Contents
=> What They Said About ETs in Russia in Abakan
=> What They Said About ETs in Russia in Samara
=> What They Said About ETs in Russia in Turkmenistan
=> Have you missed some issues of ETs in Russia?
=> In the Next Issues

To celebrate our 100th issue, we’ll present some specific views from ETs in Russia subscribers and see how they use (or don’t use) it.

Below you’ll find the most detailed responses we received, and these folk will receive a CD of “Best English Songs to Use in the Classroom.”

I’ve put the original ETs issue in brackets if anyone is interested. Other bracketed comments [ ] are those of the editors: Kevin and Poosheesty.

Back issues can be found in the archive at www.kevinmccaughey.com. Click on “ETs in Russia” under the photo of the Suzdal onion dome.

In upcoming issue #101, due out in mid-June, you’ll find two accounts on academic honesty: one Russian, one American.

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What they said about ETs in Russia in Abakan
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Zhenya Bronnikova from Abakan was our most detailed respondent (and the most punctual). Here’s what Zhenya writes:

1. Lexicology. Word-building. “Milton Berle’s People Potential Poem” [ETs #21] was used to illustrate the conversion of verbs into nouns. Helpful. There was a discussion about the origin and meaning of another word -”wanna be”. I also used all sorts of idioms from ETs together with traditional examples from our textbooks to illustrate the phraseological studies.

2. Private classes. “Euphemisms” [ETs #24] were given to a student to read. Just for fun. And to avoid Russian “blin.” Enjoyable but not very helpful. I mean, “blin” is still used.

3. “Solo Language learning Tips” [ETs #71, 72, 73] are given to all learners. No response.

4. “Eclipse” (www.eclipsecrossword.com) has become my favorite program for creating crossword puzzles. Not only for classroom use. We create crosswords for our parties too. [Cool to hear that Zhenya has her students making crosswords too! - the Eds]

5. Materials for “the International Women’s Day” were taken from ETs #95 and from some previous issues [ETs #s 11, 12, 57]. In some groups students enjoyed quotations and created their own, e.g. “Behind every successful woman is her little black dress.” [Doh! Wish we had known that sooner! - the Eds]. I enjoyed this activity myself. In some groups however it didn’t work.

7. Writing a “Help Wanted Ad” [ETs #24] was used at the meeting of the Students Club. Students were creative and in my opinion enjoyed the task. The most marvelous jobs were Present-maker, Morning cock-a-doodle-doo, Cutting-classes-preventer.

8. “Cheesy pick-up lines” [ETs #32] were suggested to a student who comes to my private classes. He found them stupid. He said that he never used such phrases and never will. [ETs in Russia in no way promotes cheesy pick-up lines outside of the safety of the classroom. - the Eds]

9. “Kevin at age of 5″ activity (my favorite) is used as a demonstration of different ways of learning new vocabulary. Students suggest their own ideas how to learn these 6 new words for the test - how they usually learn vocabulary at home, for instance, to read them 10 times or to write lines. Then they try to learn these words using their own methods. They have 5 minutes for this. After it we check their knowledge by writing a dictation and doing back translation. Then the results are discussed. The students compare the efficiency of different techniques and choose the best. [Isn’t Zhenya a good teacher? Mixing all those skills together! - the Eds]

10. “Russia/America trivia dictation” [Ets #54] is used as a treat at the end of the lesson if there is time left. What a pity I cannot use it more than once. [We can make more questions. Just someone please remind us. - the Eds].

11. “Luck phrases” [ETs #73] and activities suggested were used at the meeting of the club. Just for fun. The members of the Club want to develop their speech skills. It was a speech-provoking exercise.

12. “Funky counting” [ETs #47] is a good activity at the first lesson at the university. Everybody knows numbers. So students feel no fear (sometimes they are ashamed of their poor English). And such a lesson is very important to establish good relationship from the beginning. [Also find this at www.onestopenglish.com/lessonshare/Warmers/Energisers/energisers4.htm]

13. “White elephant party” [ETs #32] was organized. Nobody brought to class something really old or pointless things. Everybody bought trifles such as sweets, pencils, little toys. No real white elephant.

14. “Tough choices” [#78] are used to drill Subjunctive mood. Very helpful task.

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What they said about ETs in Russia in Samara
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From Evgenia Dudina:

1. When we spoke about dating customs and marriage in class we made this type of activity with your cheesy pick-up lines [ETs #32]. We took about 7-8 of them, divided each into 2 parts (e.g. “If I could rearrange the alphabet…” and “…I would put U and I together”) and wrote each part on a separate sheet of paper. Then we distributed cards and asked students to find their match. When new pairs were formed we asked to evaluate the lines from 1 to 10, in order to choose the stupidest, the cutest, the most effective. Actually we also gave homework - to try these pick-up lines on guys in the street, but we forgot to check it. [Very creative. And, yes, on certain rare occasions forgetting one’s homework is a good thing. - the Eds].

2. I played “What good luck/What bad luck” [ETs # 73] with one of my students this way. We had a text about travelling and first you may ask student to write what good things and what bad things can happen to people while they’re travelling. E.g. saw the Eiffel tower, went scuba-diving, enjoyed national cuisine; had his camera stolen, the weather was cloudy and wet, etc. And then you start the game using these expresssions and telling a story of a guy who went on holidays. In my case that worked great.

3. This idea is probably well-known but we tried it recently in class and everybody enjoyed it. First you divide students in pairs and give each pair a vocabulary item. They are to write a dialogue using this word 2-3 times. Then they reproduce the dialogue but the key word should be “censored” and they make any sound instead of it. We didn’t ask for any particular sound so the results were very funny. There were “oops!”, “khm-khm” and even “oh-la-la!”
[Thanks for sharing that, Zhenya. That’s a perfect ETs in Russia activity since it takes almost no material or preparation time. - the Eds]

From Albina Krasnova:

I use many, but my favourite ones are Valentine’s Day activities.

I use cards where students have to describe the given words under certain categories, like reasons to get married - money love etc [#11]. It gives every student an opportunity to talk and they get really involved.

Amother thing my students enjoy is Val. Day facts [ETs #35] - I
give them a dictation but rather than reading I spell the words and I do it backwards and they have to decipher the dictation. With weaker students I tell
them where each word ends while with more advanced students I make it more challenging - they end up with one big word and it takes them some time to figure out what to do with it.

[We happen to know that Albina also likes People Types (ETs #3, 4, 33, 54) especially the activity where students assume the role of a particular People Type in a skit, and the rest of the class guesses what type is being represented. - the Eds]

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What they said about ETs in Russia in Turkmenistan
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From Mehri Mendieva:

I liked the activity “About a Husband/Wife” [ETs #94] - unfinished sentence creation. My students had great fun. You know Turkmen people are a bit shy. It was difficult at the beginning but as soon as they worked togehter they were full of new ideaas which was really great. And do yo remember when you were in Turkmenistan you showed us lots of exercises which I used in one of my classes. It was so good that my teacher was very happy to give me the top mark.

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Have you missed some issues of ETs in Russia?
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Have you missed an issue of ETs in Russia? With a mailing list program that often changes, and with 1500 subscribers, with spam filters and whatnot, this can happen.

BUT, here’s the thing. If you feel like you may have missed an issue, just go to kevinmccaughey.com and clicke on “ETs in Russia” (under the picture of the green Suzdal onion dome). I post all issues on the web site. This is a good place to search and browse the contents of ETs as well.

Or you can write to me. If you do, it helps me if you’re specific, by giving me the number of the last issue you received.

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in the Next Issue
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#101: Academic Honesty: Two Persectives on Cheating
#102: What Have You Done?