Seminars

SEMINAR AND PARTNERS’ MEETING IN LONDON, THE LONDON SCHOOL OF RUSSIAN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

“Practices of teaching languages to bilingual children”
Innovative language learning approaches in Europe: Reports – Partners’ contributions

Programme

12th July - Partners’ arrival – 19.00 meeting for dinner

13th July - Introducing practices of teaching languages to bilingual children used by the London School of Russian Language and Literature

• 9 am – 11 a.m. Visiting the school lessons of the partners’ choice:
• 9.15 – 9.45 Russian Lesson to age group 3-4 “Solnechnye Zaichiki (Sun Rays) Teachers: Irina Ponomariova, Hanna Brain
• 9:20-10:50 Russian Lesson to age group 4-5 “Zolotye Rybki” (Goldfish) Teacher: Katerina Gerasimova
• 9.30 -10.00 Russian Lesson to age group 5-6 “Zolotye Grebeshki”. Russian Reading Lesson to age group 5-6. Teacher: Yelena Pilipenko
• 9.30 -10.00 Russian Reading Lesson to age group 6-8. “Kolobki” (Gingerbreadmen). Teacher: T. Fonari
• 9.30 – 10.10 Integrated Russian Reading and General Lesson to age group 6-8. Teacher: Regina Nauts
• 9.30 – 10.10 Russian Reading and Speaking Lesson to age group 9-11. Teacher: Ludmila Nesheret
• 9.15-10.00 Literature Teaching to Year 5-6. Teacher: Luisa Pavlova
• 10-10.30 Literature Teaching to Year 7-8. Teacher: Dr. Natalya Moroz
• 11 a.m. 1.30 p.m. 16th School End of Year Awards Ceremony and Performance
• 1.30 p.m.- 2 p.m. Lunch Break
• 2 p.m – 3 p.m. Discussions: The London School of Russian Language and Literature
  • Introduction
    • Olga Bramley emphasised the importance of this project, in view of the rising number of immigrants to the UK. It is very important for a person’s identity and integrity to maintain the culture of the country of origin and to support their native language.
  • Approach to bi-lingual teaching at the London School of Russian in the light of the Bilium Project and best practices identifiedt
    • The partners of the project asked how the London School of Russian is organised, what kind of literature programme it has, at what age children can start school.
      L. Pavlova, teacher of Russian language and literature in older classes, described the literature lessons at the school.
      T. Fonari, teacher in the 1st form, talked about her own experience in working with pupils: “sparing and humming” reading. Additional reading at home is essential. When reading books to children, it’s important to pause at the most interesting parts - this arouses the child’s interest in hearing the following parts. E. Pilipenko, teacher of the PREPARATORY CLASS:
      It’s very important to work on phonetics, to do tongue and breathing exercises, and to do role-play and dialogue reading.
      O. Bramley:
      At the school, a literature programme has been devised for each class, and discs are provided, mostly with audio books, which the children listen to during the course of the year.
      I. Ponomariova, teacher of the kindergarten middle group, shared her experience of working in the group - physical exercises, finger, speech and articulation exercises.
      Emphasis was placed on working with texts. For relating history material, a plan of supporting sentences has been developed.
  • Identifying and discussing the requirement for teacher-training, based on the experience of Russian supplementary schools
    • O. Bramley asked those present what, in their opinion, should be included in the course of further training for teachers working with bilingual children?
      N. Golizdra Felerspil: What’s required is a varied teaching methodology.
      Fonari: Using logopaedical methods and forms, humming reading, reading of texts - a pyramid.
      I. Ponomariova: Knowing the language of the country in which the teacher works, the country’s system of education.
      N. Golizdra Felerspil: Comparative language characteristics.
      N. Moroz: A beginner’s course in acting.
      O. Bramley: As far as Ekaterina’s concept is concerned, the main questions are - who are these training courses designed for, how much time will be needed for the re-training, who will be teaching, and what subjects?
      It’s important to note that one of the major factors for success in teaching children a second native language is the financing of supplementary schools. One option is to have shared funding between the country of residence and the country of the second native language.

14th July Making future plans: exclusive partners’ meeting

10.00 a.m. – 12.30 p.m.

Discussing the project outcomes with regards to:

• What has been learnt from the project so far?
• What are the future project actions you wish to take for your organisation, with regard to its contribution to the proposed teaching module? (5 min per institution. If applicable, use pictures in order to be clear and concise)
• Discussing the development of the proposed teaching module

Bilium Project Facebook Page- the concept and type of contributions

• Bring wishes, ideas, contributions, your best photographs and electronic knowledge!

Establishing Action-Plan:

• Planning pedagogical seminars and workshops in public supporting the research projects

13.00- Lunch and sight –seeing