Don't be afraid of the technology - Lingua.ru

Over the last three issues Unbound has attempted to familiarize teachers to the "who's who" of BKC. As most of you know, BKC is a large company, with many schools and departments. One of these affiliate schools is Lingua.ru. From the students' point of view, the system of language learning at Lingua.ru is radically different from that of most language schools. As is evident from the name of the school, a lot of the students' time is spent using the multi-media teaching programme English Discoveries, which runs alongside the lessons in English File 1 and 2 and Headway Upper-intermediate. However, from your (the teacher's) point of view the content and form of the lessons you teach is pretty much the same as any TEFL environment.

Having recently moved to a new location, the school couldn't be more centrally situated. It is in the very heart of Moscow, a two-minute walk from Red Square and the Kremlin, with four metro stations close by. Which means wherever you live you'll be able to get home quickly. You will really feel like you're in the centre of the action in Moscow.

The course at Lingua.ru is split up into the traditional levels from beginner to advanced using suitable textbooks. These levels have also been split further into actual set lessons, with corresponding page references to the textbooks. Students at the relevant level follow their own individual programmes and book lessons with the teacher. What all this means is that you are given a timetable at the end of the previous week outlining all the lessons that you will teach for the next week. Each lesson usually corresponds to about 2-4 pages of the textbook at that level. So your job is actually made a lot easier by the fact that you don't have to worry about what to teach, only about how to teach it. Thus, time spent preparing is radically reduced. Of course, in the lessons there is still room for creativity as long as key structures and vocabulary are taught. The lessons are also shorter than at traditional schools -usually one-hour. While this sometimes presents a challenge to time-management on the whole, it cuts down on planning time, as you usually don't have to spend lots of time looking for additional material to fill-out the lesson.

In general, the number of students that attend each lesson varies from 1-6. So the average number of students in each lesson tends to be smaller than at other schools. This has advantages and disadvantages, of course, but on the whole I think it makes the teaching here more personal and the students usually feel that they are getting a good share of the teacher's attention and chance to speak in class discussions. For those that love the ordered chaos of large groups, each level has a 'club' lesson each week, which is usually attended by all the people at that level and is based around an interesting topic to encourage freer discussion.

With the school at just one location and having a relatively small teaching and administrative staff, the atmosphere at Lingua.ru is very friendly and informal. Also, as the majority of students are adults and thus paying for the course themselves they tend to be well motivated, which makes the school as a whole a nice place to work.

Finally, apart from the network of computers that provides the multi-media side of the teaching here and access to the internet, the school has the usual array of teaching resources and equipment, resource books that provide additional material, a student reading library, audio cassettes, and many videos.

So if you feel like dropping by and checking us out, you are more than welcome. I am Yulia Mironenko, the head at Lingua.ru. Irina Grekova the is the head of the teacher staff (by the way she is doing DELTA now!). Any teachers seeking information about our school can contact myself, Irina, or Anna Kuzmina. The address is Staropansky Pereulok, dom. 3, which can be easily reached from metro stations Ploshad Revolyutsii, Kitai-Gorod or Lubyanka. Our phone number is 933-09-05, and our web site is www.lingua.ru/

Yulia