Elena Tarasenko, winner of our English in Mind Tip Exchange competition, won a trip to Cambridge for a teaching course as part of her prize. We met up with her while she was here to ask her a few questions about teaching.
Elena, you teach a wide range of age groups – from the very young to people much older than yourself. What’s your favourite age group to teach?
I would say age 11, because before that, they’re too young to speak freely and fluently, and after that, they become teenagers!
Ah, the brief window between not being able to speak and not being willing to.
Yeah, I actually went through that with a group I’m not teaching any more but remained friends with. There was a year of silence where they followed my work, my travels, but were just “Okay… happy birthday… merry Christmas.” Luckily, they’re coming back now.
How do you find teaching people older than you?
Sometimes, they are shocked that they’re being taught English grammar in English: “Oh, I don’t speak English, how can I understand the rules?” But actually, older pupils are very good. They can do a lot of online work – watch Youtube videos teaching English, for instance. Their progress is much faster: even if you have a starter level group, they will be amazing and at A1 level by the end of the day. They’re fast because they can write down what you say and memorise it – try to make a six-year-old memorise anything!
And what about really young learners?
The funny thing about the smaller kids is that sometimes they do not behave or want to start without their mums. So you have to teach their mums too!
What’s your relationship with your students like?
They like to talk to me about themselves, about any medals they’ve won, whether for judo or theatre class… I know everything about them. When I was teaching them about compositions, they found them boring at the start, but once they could write anything they wanted about themselves, it brought them closer to me. You might not be able to do that at a school where you have 60 pupils, but I have 45 and I remember everything about them. So, in the morning, they enter the room and I’ll ask “How was the horse-riding?” and they’re shocked: “You remembered? Oh my stars!”
How do use competition in the classroom?
The funny thing about my groups is that they really love writing exercises. “Okay guys, we only have 10 minutes, shall we do some writing?” “Yeah!” When I give them the paper to write on, and they try to compete amongst themselves, that always helps – trying to do it faster or better than the others, or than they did before. Usually, I only compare a pupil to their past performance.
But it’s important not to lie to your pupils… ‘Oh, you’re so good, you did so well.’ Because at the end of the term, we give them diplomas and they know who’s the best as they see the presentation. So when students feel your approval is true, then they really support it, but if you praise someone who doesn’t deserve it, then they will never believe you again.