ПРО МЕНЯ

Меня зовут Анна Арсеньева, я преподаю английский язык взрослым высоких уровней (B2-C2) и готовлю к международным экзаменам.

Я считаю, что главная задача для меня как преподавателя, это помочь студенту найти свой собственный голос при общении на иностранном языке, помочь найти путь к выражению своих идей и ценностей.

За 20+ лет в преподавании я работала в разных контекстах   -  в общеобразовательной школе  в школе иностранных языков ВКС (специализировалась на подготовке к экзаменам  - IELTS, Cambridge FCE/ CAE, TOEFL)  в международной онлайн школе Learnlight (обучала студентов из Италии, Испании и Германии).

В последние семь лет я обучаю английскому сотрудников маркетинговой кампании IPSOS (общий и бизнес английский, навыки презентаций, уровни В1-С2). В этом учебном году также набираю свои группы.

После обучения на моих курсах мои студенты
☀сдавали IELTS на 7.0-8.0
☀получали оценки А и В на Кембриджских экзаменах
☀успешно работают в иностранных компаниях в России и зарубежом - пишут отчёты, делают презентации и общаются с коллегами на английском.
☀учатся на зарубежных магистерских программах
☀активно используют английский в повседневной жизни - смотрят фильмы, читают статьи и книги.

Я очень люблю учиться сама, закончила МГЛУ по специальности “общая переводческая подготовка”,  получила  международные учительские квалификации CELTA  и DELTA  и успешно сдала экзамен CPE (grade А)


Мне интересны лексический подход и вообще разные способы работы с лексикой. Также я поняла, что на данном этапе мне хотелось бы большей осознанности в преподавании, то есть глубже анализировать то что я делаю, стараться не только использовать наработанные годами подходы, пусть и очень удачные, но также осваивать новые.

💡О моих курсах можно подробнее почитать вот здесь.

https://t.iss.one/onelt_and_learning/180

🌺А про про жизнь пишу на моей личной странице вот тут

https://vk.com/id145768465

📩Со мной можно также связаться вот здесь

@Anna_Arsenyeva

Буду рада новым контактам!

Ironically, my first post is not about methodology or reflection on my teaching, but about a great resource I've recently discovered.It turned out that the American Centre in Moscow is still functioning. There are no face to face events, but online activities are still conducted and, most importantly, are absolutely free!!There is an amazing project the centre has been running since March this year, and it's not too late to join. It's a conversation club for English teachers, which is absolutely invaluable if you are looking for some advanced speaking practice for yourself. There is one session a week, Thursdays 17.30-19.00 MSk. Each session is devoted to a current topic and includes some vocabulary work as well as a discussion based on a short video. The icing on the cake is that once you've attended at least one of the sessions, you get access to all the materials from the others - the quizlet sets, the videos and the presentations, so even if you missed a class, you can still catch up, participate in a post-session discussion and do the optional homework. I've attended a couple of sessions and, apart of plenty of lively inspiring conversation, got tons of ideas for my classes.
If you got interested, here is a link to register.
https://amc.timepad.ru/event/2365752/

#resources #cpd #inenglish

Upcycling, according to Collins dictionary, is “to repair, decorate or change an old item so that it can be used again as something more fashionable or valuable." While researching the concept, I stumbled upon a couple of great pieces to use in class.

Here is a set of activities on upcycling I designed for my mixed b1+- b2 group.

The materials

🍒A video about Chloe the Upcycler ( approx. A2 level, created for learners of English but there is still some authentic speech to decipher)

https://fast.wistia.net/embed/iframe/aioqkjg73j

🍒An article with 20 examples of upcycled items. (authentic)
https://www.drench.co.uk/blog/latest-news/upcycling-20-of-the-best-examples-weve-seen

The language of the video is not particularly ambitious, but the article does have some great chunks that could be researched further (like breathing new life into tired items, for instance). I, however, chose not to dwell on the language as, firstly, both pieces were meant to be springboards for speaking activities and, secondly, I expected some useful vocabulary to emerge at the discussion stage and wanted to focus on that.

The procedure

⛳We watched the first 23 sec of the video and tried to guess what was meant by 'upcycling ' in this context. Then watched further up to 0.50 to verify the guesses.

⛳After watching the whole thing and doing a quick comprehension-checking task, the students went on to work with the following discussion questions in breakout rooms :

Would you like to wear Chloe's clothes? Why/ why not?

Which advantages and disadvantages of upcycling does Chloe’s example make you think of?

What other items, apart from clothes, could be upcycled?


⛳While Chloe, with her gypsy-like, in-your-face style, didn't win my students' hearts, the idea of giving old items a new lease of life went down pretty well. We discussed other possible upcycling options, looked at the dictionary definition of the word and went on to study the examples given in the article.

⛳Each student had to choose their top 3 items and discuss their choices with others in breakout rooms. Then, working together, they chose two items that appealed to most of them. The winner was, unanimously, the bicycle turned bathroom vanity unit, but the agreement on the runner-up could never be achieved.

The emergent language

Adjectives to substitute the ubiquitous "beautiful' - stylish, elegant, unique, exquisite

Synonyms of 'upcycle' - repurpose, redo, rework, convert, give smth a new lease of life, breathe new life into

..and upcyclers - DIY enthusiasts,

Functional phrases. The reason I like this one best is…; What I like about this item is…: I think it’s by far the best/ most stylish etc

The steps we took to explore it

🍒I posted all the words and phrases into the zoom chat while monitoring the students’ discussions so that we could analyse the new language more thoroughly afterwards.

🍒 The students then looked through the resulting list to choose two phrases they found the most challenging and would like to research in class.

🍒Predictably, to give a new lease of life and exquisite were chosen, so we checked the definitions in the Collins dictionary https://www.collinsdictionary.com/ and looked for collocations on https://app.ludwig.guru/

🍒I clarified who DIY enthusiasts are and elicited a couple of collocations with convert

🍒I asked the students to think back to the topic of their discussion and make up 2-3 sentences about one of their favourite items from the article using the new vocabulary.

🍒They will have another encounter with this language while doing homework, as their task is to find another example of an upcycled item, online or in their own homes, and describe it to the group.

🍒I’ve added the phrases to my revision to-do list, and we will, hopefully, recycle them in a couple of weeks.

How do you work with emergent vocabulary in your classes?

#resources #learningvocabulary #teachingtechniques #inenglish

I  recently stumbled upon a new word that I found absolutely enchanting. A virtuous circle

If you describe a situation as a virtuous circle, you mean that one good thing lead to another, which, in turn, caused the first one to continue happening.

There is something greatly reassuring about the fact that apart from a vicious circle there is a virtuous one, don't you think? 🙂

So, hoping to start a virtuous circle, or, rather, a virtuous upward spiral, I published my first ever professional  post promoting the courses I am going to give in the new academic year. What if you are one of my potential students?

https://instagram.com/annaarsenyeva18?utm_source=qr&igshid=ZDc4ODBmNjlmNQ%3D%3D

See also
https://vk.com/arsenyevalanguage

Dealing with failure

With the new academic year less than a week away, I am trying to make the most of the calm before the storm by staying in bed late, doing some pretty brisk nordic walking in the nearest park and listening to a lot of podcasts. One of my favorites is Hidden brain, a podcast about the intricate workings of the human brain and the “unconscious patterns that drive human behaviour”. There is an episode that struck so many chords that I absolutely have to share the takeaways with the world (albeit a small one, consisting of my loyal subscribers).

Devoted to dealing with failure, the episode explores why learning from your own mistakes is so hellishly difficult. In just 44 minutes psychologist Lauren Eskreis-Winkler explains the nature of the tendency to ignore our mistakes and suggests a number of ways to make reflection on our failures more productive. Here is a summary of the most important insights I gained from the podcast and their implications for teaching (and life) 

⛳It is far too often that we fail to benefit  from unsuccessful experiences because we are too focused on succeeding. As a child, Lauren attended swimming lessons, where the coach would make kids race against each other at the end of every class to practice the newly acquired techniques. She won every race, but not by applying the new things she’d  learnt. Instead, she calculated how long she could last without breathing and whizzed through a race without ever coming up for air. While being an impressive achievement in itself and guaranteeing  short-term success, this approach proved to be detrimental in the long run, as Lauren never improved her overall swimming technique. She calls it a “performing-over-learning trade off”, pointing out that being overfocused on your performance may actually hinder learning.  According to Lauren,  wisdom is “being able to distinguish when you should be performing vs when you should be learning” and I can’t agree more. She also believes that “all of us probably overestimate the degree to which we should be performing vs learning”. And again, that’s exactly how I feel. 
 
⛳It would be short-sighted to regard failure only as an obstacle to be overcome. It is, in fact,  a priceless gift as it provides us with invaluable information on how we should modify our performance. 

⛳The difference between an expert and a novice in terms of accepting negative feedback is in the questions they ask themselves when doing so.  A novice’s question is “Do I belong  here?”, so a failure is bound to leave them completely shattered, as it equals “No, you don’t”. In contrast, an expert’s question is “How do I improve?”, as they know  they belong and don’t need any additional confirmation. As a result, rather than seeing failure as a sign of their inadequacy, experts regard it as an exciting learning opportunity. To me it seems a great attitude to adopt, regardless of whether you are a novice or an expert. 

It struck me how relevant the three ideas mentioned above are to teaching practice. Indeed, training students  to adopt this healthy attitude to failure, explicitly or through the way we give feedback, would make them much more effective (and happier!!) learners. 

It’s no secret that the main reason why learning from mistakes poses such a problem is that failure badly bruises our ego. With the best treatment for an over-sensitive ego being therapy, there are still some effective interim solutions, some of which are mentioned in the podcast.  The one I liked best is what the speaker calls “failing in the dark”. It’s a method she borrowed from chess players in training, who sat down to recreate published games of great grandmasters and compared their own moves with the ones made by the grandmasters in the original games.

#foodforthought #inenglish