management training подготовка руководящих кадров
minimum rate of pay минимальный размер оплаты труда
motivation мотивировка; заинтересованность
night shift ночная смена
office manager офис-менеджер
office staff, office personnel офисный персонал
on the job training стажировка
outsourcing внештатные работники
training period период обучения
trial period испытательный срок
under contract по контракту; по договору
underemployed занятый неполный рабочий день
unemployment/unemployment benefits безработица/пособие по безработице
unjustified dismissal неправомерное увольнение
unpaid leave неоплачиваемый отпуск
unskilled labour неквалифицированный труд
unskilled worker неквалифицированный рабочий
wage-cost spiral повышение/понижение затрат на зарплату
wage-earning workers работники, получающие оклад
wage-packet (GB), pay envelope (US) конверт с заработной платой
wage bargaining, pay negotiations переговоры о размере заработной платы
wage ceiling предельный уровень заработной платы
wage claims требования увеличить заработную плату
wage dynamics динамика заработной платы
wage freeze замораживание заработной платы
wage indexation scale индексация заработной платы
wage pressures требование повышения заработной платы
welfare contributions пособия по социальному обеспечению
to work at home работать на дому
work overtime работать сверхурочно
work sheet листок учета работы
worker, blue-collar worker производственный рабочий
working day рабочий день
working hours рабочие часы
workload рабочая нагрузка
workplace место работы
workshift рабочая смена
Submitted by Tatyana Makhrina

READING RULES
Технологическая карта урока для 5-го класса
Школа Всероссийского детского центра “Орлёнок” –
это часть педагогической системы всего центра со сво-
ими традициями и особенностями, поскольку к нам на
обучение приезжают дети с разным уровнем знаний
и обученности, в том числе обучающиеся националь-
ных школ. Смена в детском лагере длится 21 день, а в
школе дети обучаются всего лишь 10-12 дней, однако
это обязательная часть программы пребывания детей в
ВДЦ “Орлёнок”. Специфика временного ученического
коллектива, отсутствие домашнего задания означают,
что образовательная деятельность требует особой ор-
ганизации, учитель работает в режиме “педагогической
поддержки” ученика и интенсивного обучения, чтобы
приблизить учебный процесс к индивидуальным осо-
бенностям школьников.
Основная форма обучения – образовательное за-
нятие. Знание современных технологий, методов и
приёмов организации образовательной деятельности
позволяет учителю моделировать урок с учётом осо-
бенностей смены, школы, предмета, контингента обу-
чающихся.
Публикуемая методическая разработка ориенти-
рована на обучающихся 5 класса со слабым уровнем
владения английским языком, поэтому данное занятие
представлено в виде игровой модели и может быть ис-
пользовано как в начальной школе, так и в среднем зве-
не при условии, что английский язык изучается первый
год.
Задачи урока:
Общеобразовательные: познакомить обучающихся с
особенностями произношения английских звуков; акти-
визировать познавательную деятельность школьников в
условиях временного ученического коллектива.
Воспитательные: совершенствовать навыки общения
со взрослыми и сверстниками.
Развивающие: совершенствовать навыки анализа и обоб-
щения, умение сопоставлять; развивать умение приво-
дить примеры.
Планируемые результаты:
Предметные:
Аудирование: воспринимать на слух и понимать речь
учителя и одноклассников; понимать различия в произ-
ношении английских звуков.
Чтение: уметь применять правило чтения буквосочета-
ния TH; совершенствование навыков работы со слова-
рем.
Говорение: уметь фонетически грамотно оформлять
свою речь.
Письмо: совершенствовать умения, используя изученное
правило, при выполнении письменных упражнений по
образцу; формировать коммуникативную компетенцию;
развивать целеустремленность, инициативность, трудо-
любие и дисциплинированность.
LESSON PLANS English
21
May–
June 2017
Метапредметные:
Познавательные: развивать исследовательские учебные
действия; организовывать поиск и выделение нужной
информации; обобщать и фиксировать полученную ин-
формацию.
Регулятивные: проводить самонаблюдение и самокон-
троль, а также самооценку.
Коммуникативные: развивать умение слушать и выска-
зывать свое мнение.
Личностные: формировать мотивацию к изучению ино-
странных языков.
Межпредметные связи: русский язык (фонетический
строй).
Формы деятельности: фронтальная, индивидуальная.
Формы обучения: смешанная.
Ресурсы: ПК учителя, проектор, плакаты, дидактиче-
ские карточки, кукла, раздаточный материал.
Тип урока: урок “открытия” новой темы.
Цель урока: формирование навыков правильной арти-
куляции и чтения буквосочетания TH.
ХОД УРОКА
Этап 1. Организационный момент
Задача этапа: настроить учеников для работы на уроке.
Методы, приемы обучения: Диалог.
T: Good afternoon, boys and girls! I am very glad to see
you. Sit down please.
Who is on duty today?
Who is absent today?
Сегодня к нам на урок пришел наш старый знако-
мый Mr. Tongue. Он сегодня продолжит вам расска-
зывать истории о своих путешествиях и поможет
нашим органам речи подготовиться к работе на
уроке.
P: Good afternoon, teacher!
Учащиеся взаимодействуют с учителем во время при-
ветствия.
Формируемые УУД и предметные действия:
Коммуникативные: слушать собеседника.
Познавательные: осуществлять актуализацию получен-
ных ранее знаний.
Личностные: формирование ответственного отношения
к обучению.
Этап 2. Фонетическая зарядка
Задачи этапа:
• подготовить органы речи детей для работы на уроке;
• совершенствование произносительных навыков.
Методы, приемы обучения: фонетическая зарядка, ре-
чевая зарядка с использованием кукольного театра.
 English LESSON PLANS
22 May–
June 2017
T: Путешествуя однажды по волшебной стране,
встретил наш язычок англичанку – пчелу Жужжу.
Она жужжала [ð]. Попробовал наш язычок пожуж-
жать – не получается, решила тогда пчелка помочь:
“Положи кончик языка между зубами и произнеси
“ззз” получится английский звук [ð].”
Ребята, давайте мы тоже попробуем произнести этот
звук. Повторяйте за мной:
У зайки зубки болят,
Зубки у зайки болят.
Пожужжала пчелка и довольная полетела дальше. По-
шел язычок дальше. Шёл, шёл и заблудился в лесу, а
навстречу ему злая змея. Когда кто-либо приближал-
ся к ней, она страшно шипела: “сссс”. А сегодня змея
была грустной. Язычок пожалел ее и решил научить
произносить добрый английский звук [θ].
Ребята, давайте пофантазируем. На что похож этот
звук?
Пусть верхние и нижние зубы будут у нас хлебом, а
язык – сыром. Положите язычок-сыр между зубами-
хлебом и чуть-чуть прикусите, чтобы сыр не упал. А
теперь скажите “ссс”.
Сколько стоит стакан семечек?
Сколько стоит стог сена?
Ребята совместно с учителем повторяют звуки.
Хоровая отработка звука [ð].
Ребята хором повторяют.
Хоровая отработка звука [θ].
Формируемые УУД и предметные действия:
Коммуникативные: слушать собеседника; понимать раз-
личия в произношении английских звуков.
Познавательные: активизация познавательной деятель-
ности обучающихся.
Личностные: формирование интереса к особенностям
фонетического строя иностранного языка; воспитание
уважительного отношения к гостям.
Этап 3. Целеполагания, постановка проблемы
Задачи урока:
• развитие языковой догадки;
• развитие умений самостоятельно выделять тему и
формулировать цель урока.
Методы, приемы обучения: оформление доски – Гномы-
звуки.
T: А теперь наш Mr. Tongue отдохнет и посмотрит на то,
как вы будете работать.
Попробуйте назвать тему нашего урока?
Учащиеся проявляют познавательную инициативу. Вы-
сказывают предположения о том, какая тема.
T: На доске зашифрована тема: GNIDAER SELUR.
P: Reading rules.
T: Молодцы! Тему урока выяснили и если тема нашего
урока правила чтения, то какова же будет цель урока?
Что нам надо сегодня научиться делать?
Давайте вспомним, как жужжала наша пчела? А как
шипела змея?
Ребята, а как вы думаете, какое буквосочетание дает
нам эти звуки?
P: TH.
T: Правильно, буквосочетание TH дает нам два этих
звука
Формируемые УУД и предметные действия:
Коммуникативные: слушать собеседника.
Познавательные: развитие языковая догадки, вниматель-
ности.
Регулятивные: научиться читать; узнать, как какая бук-
ва читается.
Личностные: формирование уважительного отношения
к мнениям одноклассников.
Этап 4. Поиск решения проблемы (изучение новой
темы)
Задача этапа: вывести правило чтения буквосочетания
TH.
Методы, приемы обучения: поиск способа решения
учебной задачи.
T: На доске буквосочетание схема:
TH
[θ] [ð]
Ребята, а какие слова вы знаете, где встречается это
буквосочетание?
Обучающиеся называют слова: the, then, that, mother,
brother, thank you, three, weather.
Слова записываются в два столбика в зависимости от
звука.
T: Ребята, а теперь давайте попробуем вывести правило,
когда же TH читается как [θ], а когда как [ð].
That, those, the – это какие слова?
Обратите внимание на такие слова: mother, weather.
Буквенное сочетание TH имеет два звуковых значения:
глухое [θ] и звонкое [ð].
В английском языке звонкий [ð] встречается в служеб-
ных словах (артикль, местоимение, предлог и т. д.) и в
середине других слов в результате озвончения глухого
[θ] окружающими его гласными, т.е. между гласными в
значимых словах.
В остальных случаях TH указывает на глухой звук [θ].
Между гласными в значимых словах.
Формируемые УУД и предметные действия:
Коммуникативные: слушать собеседника; полно и точно
формулировать свою мысль.
Познавательные: развитие умений анализа и синтеза по-
лученной информации; умения проводить аналогию; уме-
ние грамотно фиксировать полученную информацию.

Регулятивные: способность выделять основную инфор-
мацию.
Личностные:
формирование уважительного отношения к мнениям
одноклассников.
Этап 5. Физкультминутка
Задачи этапа:
• снятие напряжения;
• смена деятельности;
• предупреждение перенагрузки.
T: Oh! I am so tired! Let’s relax!
Stand up, please.
Turn left, turn right.
Hands down and sit down.
Hands up, hands down.
Hands on the hips.
Don’t sit down.
Учащиеся встают и повторяют за учителем слова и
действия физкультминутки.
Формируемые УУД и предметные действия:
Коммуникативные: умение четко говорить рифмованный
текст физ. минутки.
Познавательные: развитие памяти.
Регулятивные: умения объективно оценивать степень
своей усталости.
Личностные: формирование уважительного отношения к
физической культуре, спорту и здоровому образу жизни.
Этап 6. Применение нового знания (закрепление)
Задачи этапа:
• формирование умения применять полученные знания;
• формирование умения объективно оценивать.
Методы, приемы обучения: работа с упражнением,
карточки со словами на доске, индивидуальная работа,
взаимопроверка, работа со словарем.
T: And now open your copybooks, write down the date and
our rule.
А теперь закрепим наше правило, выполнив упраж-
нение. На доске даны слова, в которых встречается
буквенное сочетание TH. Ваша задача – написать эти
слова в 2 столбика: 1 столбик слова, в которых TH
дает звук [θ], 2 столбик – [ð].
Давайте мы поменяемся тетрадями и будем прове-
рять. Один из вас будет выполнять упражнение у до-
ски.
Какое слово вызвало затруднение? Давайте найдем
его в словаре.
Ребята получают словарь с закладкой.
T: Теперь не осталось сомнений.
Выставим оценки: 1 – ошибка – very good, 2–3 – good,
больше 4 ошибок – not very good.
Дети записывают число и правило с примерами. Ребята
самостоятельно выполняют упражнение в тетрадях.
Взаимопроверка работ. Birthday.
LESSON PLANS English
23
May–
June 2017
Обучающиеся работают со словарём. Ищут слово, чи-
тают. Выставляют оценки
Формируемые УУД и предметные действия:
Коммуникативные: умение фонетически грамотно
оформлять свою речь.
Познавательные: развитие умений применять полу-
ченную информацию; уметь применять правило чтения
буквосочетания TH; уметь различать английские звуки
и письменно их оформлять; совершенствование навыков
работы со словарем.
Регулятивные: умение объективно оценивать себя и
своих одноклассников.
Личностные: формирование уважительного и толерант-
ного отношения к ошибкам одноклассников, умения спо-
койно относиться к полученной оценке и отметке.
Этап 7. Рефлексия (итог урока)
Задачи этапа:
• формирование способности объективно оценивать
меру своего продвижения к цели урока;
• умение сопереживать в связи с успехом или неудачей
товарищей.
Методы, приемы обучения: записывают на дольках,
слушают аудиозапись.
T: Ребята, что нового вы сегодня узнали?
Осень – время урожая. Autumn is the harvest time.
Мы с Mr. Tongue хотим вас угостить дольками апельси-
на и попросить, чтобы вы написали ваше имя и самое
любимое слово, в котором встречается TH.
У кого-то возникли трудности при написании имени?
Правил чтения еще очень много и мы продолжим их
изучение на следующих уроках.
А завершим мы наш урок песней “Everything at once”,
обратим внимание на слова, в которых встречается
TH.
Thank you for the lesson. Have a good day!
Ученики используют формулу “Мы сегодня узнали....”.
Пишут свое имя и слово. Поют песню. Прощаются.
Формируемые УУД и предметные действия:
Познавательная: осознанно и произвольно строить ре-
чевое высказывание в устной форме.
Коммуникативные: строить высказывания, понятные для
партнеров; рефлексия над своими действиями.
Личностные: осознание возможности самореализации
средствами иностранного языка.
Регулятивные: выделять и осознавать то, что уже
усвоено.
Резеда Данисовна Латипова,
ФГБОУ СОШ ВДЦ “Орлёнок”,
п. Новомихайловский,
Туапсинский р-он, Краснодарский край
 English LESSON PLANS

24 May–
June 2017
THE CANTERVILLE GHOST
Урок домашнего чтения в 6-м классе
(по 1 главе книги О.Уайлда “Кентервильское привидение”)
Цели урока:
общие: совершенствование навыка работы с текстом;
формирование интереса к изучению культуры стран
изучаемого языка; формирование умения выражать свое
мнение на иностранном языке.
развивающие: развитие навыков аудирования с целью по-
нимания общей информации; развитие умения строить и
вести беседу на заданную тему; развитие навыков чтения
с целью понимания общей и конкретной информации.
воспитательно-образовательные: формирование и
развитие у учащихся мотивации к изучению языка с ис-
пользованием литературы; формирование культуры об-
щения в диалоге.

Задачи урока:
• отработка фонетических навыков;
• развитие умения воспринимать текст с общим его по-
ниманием, а также извлечением конкретной информа-
ции;
• отработка введенных грамматических структур и по-
вторение ранее изученных;
• развитие навыков монологической и диалогической
речи с использованием введенной лексики и изучен-
ных грамматических структур;
• употребление введенной грамматической структуры и
поиск ее примеров в тексте.
Тема урока:
Лексика: классификация художественной литературы,
страны и национальности, погода.
Грамматика: время Past Continuous.
Оснащение урока: книга по домашнему чтению: Оскар
Уайлд “Кентервильское привидение”, гл. 1, стр. 1–7 (из-
дательство Oxford University Press); диск к книге по до-
машнему чтению с главами текста; доска; раздаточный
материал: а) список слов по теме “Погода” + карточки с
ними; б) копия упражнения на время Past Continuous.
ХОД УРОКА
Приветствие
T: Good morning! How are you today?
Ss: I am in a good mood/tired/happy today, thanks. And
you?
Организационный момент
T: Do you like the weather today? What’s the date? Who is
absent today?
Ss: Today the weather is quite…/Today is the …. of …./…
is absent today.
Фонетическая зарядка
Let’s repeat together: /w/: we, when, weather, why, want,
William, twins, require, quite, quiet, questions, writer.
Tongue twister: “What, when, where and why are the words
we require quite often when we want to ask questions”.
Students repeat it together with the teacher.
Презентация целей урока
T: Today we are going to discuss the first chapter of the sto-
ry, which was written by a famous writer Oscar Wilde.
What do you know about him? Have you ever read any
of his stories? Did you like them?

Students answer these questions sharing the information

with each other.

Проверка домашнего задания

T: Your home task was to think of different kinds of publi-
cations and tell us about your favourite one…

Students give the answers: novel, detective story, autobiog-

raphy, play, science fiction, comic, article in a newspaper or
magazine, poem, fairytale, horror story.
 LESSON PLANS English

25
May–
June 2017

T: Let’s read the text together representing different char-

acters of the story and answer the questions at the end of
the book (page 45).
Where was Mr Otis from? (America)
What other countries and nationalities do you remem-
ber?
Look at the board please, you can see 16 countries. Write
the nationalities please:

Board (countries+nationalities):
T: The name of our story today is The Canterville Ghost. Argentina – Argentinian
What do you think about this kind of story? Is it fright- Brazil – Brazilian
ening or funny? Detective or science fiction? China – Chinese
Egypt – Egyptian
Развитие навыков аудирования England – English
T: Let’s listen to the first chapter of the story. Listen to it France – French
and try to understand where the story takes place and Greece – Greek
how many characters there are. Hungary – Hungarian
Italy – Italian
Students listen to the CD (Chapter 1) and give the answers Japan – Japanese
after listening. Mexico – Mexican
Portugal – Portuguese
Before-you-read Activities Russia – Russian
Students do the exercises at the end of the book (page 44) in Spain – Spanish
pairs, trying to guess the main events of the story and choos- Turkey – Turkish
ing either YES or NO. The USA – American

Чтение первой главы с целью общего понимания

T: Look through the first chapter and answer the question:
What and why did Mr Otis buy? What happens after
that?

Чтение текста с целью извлечения конкретной ин-

формации, повторение названий стран и националь-
ностей
Учащиеся читают вслух главу по ролям и отвечают на
вопросы в конце книги (страница 45).

Работа с лексикой по теме “Погода”

Лексическая разминка (5 мин.)
T: Which words do you usually use to describe good
weather? Which words do you usually use to describe
bad weather?

Введение и отработка новых лексических единиц

T: What was the weather like when the Otis family got
off the train and later when they arrived at Canterville
Chase?
 English LESSON PLANS

26 May–
June 2017

Students answer the questions and find the answer in the

text.
Затем учащимся предлагается список слов и словосоче-
таний на тему “Погода”, которые им нужно распре-
делить в таблице в колонки: rain, wind, thunderstorm,
describing the weather conditions:
• a breeze • foggy
• a shower • a gale
• drizzle • to pour
• icy • a hurricane
• a heatwave • humid
• to blow • lightning • I _________ (read the story) when it _________ (start to
rain).
T: Let’s check together. I’ll give you the cards with the • James _________ (study for the test) while I _________
words. Now please use the words to describe the weath- (talk to my friend).
er and get rid of the cards. • We _________ (have breakfast) when you _________
(call us).
Введение и употребление Past Continuous • I _________ (cut my finger) when I _________ (cook
a) salad for you).
T: Let’s read the beginning of the story again. What was the • Andy _________ (wash the dishes) when he _________
Duchess of Bolton doing when two skeleton hands were (hear the noise).
put on her shoulders? How can you translate She was
dressing for dinner? T: Are there any other examples of Past Continuous in the
story? (answer: page 3 “An old woman in a black dress
b) Презентация времени Past Continuous и случаи упо- was standing in the doorway of the house, waiting to
требления. meet them”.)

c) Монологическое высказывание по теме

T: Answer my questions please: What were you doing: T: Are there any characters in the story that you find amus-
• yesterday at 5 p.m.? ing or frightening?
• on Monday at 8 a.m.?
• a week ago at this time? Students discuss the questions in pairs and share in class.
• when I came into the class?
Подведение итогов урока и домашнее задание
d) T: Today we started reading the first chapter of the story by
T: Let’s do the exercise. Oscar Wilde. What episode in the chapter did you like
most of all? Why? Share with a partner.
Учащимся раздается копия упражнения на употребле- What will happen in the next chapter in your opinion?
ние времени Past Continuous. Fill in the gaps: We also learnt some words which are used to describe
the weather and worked out the Past Continuous tense.

As your home task I will ask you to:

• write 3 questions for your classmates “What were you do-
ing…?
• 2 examples (positive statements) using Past Continuous.
• 3 sentences using new vocabulary (weather).

T: Do you have any questions?

Our lesson is over, thank you!
Have a nice day!

By Ekaterina Smirnova,
IQ Consultancy, Moscow

Pictures from http://www.multfilmy.org/

 TOPICAL JOURNEY English

27
Resources May–
June 2017

Requests will always exceed resources. Doing good

is imperative. Doing everything is impossible.
J. Grant Howard

Common sense is one of the most unused

commodities available to man.
“ Human behaviour
flows from three
main sources:
desire, emotion,
“
Craig D. Lounsbrough
and knowledge.
Daydreaming is one of the key sources of poetry –
a poem often starts as a daydream that finds its way into
Plato
language – and walking seems to bring
a different sort of alertness, an associative kind
of thinking, a drifting state of mind.
Edward Hirsch

XinWey’s Doctrine states that the most essential

morality of mankind is to create the greatest amount
of happiness among the greatest number of people while using
the least amount of resources.
Brandon Sanderson

The difference between ideas and resources

is that resources have their limits.
Santosh Kalwar

God has hidden in each and every one of us so many

abilities, gifts and resources that could only be activated by
work.
Sunday Adelaja
Pollution is nothing but resources we’re not harvesting. We
allow them to disperse because we’ve been ignorant of their
value.
R. Buckminster Fuller
Do you want to be in your own story or on the outside
writing about it? Everyone battles fear and uncertainty every
day. However, the only failure in life is believing that your value
relies on other people’s approval or resources. The reality is
this: When you are living your authentic self and not how
people want you to act, then you are free to use the full spec-
trum of your creativity and gifts. People don’t need resources
to get out of any life situation. They need creativity to create
resources. When you realize that, becoming stuck is impossible.
Shannon L. Alder
TOPICAL JOURNEY
Natural Resources .......................28
Resource Recovery ......................28
Let’s fall in love with TED,
shall we? .....................................30
Role Models
and Emotional Resources .............30
Obama’s Books ...........................32
Discrete Signals and Clarins Lipstick:
the Secrets of The Queen’s
Handbag Revealed ......................34
Soviet Days .................................36
Morning Star (1966–present) .....36
 English TOPICAL JOURNEY
28 May–
June 2017
RESOURCE RECOVERY
In recent years, waste has been viewed
as a potential resource and not something
that must end up in the landfill. From paper,
plastics, wood, metals and even wastewater,
experts believe that each component of waste
can be tapped and turned into something very
useful.
Fossil fuel used by the pulp and paper indus-
try in the United States of America declined by
more than 50% between 1972 and 2002, largely
through energy efficiency measures, power re-
covery, through co-generation and increased
use of biomass.1
Resource recovery is the separation of cer-
tain materials from the waste we produce, with
the aim of using them again or turning them into
new raw materials for use again.
It involves composting and recycling of ma-
terials that are heading to the landfill. Here is
an example: wet organic waste such as food
and agricultural waste is considered waste after
food consumption or after an agricultural activ-
ity. Traditionally, we collect them and send them
to a landfill. In Resource Recovery, we collect
and divert it to composting or anaerobic diges-
tion to produce biomethane. We can also re-
cover nutrients through regulator-approved use
of residuals.
The concept can be applied in household set-
tings too. Many communities have places that
residents can drop off waste that they have al-
ready sorted in their homes. This makes it easy
for waste recovery organizations to pick them up
for further processing.
Recovering waste is not an easy task. It in-
volves good planning, education, community
participation, and use of technology. But it has
huge environmental and economic benefits and
must be seriously considered.
Resource recovery benefits us because it
reduces our need to tap into new raw materi-
als, thereby saving the environment. For ex-
ample, by separating and collecting all paper
products from the waste we create, we can
recycle them to reduce the need for new pulp
which comes from timber. Less energy is also
used in recycling old materials than new raw
materials.
Think of wastewater and stormwater as an-
other example. The demand for potable water
can be greatly reduced if we can divert all waste-
water and stormwater for treatment and re-use.
We can use it for gardening, agriculture, sanita-
tion (cleaning) and even heating by energy pro-
ducers.
In Victoria, Australia, reclaimed water is used
to irrigate vineyards, tomatoes, potatoes, and
other crops in addition to traditional landscape
irrigation.2
In Mexico City, nearly 46 million gallons (174
million liters) per day of reclaimed water is used
for irrigation of green areas, recharge of recre-
ational lakes and agriculture.3
Natural Re
INTRODUCTION TO NATURAL RESOURCES (NR)
Ever since the earth was inhabited, humans and other life forms have depended
on things that exist freely in nature to survive. These things include water (seas
and fresh water), land, soils, rocks, forests (vegetation), animals (including fish),
fossil fuels and minerals. They are called natural resources and are the basis of life
on earth.
All these mentioned above are natural, and they exist in nature. No human cre-
ated them. We tap into their supply to survive and also to function properly. Natural
resources are all connected in a way. Therefore if one is taken away, it will affect
the supply or quality of all others. For example, if water is eliminated from an
area, the vegetation, soils, animals and even the air in that area will be affected
negatively.
Natural resources can be consumed directly or indirectly. For instance, humans
depend directly on forests for food, biomass, health, recreation and increased living
comfort. Indirectly forests act as climate control, flood control, storm protection and
nutrient cycling.
RAW MATERIALS
Sometimes, natural resources can be used as raw materials to produce something.
For instance, we can use a tree from the forest to produce timber. The timber is then
used to produce wood for furniture or pulp for paper and paper products. In this sce-
nario, the tree is the raw material.
Every item in your home was made from a raw material that came from a natural
resource. The tea mug, electricity at home, bread, clothes, you name them: each of them
came from a natural resource.
Natural resources come in many forms. It may be a solid, liquid or gas. It may also
be organic or inorganic. It may also be metallic or non-metallic. It may be renewable
or non-renewable.
TYPES OF NATURAL RESOURCES
All natural resources fall under two main categories: renewable and non-renewa-
ble resources. Information below will help us understand this better.
• Renewable Resources
Renewable resources are those that are constantly available (like water) or can be
reasonably replaced or recovered, like vegetative lands. Animals are also renewable
because with a bit of care, they can reproduce offsprings to replace adult animals. Even
though some renewable resources can be replaced, they may take many years and that
does not make them renewable.
If renewable resources come from living things (such as trees and animals), they can
be called organic renewable resources.
If renewable resources come from non-living things (such as water, sun and wind),
they can be called inorganic renewable resources.
• Non-Renewable Resources
Non-renewable resources are those that cannot easily be replaced once they are
destroyed. Examples include fuels. Minerals are also non-renewable because even
though they form naturally in a process called the rock cycle, it can take thousands
of years, making it non-renewable. Some animals can also be considered non-renew-
able, because if people hunt for a particular species without ensuring their reproduc-
tion, they will be extinct. This is why we must ensure that we protect resources that
are endangered.
Non-renewable resources can be called inorganic resources if they come from non-
living things. Examples include include, minerals, wind, land, soil and rocks.
Some non-renewable resources come from living things – such as fossil fuels. They
can be called organic non-renewable resources.
• Metallic and Non-Metallic Resources
Inorganic resources may be metallic or non-metallic. Metallic minerals are those
that have metals in them. They are harder, shiny, and can be melted to form new prod-
ucts. Examples are iron, copper and tin. Non-metallic minerals have no metals in them.
They are softer and do not shine. Examples include clay and coal.
Sources: http://www.eschooltoday.com
 TOPICAL JOURNEY English

Resources 29
May–
June 2017

WHY ARE NATURAL RESOURCES SO IMPORTANT?

Natural resources are available to sustain the very complex interaction between liv- CONSERVATION
ing things and non-living things. Humans also benefit immensely from this interaction. OF NATURAL RESOURCES
All over the world, people consume resources directly or indirectly. Developed coun- To have an environmentally sustainable se-
tries consume resources more than underdeveloped countries. cure future where we can still enjoy natural re-
The world economy uses around 60 billion tonnes of resources each year to produce sources, we urgently need to transform the way
the goods and services which we all consume. On the average, a person in Europe con- we use resources, by completely changing the
sumes about 36 kg of resources per day; a person in North America consumes about way we produce and consume goods and ser-
90 kg per day, a person in Asia consumes about 14 kg and a person in Africa consumes vices.
about 10 kg of resources per day.1 The case of high resource consumption oc-
In what form do people consume natural resources? The three major forms include curs primarily in the bigger cities of the world.
Cities worldwide are responsible for 60-80%
food and drink, housing and infrastructure, and mobility. These three make up more
of global energy consumption and 75% of car-
than 60% of resource use.
bon emissions, consuming more than 75% of the
• Food and drink: This includes agricultural products as well as naturally occurring
world’s natural resources.
foods such as game, fish from fresh water and seas, seeds and nuts, medicines, herbs To turn this unfortunate way of life around, we
and plants. They also include drinking water, as well as water for sanitation and house- all have to play a role.
hold use. Think of ceramic plates, silverware (spoons, forks and knives), cans, milk
packages, paper and plastic cups – they are all made from raw materials which come
from our natural resources. EDUCATION
• Mobility: This includes automobiles, trains, water vessels, airplanes, together with AND PUBLIC AWARENESS
all the fuel that powers them. Can you imagine where all the raw materials used in their All stakeholders must aim to provide informa-
production came from? tion and raise public awareness about the won-
• Housing and infrastructure: Think about all the houses, public places, roads and derful natural resources we have and the need
constructed objects you have in your city or town. Think about all the energy for heat- to ensure its health. Even though there is a lot
ing and cooling that we consume in our homes – can you imagine where all the wood, of information in the public domain, campaign-
metals, plastic, stone and other materials came from? ers must try to use less scientific terms, and
Beyond these three major areas of resource consumption, we consume much more avoid complex terminology to send the message
across. Once people understand how useful our
resources from our environment on a daily basis. The role of natural resources in sus-
natural resources are, they will be better placed
taining life on earth is extremely important and we must ensure that we protect the
to preserve it.
environment and also make it easy for it to replenish itself naturally.
INDIVIDUALS, ORGANISATIONS
THREATS TO NATURAL RESOURCES AND NATIONS
A. Overpopulation. This is probably the most significant, single threat that natural People and organisations in developed na-
resources face. The world’s population is increasing at a very fast rate. In the USA, a tions with high resource consumption rates must
baby is born every 8 seconds, and a person dies every 13 seconds. The increase in popu- be aware of the issues of natural resources.
lations mean there will be pressure on almost all natural resources. How? People should understand that it is OK to en-
• Land Use: With more mouths to feed and people to house, more land will need joy all the items and gadgets at home, but also,
give back to the environment by way of reducing
to be cultivated and developed for housing. More farming chemicals will be applied
waste, recycling waste and becoming a part of
to increase food production. Many forest or vegetative lands will be converted to the solution. We can achieve this in our homes
settlements for people, roads and farms. These have serious repercussions on natural and workplaces by reducing waste and also by
resources. recycling the waste we create.
• Forests: Demand for wood (timber), food, roads and forest products will be more.
People will therefore use more forest resources than they can naturally recover. GOVERNMENTS AND POLICY
• Fishing: Fresh water and sea food will face problems too as we will continue to Governments must enforce policies that pro-
depend heavily on them. Bigger fishing companies are going deeper into sea to catch tect the environment.
fish in even larger quantities. Some of the fishing methods they use are not sustainable, For example, a part of the Ross Sea in the
thereby destroying much more fish and sea creatures in the process. Antarctica is to be protected beginning from De-
cember 2017.
• Need for more: Human’s demand for a comfortable life means more items (com-
They must ensure that businesses and
munication, transport, education, entertainment and recreation) will need to be pro- industries play fair and are accountable to
duced. This means more industrial processes and more need for raw materials and natu- all people. Incentives must be given to busi-
ral resources. nesses that use recycled raw materials and
B. Climate change: The alteration in climate patterns as a result of excessive an- hefty fines to those that still tap from raw
thropogenic CO2 is hurting biodiversity and many other abiotic natural resources. Spe- natural resources. Businesses must return a
cies that have acclimatized to their environments may perish and others will have to portion of their profits to activities that aim
move to more favorable conditions to survive. at restoring what they have taken out of the
environment.
C. Environmental pollution: Land, water and air pollution directly affect the health
of the environments in which they occur. Pollution affects the chemical make-up of Sources:
soils, rocks, lands, ocean water, freshwater and underground water, and other natural 1. UNEP. MANAGING AND CONSERVING
phenomena. This often has catastrophic consequences. THE NATURAL RESOURCE BASE FOR SUS-
TAINED ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOP-
MENT. February 7, 2014
Sources:
2, 3. RESOURCE RECOVERY & REUSE
1
UNEP (2013) City-Level Decoupling: Urban resource flows and the governance of SERIES 4. Global Experiences in Water Reuse
infrastructure transitions. A Report of the Working Group on Cities of the International by Jonathan Lautze, Emilie Stander, Pay Drech-
Resource Panel. Swilling M., Robinson B., Marvin S. and Hodson M. sel, Allegra K. da Silva and Bernard Keraita
CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and
Submitted by Tatyana Makhrina Ecosystems. ISBN 978-92-9090-791-6
 English TOPICAL JOURNEY
30 May–
June 2017
ROLE MODELS
AND EMOTIONAL RESOURCES
What is the importance of a role model
and what part do they play in the develop-
ment of our emotional resources?
We know through our studies that to be-
come a functioning adult, one moves devel-
opmentally from being dependent to being
independent to being interdependent. John
Bradshaw refers to it as becoming whole.
Simply put, we should move from being de-
pendent on others to being able to work to-
gether with other adults, each independent
of the other, but jointly as partners.
Often, someone operating in a dysfunc-
tional setting is often forced to take an adult
role early, and gets caught somewhere
working between dependence and inde-
pendence. Children build their emotional
resources from the role models that they
observe. Sometimes the child is forced to
guess at what “normal” or appropriate is
due to the fact that the role-model respons-
es are not appropriate.
Question: Why would emotional resourc-
es have such importance in school and at
work?
Answer: Emotional responses dictate be-
haviour and, eventually, determine achieve-
ment.
Ruby Payne says that in order to move
from poverty to middle class or from middle
class to wealth, one must trade off some
relationships for achievement at least for a
period of time. In order to accomplish this,
one needs all their emotional resources
and stamina.
What exactly is Ms. Payne saying?
Picture source: http://ngl.cengage.com/
Let’s fall in love
shall we?
As they say, you must have been living under a rock if you still haven’t
heard about TED.com and the wonders and educational joys that the site has
to offer to a wandering eye. As the advertisement goes: ‘If you find yourself
bored with day to day chores and the never ever changing routine; if the joys of
teaching have become monotonous and even tedious at times; if the trustwor-
thy and reliable coursebook starts to feel heavy and predictable with the tasks
that are dull and mechanical; if more than ever you tend to notice your learners,
unfocused roving glances and yawns here and there, and if even the air feels
heavy and grey … then it is high time you invited TED into your classroom to
spice things up and get your learners motivated!’
Let’s start with the basics that are often overlooked: TED stands for Tech-
nology, Entertainment and Design. The whole endeavour began in 1984 as
a conference which since 1990 has been an annual event spread throughout
the whole globe. Simple math will provide you with the unyielding numbers
to support the success – TED has been annually running for 27 years. This is
already a number to impress. (To add more numerals into the text – it has been
operating for 33 years since its first startup.) Next let’s move and learn about
the heart and the main slogan of the organization that is “ideas worth spread-
ing”. Thus the goal lies in the distribution of knowledge and data to everyone
who is eager and is looking and longing for it. Even though the primarily em-
phasis was directed at technology, design and education, the focus has been
shifted across all domains that are of concern and interest nowadays. The range
is vast starting with popular business topics, moving into science and finishing
with global issues. If you are not hooked yet then the marvels continue as the
content is available in more than 110 languages with subtitles (if required), in-
teractive scripts, options to download the video, speakers’ footnotes and speak-
ers’ reading lists as well as … wait for it … bonus features of actually sharing
the idea via all possible social networks. The accessibility is free of charge as
TED has been established as a non-profit media organization. So there is abso-
lutely nothing to lose here, only endless opportunities to gain and acquire.
At this point the delivered proof should have spiked your interest, how-
ever, the justification for any extra implementation of outside content should
be provided. With TED videos the advantages include the length of videos to
begin with. Time is priceless and limited at a lesson when every minute counts,
so a video has no moral right to devour every precious grain of it unaccount-
ably. Thus in order to make the content enjoyable and not so time-consuming
the maximum of a video is 18 minutes as regulated by the organisation itself
meaning that there is an abundance of videos with the length agreeable to your
teaching context (be it 2 or 5 or 10 or 18 minutes tops). Now that time restraints
have been lifted, we can proceed to the speakers as they are the faces that learn-
ers should be inspired by. The list is humongous with the roaring examples of
Bill Clinton, David Cameron, Bill Gates, Bono, Sergey Brin, etc., to name a
few. As of now TED has become so popular and validated that it is considered
honourable and rather privileged to speak at a conference, to share your re-
search, practice, bright ideas. However, the vibe of the talks is usually aimed at
engagement and participation; you might see colourful presentations, videos,
music, interactions with audiences and a bunch of jokes to create a welcoming
and comfortable environment for information intake.
So now, I hope, you feel ready, your hands are itching and you want to im-
press and surprise your learners. However, any teacher anywhere always and
forever has no time. Simply never. So even if you have this readiness to expand
the boundaries of your lesson and classroom and welcome the world … you are
 TOPICAL JOURNEY English

ve with TED, 31
May–
June 2017

We all have an emotional memory

bank, which is comprised of the emotions
that are accessed habitually and “feel
just tired to create and compile the tasks to check all the possible skills you can right.” When a relationship is traded off for
juice out of a video, be it understanding the text, vocabulary, grammar, listen- achievement, this emotional memory bank
ing, etc., and if you are as human as a human can be then Morpheus will win. must be held in abeyance, which could
However, the good news is that with TED you actually do not need to sacrifice take years. How do we accomplish this?
your hours of beauty sleep! The magic lies in ready-made lessons based on It happens because of one of the following
four reasons:
TED videos! Hooray! Here is a win-win situation finally. With a database that
has inherently been created for the purposes of teaching, you have it all. Just 1. The current situation is too painful for
the individual to stay.
go to ed.ted.com and explore the assortment that has been shared by educators,
teachers, and trainers around the world. But your learners are unique, they are 2. A compelling goal or vision of the future
not ordinary and require special tasks and maybe a little bit more than what drives the individual.
is offered, so a ready-made lesson might not suit their exquisite tastes. That 3. A talent or skill takes the individual into
might have been an issue and the reason to stop and return to the coursebook new surroundings, or
bearing the momentum deep into the ground, but not with ed.ted.com as there 4. A spouse or mentor provides an emo-
you can customize your own lessons. If you are feeling creative, then you have tional comfort level while the individual
learns the new skills/knowledge.
the tools to bring your ideas to fruition. The steps are simple: 1. find a video;
2. add questions, discussion prompts, and additional resources; 3. share your
lesson with your students; 4. track their progress. Here you have it; everything How do you provide emotional resourc-
is at your disposal to make it your own for your educational world. es when the student has not had access to
Isn’t TED great already? What else can one desire when opulence and plen- appropriate role models?
tifulness are so obvious and alluring? Well, it is not over yet, far from being 1. Through support systems.
over. You have a coursebook. Indeed. Your eyes are not betraying you. We 2. By using appropriate discipline strate-
have come full circle. Not so long ago National Geographic Learning in part- gies and approaches.
nership with HEINLE Cengage Learning came up with a 4 level series based 3. By establishing long-term relationships
solemnly on TED talks. So if your soul demands the warmth of paper, you can with adults who are appropriate.
have it as well. The title is catching – 21st Century Reading, Creative Thinking 4. By teaching the hidden rules.
and Reading with TEDtalks. When you open a coursebook the statement on the 5. By identifying options.
first pages apprises that ‘21st Century Reading develops essential knowledge 6. By increasing individuals’ achievement
and skills for learners to succeed in today’s global society. The series teaches level through appropriate instruction.
core academic language skills and incorporates 21st Century themes and skills 7. By teaching goal setting.
such as global awareness, information literacy, and critical thinking.’ Now you
are completely enticed and seduced. It is a must to get it as the pages are col-
What do we need to do in the school or
ourful and nice to the touch. Also the structure of each unit is very easy and
work setting to help provide students with
effortless to follow with three core parts: 1. read about a 21st century topic, the needed emotional resources?
then 2. learn more about the topic by viewing an authentic TED Talk and finish
• Schools need to establish schedules and
with 3. explore the topic further by completing a collaborative research project.
instructional arrangements that allow
Easy and simple, yet so efficient and productive. The pages of the book will students to stay with the same teachers
be calling and appealing to you, the audio CD which accompanies the book for two or more years if mutually agreed
features narrations of each reading passage and TED speaker profile, while a upon.
DVD accompanying the series contains each adapted TED talk, though if you • Teachers and administrators are much
do not want to buy the DVD, adapted videos are available on the website. In more important as role models than has
order to aid learners’ comprehension of the TED Talk studied in the book, you previously been addressed.
may work with a Summary Worksheet that is provided in Teacher’s Guide. • The development of emotional resourc-
This series intends to inspire learners as they develop their essential global and es is crucial to students success.
cross-cultural awareness alongside creative and critical thinking skills with
information and media literacies. The greatest free resource available to
So now you know everything there is to know about the luxury and splendor schools is the role/modeling provided by
that TED is able to offer right now (who knows where and how it will grow!). teachers, administrators, and staff.
TED is global. It is limitless. It has touched, influenced and opened doors. It is
time we all jumped in and joined the movement. You are in possession of end-
By Norma Meek,
less capabilities, possibilities and options. The question is how intellectually
National Trainer,
inquisitive are you? Anyway, let’s explore TED, shall we?)
School of the 21st Century

By Ekaterina Androsova Source: http://medicine.yale.edu

 English TOPICAL JOURNEY

32 May–
June 2017
Obama’s
OBAMA’S SECRET TO SURVIVING
CONTEXT IN PRESIDENTIAL THE WHITE HOUSE YEARS: BOOKS
BIOGRAPHIES (an excerpt from the Not since Lincoln has there been
article “Obama’s book”) a president as fundamentally shaped
Presidential biographies also provided – in his life, convictions and outlook
context, countering the tendency to think on the world – by reading and writ-
“that whatever’s going on right now is ing as Barack Obama.
uniquely disastrous or amazing or difficult,” Seven days before his departure
he said. “It just serves you well to think from the White House, Mr. Obama
about Roosevelt trying to navigate through sat down in the Oval Office and
World War II.” talked about the indispensable role
Even books that books have played during his
initially picked up presidency and throughout his life –
as escape read- from his peripatetic and sometimes
ing like the Hugo lonely boyhood, when “these worlds President Obama in the Oval Office during
Award-winning that were portable” provided com- an interview with Michiko Kakutani on Friday
apocalyptic sci-fi panionship, to his youth when they
epic The Three- helped him to figure out who he was, what he thought and what was important.
Body Problem by During his eight years in the White House – in a noisy era of information overload,
the Chinese writer extreme partisanship and knee-jerk reactions – books were a sustaining source of ideas
Liu Cixin, he said, and inspiration, and gave him a renewed appreciation for the complexities and ambigui-
could unexpect- ties of the human condition.
edly put things in “At a time when events move so quickly and so much information is transmitted,”
perspective: “The he said, reading gave him the ability to occasionally “slow down and get perspective”
scope of it was and “the ability to get in somebody else’s shoes.” These two things, he added, “have
immense. So that been invaluable to me. Whether they’ve made me a better president I can’t say. But
was fun to read, partly because my day- what I can say is that they have allowed me to sort of maintain my balance during
to-day problems with Congress seem fairly the course of eight years, because this is a place that comes at you hard and fast and
petty – not something to worry about. Al- doesn’t let up.”
iens are about to invade!” The writings of Lincoln, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi and Nelson Man-
In his searching 1995 book Dreams dela, Mr. Obama found, were “particularly helpful” when “what you wanted was a
From My Father, Mr. Obama recalls how sense of solidarity,” adding “during very difficult moments, this job can be very iso-
reading was a crucial tool in sorting out lating.” “So sometimes you have to sort of hop across history to find folks who have
what he believed, dating back to his teen- been similarly feeling isolated, and that’s been useful.” There is a handwritten copy of
age years, when he immersed himself in the Gettysburg Address in the Lincoln Bedroom, and sometimes, in the evening, Mr.
works by Baldwin, Ellison, Hughes, Wright, Obama says, he would wander over from his home office to read it.
DuBois and Malcolm X in an effort “to raise
myself to be a black Like Lincoln, Mr. Obama taught
man in America.” himself how to write, and for him,
Later, during his last too, words became a way to define
two years in college, himself, and to communicate his
he spent a focused ideas and ideals to the world. In fact,
period of deep self- there is a clear, shining line connect-
reflection and study, ing Lincoln and King, and President
methodically reading Obama. In speeches like the ones
philosophers from delivered in Charleston and Selma,
St. Augustine to Ni- he has followed in their footsteps,
etzsche, Emerson to putting his mastery of language in
Sartre to Niebuhr, to the service of a sweeping historical
strip down and test vision, which, like theirs, situates President Obama in the Oval Office in 2012
his own beliefs. our current struggles with race and
To this day, reading has remained an injustice in a historical continuum that traces how far we’ve come and how far we have
essential part of his daily life. He recently yet to go. It’s a vision of America as an unfinished project – a continuing, more-than-
gave his daughter Malia a Kindle filled with two-century journey to make the promises of the Declaration of Independence real
books he wanted to share with her (includ- for everyone – rooted both in Scripture and the possibility of redemption, and a more
ing One Hundred Years of Solitude, The existential belief that we can continually remake ourselves. And it’s a vision shared by
Golden Notebook and The Woman War- the civil rights movement, which overcame obstacle after obstacle, and persevered in
rior). And most every night in the White the face of daunting odds.
House, he would read for an hour or so late Mr. Obama’s long view of history and the optimism (combined with a stirring re-
at night – reading that was deep and ecu- minder of the hard work required by democracy) that he articulated in his farewell
menical, ranging from contemporary literary speech last week are part of a hard-won faith, grounded in his reading, in his knowledge
fiction (the last novel he read was Colson of history (and its unexpected zigs and zags), and his embrace of artists like Shake-
Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad)
to classic novels to groundbreaking works Sources: https://mobile.nytimes.com
 TOPICAL JOURNEY English

’s Books 33
May–
June 2017

speare who saw the human situation entire: its follies, cruelties and mad blunders, but
also its resilience, decencies and acts of grace. The playwright’s tragedies, he says, have of nonfiction like
been “foundational for me in understanding how certain patterns repeat themselves and Daniel Kahne-
play themselves out between human beings.” man’s “Thinking,
Mr. Obama taught himself to write as a young man by keeping a journal and writing Fast and Slow”
short stories when he was a community organizer in Chicago – working on them after and Elizabeth Kol-
he came home from work and drawing upon the stories of the people he met. Many of bert’s The Sixth
the tales were about older people, and were informed by a sense of disappointment and Extinction”
loss: “There is not a lot of Jack Kerouac open-road, young kid on the make discovering
stuff,” he says. “It’s more melancholy and reflective.” Such books
That experience underscored the power of empathy. An outsider himself – with a were a way for the
father from Kenya, who left when he was 2, and a mother from Kansas, who took him president to shift
to live for a time in Indonesia – he could relate to many of the people he met in the mental gears from
churches and streets of Chicago, who felt dislocated by change and isolation, and he the briefs and poli-
took to heart his boss’s observation that “the thing that brings people together to share cy papers he stud-
the courage to take action on behalf of their lives is not just that they care about the ied during the day,
same issues, it’s that they have shared stories.” a way “to get out
This lesson would become a cornerstone of the president’s vision of an America of my own head,”
where shared concerns – simple dreams of a decent job, a secure future for one’s chil- a way to escape
dren – might bridge differences and divisions. After all, many people saw their own sto- the White House
ries in his – an American story, as he said in his keynote address at the 2004 Democratic bubble. Some
National Convention possible “in no other country on Earth.” novels helped him
to better “imagine
In today’s polarized environment, what’s going on in
where the Internet has let people in- the lives of people”
creasingly retreat to their own silos across the country
(talking only to like-minded folks, – for instance, he
who amplify their certainties and found that Mari-
biases), the president sees novels lynne Robinson’s novels connected him
and other art (like the musical Ham- emotionally to the people he was meeting
ilton) as providing a kind of bridge in Iowa during the 2008 campaign, and to
that might span usual divides and “a his own grandparents, who were from the
reminder of the truths under the sur- Midwest, and the small town values of hard
face of what we argue about every work and honesty and humility.
day.” Other novels served as a kind of foil –
He points out, for instance, something to argue with. V. S. Naipaul’s
that the fiction of Junot Díaz and President Obama reading novel A Bend in the River, Mr. Obama re-
Jhumpa Lahiri speaks “to a very Where the Wild Things Are to children at the calls, “starts with the line ‘The world is what
particular contemporary immigra- White House in 2014. it is; men who are nothing, who allow them-
tion experience,” but at the same selves to become nothing, have no place
time tell stories about “longing for this better place but also feeling displaced” – a in it.’ And I always think about that line and
theme central to much of American literature, and not unlike books by Philip Roth I think about his novels when I’m thinking
and Saul Bellow that are “steeped with this sense of being an outsider, longing to about the hard-
get in, not sure what you’re giving up.” ness of the world
Mr. Obama entered office as a writer, and he returned to a private life as a writer, sometimes, par-
planning to work on his memoirs, which will draw on journals he’s kept in the White ticularly in for-
House (“but not with the sort of discipline that I would have hoped for”). He has a eign policy, and
writer’s sensibility – an ability to be in the moment while standing apart as an observer, I resist and fight
a novelist’s eye and ear for detail, and a precise but elastic voice capable of moving against some-
easily between the lyrical and the vernacular and the profound. times that very
At the beginning of January he had lunch with five novelists he admires – Dave cynical, more re-
Eggers, Mr. Whitehead, Zadie Smith, Mr. Díaz and Barbara Kingsolver. He not only alistic view of the
talked with them about the political and media landscape, but also talked shop, asking world. And yet,
how their book tours were going and remarking that he likes to write first drafts, long there are times
hand, on yellow legal pads. where it feels as
Mr. Obama says he is hoping to eventually use his presidential center website “to if that may be
widen the audience for good books” – something he’s already done with regular lists of true.”
book recommendations – and then encourage a public “conversation about books.” Writing was key to his thinking process,
“At a time,” he says, “when so much of our politics is trying to manage this clash too: a tool for sorting through “a lot of cross-
of cultures brought about by globalization and technology and migration, the role of currents in my own life – race, class, family.
stories to unify – as opposed to divide, to engage rather than to marginalize – is more And I genuinely believe that it was part of
important than ever.” the way in which I was able to integrate all
these pieces of myself into something rela-
tively whole.”
 English TOPICAL JOURNEY
34 May–
June 2017
The Queen carries her beloved Launer handbag dur-
ing a recent church visit. Credit: REX
The Queen’s official portrait to mark her 90th birth-
day. Her great-granddaughter Mia Tindall holds her
handbag. Credit: Annie Liebowitz
The future Queen Elizabeth in 1933, at the age of
seven – with handbag. Credit: Getty Images
Discrete Signals an
the Secrets of The Queen
The Queen is rarely seen in public without her handbag by her side. Indeed,
along with her favourite Anello and Davide block heels, it is her steadfast sar-
torial signature. From Sunday church visits to official engagements, private
audiences and official portraits, it is rare that Her Majesty is not accompanied
by her patent top handle bag.
But despite the ubiquity of the Queen’s handbag, we know very little about
what she carries around with her – and the meaning behind it. Here, we take a
look at what we do know...
Her Majesty’s personal bag is used as much to send secret signals to staff
as it is to carry personal items. If the Queen places her handbag on the table
at dinner, it signals that she wants the event to end in the next five minutes. If
she puts her bag on the floor, it shows she’s not enjoying the conversation and
wants to be rescued by her lady-in-waiting.
The Queen is said to own more than 200 Launer handbags. Her preferred
styles are the Royale and the black patent Traviata (23 cm x 20 cm x 10 cm).
The bag has a longer handle to ease the process of handshaking. But what does
she carry round with her?
Surely the usual clutter of coins, keys and ticket stubs would be unneces-
sary for Her Majesty – after all, she doesn’t own a passport, has no use for bus
tickets and keys aren’t particularly handy when you have a doorman at hand.
But perhaps the Queen does succumb to human needs on occasion – surely
even Her Majesty can rummage around for a stray mint.
In 2012, a royal biographer disclosed that buried alongside everyday items
such as a mirror and lipstick is always a crisply folded £5 note to donate to the
church collection on Sundays.
The monarch’s church donation sometimes increases to £10 but apparently
that is as generous a donation as she chooses to make.
Sally Bedell Smith, author of Elizabeth the Queen: The Woman Behind The
Throne, claims that among the bag’s other secrets are a portable hook, which is
used to hang it discreetly under tables.
Bedell Smith suggests that there is “no more familiar symbol” of the Queen
than the classic Launer handbag that dangles from her left arm on public occa-
sions from informal walkabouts to state dinners.
Her inside knowledge has been pieced together from anecdotes of those
who claim to have snuck a peek inside the royal bag and ladies-in-waiting.
Bedell Smith, writing in The Lady magazine, disclosed that the handbag
usually contains reading glasses, mint lozenges and a fountain pen, although
rarely cash, except for the “precisely folded” £5 or £10 note on Sundays.
A dinner guest at the Berkshire home of Jean Wills, the Queen’s cousin, is
said to have been surprised to see the Queen spitting into a plastic suction cup
before attaching the hook under the table.
“I watched the Queen open her handbag and remove a white suction cup and
discreetly spit into it,” the guest is quoted as saying.
“The Queen then attached the cup to the underside of the table. The cup had
a hook on it, and she attached her handbag to it.”
Bedell Smith alleges that the most important items in the Queen’s bag are a
small mirror and lipstick which she has been known to apply whilst still sitting
at the table.
“At the end of a luncheon or a dinner, even a banquet set with silver gilt and
antique porcelain, she has the somewhat outré habit of opening her bag, pulling
out a compact and reapplying her lipstick,” she writes.
“When First Lady Laura Bush made a similar cosmetic fix during a Wash-
ington ladies’ luncheon, she cheerily commented, ‘The Queen told me it was
all right to do it.’”
Sources: http://www.telegraph.co.uk
 TOPICAL JOURNEY English

nd Clarins Lipstick: 35
May–
June 2017

een’s Handbag Revealed

The Queen touches up her lipstick at the Royal Corn-

wall Show. Credit: Paul Armiger

The Queen meets wellwishers near Windsor Castle on her 90th birthday. Credit: PA

In 2000, the Queen was spotted reapplying her lipstick at the Royal Corn-
wall Show and in 2014, she did the same at the Commonwealth Games in
Glasgow.
The lipstick looked like Clarins, which is known as one of the Queen’s
favourite brands – the make up company wouldn’t comment on her choice of
lipstick, but revealed the Queen is a fan of the brand’s Hand and Nail Treat-
ment Cream.
Bedell Smith claims that ladies-in-waiting are responsible for carrying ne-
cessities such as extra pairs of gloves, needles, thread and safety pins for emer-
gency repairs.
However, one long-serving member of staff described the Queen as “a very
practical, down-to-earth lady”.
“She needs a comb or lipstick or Kleenex, and if she hasn’t got it, what does
she do?” she said.
The Queen’s handbag has often been described as her “comfort blanket”.
She has been said to use it to indicate to subtlety communicate with her
staff.
Does she have a mobile phone? The idea of those white-gloved hands swip-
The Queen takes her glasses out of her handbag
ing an iPhone screen sounds ridiculous, but royal biographer Penny Junor in- during her Golden Jubilee tour in 2002. Credit: Ian
sists that she might well carry a mobile. “She does have a mobile and she Jones
speaks to her grandchildren on it,” says Junor. “I don’t know whether it’s a
smartphone though.”
Another royal handbag investigator, Phil Dampier, claims that the Queen’s
bag is filled with more personal items.
A collection of good luck charms given to her by her children, includ-
ing miniature dogs, horses and saddles, clutter up the bag, Dampier wrote in
What’s In The Queen’s Handbag: And Other Royal Secrets. Family photos are
also tucked inside, including one of Prince Andrew on his safe return from the
Falklands in 1982.
The bulk of the Queen’s clutter is carried by her ladies-in-waiting, who
travel with spare tights and gloves, as well as a moist, lavender-scented cloth
in case of heat.
And so the Queen’s compact leather handbag paints a fitting portrait of the
British monarch. Practical, discreet, and with strong family bonds – we should
have known all along.
The Queen is presented with flowers on the day before
By Victoria Ward and Juliet Eysenck her 90th birthday. Credit: Reuters
 English TOPICAL JOURNEY
36 May–
June 2017
MORNING STAR (1966–present)
History
The first edition of the Morning Star ap-
peared on Monday, 25 April 1966. South
African exile Sarah Carneson worked for
the paper in the late 1960s.
By the late 1970s, the paper and the
Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB)
were beginning to come into conflict with
each other, as the Eurocommunist trend in
the CPGB grew, while the Morning Star at
the time retained a pro-Soviet stance and
opposed eurocommunism. An editorial in
The Guardian, however, reported in 1977
that the paper was giving coverage to dis-
sidents in Czechoslavakia and elsewhere
in the Soviet bloc to the consternation
of about a third of CPGB members who
wanted a reversal to a strictly pro-Kremlin
line. “The Morning Star is open for genuine
debate about the future of the Left”, it as-
serted. A demonstration outside the East
German embassy against the imprison-
ment of reform communist Rudolf Bahro
was organised by the Morning Star that
year. Also in 1977, editor Tony Chater per-
suaded the Labour government to begin
running advertisements in the newspaper,
previously absent because of a lack of au-
dited circulation figures.
In December 1981, when the Polish
Solidarity trade union movement was sup-
pressed and martial law declared, the pa-
per criticised the Executive Committee of
the party for condemning the acts of the
(then communist) Polish government. In
1982, the Morning Star attacked the atti-
tudes of Marxism Today, the party’s month-
ly journal, which was controlled by the eu-
rocommunists.
The newspaper attracted some wider
media attention in September 1981 when
the BBC paid to place six advertisements
for its Russian-language service in the
Morning Star, which was the only English-
language newspaper that the USSR’s
government allowed to be circulated in
the country. Four of these advertisements
were printed as agreed, but the last two of
the six were not printed. A spokesman for
the newspaper said that the advertising de-
partment had not properly consulted with
other teams before making the agreement,
and that the BBC’s broadcasts were part
of Cold War propaganda. The paper sup-
ported the National Union of Mineworkers
during the miners’ strike of 1984–1985, but
the party had become critical of Scargill’s
strategy towards the end of the strike.
Meanwhile, in March 1984 the CPGB
Executive Committee (EC) issued a seven
page document which was heavily critical of
editor Tony Chater, in particular because he
Soviet D
“Say not, ‘Why were the former days better than these?’ For it is not from
wisdom that you ask this.” Ессlesiastes, 7:10
“Don’t these new ways of teaching based on high technology beat the old
ones? – I expect they’re all much of a muchness.”
HOW WE TAUGHT ENGLISH IN THE SOVIET DAYS
When I came to a prestigious English language school as a teacher, I was
disappointed to learn that English literature had just been cancelled as a sub-
ject. Still, every class (in the Russian meaning) was divided into three groups
for English, there were up to six English lessons a week and English was con-
sidered the primary subject, with mathematics following. It was a school of
distinction and strict discipline. The administration was ambitious and did eve-
rything to keep the reputation of a model institution. Ostentatious would be
another proper characteristic.
The English head had a unique personality. I am going to call her L.N. Her
unfailing enthusiasm and dedication worked wonders. She did everything to
introduce authentic language into the classroom as early as possible. At the
time when all course books were written by Russians and the author of the
largest Russian-English dictionary had never been abroad, such aspirations re-
quired great effort.
She composed a syllabus for every level herself and made it as intensive as
possible. There was to be a poem to learn by heart and a song to sing. Home
reading, or abundant reading, was an essential component of every course.
The youngest learned a lot of songs and nursery rhymes. As there were
no recordings, the teachers or students had to play the piano themselves, if
they could. L.N. was very musical and sang and played the piano beautifully.
She used to go to music classes and conducted lessons together with the mu-
sic instructor. She beamed with pleasure listening to kids singing in English.
Popular Russian songs were sung in English: “Let pedestrians hurry with their
eyes full of worry, In the pools picking out their way, They’re surprised at my
folly – Why I am so jolly On this gloomy and dull rainy day. I am playing my
garmoshka For all passers-by to hear...”
The choice of nursery rhymes was not big either, as Demurova’s precious
book of Mother Goose Rhymes was published by Raduga only in 1988.
As for recordings, the staff were proud to possess one or two vinyl records.
One had two lovely funny stories on it and the third one read Reminiscences by
Anna Ulyanova about her younger brother, Vladimir Lenin. All these records
passed from classroom to classroom with awe and were handled with utmost
care. The texts haunt me to this day.
L.N. was authoritative, uncompromising and very abrupt. She had enough
energy to visit and observe classes every week at least; sometimes you could
see her in your classroom twice a day; then you had to wait for the time when
she was ready to talk to you and she was always ruthlessly critical while ana-
lyzing your work. Not everybody could stand her pressure and bad manners,
that was the reason I got a position unexpectedly in November when one of the
teachers had left after a row.
I joined my new colleagues who were teaching 8 and 10-year students (the
10th year was the highest in those days) and was surprised to see the books
appointed for home reading: it was The Path of Thunder by Peter Abrahams
(a South African-born Jamaican novelist) and Say No to Death by Dymphna
Cusack, an Australian author. The first seemed to have too crass anti-racism
propaganda, and the other was sickeningly sentimental. The explanation was
very simple: “We read what we can find in required numbers. When we read,
for example, To Kill a Mockingbird, two pupils have to share one copy. Each of
them has to do the reading in two days.” Surprisingly, they really did!
Pictures source: http://68.media.tumblr.com; http://a2012.kiosko.net/
 TOPICAL JOURNEY English

t Days 37
May–
June 2017

When a new book came out, one of the teachers, the youngest, naturally, had refused to print an article which com-
was rushed to the bookshop in Kuznetsky Most in order to buy as many copies memorated the 60th anniversary of the death
as possible. (The weight of transporting The Young Shakespeare sent me to of Lenin. The EC put forward candidates to
hospital for a few days.) challenge those loyal to Chater at the 1984
AGM of the People’s Press Printing Soci-
When The Adventures of Pinocchio appeared in an English translation, L.N.
ety (PPPS) and called for Chater’s replace-
got it bought for every ten-year-old and was overjoyed with the idea that the ment. He was expelled from the CPGB in
kids would start reading a text in the original, not adapted for learning pur- January 1985, along with the assistant edi-
poses. ‘The original’ turned out to be a crushing difficulty, as every other word tor, David Whitfield, reportedly because the
was unfamiliar; the private teachers found themselves helpless and agonized, attempts to remove him as editor had failed.
the parents rebelled and complained; the school principal had to interfere and A statement by the party’s EC asserted that
L.N. had to give up. Pinocchio died as a source. the paper was “being systematically used
Another fountain of authenticity in Soviet days was the Morning Star, a to attack and undermine congress policy,
newspaper of the British Communist Party, which was in great demand among support factional activities in the party, and
help sectarian minority groupings in their
the Moscow intelligentsia as a legal source of information coming from abroad.
opposition to the party majority”. In June
L.N. made a deal with a news agent and supplied the English staff regularly. 1985, however, AGMs of the PPPS held in
L.N. was not a member of the Communist party, but she shared the ideology Glasgow, Manchester and London voted by
without a shade of doubt. She approved of the content of the British newspaper about 60 to 40% for candidates backed by
and insisted that ‘they are no less communist than ours’. She enjoyed the lan- the management committee of the Morning
guage, scrutinizing every preposition and every idiom, and tried to apply the Star. Chater remained editor of the paper
new knowledge in her own classes. until 1995 when he retired.
The Moscow News was also used widely On the day before the Berlin Wall began
in classes, as its copies were easier to get in to be dismantled in 1989, under a headline
reading “GDR unveils reforms package”,
great numbers and pupils could have them
the newspaper commented that “The Ger-
on their desks. There were special newspa- man Democratic Republic is awakening”,
per lessons when students were taught to read and quoting material supplied by East
articles for ‘resumes’, or for the gist. Those Germany’s ruling Socialist Unity Party: “A
sources proved to be most productive as they revolutionary people’s movement has set
were topical and because of the success of hu- in motion a process of serious upheaval...
man interest stories. The newspaper was a real The aim is dynamically to give socialism
window to the world, no matter how Moscow- more democracy”.
like was the language. Successive annual general meetings of
the PPPS have agreed that the policy of
Listening skills were harder to practise.
the paper is founded on Britain’s Road to
With the advent of smaller tape recorders, Socialism, the programme of the Commu-
programs of Moscow Radio were sometimes nist Party of Britain.
recorded and played in class. The students In the 1990s, the publication’s circula-
were to get down one or two sentences that tion fell to 7,000, following the end of bulk
were offered again and again but it did not help much. The listeners were near- sales to the now defunct Soviet Union, and
ly crying: “They speak too fast, too fast!” in 1998 many of its workers went on strike.
When the Beatles invaded the world of teenagers, listening skills as well as These strikes were provoked by the sack-
idiomatic English rocketed to the sky. Those teachers who could not compete ing of John Haylett as editor. During the
protest a breakaway from the Morning Star,
lagged behind; their students were becoming really fluent.
the Workers’ Morning Star was formed,
Most enthusiastic teachers kept hunting and published by a small group of journal-
for contemporary idioms tirelessly. ists who worked for the Morning Star at the
Once I was listening to the BBC and same time. This paper was discontinued
heard a program about contemporary Eng- before the end of the decade. Haylett was
lish poets. Stevie Smith was one of them eventually reinstated as editor and the pro-
and she read her own poem which enchant- tests stopped, as the circulation saw a mod-
ed me and I got it recorded. Unfortunately, erate increase. “Our political relationship is
there were some words I could not hear still with the Communist Party of Britain”, he
said in 2005, pointing out that only about
well, and nobody could, no matter how
10% of readers were members of the party,
hard they tried. A miracle happened. The “but now we represent a broad movement”.
next day I bought a copy of the Morning Although the paper is normally pub-
Star by chance, unfolded it and could not lished from Monday to Saturday, on Sun-
believe my eyes: there was that very poem day 13 September 2015, the Morning Star
by Stevie Smith! I love it even today: was issued for the first time on a Sunday
to cover the election of Jeremy Corbyn as
leader of the Labour Party.
 English TOPICAL JOURNEY
38 May–
June 2017
Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning.
Poor chap, he always loved larking
And now he’s dead
It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,
They said.
Oh, no no no, it was too cold always
(Still the dead one lay moaning)
I was much too far out all my life
And not waving but drowning.
That was the poem to hear, to read, to discuss and enjoy!
Grammar presented special difficulties as there were no
decent practice books. I am not sure when Golitsinsky got
his first collection of exercises published (let all his books
be burned at last!), but there was much treasured Bonk with
a lexicon good for interrogations: Where was Petrov yester-
day? Did Petrov work well [sic!]? With whom did Petrov go
yesterday? Did Petrov go to the library?
The Bonk books were hard to get. Learners borrowed
them from friends and never returned them.
The most precious was a four-part course of Essential
English by C.E. Eckersley, the only English-born author in
Russia at that time. It was entertaining and lively. The stories
and grammar presentations are still a good read even today.
L.N. had her own ideas of teaching grammar. Long before
Ilya Frank, she introduced her own method of bilingual stud-
ies. Students received cards with short extracts from popular
authors which they had to translate into Russian, compare
the differences and learn the original. At the exam at the end
of their eighth year, they had to do back translation from
Russian into English and name all grammar points.
There were no written tasks at the exams. The school
principal kept reminding teachers: “Remember, English is
an oral subject!”
It is needless to say that all the cards with extra activities
were written by hand and multiplied with the help of carbon
paper. Long texts were to be written on the class board in chalk
and the students diligently copied them out. When I got a type-
writer with Latin keys, it made a revolution of a sort.
Looking back, I sometimes can’t help smiling. Once a
student got a topic to speak on: ‘The son of a teacher, he
became a teacher of humanity.’ Lenin was meant. The boy
said he could not speak about Lenin sitting and was allowed
to stand up.
Another boy was asked if he thought Robert Scott and his
immortal men were heroes. He answered that only Soviet
people could be heroes, and no other nationality.
When Brezhnev ‘wrote’ his book about his war time ex-
periences, it was immediately translated into English and
all English language schools were to give special classes
to study the text and admire the ‘author’s’ heroism. Official
visitors came to the school to observe. What some of us felt
was worse than sea sickness. It was moral humiliation, and
it hurt.
The results of learning were excellent. Once it so hap-
pened that three students with satisfactory marks for English
moved with their families to another school and impressed
its teachers by their language skills so greatly, that the Eng-
lish head found time and energy to visit L.N. with a question:
“What is happening? What are you doing here? What are
your methods? Teach me.”
When we, teachers, got access to British courses, we were
thrilled. That was real English, authentic and idiomatic. The
recordings of native speakers sounded natural, the conversa-
tions were funny, grammar parts were not as dry as dust, and
you could believe the examples. The subjunctive of “Long
live the Soviet Army!” was quite correct as well, but it was
a relief to forget it.
[L.N. had not lived to see those happy tidings as she had
been killed in a car accident. She would have loved the nov-
elty!]
Couldn’t one be happy and satisfied? Today, there seems
nothing much to do except to grab the student book, the work
book and grammar book and use them thoroughly, put on
disks – no, there are no more disks, the sources are online,
audio and video – and just sit and be beautiful. Oh no.
Sometimes I miss the content of the Soviet courses with
those wonderful short stories by the best English authors,
poems by Byron and Keats, and texts about musicians and
artists. Today we cannot avoid discussing food and fashions,
shopping and extreme sports. They have pushed off fine fic-
tion, poetry, everything that could sound ‘too refined’. Thank
the Lord, we have freedom to add and to choose. We have
an abundance of sources: videos, the Internet, which is the
best library in the world, and everything that’s on it – songs,
films, information…
But the phrase ‘tyranny of choice’ comes to my mind too of-
ten. Too many options sometimes make you feel that all of them
are wrong and you are wrong if you choose any of them.
Limitation has its advantages: it stimulates creativity and
brings new possibilities.
Basically, the teaching process for English is still the
same. Here is the child that drops ‘s’ at the end of the verbs
(‘third person singular’) and here is another that will never
use the past perfect properly. How can I help them? We can
hear any poet reading their verses online, even the dead, ow-
ing to dubbing, but will it help to improve fluency? Wouldn’t
it be better to get them read on their own?
Pity, there is only ONE girl among thirty-two ninth grad-
ers who has read Ivanhoe... None of them have heard of Rob-
ert Burns before our lesson. In the Soviet days (let they never
be repeated!) all English language schools sang Burns every
January.
But: “Say not, ‘Why were the former days better than
these?’ For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.”
By Olga Sventsitskaya
 SCHOOL THEATRE English

THE BUTTERFLY LION

39
May–
June 2017

Boy: Butterflies live only short lives. They fly and flutter
for just a few glorious weeks, and then they die. To
see them, you just have to be in the right place at
the right time.
Woman: No, you are not seeing things. It’s not magic. He is
real enough. He is our lion, Bertie’s and mine. He
is our butterfly lion.
Boy: What do you mean?
Woman: I’ll tell you if you like. Would you like to know?
Would you really like to know?
Boy: Sure I would.
Woman: Have another scone first and another cup of tea.
Then I’ll take you to Africa where our lion came
from, where my Bertie came from too. Bit of a
story I can tell you. You ever been to Africa?
Boy: No.
Woman: Well, you are going. We are both going.
Boy: I want to keep him. I can’t just throw him to the
hyenas.
Woman: So the white lion cub came to live amongst them
in the farmhouse. He slept at the end of Bertie’s
bed. Wherever Bertie went, the lion cub went
too.
Boy: We were never apart. The lion cub was all the broth-
ers and sisters I could ever want, all the friends I
could ever need.
Woman: The two of them would sit side by side on the sofa
on the veranda and watch the great red sun go
down over Africa.
Boy: It was the best year of my young life. But when it
ended, it ended more painfully than I could ever
have imagined. Woman: Up till now it’s been just Bertie’s story. He told it
Woman: A boy needs a proper education, a good school. to me so often that I almost feel I was there when
The parents have found just the right place for Ber- it happened. But from now on it’s my story too.
tie, a school near Salisbury in England. His Uncle Woman: Whilst Bertie was growing up on his farm in Af-
George and Aunt Melanie who lived nearby prom- rica, I was growing up at Strawbridge, for the most
ised to look after him in the holidays, and to visit part alone.
him from time to time. Girl: Who are you? What do you want?
Boy: But the lion, what about the lion? Boy: Bertie Andrews.
Woman: His father had met a Frenchman, a circus owner Girl: You are from the school up the road, aren’t you?
from France. He was over in Africa looking for li- Boy: You won’t tell on me, will you?
ons and elephants to buy for his circus. Girl: Been in the wars, have you?
Frenchman: Incroyable! Magnifique! And white, white like Boy: I’ve run away. And I am not going back, not ever.
the snow and tame too. He will be the star of my Girl: Where are you going?
circus. I shall call him Le Prince Blanc, the White Boy: I don’t know. In the holidays I live at my Auntie’s
Prince. in Salisbury, but I don’t like it there.
Boy: No! No! You can’t send him to a circus! He’ll Girl: Haven’t you got a proper home?
be shut up behind bars. I promised him he never Boy: Course I have. Everyone has. But it’s in Africa.
would be. And they will point and laugh at him. Woman: That whole afternoon we sat together on Wood Hill
Frenchman: No, no, no! I love my animals, you know. They and he told me all about Africa, about his farm,
are my family, and this lion of yours, he will be my about his white lion.
favourite son. Have no fear, my friend. As God is Boy: I’ll find him. I’ll find him somehow. But the trou-
my witness, I promise it. ble is, even when I do find him, I won’t be able to
Boy: I will find you. Always remember that I will find take him home to Africa.
you. I promise I will. Girl: Why not?
 English SCHOOL THEATRE
40 May–
June 2017
Boy: Because my mother died. She had malaria, but I
think she really died of a broken heart. Then my
father sold the farm and married someone else. I
never want to go back. I never want to see him
again. Never.
Girl: What are you going to do now? Won’t you get into
trouble at school? You’ve got to go back before
they miss you.
Boy: Maybe you are right. But if I go back, could I come
again? Would you let me?
Girl: So it was arranged. He would meet me every Sun-
day afternoon.
Woman: Bertie and I lived for our Sundays. In those next
two years we became first good companions, and
then best of friends. We both grew up too quickly.
The love between us stayed unspoken. Then he
went his way to his college and I went my way to
the convent.
Frenchman: Then the storm of war broke. Bertie found him-
self in hospital lying in a bed, with the two friends
he had rescued on either side. Some weeks later
he was awarded the Victoria Cross for his bravery
under fire.
Woman: It was not entirely by accident that I found him.
I was reading a magazine, the Illustrated London
News when I turned the page and saw a face I
knew at once. And there was his name Captain Al-
bert Andrews.
Frenchman: There was a whole article about what he had
done and how he was still recovering from his
wounds in a hospital.
Woman: The next Sunday I cycled over. They said I could
take him out in his wheelchair. It was on one of our
Sundays that I noticed the poster across the street.
It was in French.
Frenchman: Cirque Merlot. Le Prince Blanc – the White
Prince.
Woman: We found him in the mill house, just over the
bridge.
Frenchman: The circus is finished. The soldiers, you under-
stand, they want beer and wine and girls maybe.
They don’t want the circus. No one comes. Mon-
sieur Merlot has to close the circus. But what can
he do with all the animals?
Frenchman: Many animals are dead because of the shells.
He keep only the elephants, the monkeys and the
lion, the White Prince.
Woman: Everyone loves the White Prince.
Frenchman: But there is no food for the animals. So Mon-
sieur Merlot had to shoot them. No more circus.
Finish. Triste, tres, triste.
Woman: All of them?
Frenchman: No, not all. He keep the White Prince. He could
not shoot the White Prince, never! Most famous
lion in all France. He made Monsieur Merlot a rich
man. But he is not rich anymore. He lost every-
thing. Now he has nothing, just the White Prince.
Bertie: I told you I would find him, didn’t I?
Frenchman: “The British Lion Comes Home”, roared the
newspapers the next day.
Woman: So we came back here to Strawbridge, Bertie, The
White Prince and me. We never had children of our
own – just the White Prince – and I can tell you he
was enough of a family for anyone.
Frenchman: The old lion lived on into a ripe old age. He
spent his last days stretched out asleep at Bertie’s
feet.
Woman: When he died we buried him at the bottom of the
hill. And we carved the White Prince out of the
chalk on the hillside.
Boy: So he’ll be there forever? And he’ll be white for-
ever too?
Woman: It was just after we had finished that the butterflies
first came.
Frenchman: When the sun comes out after the rain in the
summer, the butterflies – Adonis Blues, they are,
– come out to drink on the chalk face. Then the
White Prince becomes a butterfly lion.
Woman: So now you know how Bertie’s white lion became
the White Prince and how the White Prince became
our butterfly lion. Keep him white for us, there’s a
dear. We don’t want him forgotten. And think of us
sometimes, won’t you?
Boy: I will, I will!
By Julia Raskina,
School No. 1567, Moscow
Illustration from http://findpik.com/
 PREPARING FOR EXAMS TESTS English

41
May–

RESOURCES June 2017

1. Seven sentences in the text are incomplete. Choose from the list a-h the
one which fits each gap (1-7). There is one extra letter which you do not
need to use.
Five-Minute Tests
PSYCHOLOGICAL RESOURCES, POSITIVE ILLUSIONS, 1 A
AND HEALTH
Psychological beliefs such as optimism, personal control, and a sense Use the word given in capitals to form a
of meaning are known (1)____________. Are they protective of physical word or the proper tense of a verb that fits
health as well? The authors present a program of research on positive illu- in the sentence.
sions for the relation of positive beliefs to disease progression among men
infected with HIV. The investigations have revealed that even unrealistically ORE RESOURCES ON MARS
optimistic beliefs about the future may (2)____________. The ability to find Mars may contain ores that would be very
meaning in the experience is also associated with a less rapid course of ill- useful to potential (1)__________(COLO-
ness. Taken together, the research suggests that psychological beliefs such NY). The (2)___________(ABUNDANT) of
as meaning, control, and optimism act as resources, which may not only volcanic features together with widespread
(3)____________ in the context of traumatic or life-threatening events but cratering are strong (3)_______________
(4)____________ as well. (EVIDENT) for a variety of ores. While
nothing may (4)______________(FIND) on
Mars that would (5)______________(JUST)
the high cost of transport to Earth, the more
necessary ores future colonists can obtain
from Mars, the (6)_________________
(EASY) it would be to build colonies on the
Red Planet.
Key: 1. colonists/colonization; 2. abundance;
3. evidence; 4. be found; 5. justify; 6. easier.

2 A
Read the text and think of the word which
best fits each space. Use only one word in
each space.

FUTURE DETECTION
FOR ORES ON MARS
Theoretically, ore resources exist on
The psychologically and physiologically (5)____________ of positive Mars. Moreover, sensitive equipment can
beliefs are only beginning to be understood. Rigorous research investiga- predict (1)___________ to look for them,
tions from a variety of laboratories have now provided evidence, however, such (2)___________ around craters and
that such resources as meaning, a belief in personal control, and optimism near volcanic regions. As more images
not only help people adapt to stressful events more successfully but actually (3)__________ gathered, more information
(6)____________. Although, as yet we do not fully understand the biopsy- (4)___________ be gathered which will help
chosocial pathways by which such protective effects occur, the evidence is to better map the locations of ore resources.
strong enough to justify considering these resources important weapons in Later, flying unmanned craft (5)__________
the arsenal of (7)____________. gravity and magnetic measuring devic-
es will (6)_________ able to determine
a) preserve mental health (7)____________ exact locations of mineral
b) be protective of physical health deposits. These devices (8)___________ em-
c) to be protective of mental health ployed in Afghanistan by American scientists
d) prevention is better than cure to discover (9)__________ of iron, copper,
e) protective functions niobium, lithium and gold.
f) be health protective
g) protect health Key: 1. where; 2. as; 3. are; 4. will; 5. with;
h) prevention of disease ª
6. be; 7. the; 8. were/have been; 9. deposits.
ª
 English TESTS PREPARING FOR EXAMS

42 May–
June 2017
2. Seven sentences in the text are incomplete. Choose from the list a-h the
one which fits each gap (1-7). There is one extra letter which you do not
need to use.

BUILD YOUR INTERNAL RESOURCES

A law of nature is that the human body and mind need time for rest and
Five-Minute Tests recovery after times of exertion. Especially when facing circumstances
beyond your control that deplete your resiliency reserves, it is essential
3 A (1)____________, both internal and external.
Research tells us that integrating intermittent practices of renewal into
Complete these sentences using one of the your day builds your inner resources and capacity (2)____________. When
words: health, inner, human, mental. you become inundated with demands and a long “to do” list, practise one of
1. Your _________ resources had shrivelled the following:
years ago. 1. Redirect your thoughts to what is going well when your mind wants
2. In a company or other organization, the (3)____________, or an “us against them” mindset.
department of ________ resources is the 2. Remind yourself of your efforts and strengths, even when you don’t see
department with responsibility for the re- results.
cruiting, training, and welfare of the staff. 3. Read a favorite quote or meditation book that gives you inspiration. Bi-
3. He is well equipped. He has the appropriate ographies of those who have overcome incredible odds can shift your
________ resources for such a difficult task. perspective from all that is wrong to what is working.
4. He has no ______ resources of character. 4. Record what you are grateful for. Writing has a way of cementing new
5. In response to the crisis, the government ways of thinking and behaving.
assumed a leadership role in coordinating 5. Resolve to take care of yourself. Two things are working against you
________ resources. every day – the brain’s natural tendency to focus on the negative and
Key: 1. inner; 2. human; 3. mental; 4. inner; 5. health.
demands beyond your control. Resolve (4)____________, even in the
smallest of ways.
4 A 6. Pause for at least 10 seconds after something positive has happened, al-
lowing it to sink in. Resist the temptation (5)____________. By taking
Complete the text using the words from the
this time to dwell on the positive, you are decreasing stress hormones and
box. There are two extra words which you
rewiring your brain with inner strengths such as resiliency, confidence,
don’t need to use. Words: available, robust,
patience, and emotional balance.
expeditionary, essential, fairly, stockpile, as-
7. Reach out to family/friends who give you genuine support. These are the
tronauts, manufactured, practical, shielding,
people who do not judge and are there for you no matter what.
present, exploration.
8. Maintain a sense of humor without becoming cynical or sarcastic. Laugh-
The resources of Mars
ter relieves tension and gives perspective.
for human settlement
These suggestions are not about positive thinking or pat answers
Spacecraft exploration of Mars has shown
(6)____________. Rather, they involve taking action towards building your
that the (1)__________ resources neces-
inner resources, especially when things are outside of your control. Though
sary for life support are (2)________ on the
your circumstances may not change, you can integrate healthier ways of
martian surface. The key life-support com-
responding by being intentional (7)____________.
pounds O2, N2, and H2O are (3)_________
Make the conscious choice to build your inner resources and you will
on Mars. The soil could be used as radiation
face demands, distractions, and disappointments with more resolve and
(4)__________ and could provide many
resilience.
useful industrial and construction materials.
Compounds with high chemical energy, such
as rocket fuels, can be (5)________ insitu on
Mars. Solar power, and possibly wind power,
are available and (6)_________ on Mars.
Preliminary engineering studies indicate
that (7)________ autonomous processes
can be designed to extract and (8)________
Martian consumables. The ability to uti-
lize these materials in support of a human
(9)________ effort allows missions that are
more (10)________ and economical than
would otherwise be possible.
Key: 1. essential; 2. present; 3. available;
4. shielding; 5. manufactured; 6. practical; 7. fair-
ly; 8. stockpile; 9. exploration; 10. robust.
By Youdif Boyarskaya,
School No. 814, Moscow
 PREPARING FOR EXAMS English

A. to handle challenges better

B. to challenging situations
C. to develop practices that give you intermittent replenish-
ment
43
May–
June 2017
D. to protect your mental health
E. to build your inner resources throughout your day
4. Think of the word which best fits each space. Use only
F. to rehearse negative events, interactions
one word in each space.
G. to replenish your resources
H. to move on to the next thing on your “to do” list
ARE YOU A RESOURCEFUL PERSON?
Resourcefulness (1)_____ definition means that you are
3. Use the word given in capitals to form a word or a proper
(2)_____ to meet the needs of a situation and can develop
tense of a verb that fits in the sentence.
the necessary means to accomplish a task. Being resourceful
1. Resources Quotes
is a highly valuable trait, so consequently those (3)______
In Israel, a land (1)____________(LACK) in natural resourc-
are very high in the trait of resourcefulness often lead very
es, we learned to appreciate our greatest national advantage:
successful lives.
our minds. Through (2)____________(CREATE) and inno-
vation, we transformed barren deserts into (3)____________
(FLOURISH) fields and pioneered new frontiers in science
and technology.
Shimon Peres

Never forget the three (4)____________(POWER) re-

sources you always have available to you: love, prayer, and
(5)____________(FORGIVE).
H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

“Fifth wheel (6)____________(EMPLOY) are those who are

a result of the mistake made by the human resources wing,
i.e. by recruiting the wrong person to the wrong job just to fill
in the (7)____________(VACANT) and then expect a better
performance. (8)____________(FAR) such an employee is
(9)____________(ABLE) to put in his (10)____________
(GOOD) and is just an (11)____________(ADDITION)
You are a resourceful person if you are the one that:
mass available within the organization.”
• Others turn (4)_____ in a time of need or struggle;
Henrietta Newton Martin
• Is able to find ways to get things (5)_____ that others
might (6)______ thought impossible;
Our (12)__________(UNIQUE), our individuality, and our
• Finds resources (7)______ there were none;
life experience molds us into fascinating (13)__________
• Gets help when others were turned (8)______;
(BE). I hope we can embrace that. I pray we may all challenge
• Can rally any number of people to the cause.
(14)__________(WE) to delve into the (15)__________
Most importantly, you have a great combination of inner
(DEEP) resources of our hearts to cultivate an atmosphere of
and outer resources.
understanding, (16)__________(ACCEPT), tolerance, and
Your inner resource examples are creativity, intelligence,
(17)_________(COMPASS). We are all in this life together.
confidence, courage, or passion. Your (9)______ resources
Linda Thompson
are people, money, or technology. When used together, you
(10)_____ accomplish anything.
I don’t think love is a tricky issue at all. Love (18)_________
best ____________ (UNDERSTAND) when we share: share
Key:
time, energy, food, resources, insights, information, whatev-
1. 1. c; 2. f; 3. a; 4. b; 5. e; 6. g; 7. h.
er. It’s usually thought of as (19)____________(SOME) that
2. 1. G; 2. A; 3. F; 4. C; 5. H; 6. B; 7. E.
exists between two people, but that’s just because it’s easier
3. 1. lacking; 2. creativity; 3. flourishing; 4. powerful;
to see and feel in the space between them. Each person is
5. forgiveness; 6. employees; 7. vacancy; 8. Further; 9. un-
sharing a lot with the other.
able; 10. best; 11. additional; 12. uniqueness; 13. beings;
Jason Mraz
14. ourselves; 15. deepest; 16. acceptance; 17. compas-
sion; 18. is best understood; 19. something; 20. anything;
I have a low tolerance for people who complain about things
21. are never translated.
but never do (20)____________(THING) to change them.
4. 1. by; 2. able; 3. who; 4. to; 5. done; 6. have; 7. where;
This led me to conclude that the single largest pool of un-
8. down; 9. outer; 10. can.
tapped natural resources in this world is human good inten-
tions that (21)____________ never ____________(TRANS-
By Youdif Boyarskaya,
LATE) into actions.
School No. 814, Moscow
Cindy Gallop
 English FOR YOUNG LEARNERS

44 May–
June 2017
THE TIME TO RHYME
ЗАПОВЕДНЫЙ НАПЕВ Я все-таки опасался, что в первые дни после травмы
Привет! Меня зовут Валентин Valentine ['vxlqntQIn]. в состоянии волка может наступить ухудшение decline
Недавно меня назначили assign [q'sQIn] начальником [dI'klQIn], и решил позаботиться о нем. Я отнес волка к
охраны в большом природном заповеднике. Для сохра- себе в сторожку, стал кормить его и обрабатывать раны.
нения природы в первозданном виде в нашем заповедни- А через девять nine [nQIn] дней отпустил его, сытого и
ке установлены строгие правила. К нам нельзя попасть здорового, обратно в лес.
без специального разрешения и без сопровождающего Вот такая история случилась в нашем заповедном
экскурсовода. Предупреждающие о недопустимости лесу. Об этой истории даже написали в местной газете.
самовольного вторжения знаки sign [sQIn] установле- Заголовок headline ['hedlQIn] статьи “Спасение волка”
ны на всех подступах к нашему заповеднику. Террито- привлек внимание многих читателей. А мой шеф, кото-
рия заповедника ограничена confine [kqn'fQIn] высоким рый до публикации собирался отправить меня в отставку
забором, а нарушители правил посещения заповедника resign [rI'zQIn], сменил гнев на милость. Он не только не
платят немаленький штраф fine [fQIn]! уволил меня, но даже прибавил мне жалованье.
На территории нашего природного заповедника вы Хочу подчеркнуть underline ['AndqlQIn], что помогая
никогда не увидите ни тарахтящие комбайны combine волку, я не преследовал никаких корыстных целей, не
['kPmbQIn], ни выбирающихся из шахты mine [mQIn] ждал ни похвалы, ни поощрения. К тому же я нарушил
шахтеров. Любые виды хозяйственной деятельности правила природоохранной зоны, согласно которым нель-
тут строго-настрого запрещены. Нельзя даже убрать зя вмешиваться в судьбу ее обитателей. Однако я уверен,
поваленные бурей стволы деревьев или посадить ря- что поступил правильно, по совести, ведь сильный всег-
дом со сторожкой небольшую виноградную лозу vine да должен помогать слабому.
[vQIn].
Я очень люблю свою работу. В прекрасную fine [fQIn] align [q'lQIn] выравнивать,
солнечную погоду после обхода охраняемой мною тер- присоединяться
ритории я располагаюсь под старой раскидистой со- assign [q'sQIn] назначать
сной pine [pQIn]. Щуря глаза, я долго любуюсь окрест- brine [brQIn] рассол
ностями. Божественный divine [dI'vQIn] вид! Солнце China ['CQInq] Китай
сияет shine [SQIn], и в свете его лучей наш заповедник combine ['kPmbQIn] комбайн
представляется сказочным лесом. В такие моменты я
confine [kqn'fQIn] ограничивать(ся)
чувствую себя героем романа Рея Бредбери “Вино wine
consign [kqn'sQIn] предавать, обрекать
[wQIn] из одуванчиков”, изобретающим “машину сча-
стья”. А потом солнце клонится к закату. Когда оно decline [dI'klQIn] снижение, ухудшение,
касается линии line [lQIn] горизонта за соленым как спад
природный рассол brine [brQIn] озером, я иду к себе define [dI'fQIn] определять, обозначать
в сторожку. design [dI'zQIn] дизайн
Однажды я сидел в своей сторожке, обедал dine dine [dQIn] обедать
[dQIn] и рассматривал привезенную моими друзьями divine [dI'vQIn] божественный
из Китая China ['CQInq] красивую вазочку. Чем бы еще fine [fQIn] прекрасный
кроме вазочки, улучшить дизайн design [dI'zQIn] моей
fine [fQIn] штраф
сторожки? Может, стоит повесить картины? Или начать
с того, чтобы выровнять align [q'lQIn] стены и пере- headline ['hedlQIn] заголовок
клеить обои? line [lQIn] линия
Темнело. Я уже было задремал, как вдруг из чащи mine [mQIn] шахта
леса донесся невообразимый визг whine [wQIn]. Схва- nine [nQIn] девять
тив фонарь, я ринулся на звук. Сначала мне даже сложно pine [pQIn] сосна
было определить define [dI'fQIn], откуда доносится звук. resign [rI'zQIn] уходить в отставку
Наконец, через полчаса метаний я добрался до места
shine [SQIn] сиять (о Солнце)
происшествия. Оказалось, что молодого волка придави-
sign [sQIn] знак
ло упавшее дерево.
По правилам нашей природоохранной зоны я не имел spine [spQIn] позвоночник
права вмешиваться в судьбу обитателей заповедника. Од- underline ['AndqlQIn] подчеркивать
нако оставить волка без помощи означало обречь consign Valentine ['vxlqntQIn] Валентин
[kqn'sQIn] его на медленную и мучительную смерть. vine [vQIn] виноградная лоза
Так поступить я не мог. Приложив огромные усилия, я whine [wQIn] визг
сдвинул упавшее дерево и освободил волка. К счастью, вино
wine [wQIn]
у животного были только раны и царапины, позвоночник
spine [spQIn] вроде бы не был поврежден. Ксения Зайцева
 CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES English

PROVERBS AND SAYINGS 45

A Linguistic Game
May–
June 2017

READING and SPEAKING

Classroom activity: whole class interaction
Language level: elementary, pre-intermediate, intermediate
Age: 12+
Time: 30-45 minutes
Target: enlarging vocabulary, reading and speaking practice, discussing cultural and historical
differencies and similarities between Russian and English proverbs and sayings.
Procedure: The class is divided into two teams. Each team gets two big cards with Russian
proverbs and sayings and small cards with English ones. The students have to set up a correspondence between English and Rus-
sian proverbs and sayings. The winner is the team that will do it correctly and quicker than the other team. Then the teacher may
organise a discussion and ask students to share their thoughts of differencies and similarities between Russian and English proverbs
and sayings.

A bad compromise is better than a good lawsuit. Худой мир лучше доброй ссоры.

A burden of one’s choice is not felt. Своя ноша не тянет.

Better one small fish than an empty dish. Лучше синица в руках, чем журавль в небе.

Barking dogs seldom bite. Лающие собаки редко кусаются.

(Кто много грозит, тот мало вредит.)

Dance to smb’s pipe. Плясать под чужую дудку.

Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Дареному коню в зубы не смотрят.

Don’t trouble troubles till troubles trouble you. Не тревожь беду, пока беда не потревожит тебя.

East or west home is best. Восток или запад, дома лучше всего.
(В гостях хорошо, а дома лучше.)

Every bullet has its billet. У каждой пули своя цель.

(Чему быть, того не миновать.)

Glutton: one who digs his grave with his teeth. Обжора – это человек, который роет себе могилу
собственными зубами.

Hard words break no bones. Жестокие слова костей не ломают.

(Брань на вороту не виснет.)

When Queen Ann was alive. При царе Горохе.

Hell is paved with good intentions. Благими намерениями вымощена дорога в ад.
 English CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

46 May–
June 2017

If life gives you a lemon, make lemonade. В каждом свинстве можно найти кусочек ветчины.

It is not work that kills men, it is worry. He работа убивает людей, а забота.

Least said, soonest mended. Чем меньше сказано, тем быстрее исправлено.

Money spent on the brain, is never spent in vain. Деньги, потраченные для развития ума,
никогда не потрачены зря.

Train hard fight easy. Тяжело в ученье, легко в бою.

Time heals all wounds. Время лечит все раны.

Trust but verify. Доверяй, но проверяй.

When at Rome do as the Romans do. В чужой монастырь со своим уставом не ходят.

Hungry bellies have no ears. У голодного брюха нет уха.

Great talkers are little doers. Большой говорун – плохой работун.

The dogs bark, but the caravan goes on. Собака лает – ветер носит.

The leopard cannot change its spots. Волк каждый год линяет, а все сер бывает.

The more the merrier. Чем больше, тем веселее.

He works best who knows his trade. Лучше всех работает тот, кто знает свое дело.
(Дело мастера боится.)

Neck or nothing. Эх, была не была.

Neither fish nor flesh. Ни рыба, ни мясо.

To roll in money. Купаться в деньгах.

Well begun is half done. Хорошее начало полдела откачало.

By Youdif Boyarskaya, School No. 814, Moscow

Photo taken by the author.

ARE YOU AFRAID
OF ONLINE COURSES?
MY LUCK
Have you ever in your life won anything? I’ve never!
Actually I’ve never even tried. I’ve never believed that an
ordinary person can get anything for free in our so econom-
ically-oriented world. But for the first time in my life, I was
lucky. Being just an ordinary English Language teacher in
a regional school in Russia, I have won a real online course
from NILE, one of the most appreciated British institutes for
teachers. And it’s all thanks to my favourite magazine Eng-
lish for EL teachers.
After visiting their website www.nile-elt.com I chose the
“Classroom Activities, Interaction and Motivation” course
as the most interesting and helpful for me. To my mind, it’s
very important to create effective interaction between stu-
dents in order to enlighten them with learning motivation
and engage in proper classroom activities.
ORGANISATION
At the very beginning, Johanna Stirling, designer of many
courses, provided an orientation webinar to all new members
of the courses. She actually showed us the NILE learning
platform which has an easy navigation bar and many unique
collaborative activities for participants. For example, there
is a Messaging System, Community Walls, Forums, Notes, a
Chatroom for synchronous communication and others.
Could it be more obvious that I liked all of them?
For all members of any course the NILE Library and Glos-
sary are available. To my mind, they are absolutely treasure
chests.
We were informed that our course will last for 8 weeks
with a mid-course break for a week. At the end of the course,
participants are supposed to complete an assignment that
leads them to a certificate. Moreover, all activities for course
members are given time estimates in order to show how
much they may take.
FIRST WEEK IS OVER
Obviously, the first week and the Unit 1 seemed quite
difficult for me because participants were supposed to ac-
quaint themselves not only with the learning platform, but
also get to know each other. For me it was such a pleasure
to meet very experienced teachers from all over the world –
Mexico, Italy, Algeria, and Turkey. The tutor of our course,
Susi Pearson, is from the UK and used to work all around
the world for almost 26 years. Now she is a teacher-trainer
at NILE.
The first week was very motivating for me. Just imagine
how difficult it would be to create your own metaphor to
describe a lesson of a classroom activity! Definitely it needs
brainstorming in some way. “A good lesson is like a good
meal – it should have a light starter, a meaty main course and
finish with something sweet” is my favorite one. Another
task was to make a list of the aims of different classroom
activities. It made me think and formulate a lot.
TEACHERS FORUM English
47
May–
June 2017
The approach that is used as a basis of the course has
changed my mind completely about online courses. In Rus-
sia, people are used to another type of information gather-
ing. I thought that participants would be given some materi-
als to study and finally should pass a test or something. On
the NILE online platform it’s just the opposite. Participants
are given questions to generate ideas and search for the in-
formation. Surprising, isn’t it?
At the end of Unit 1, we were gathered on our first online
webinar that demonstrated what a global classroom actually
means. When we started the webinar in Russia it was already
10 p.m. while in Mexico it was only 2 o’clock. I was ex-
tremely excited to see everyone I’d met virtually the week
earlier. We communicated for almost an hour and developed
a list of ideas how the teaching context may affect the choice
of activities we provide to our students. As it’s said in Russia
“Two heads are better than one”.
To crown it all, I should say that it was an incredible ex-
perience!
UNIT 2 BRINGS SURPRISES
After the first such inspiring week all of the participants
were eager to work together even more.
Unit 2 came up with the topic “Good classroom activities
for vocabulary recycling”. We were taught to understand the
aims of different activities and create our own. One task was
a collaborative one where we were supposed to find a partner
communicating synchronously in a Chatroom.
Later we understood the importance of vocabulary re-
viewing, thanks to Johanna Stirling’s presentation on the
subject. It was a total surprise for me that the first 24 hours
are the most important to memorize new vocabulary. Such
activities as Fill in the Gaps, Odd One Out, Wordsearch, Per-
sonalisation, and Storytelling are very good for vocabulary
recycling. Another good one, and new for me, was a Vocabox
idea. As we say in Russia “Everything genius is simple”. A
teacher needs to get a real box to collect cards with target
language vocabulary.
Surely, there are plenty of activities with Vocabox and a
teacher can choose the most suitable for his or her teach-
ing context. We came to the conclusion that any kind of
deep processing activities like categorisation, comparison,
or analysis helps our students to memorise words more ef-
fectively. What is more, I liked the idea from my Italian
coursemate, Jacqeline, to jot down new words alphabetically
in address books as they have things divided according to
the fist letter.
To sum up, I would like to share a quote by Wilga Rivers
(from Communicating Naturally in a Second Language, CUP,
cited in Thornbury S, Teaching Vocabulary 2002; 144):
“Vocabulary cannot be taught. It can be presented, ex-
plained, included in all kinds of activities, and experienced
in all manner of associations... but ultimately it is learned by
the individual.”
 English TEACHERS FORUM
48 May–
June 2017
UNIT 3 WAS ABOUT INTERACTION
Time flies and the third week is over. It was dedicated to
one of the most important issues of second language teach-
ing: interaction and speaking activities.
What do we mean when we say interaction?
How often do your students interact?
What interaction patterns do you know?
What makes a good speaking activity?
What are the criteria for it?
I now have clear answers to these questions. We were ac-
quainted with so many good speaking activities in this unit
that it’s hard to choose the best one.
Needless to say, interaction is a key point in teaching Eng-
lish as a second language due to its communicative nature.
Moreover, interaction builds confidence and practice for real
life in the safe environment of a classroom where students
can make mistakes and then try again.
Besides, students learn a lot from each other and have a
peer feedback or cooperation in some activities that inspires
them. Learners use and activate their knowledge and speak-
ing skills, exchange ideas and learn to accept and respect
other people’s opinions.
As education becomes less teacher-centred and more
student-centred, interaction develops higher-order thinking
skills, critical thinking and communicative competence.
Haven’t you promoted interaction in your classroom yet?
Meanwhile, some problems with student interaction can
be prevented in advance: the instructions aren’t clear, the ac-
tivity isn’t the right level of challenge, students are afraid to
make mistakes, and for these, the teacher needs to plan and
monitor interaction carefully.
I would like to mention several interaction patterns we
looked at in this Unit. They are:
• whole class mingle and plenary,
• open and closed pairs,
• small/large group work.
We use whole class mingle to conduct a survey, for stu-
dents interviewing each other, “Find somebody who...”,
while we do whole class plenary to reflect on a lesson, to
give instructions and gain feedback from our learners. We
use pair work to develop speaking and listing skills, to per-
form dialogues. Teachers need to organise group work care-
fully to teach students to collaborate, inspire real commu-
nication within groups, develop social/teamwork skills and
give them a real sense of achievement.
UNIT 4 MOTIVATES!
This unit was dedicated to the most important part of any
education or even action, that is motivation. It is something
that makes people do certain things, a psychological reason
for their behaviour. Motivation can be of two types – intrin-
sic and extrinsic.
The key question was what a teacher can do to motivate
their English language learners. After some discussion on the
Forum, we created a list of issues that can add some motiva-
tion to our students. I find it necessary to outline some points
here:
• Any activity needs a clear aim and good instructions;
• It should be relevant to the learners’ level – not too dif-
ficult and not too easy;
• It should be personalised somehow and give learners an
element of choice;
• It should contain some mystery and guessing, e.g. infor-
mation gap;
• It should be more kinaesthetic, competitive and interac-
tive;
• A teacher should develop a system of rewarding students
– young learners always want to please a teacher, while
adults are able to follow long-term goals, receiving a reg-
ular reward on each stage of their development.
The next issue in this Unit 4 was writing activities and
how a teacher can make them more motivating. It is quite
obvious that students don’t like writing and, especially, writ-
ing in a second language.
How do you feel when you are asked to write some kind
of a report or an article in English? You feel nervous but
excited, don’t you?
All course participants shared their ideas on motivating
writing activities: start writing from the very beginning of
EL education, use fun writing tasks (menus, posters, stories),
get students writing collaboratively, e.g. circle writing, have
a noticeboards to display examples of good work, and use
media to make writing more attractive to learners.
On top of that, we were introduced to several engag-
ing writing activities like Collaborative Story, Essay Team
Writing, Snowball Fight, Write-or-Die, and Sentence Gen-
erator.
In addition, we discussed international collaborative
projects where students from different countries work on the
same task and exchange products. Of course this may need
lots of time and self-devotion of a teacher, but what could be
more motivating?
UNIT 5 AND CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT
The 5th Unit was very interesting in terms of classroom
management and the teacher’s role. We took a closer look at
how to give instructions, required with almost any activity,
more effectively. Here are the most essential points:
• Instructions must be clear, concise and simple;
• They must include gestures, examples of action;
• A teacher should check the understanding of given in-
structions via proper questions.
Have you ever thought over the instructions you usually
give?
Later we were introduced to two brilliant activities like
“Hotseat” and “Irregular Walk”.
I bet, you’ve never heard about them. Could you guess
the aims of these activities from their names?
It was amazing to adapt them to the specifics of my teach-
ing context. For example, our tutor Susi helped me to adapt
the Hotseat to young learners’ classes with mime guessing.
A teacher puts a word of an animal on the blackboard and
the students demonstrate movements and sounds of it to the
single student sitting on the “hot seat” with their back to the
word. What a marvellous idea, isn’t it?

The next step in the unit was to classify different types of
activities like warmers, fillers, stirrers and settlers. What a
shame for me I’ve never even heard of them. But that is the
reason I am here on the course to get more experience in EL
teaching.
For sure, every teacher needs warmers or as they are also
called ice breakers(starters). The aim of warming students up
unites all these activities. Put a word “Congratulations” on
the blackboard and ask your learners to find as many words
as possible based on these letters only. I liked “Ball Pass”
when students pass a ball from one to another and speak ei-
ther about themselves or on a target language topic.
Sometimes a teacher needs fillers to namely fill in for sev-
eral minutes between the activities or before a class ends.
For example, “Chinese Whispers” or “Broken Telephone” as
it called in Russia. A teacher gives students a phrase or a
sentence to whisper around the class to see how it changes
by the end.
These and many other brilliant activities require no prepa-
ration and no equipment but are extremely useful when your
class is going wrong or a colleague is ill and you’ve been
asked to cover.
Stirrers are a special type of activity that help teacher
to activate learners, while settlers are to cool them down a
little. Though different students are stirred or settled by dif-
ferent activities.
Considering all the above, I must confess that I definitely
need to start my own collection of useful activities.
UNIT 6: BUILDING AND SHARING A BANK
OF ACTIVITIES
In this unit, we took a look at the importance of building
a big bank or repertoire of classroom activities. Also, we dis-
cussed both paper and digital resources where a teacher can
get new activities and ideas. Later we focused on grammar
activities, where we ought to find and adapt some of them in
order to satisfy certain grammar learning aims.
We also looked at some new ways of storing and organis-
ing classroom activities, using apps like Evernote, Scoop It,
and Padlet.
Have you ever thought of any online sharing of activities?
During this week I had the opportunity to download Ever-
note and try this app for storing my many activities. I found
it extremely useful even for personal planning and collecting
ideas. A teacher can create different Notebooks within this
app and store activities as articles, including webpages, any
multimedia materials such as videos, music, audio-files, or
pictures. Any part of Evernote resources could be shared via
e-mail.
I really liked this app because it is simple and helps me a
lot almost every day.
However, there is one more useful technology I found
nowadays especially for teachers. That is cloud technol-
ogy. Such platforms as Google.Drive, OneDrive Microsoft,
Dropbox and others provide a huge storage space and many
activities useful for teachers like testing forms to create quiz-
zes, tests, and questionnaires. What could be more helpful for
a teacher?
To sum it up, I would like to say that it’s never too late to
make your teaching easier and more interesting due to mod-
ern digital opportunities. So start today!
TEACHERS FORUM English
49
May–
June 2017
UNIT 7: THE LAST BUT NOT THE LEAST
We have come to the last content unit in this course and
immediately I started to feel so sad because of the course
ending. This week was dedicated to receptive skill-based ac-
tivities that are reading and listening.
Why do we give our learners reading and listening ac-
tivities?
What are the specific reasons to use them?
Why do you think learners may find listening or reading
activities difficult?
Ask yourself these questions and you will get more under-
standing of the subject.
A teacher should always know why he or she uses certain
activities in order to set specific aims and later analyse if they
work toward meeting those aims.
Sometimes we need to improve reading and listening
skills of our learners; very often we help them to be better at
gist or scan reading; from time to time we can introduce or
revise particular language; occasionally we ask students to
read for enjoyment; etc.
Needless to say that every time a teacher puts forth differ-
ent aims and finds that different tools work toward meeting
them.
The last task of the Unit was to create one’s own listen-
ing or reading activity with a brief profile of the class and
necessary explanations. Do I need to say that it was very
very difficult?
I did my best and it was such an exciting experience.
UNIT 8 AND A FAREWELL PARTY
What a great course! Every participant admitted that it
was a unique one. I will never forget the NILE platform with
its nice activities. I will definitely miss our close interaction,
comments, webinars and precious cross-cultural exchange.
We made good friends with everyone on the course and
promised to stay in touch with colleagues maybe for future
collaborative projects.
Unit 8 came up with two important activities. The first one
was to analyse our personal teaching context. The second
one was to try a pre-assignment task and receive feedback
from the tutor.
At the end of Unit 8 there was our last webinar – a so
called Farewell Party. We even shared our virtual gifts with
everyone. It was so touching and sincere that I can’t help
smiling all the time.
Now I have four weeks to fulfil the Final Assignment that
promises to become my real achievement.
In conclusion I would like to thank my favourite maga-
zine English for providing me with such a marvellous oppor-
tunity to develop my teaching skills. Big thanks to the whole
NILE team for such an unforgettable experience!
By Anastasia Marina,
Ermish State School, Ryazan Region
 English TEACHERS FORUM

50 May–
June 2017
Effective Time Management
for Teachers: Useful Tips
Nowadays many teachers have to work under pressure
of a heavy workload, which leads to being stressed and de-
pressed. The quality of work declines, the enthusiasm wears
off. How to keep up with the curriculum? How to find time
to prepare paperwork on time? How to stop feeling stressed?
How to find the time to actually live your life but not work
around the clock? Here are some useful tips from my per-
sonal experience.
LIFE VS. WORK
The first thing every person and especially a teacher has to
understand that work is not life. People work to earn money
to live a life they want to. That is why one has to determine
what they want in life. Do you want to work extra time in-
stead of spending some precious time with your family or
friends? Do you really wish to spend time freaking out be-
cause of deadline at work or take a moment of peace at home
or just take a walk in a park? At first sight these questions are
simple to answer. But do you really leave work at your work-
place and not think about it at home? It goes without saying
that an efficient specialist wants to be successful at work,
but that doesn’t mean ruining your personal life because of
stress at work.
SETTING GOALS AND TAKING STEPS
What can be even more important than planning your
time? I believe it is setting goals. Let’s take a simple ex-
ample. An average teacher in a state school works for ap-
proximately 20-25 academic hours. Practice shows that
most teachers don’t feel stressed working these hours and
achieve academic goals of their subject quite effectively. But
what about checking homework, tests, preparing reports for
the administration, etc.? All this adds about 10-15 hours of
work.
My idea is to set a goal and then to take small steps to
reach it. The goal may be to get the paperwork done by the
end of the week, as the new week brings new tasks. We de-
cide that the steps to reach that goal will be: 1) to check the
student’s work, 2) prepare cards or tests for the next lessons,
3) find interesting information to motivate students to learn
better, 4) monitor students’ success and set goals for them to
improve in your subject, 5) learn something for yourself, be-
cause a successful teacher has to learn all the time. As simple
as it can be, these steps can be easily taken day by day dur-
ing the five-day working week. If you do all this on Friday,
you may forget about the weekend if you are a responsible
teacher, or sacrifice the quality of your work and education
of your students to your personal life. When you have a goal
and realize how to achieve it, the next step is to plan your
time.
Standards of Education, to estimate how much time is need-
ed to study one unit or module and when it is time to relax
a bit and do some creative tasks. However, even if the plan-
ning is OK and prepared, teachers still feel stressed because,
unfortunately, lesson planning doesn’t include paperwork
and some extra job. What I would like to mention is personal
planning. The best way to get organized is to write a daily
plan in a notebook. My advice is to buy a notebook without
dates printed in it, so that you won’t feel stressed when you
look into your notebook and see that you have failed to do
something according to the plan and thus left some blank
pages. Instead write the date on the top of the page. Every
activity during the day should have a set beginning time and
a set end time, e.g. checking tests 14.00–14.30, checking e-
mails 14.30–14.50, report 14.50–15.20, etc. Determining not
only the beginning, but also the end time of an activity helps
to understand how much clock time is spent on every task.
Besides that the cover design of your notebook is essential.
The design should encourage you to be positive about your
life and work.
By the way, this planning may include not only work mat-
ters, but also household duties, shopping, etc. If you include
your personal life matters into your planning, you’ll be able
to cope with all the duties you have. Using such integrated
planning can help you to stop being disorganized and stressed
as a consequence.
CLOCK TIME VS. REAL TIME
An interesting aspect to think over is the difference be-
tween clock time and real time. We are not speaking about
lessons, as every lesson has a set duration of clock time.
What I am speaking about is the difference of speed with
which we carry out tasks. Teacher A can check their students’
homework in 30 minutes, teacher B will do the same work in

PLANNING
Every teacher has to plan lessons and curriculum in ad-
vance. This helps to set goals in accordance with Federal

1 hour. So we have to bear in mind that we have to manage
the real time which is in our heads and depends on our skills
and abilities, but not the clock time. As soon as you under-
stand the difference between these two times, you won’t be
stressed anymore. Eventually, planning your time helps you
to achieve your goals; it is only a mean of planning, but not
the most essential thing.
DISTRACTIONS VS. BREAKS
How often do other people or less important tasks or
phone calls distract you from your work? Most people are
distracted all the time. However, there is a simple solution
to this problem. You need to learn to say ‘NO’ to distractors.
Don’t give people your attention immediately when you are
working on an important task. Don’t answer the phone just
because it is ringing (we are not speaking about some urgent
calls which certainly have to be answered). Don’t read e-
mails every time they arrive. And forget about social media
as this is the most dangerous distractor of all.
On the contrary, breaks are very useful to change brain
activities and to give your mind some rest. When checking
homework, you may stand up and have a walk around the
classroom, look out of the window, admire nature, etc. Don’t
open Facebook or Vkontakte, don’t check e-mails, and don’t
phone your friend to have a chat. All these actions are dis-
tractors, not breaks. Also starting another task before you
have finished the previous one is a really bad idea. Multitask-
ing is actually a complicated thing; most people practicing it
simply leave the tasks unfinished or make their schedule a
mess instead of reaching goals.
USING VACATIONS EFFECTIVELY
From my personal experience I can tell that many teach-
ers take leaves without pay to go on holiday and to have
rest from the school routine. I approve of that, but only once
a year. And I’m not speaking about summer vacations. In
summer it is a must for every teacher to leave everything
concerning work out of their thoughts and just relax. What
I’m trying to say is that you shouldn’t waste time during
autumn or spring vacations. Make a plan for the oncoming
term, redecorate your classroom with new posters, print out
cards with tasks in advance or do whatever job you have to
TEACHERS FORUM English
51
May–
June 2017
(reports, test analysis, etc.) You’d better not leave paperwork
until the beginning of the new term, as first, you won’t have
time to do that, and second, psychologists recommend be-
ginning some new stage of work without any neglected or
unfinished duties from the previous stage. You’ll never feel
fresh and ready for something new, unless you finish all past
accumulated work on time.
TIME MANAGEMENT AT THE LESSON
It goes without saying that a qualified teacher knows
everything about effective time management at the lesson.
What I wanted to add is that many teachers leave check-
ing homework or dictations till after the lessons. However
you could check simple work at the lesson, e.g. while your
students are doing some written task and you have a couple
of minutes to check some cards or simple tests. This can
save a lot of time after the lesson. Besides that, students
would love to know their marks for homework or dictation
on the spot.
EFFECTIVE VS. EFFICIENT
Before speaking about being a successful teacher let us
decide on the definitions of the words ‘effective’ and ‘ef-
ficient’. According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Diction-
ary ‘effective’ means producing the result that is wanted or
intended, producing a successful result, whereas ‘efficient’
means doing something well and thoroughly with no waste
of time or energy. The difference between being an effective
teacher and an efficient teacher seems huge to me. In my
opinion, it is not enough to be effective; our ideal is to be ef-
ficient. That means a teacher does not spend a lot of time do-
ing their work, but instead has a skill to do the work in such
a way that it is done quickly and without a waste of time.
We can spend the time we save on self-development in our
professional sphere, or just on relaxing. This paragraph is the
most essential in my article because all the things mentioned
above can help you become not just a successful teacher, but
also a successful teacher in a good mood with a lot of free
time.
I understand perfectly well that obviously it is not that
the way easy to change one’s attitude to work and a teach-
er should do their work. However, take my advice and try
to follow the steps I have mentioned above, and I am sure
things will get easier for you. A happy teacher makes his
students happier, so may you make your students better
and give them a great example on how to be an efficient
worker.
By Maria Titova,
Lyceum No. 1158, Moscow
Illustration from
http://www.timetamer.com.au/;
https://mindyummy.files.wordpress.com
 English TEXTS FOR READING
52 May–
June 2017
The Wife from the Lark’s Nest
Japanese Fairy-tale
A poor man lived alone in a wooden hut. He worked hard
from early morning till late evening, but he didn’t have much
to eat well. In the evening he often thought about how to
better his life.
One day he returned home from his work late in the eve-
ning and immediately went to bed. At midnight a terrible
thunderstorm began. The wind was so strong, that the trees
were creaking. The man heard a distant voice crying “Help!
Help!” That night he couldn’t sleep well.
When the sun came up, he left his hut to look for the per-
son who he had heard calling for help. The storm had passed,
however, a large tree had been broken. At the top of the tree
there was a lark’s nest. When it split off and fell, the tree
branch had injured the little bird inside and she was quietly
crying for help.
The poor man approached the bird and saw that she could
hardly breathe. He broke the branch of the tree to release her
and said, “Poor bird! Now you are free, so fly up in the sky,
and I’ll go to work. Bye!”
But the bird’s wing was hurt, so she couldn’t fly. The man
took her tenderly in his hands, put her on the green grass and
told her, “I must be off right away and you, my pretty birdie,
as soon as you can, fly anywhere.” When he had gone a few
steps, he turned back and saw that tears streamed down from
the bird’s eyes.
The next day it rained heavily. The poor man stayed
at home. By midday the sky cleared and the man went
out to gather some wood for the fireplace. Suddenly, he
noticed a young beautiful woman in the woods. She was
also gathering wood. The woman smiled and spoke to
him.
“I wanted to meet you!” she said.
“Who are you?” the poor man asked shyly.
She laughed but didn’t respond.
“Well, where are you from?” he inquired.
The pretty woman kept silent and continued gathering
wood.
Then the man said, “That’s enough wood for today, it’s
time to go home.”
“I’ll go with you,” offered the woman.
The poor man explained, “My hut is very poor; it’s shame-
ful for me to have guests!”
But the beautiful woman objected, “Never mind! I have
no home, so let me settle down in yours.” And she followed
him to the hut.
Once in the hut she took a leather bag from her belt, put
two grains of rice in her palm and asked for a pot. Then
she put these grains into the pot, poured some water and
put the pot on the fire. When the woman took it from the
fire, it was full of wonderful white rice. They both ate and
went to bed.
Ever since that day, the woman cooked rice three times a
day using two grains of rice each time. Though they ate their
fill every time, some rice remained in the pot.
The poor man used to say to his mysterious companion,
“In our village there isn’t a man poorer than I am. Soon you
will grow tired of living with me. That’s why, you know,
you can leave me any day you want. Why do you suffer with
me?”
But the woman stayed with the poor man. They gathered
wood together, spent long summer evenings in front of their
wooden hut, and when she was alone at home, she wove
cloth.
So the man worked hard every day. The beautiful woman
married him. Every day she wove at home. Nine months
passed quickly and she gave a birth to a daughter. They start-
ed living as a small family.
Three years passed. One day the woman told her hus-
band, “Please, go to the market and sell everything I’ve
woven.”
“How much shall I ask for such soft, fluffy and wonderful
cloth?” he asked and thought to himself, “Who knows if I
could even sell it?”
“I used all my skill and heart and soul to make it,” his
wife answered, “but you can sell it for three hundred golden
yen.”

The husband was in doubt. Three hundred golden yen was
a large sum of money! He went to the richest merchant in
the town.
“Do you agree to buy it?” he asked.
The merchant examined the cloth in surprise, touched it
and asked what the price was.
“Three hundred golden yen.”
“All right! Here’s your money! I’ll keep an eye on such
a precious piece of cloth that is the softest and lightest I’ve
ever seen.”
The poor man took his money, returned to his village, and
since that day his family lived well.
One day his wife told him, “Our daughter has already
grown up, she can cook and take care of you. So don’t worry
about me. It’s time for us to part.”
The husband didn’t believe his ears.
“Oh, my darling! What has happened? What are you say-
ing? I love you!” he exclaimed.
“I did a lot for you, my dear husband, and now it’s time
for me to turn back into my original self. Please, do know
that I’m not really a woman. I’m that lark you once saved.
I wanted to pay you for your help, but I can’t stay here with
you any longer. I pulled out all my feathers so the cloth you
sold would be extra soft and fluffy.”
Just then she turned back into a lark, and her husband no-
ticed that the bird had just a few feathers left. The lark rose
high up into the sky and disappeared in the mountains.
TEXTS FOR READING English
53
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June 2017
weave (wove, woven) ткать
EXERCISES
1. Answer the questions:
1. What was the weather at midnight?
2. Who did the poor man discover when he went out of
his hut?
3. What was the man doing when he met a beautiful
woman?
4. How did the woman cook rice?
5. What did the woman do every day while her husband was
at work?
6. How much did the cloth cost?
7. What happened at the end of the story?
2. Give the English equivalents:
деревья трещали; на вершине дерева; журавлиное
гнездо; слёзы капали с глаз птицы; они собирали
хворост; пора идти домой; мне стыдно показать тебе
свой дом; муж засомневался; богатейший купец в
городе; ткань была мягче и легче пуха; расставаться;
превратиться в журавля; на птице осталось всего лишь
несколько перьев.
3. Vocabulary Work. Words with several meanings
Read these sentences and explain the meaning of the un-
derlined words. Translate them into Russian.
1. a) The man went out to gather some wood for the fire-
place.
b) We went into the wood and saw a lot of birds there.
2. a) She put two grains of rice in her palm.
b) I noticed quite a big palm near the beach which was
taller than the others.
1. a) A poor man lived alone in the wooden hut.
b) Michael’s geography exam result was poor.
2. a) He broke the branch of the tree.
b) There are three branches of our company: in Spain,
Italy and France.
5. a) It’s time for us to part.
b) Our teacher told us to read the second part of the story
at home.
4. Retell the story as if you were:
a) the man; b) the woman.
5. Research Work
Are there any similar fairy-tales in Russian literature?
Find one and tell it to your classmates.
By Alexander Derbaremdiker,
Polytechnic College No. 8,
Moscow
 English TEXTS FOR READING
54 May–
June 2017
Voyage along the Amazon River
to the “Paris of the Tropics”
We started our cruise from Genoa. About 200 German
tourists, most of them elderly men and women, flew from
Bremerhaven and embarked on the m/s “Estonia”.
After Genoa, the vessel called at Tangiers, Dakar, and
Cape Verde Islands, then crossed the Atlantic Ocean and
headed for Belem, a big Brazilian port situated on the delta
of the Amazon River. The travelers were looking forward to
making a fascinating voyage on the Amazon River.
The cruise director, Fritz Wagner, a man in his early 60s
delivered a lecture for the passengers about the world’s larg-
est river by volume of water it carries. It flows eastwards
from Peru through Brazilian rain forests towards the Atlan-
tic Ocean. Its length is 7000 kilometres, the longest river in
the world. The river has about 200 tributaries.
We arrived at Belem at the end of January, to a very hot
29 degrees centigrade. In Belem the passengers went on a
sightseeing bus tour, the usual practice when a ship calls at
a foreign port. The ship’s agent, Gilberto Costa de Oliva, a
middle-aged Brazilian, invited me for a drive round the city.
Belem is a large place, with a population of about two mil-
lion people. The streets were wide and straight with many
mango trees on them. The most famous building was the
Opera House, but it was covered in scaffolding and under
reconstruction. Very remarkable was the local market “Ver-
o-Peso” (“Watch-the-Weight”). The market itself is a must,
in order to view the incredible variety of typical products of
the Amazon region, especially exotic fruits which, according
to their hucksters, are capable of working miracles.
I put down the names of unknown fruits in my notebook:
guarana, acai, bacaba, buriti, taperoba and many others. The
market is open from 11 a.m. till 2 p.m. Before noon almost
nobody buys anything. In the afternoon the prices start to
drop because in the heat, fruits begin spoiling. This is when
experienced buyers start bargaining.
In Belem, I had a culture shock. I wanted to taste real Bra-
zilian coffee. But in all the bars coffee machines were out of
order. I was told that in this part of the country, coffee was
Manaus Port
not a popular drink; genuine coffee drinkers drink in Santos
and Sao Paulo.
The next morning we sailed from Belem. Three new per-
sons joined us on the ship: Anne-Marie Krueger, a German-
Portuguese speaking guide, a lady in her 50s and two pilots,
Guilhermo Rebello a 57-year-old man and Leonidas de
Silva 17 years his junior. Both men had learned their pro-
fession at Belem maritime school. They had to sail between
Belem and Manaus and back 48 times. The distance is 1700
kilometers one way and is navigable for ocean liners with
deep draft. Then they passed their exams and received pilot
diplomas. Their task was to advise and assist the master
to navigate the vessel through the twisting fairway of the
Amazon river.
On the second day after leaving Belem, the ship came to
anchor near a place famous for its white sand and beaches –
Alter de Chao. The Amazon River is home to numerous types
of fish including piranhas, a meat-eating type of fish with
sharp teeth. Piranhas are known to attack large animals.
Our cruise director and Anne-Marie convinced the pas-
sengers that Alter de Chao beaches were safe for bathing,
but only twenty travelers dared to go to the beach when we
launched a boat.
Anne-Marie, the ship’s doctor and I joined the brave per-
sons. Everything was marvelous: white clear sand, warm
water and bright sun. We spent four hours at the beach and
safely returned to the ship. In the evening we set sail and
heading for Manaus. It would take us three days to reach this
very famous port and city in Brazil. Now and then we met
ships heading in the opposite direction, including canoes,
small and big river ships and one Italian ocean liner. Along
the river banks on port and starboard sides we saw several
small wooden landing stages for canoes.
I asked our pilots to tell me the story of Manaus and why
the city was nicknamed the “Paris of the Tropics”. I spoke
to them separately because one of them was always to be on
duty at the captain’s bridge. And here is their story.
Manaus is situated at the confluence of the Negro and
Solimoes rivers. It is in a very favourable geographical posi-
tion, Manaus is also surrounded by vast plantation of natural
rubber trees. The rubber tree is also known as a tree gum,
Indian rubber and caoutchouc, which comes from the rubber
tree in tropical regions. A white liquid called latex is extract-
ed from the rubber tree and contains rubber particles.
The local businessmen began developing rubber produc-
tion and sell it abroad. Rubber made Manaus the richest city
in South America at the end of 19th and beginning of 20th cen-
tury. Brazil’s plantation barons were looking for conspicuous
ways of spending their money. They began construction in a
new-classical style and started building, the Amazon Thea-
tre – Opera House in 1884. The barons imported materials
from across Europe. The roofing came from Alsace, the fur-
nishings from Paris, the marble from Italy and the steel from
 TEXTS FOR READING English

55
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June 2017

Leonidas da Silva,
a pilot (left)

Guilherme Rebello,
a pilot (right)
England. The interior was decorated by the Italian painter a big crowd of visitors. He opened the main entrance and
Domengo de Angelis. The first performance with Italian ten- we found ourselves in a typical opera theatre with the stalls,
or Enrico Caruso took place on January 7, 1887. dressing circle and three balconies. All the chairs were cov-
Local traders began to dress in French fashions despite ered with dark red velvet.
the local heat. Rich people from all over Brazil used to visit “There are 701 seats in the theatre,” said the attendant.
Manaus and its Opera House. They started to call the city Anne-Marie was talking with the gentleman for about five
the Paris of the Tropics. The big rubber boom influenced minutes in Portuguese and then translated into German:
the economic, social and cultural life of the Amazonian re- “The government of the province determined that the
gion and encouraged the growth of such cities as Belem and city needed high-quality operas, ballets, and orchestras. The
Santarem. But it is the unexpected that always happens. Se- government allocated money and the theatre will resume its
cretly, the seeds of rubber trees were smuggled out of Brazil performances in about two-three years. Entrance will be free
by the English. The English then began to plant rubber trees of charge except for select performances. The Opera House
in Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and tropical Africa. New plantations which has been closed for about 80 years will again attract
were able to produce latex with greater efficiency and pro- thousands of tourists.”
ductivity and with lower cost and a lower final price. The Many years later, I read in the media that the Amazon Op-
British Empire assumed control of the world rubber market. era House resumed its performances, and was very popular
Brazil’s economic decline also influenced its cultural de- in this big city of more than 1.5 million inhabitants and at-
velopments. As the saying goes, misfortunes never come tracting many foreign guests.
alone Half of the opera artists died of yellow fever. The Am- It was very hot and the elderly tourists asked Anne-Marie
azon Opera was forced to end its performances. to shorten the sightseeing tour and bring them back on board
“For how long?” I asked my interlocutors. the ship within one hour. In the evening, Anne-Marie in-
But they did not know. formed the passengers that they had organized a very unu-
The ship docked at the passenger pier. Two officials came sual trip to the small Indian village, Bokada Valeria, located
on board: the ship’s agent, Mr. Erick Bently, a thin, elderly in the jungle. They would go there by the ship’s boats. The
man, and an officer from the Federal Police who took the inhabitants of the village were brown-skinned descendants
passports of the passengers and crew to his office ashore and of the Portuguese sailors who married local women. Next
promised to return the documents within an hour.
While waiting for the police officer, I asked Erick Bently
to inform me about Manaus. He told me that Manaus is the
capital of Amazon state. In 1987, they established Free Eco-
nomic Zone there that made the city a centre for big industry.
It is home to 600 factories, which provide half a million jobs.
Its manufactures include electric, chemical productions, and
ship construction industries. Manaus port exports Brazilian
nuts, rubber, and jute.
“Many foreign guests come to our city, but they complain
that cultural life is rather dull. They heard about the famous
Opera in Manaus and hope that it will resume its perform-
ances. Nowadays it is a museum.”
He showed me the site of the famous Opera House on the
city map.
Then the police officer brought all passports back. Anne-
Marie invited me to go on a sightseeing bus tour with the
tourists. “First of all we’ll visit the Opera House!” she said.
In ten minutes the buses arrived at St. Sebastian Square
and stopped near a magnificent beautiful building. An eld-
erly attendant in a smart light grey suit was glad to see such
Manaus. The Amazon Theatre – Opera House
 English TEXTS FOR READING
56 May–
June 2017
day the ship came to anchor near a very narrow tributary. On
portside we saw a thicket of cane and a narrow strip of wa-
ter. Only about fifty travelers ventured into the unknown and
mysterious place. We launched two boats. The master asked
me to accompany our passengers. We sailed for about twenty
minutes along a narrow tributary and saw a small wooden
pier and a gang of children who cried with enthusiasm:
“Tourists! Tourists!”
They showed us the way to the village. We saw wooden
houses standing on stilts protecting them from rising river
waters, because the entire village was located very close to
the banks of the Amazon. We met many women and children
but not a single grown man. At last we came to the centre of
the village and saw two barns. On one of them, constructed
with glass-less windows we read the inscription: “School of
St. Francisco”. Opposite stood a wooden church, St. Rita.
We entered the school. There was not enough room for eve-
ryone. The classroom was small and most of the people had
to stand. We were welcomed by an old grey-haired man, Jao
– the head of the village. Anne-Marie translated his narration
from Portuguese into German.
“There are 75 families in our village and the population is
about one thousand.” The local women objected and began
calculating the number of kids in each family. So, the real
figure was more than 1200 inhabitants.
“We did not see any men, where are they?” asked the tour-
ists.
“All the men are working at timber cutting,” replied Jao.
He was asked to write the name of the village. Jao re-
plied that he was illiterate. One of the women looked through
the window and called to an old man who was passing the
school.
“Come here!” she called to him.
“He can write the name,” said other women.
The old man fulfilled their request and wrote: Communa
de Valeria.
The tourists asked about the children’s education. Offi-
cially, elementary education was free, but it was difficult to
Belem. “Ver-o-Peso” Market
Inhabitants of Boka da Valeria
get a teacher to their community. Nobody wanted to come to
this out-of-the-way place.
It became very hot and the Germans wanted to go back to
the ship. Walking to the boats, we saw many sleeping dogs
lying in shady places and not paying attention to the people
walking past.
East or West – home is best. All the travelers were happy
to return to “Estonia”, to see their friends and tell them about
the excursion to the jungle.
In the evening, the ship headed for Santarem, located mid-
way between Manaus and Belem. This is the place for organ-
izing rainforest cruises, and it is very popular with travelers.
The port is very busy, exporting rubber, minerals, and Brazil-
ian nuts.
In the port, I saw small cargo ships. In the city, there were
many single-storeyed houses with red tiled roofs. The town
seemed very quiet with a population of about four hundred
people.
On the second day, we arrived back in Belem. Our old
acquaintance, the ship’s agent Costa de Oliva, smiled and
said to me: “Unfortunately, the coffee problem in Belem is
the same.”
But this time I was more interested in visiting the Opera
House and comparing it with the Manaus Theatre.
The building was still covered in scaffolding. Near the
main entrance was a middle-aged lady wearing spectacles.
She happened to be the director of the Peace Opera House,
Dilegnida Nader. She let me enter the premises and explained
that the theatre had 1000 seats and was bigger than the Man-
aus Opera House. She told me that Anna Pavlova had danced
there in 1918.
According to the plan, the reconstruction was due to be
finished in about three years. The weather was not so very
hot and almost all passengers went ashore on their own and
roamed about the streets of the city.
We thanked Anna-Marie and the pilots for their work dur-
ing almost a fortnight’s voyage on the Amazon River.
All the travelers and crew looked forward to crossing the
Pacific Ocean and returning to Europe.
By Evgeny Kunitsyn,
Former purser s/s Estonia
 continued from No. 3-4/2017 TEXTS FOR READING English
18+

THE WHITE GIBBON 57May–

June 2017

GLADYS AND JACK stand them in good stead when the war came and food grew
My mother’s side of the scarce.
family story gripped me so For children, Newmillerdam was an Eden compared to the
much that I grew impatient back streets of the city. Gladys and her siblings knew every
to hear what Gladys and inch of the woods, where they crept among the bluebells or
Jack had to say. Uncle Jack kicked the fallen leaves, and depending on the season, they
had never spoken much made various uses of the dam. Arthur loved swimming. Gla-
about his war experiences. dys caught tadpoles with her older sister Doris, a brain-box
I thought the reason was and bossy-boots who turned this simple pleasure into a biol-
probably because he found ogy lesson. Only never on a Sunday. That was the Sabbath,
the subject too traumatic when they had to attend chapel and for the rest of the day, sit
but in fact it was that, on quietly at home.
returning from the Far Eva Copley of Primrose Hill was not alone in thinking
East, he saw people’s eyes that sobriety was the key to progress. The mining commu-
glaze over when he tried nities were deeply divided between the “pub miners”, who
to tell them what had hap- lived for the present and felt that at the end of a backbreak-
pened and so gradually, he ing day’s work, they were entitled to slake their thirst, and
stopped talking about it. the “chapel miners”, who looked to the future and believed
Auntie Gladys, as wife of that only through self-discipline and education would they
the returned “war hero”, ultimately improve their lot. Among the “chapel miners”
had said even less about were the regular Methodists and the stricter, more radical
her own experiences. Primitives. Dressed in a black suit and a stiff collar, William
I went to stay in Wake- Elvidge marched his family to the Primitive Chapel at the
field, the town where I top of the hill.
was born and where my William was teetotal. The family drank nothing stronger
aunt and uncle still live than ginger ale. One Christmas when Arthur, by then a young
in a small bungalow. Gla- man, brought home a bottle of sherry, his father said to him:
dys potters about the gar- “Either the bottle goes or you do.” Arthur backed down then
den, pruning the roses that and stayed for his dinner but the incident sowed in him the
shade her beloved cat Cin- seeds of rebellion.
dy’s grave. Jack goes into William had the best intentions: to give his children a bet-
town occasionally, taking ter life than he had, crawling on his knees through tunnels
a taxi to the off-licence. He can afford that luxury at least and coming up after each shift black with coal dust. He was
and spare himself the wait for the bus. Neither of them ven- proud when Arthur, after doing well at school, joined the
tures out after dark for fear of teenagers on the estate. They Post Office engineering department, which was a significant
are frail. Gladys takes pills for her blood pressure while Jack step up from mining. As for the girls, Edith went into service
hobbles from arthritis. They can manage as long as they have in the posh spa town of Ilkley in the Yorkshire Dales while
each other. They are no trouble to anyone and none of the Doris started training to be a teacher.
busy people around them has any idea of the lives they have On leaving school, Gladys got a job as an assistant in
lived, the things they have seen. Drake’s ironmonger’s shop, which meant she had to take the
bus every day into the metropolis. A cheerful personality, she
*** was ready for some adventure and fun. She put her sandy
“My maiden name was Elvidge,” said Gladys, “and I hair in curlers and went out dancing. Her father grumbled
grew up in the mining village of Newmillerdam, just outside about this but her mother, who had been young once, said
Wakefield.” Today, Newmillerdam is considered a desirable she could go provided she did not leave her homeward jour-
area and its old stone cottages change hands for large sums of ney to the very last bus. It was at a dance at the Embassy
money but then it was a working community in which almost Ballroom that she first saw Jack. He was handsome, with the
all depended for their livelihoods on the nearby Nineveh Pit. striking combination of black hair and blue eyes, but he was
Gladys’s father, William, was a collier and the head of a large in no hurry to invite her to take the floor with him.
family. A wiry man, he stares out of a sepia photograph with “Well, you were dancing with Ernest Wrigglesworth,”
his wife, Alice, swathed in lace on her wedding day. Their Uncle Jack interrupted Auntie Gladys in mid-tale.
children were Edith, Doris, Arthur, Gladys and Leonard. “Well, I was only dancing with Ernest Wrigglesworth be-
The miners led hard lives but when they were not under- cause you didn’t ask me,” she shot back.
ground, they breathed the fresh air of the countryside. Some “Well, I didn’t ask you because you were dancing with
men went out shooting rabbits. Other local people had small- Ernest Wrigglesworth.”
holdings where they kept pigs and chickens, which would It was a wonder but they did eventually start courting.
 English TEXTS FOR READING
58 May–
June 2017
They saw Hollywood and British films at the pictures. At
first, Jack tried to impress Gladys by paying for the best seats
at the Regal but later they went to the Carlton, which every-
one called the “flea pit”. On the pretext of visiting Edith, they
also cycled over to Ilkley. A photo in the family album shows
them arm in arm on the moor and they kissed under the Cow
and Calf rocks but they did not go any further than that.
Gladys took Jack for a walk around Newmillerdam and
afterwards to tea with her parents.
“He’s got a wonderful bass voice,” she told her father.
“He sings in the church choir, you know.”
“He seems a decent sort of lad,” came the reply, “but it’s
a pity he’s not a chapel-goer.”
Jack invited Gladys home to Flanshaw Grove. “Mmm,
we’ll see,” said his mother, although Jean, Gladys’s prospec-
tive sister-in-law, was friendlier.
Jack had not bought Gladys a ring or publicly announced
their engagement but between themselves they had a private
understanding that they were betrothed. From the newsreels
that preceded the films at the cinema, they could see that
war was looming. When it broke out, they understood that
their wedding plans would have to be postponed indefinitely.
“Mrs. Miniver”, the new movie starring Greer Garson, was
showing at the movies. It conveyed a chocolate box image
of rural England, the skies suddenly darkened by waves of
German bombers.
Gladys had to say goodbye to her brother Arthur first.
Because he had played weekend war games in the Territo-
rial Army, he was involved almost as soon as the real war
started. He joined the Royal Corps of Signals and with his
background as a Post Office electrician, quickly rose to be-
come a foreman in charge of servicing communications. He
was destined for Malaya. Gladys was upset but as is usually
the way, a little less concerned for the brother she had known
since childhood than for the man with whom she was madly
in love. Then it was Jack’s turn to go away to war.
JACK
When my Uncle Jack retired from
his job at the engineering works, he
took Auntie Gladys on a trip to the
Far East, back to the places where
40 years earlier he had suffered as
a prisoner. They rode through the
Thai jungle on a surviving sec-
tion of the old railway that he had
helped to build and at the Wampo
Viaduct, a precarious wooden struc-
ture hugging a cliff, he even recog-
nised some of the supports he had
erected with his own hands. Then
they travelled on a tourist coach
down through Malaysia to Singa-
pore, scene of the soldiers’ humili-
ation when they surrendered to the
Japanese, and righted old wrongs with a defiant gin sling in
Raffles Hotel.
Showing me the holiday photos from this trip, Uncle Jack
gave me some tips for my own approaching journey to the
Far East. Then he cast his mind back to the icy January of
1941.
It was a bitter winter across the whole of Europe, as Nature
seemed to conspire with the Nazis to make life miserable for
all the struggling Allies. Anticipating conscription, Jack had
taken matters into his own hands and gone to the Labour Ex-
change to volunteer for the Royal Corps of Signals in which
Gladys’s brother, Arthur, was already serving. Now he was
at the station in Wakefield, waiting for the train to take him
to Catterick garrison for basic army training on the parade
ground and gale-blasted moors of North Yorkshire.
“Left, right, left, right, left, right, about turn…”
“Get going, you ’orrible little men, over those hills before
I give the farmer permission to shoot you…”
Jack did not mind the physical exertion. Anything was
better than real shooting and he enjoyed the feeling of his
muscles hardening as a result of the outdoor exercise and
work in the gym. The drill sergeant played the obligatory
role of swine but there was no real bullying; on the contrary,
much mutual support and care. All the men took pride in the
fact that they were preparing to defend Britain. They knew
they were heading for a rough ride together and that was a
sobering thought.
For a short time, before Arthur set off for Malaya, Jack
overlapped with his future brother-in-law at Catterick but
they only nodded to each other. Arthur and his best friend
Ginger were both sergeants, like senior boys at a school
where Jack had just entered the first form. He would have to
sink or swim on his own.
In the barracks, over cards, or the canteen, over sausage
and mash, Jack made friends easily enough, for although he
was quiet, he did not lack self-confidence and he enjoyed
a good laugh. When he learnt to fathom their strange ac-
cent, he found that some of the cheeky Cockneys were on
his wavelength. They called him “Yorkie” and the nickname,
though hardly original, stuck.
Jack worried constantly about his loved ones back in
Wakefield. The Londoners, with greater reason at that point,
were concerned about how their families were faring in the
blitz. Anxiety brought the young men together in friendship
and then they had to learn one of the first bitter lessons of
army life, that they would be split up and dispatched to dif-
ferent places, probably never to see each other again. Of
course, there were many other chaps in the army whom a
lad just had to tolerate – the loud mouths, the dirty-minded,
those who snored and the ones whose feet stank.
After five weeks of basic training, Jack began an eight-
month course to learn his trade as a signalman. He had to
master the arts of telephone line laying and become profi-
cient at operating a wireless. Like a small boy, he was crazy

with desire to drive one of the communications cars. He was
motivated by the thought that when he qualified, not only
would he receive extra pay but the army would also increase
the widow’s allowance it paid to his mother, Eva.
Jack wrote to her regularly, more often even than to Gla-
dys. One afternoon, he and his mates received passes to go
into the nearby town of Richmond, where the substitute
mothers of the Salvation Army doled out tea and cakes to
boys far from home. The local photographer was doing a
roaring trade in pictures that the soldiers could send to their
families. Jack had a formal portrait taken of himself with his
hair oiled back and his cap slightly tilted and this he sent to
his mother. Gladys received a different snap of him, grin-
ning with a group of friends. Jean was not forgotten but re-
ceived from her brother a matchbox. It contained a preserved
dragonfly that he had caught on the moors above Catterick, a
delicate alien for an urban girl.
And then, halfway through his trade training, he was al-
lowed a weekend off. For the men from Scotland or down-
south, 48 hours did not give them enough time to travel
home and back and all they could do was kick their heels in
Richmond but for Jack, it was a relatively short journey to
the West Riding.
He comforted Gladys when the all-too-brief weekend
came to an end. “At least we’re still in the same country. We
must try to be brave. The Londoners are having a far harder
time than we are.”
Jack returned to Catterick and completed his course to
become Signalman Copley, however still only with the rank
of private. He was disappointed to discover that although
his pay went up from 10 shillings a week to twelve and six-
pence, his mother’s allowance was reduced by a correspond-
ing amount, so that his raise did no more than maintain the
family’s meagre standard of living.
Once qualified, he moved from his trade-training group
to a holding battalion to await news of his future. There fol-
lowed more weeks of running on the heather-clad moors,
which to men eager for action felt like running on the spot.
Finally, Jack received word that he was being posted to the
reconnaissance battalion of the 18th East Anglia Division,
stationed at Stoke-on-Trent.
The men of the “recce” battalion were all drivers, whose
job was to move in little armoured cars, quickly delivering
the first infantrymen to the front and then ferrying backwards
and forwards to support them. Attached to this rapid reaction
force was Jack’s unit of 30 signalmen under their own ser-
geant. They all began exercising together.
Jack learnt how, with another wireless operator like him-
self and two motorbike dispatch riders, he would set up a
station a fairly safe distance from the action and maintain
communications between the frontline troops and the offic-
ers at HQ. He fell in love with the beautiful Humber station
wagons that carried the large wooden speakers and other ra-
dio equipment. The vehicles had been camouflaged in sand
TEXTS FOR READING English
59May–
June 2017
colours, so he and his mates assumed they were heading for
the deserts of the Middle East.
They were granted embarkation leave. Jack’s holiday was
marred by the fact that his paternal grandmother, Rose Cop-
ley, was ill. After his leave ended, her condition worsened but
although Jack asked for permission to make another quick
trip home to see her for the last time, he was not allowed out
again. The soldiers’ departure for an unknown foreign desti-
nation was too imminent. Rose’s dying thoughts were of her
departing grandson.
The whole family in Wakefield had waited keenly for
Jack’s embarkation leave but when it came, they learnt how
agonising brief joy can be and almost wished it were over.
Jean had laughed to see Jack’s rifle but his mother was
not amused. The agitation only increased as the final hours
ticked by and nobody touched the pie on the table.
Jean had to return to school just before Jack left in the
early afternoon. His mother chose to part with him quietly at
home. It was left to his Granddad Sharp from the working-
men’s club to see him off at the station.
“I wasn’t allowed the time off work,” chipped in Auntie
Gladys.
Behind the counter at the ironmonger’s shop, Gladys
begged her boss, Mr. Drake, for a few hours off so she could
see Jack at the station but he refused. She took the time off
anyway and stood on the windy platform, whispering with
Jack until the last minute. Their motto was “mizpah”, a Bib-
lical expression and saying of the day, which meant: “May
God watch between thee and me while we are parted one
from the other.” Then the train pulled out and Gladys went
back to Drake’s, fully expecting to get the sack. The old man
said nothing as she went into the back room and very bitterly
began counting boxes of nails.
 English TEXTS FOR READING
60 May–
June 2017
THE HIGH SEAS
The operation was top secret. “Keep your traps shut,”
barked the sergeant, although even if the men had been in-
clined to talk, they could not have revealed anything. All they
knew for certain was that the Division was going abroad,
nothing more than that. Half of them were transported to
the docks at Liverpool. Jack and the boys of the reconnais-
sance battalion went to Glasgow, where their troop ship was
moored on the Clyde.
There was much laughter in the railway carriages on the
way up. It might have been the bravado that masks fear or
the high spirits of young men, setting off on an adventure
together. Few of them had been beyond the limits of their
own counties before, let alone on a trip overseas. They did
not know the pity or horror of war. They were excited to cut
free from the apron strings of the universal mother, who only
ever wants peace.
Jack shared a compartment with some of his fellow sig-
nalmen. Newly qualified, they were pleased with themselves
and glad not to be in the boots of the farm lads from Norfolk
and Suffolk, who made up the infantry regiments of the 18th
East Anglia Division. Those poor sods they called the “tur-
nip bashers”. Even, or perhaps especially among the working
classes, there were gradations. They boarded the ship togeth-
er but it was a while before they understood that they were
all in the same boat.
She was an old cruise liner, painted grey and converted in-
side to take row upon row of bunks. Six thousand men piled
on and threw down their kit bags to claim their narrow beds.
Led by their captain, all the signalmen arranged themselves
together. It was a rare occasion when the whole group gath-
ered because in action, they were always parted and attached
in twos or threes to the fighting units. They enjoyed a strong
esprit de corps and took good care of each other.
As if remembering her old duties, the liner took her pas-
sengers on a stately cruise down the Clyde before introduc-
ing them to the choppy waters of the Irish Sea in October.
There they met up with the rest of the Division, coming
from Liverpool. Half a dozen troop carriers sailed with an
escort of two destroyers and several smaller warships. They
headed northwest, almost up to the Arctic, making wide zig-
zag movements to avoid the German U-boats that prowled
the Atlantic. Then on the other side of the ocean, they came
down again towards Nova Scotia.
“This does nae look like the Middle East,” said a Scots
voice, wryly. Jack was up on deck with his new friend,
Tom Nugent, who came from Glasgow. Tom was trained
as a motorbike dispatch rider. The two of them would
probably be operating together often, once they went into
action. For Jack, a sensitive youth whose main pleasure
had been singing in the church choir, Tom was perhaps an
unlikely friend. Red-haired and stocky, he was a bruiser
with a passion for boxing. But he was also the only son of
a poor, widowed mother. They both knew the strain and
sadness of that.
The vessels docked at Halifax, where the locals crowded
the quay, waving. “This looks alright,” said Jack but they
were not to enjoy any Canadian hospitality. Lorries roared
straight up to the British flotilla and took the men, twenty-
five to a truck, half a mile up the dockside to an immense
new troop ship, the USS Mount Vernon. “What’s going on
now?” “Why are we going on this one?” the soldiers asked
as they squatted on their kit bags at the feet of the gang-
planks.
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, which was to bring
the United States fully into the war in December 1941, was
still some weeks away but already that autumn, the Ameri-
cans were giving moral and practical support to the British.
“So that’s why we’re going on this Yank boat,” said the ser-
geant, “but keep your traps shut because it’s all very hush,
hush.”
Senior British officers went on board the Mount Vernon
while the men continued to wait and whistle on the dockside.
Eventually, the top brass disembarked again and through
the sergeant, the message filtered down to the ranks: “We
have examined the furnishings and they’re too ritzy for you
lot.” The Americans, thinking to make room for 5,000 men,
had converted double cabins, normally occupied by couples
on civilian cruises, into units that would sleep four. But the
British, who wanted to pack 7,000 onto the ship, told their
hosts that Englishmen were not used to that level of comfort.
Overnight, the ship was further gutted until six men would
fit into each cabin. The last of the unnecessary gilt and plush
was stripped away.
For Jack, who had grown up in a “one-up, one-down”
or one-bedroom terrace house and slept in the attic while
his mother and sister shared the only proper bedroom, the
cabins were still luxurious, even after the second American
attempt to make them suitably Spartan. They were pleas-
antly decorated and
each had an en suite
shower and a little
bath. Jack was allo-
cated a cabin on “B”
deck. There, he found
he was sharing with
five blokes who were
tolerable, although he
would have preferred
to be with Tom, down
the next corridor. Any
slight dissatisfaction
he may have felt,
however, evaporated
when he saw how, in
comparison with the
signalmen, the “tur-
nip bashers” from
East Anglia were ac-
commodated. For

them, the ship’s swimming pool had been drained and bunk
beds erected to a height of 10 feet up the walls of the deep
end. The sight of these racks of men disturbed Jack in a
way he could not quite explain to himself; he did not know
it but he was seeing a fleeting vision of their common fu-
ture in the camps.
With much fanfare, the ship set sail. At this time, Brit-
ain was fighting a desperate battle for survival and had only
been able to provide a modest escort for the troops when
they crossed the Atlantic. But the Americans, showing off
their might, laid on a great armada of battle cruisers, destroy-
ers and support vessels to protect the Mount Vernon and her
even bigger sister ship, the USS America, as they moved in
convoy south down the coast. Still the troops had no idea of
their final destination.
They exercised on deck to maintain their fitness and
played cards or sang to entertain themselves. Some of the
songs were ribald, for bawdiness is a way of keeping fear at
bay, but men facing the unknown also look for meaning and
sincerity. “Sing that song about friendship,” Tom would say
and Jack would sing:
“When you are happy, friend o’ mine
And all your skies are blue,
Tell me your luck, your fortune fine
And let me laugh with you,
Tell me the hopes that spur you on,
The deeds you mean to do,
The gold you’ve struck, the fame you’ve won
And let me joy with you.
“When you are sad and heart a’cold
And all your skies are dark,
Tell me the dreams that slipped your hold,
The shafts that missed the mark,
Am I not yours for weel or woe,
How else can friends prove true?
Tell me what breaks and brings you low
And let me stand with you.”
Then he would hum the melody and take it from the top
again. He did not want his mates to hear the third verse.
The ships continued to hug the coast of America. Hang-
ing over the rails, the lads had a distant view of the dream
country most of them knew only from cinema. As they ap-
proached the southern states, the temperature began to get
warmer, perfect for deck sports. A boxing competition was
organised. Jack sat with the spectators, shouting himself
hoarse as he urged Tom on through the rounds. In the final,
the Scotsman knocked out an opponent from Newcastle to
win the middleweight title.
Jack had to concede that he would only ever be mediocre
at sports. He was flattered and happy when Tom chose him
as his partner to run in the three-legged races up and down
the deck. If only they had had gin and tonic and quoits
TEXTS FOR READING English
61
May–
June 2017
as well, they could have thought themselves on a proper
cruise.
By November, they were somewhere off Florida. They
were excited because they were about to celebrate Thanks-
giving, courtesy of their North American supporters. Back
in Canada, they had taken on a load of frozen turkeys to be
enjoyed with cranberry sauce and all the trimmings when the
big day arrived. They were licking their lips in anticipation
when the sergeant said:
“I’m afraid we’ve got a bit of a disappointment for you
lot. The turkeys have all gone rotten. “We’ve had to throw
them overboard.”
“Oh well, too bad,” thought Jack.
He and a group of other men were standing wistfully at
the stern when suddenly they saw a long line of turkeys,
floating out behind the ship as far as the horizon. The birds
were floating because they were putrid. The convoy had
gone to great lengths to protect itself from German subma-
rines and here it was, loudly advertising itself with a trail
of foul fowl. A school of sharks could hardly be far behind.
The men split their sides with laughter. It was so funny that
they no longer regretted missing the Thanksgiving dinner.
They found this an appropriate moment to part from the
Yanks, whom they still considered irritating show-offs and
poor allies.
By the time the flotilla had reached the blue and British-
held waters of the Caribbean, the American escort had peeled
off, leaving the troop ships to continue their odyssey unpro-
tected. They docked in Trinidad. The men would have loved
a little shore leave in that paradise but they were kept cooped
up on the vessel. All they could do was to sunbathe on the
decks and make the most of the coconuts and mangoes that
appeared in their rations.
On the dockside, the Trinidadians laid on a kind of carnival
to wish the troops a safe passage over the Equator. Jack was
able to get a letter to his family into the post but he sounded
less than enthusiastic about the tawdry display: “There were
some chaps dressed up as Americans and some others with
trumpets. The foghorns went off. Then they brought on the
old fellow with the fork.”
He meant Neptune, dread god of the sea.
After they had crossed the Equator, the wind began to
blow colder and they had to don shirts again. Transported
like beasts and kept in the dark about what was happening
to them, the men sniffed the very air for clues as to their
destination, although where they were going remained a
complete mystery. The ship turned eastwards. In the De-
cember, it docked at Cape Town, where they were to spend
a week.
By Helen Womack
Photos taken by the author.
to be continued
 Лицензия 77Л01 №0007183, рег. №036377 от 23.07.2015, выдана Департаментом образования г. Москвы

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Методические брошюры 9 9 9
Модульные курсы по психологии,
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(сертификат на 6 часов)
9 9 9
Курсы повышения квалификации
(удостоверение на 36 часов) 9 9
Электронные учебники 9
Стоимость 10 000 12 000 19 000

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