В декабре друг нашей школы и руководитель консалтингового агентства School-in-Uk Mr. Neil Pockett вновь посетил занятия наших преподавателей в обеих школах и порадовал наших взрослых студентов интересной беседой. По традиции он оставил свои комментарии об уровне английского языка у студентов в наших группах:

Dear Students and staff,

I was delighted to be able to spend time with many of you once again. It remains a pleasure to meet with so many students all so keen to do well in the lessons of English.

Посещение в школе "Инфинитив" на Веденеева:

Adult Elementary   with  Larissa Sterkhova
Despite some limited vocabulary and the occasional difficulty in remembering how to phrase a question, answer or statement accurately, this group were able to maintain a sufficiently complex discussion throughout the session. Listening skills appear to be developing effectively although the students occasionally misinterpreted my question or statements. Never the less the standard of speaking and listening within the group was sufficiently competent in that they would be able to communicate in English sufficiently well to be understood were they in the UK.

Посещение в школе "Инфинитив" на Просвещения:

Adult Beginners  with   Mary Panfilova

This small group had a new student who joined us after we had started the session. After introductions and an exchange of personal details, the members of the group tried very hard to ask questions and clearly concentrated hard on their listening skills in response to my answers. Since the government elections had just taken place it was inevitable that some of our discussion centered around this topic. Despite needing a more extensive vocabulary that would be expected from this class, we enjoyed a good level of discussion during which it was evident that the students listened and understood more than may have been expected.
 

Adults Elementary  with Tatiana Mikhailova

The four members of this class introduced themselves and immediately used simple crib sheets to ask a range of questions of me that were both probing and interesting. We discussed my holidays on the little known Isles of Scilly during which I was able to show the group some photographs which prompted further questions and discussion. It was evident that despite the elementary level of English  of the group, for the majority of the time most of the topics being discussed were understood. As a result the conversation flowed remarkably well and I enjoyed a most pleasant time with this group.
 

Adults Elementary  with  Maria Sveshnikova

After a brief introduction to the group we were introduced to an exercise of asking and answering questions with each other. I therefore had the opportunity of talking individually with each member of the group. I was impressed with the effort and general accuracy of the questions and answers I heard. There is no doubt that this group are communicating in English well. They should be encouraged by the progress they are making. Pronunciation was almost always good and the range of vocabulary and accurate use of tenses was of a good standard for this level.
 

Adults Pre Intermediate  with  Tatiana Mikhailova

I was warmly welcomed by this group who were quickly put to task by Tanya. We were divided into two discussion groups and each person given several questions to ask the others in the group to provoke discussion. I found the groups to be lively, humorous and delightfully relaxed. Opinions were freely exchanged with good vocabulary and generally accurate sentence construction. Pronunciation was sound without too many glaring errors. We finished the session with a request to me to outline the opportunities there are in England to participate in courses that would help adults improve their English language level. For adults there are several options, the two most popular and effective being intensive one to one with Living Learning English and the other a combination of individual and group tuition in the beautiful seaside town of Sidmouth located in the South West of England.
 

Adults Intermediate  with  Nataliya Smolskaya

As one of the larger groups I visited, it was more difficult to engage with each individual group member for any length of time. However, we were able to extend the topic of ‘family’ that the group were working on with success. Our discussion extended to holidays, the weather and that Russia had not moved their time by one hour this year as we have in the UK. This extended to the likes and dislikes of the winter weather. I noted that the general understanding of the group was good overall, with positive listening skills and in many cases extended phraseology being used. It was interesting to listen to the different views they expressed about different food with a consensus that women preferred sushi more than men. Overall I feel that the group were able to demonstrate good speaking skills with a developing and mature vocabulary. Communication skills are clearly becoming effective within this group.

Many thanks to all students, teachers and staff at Infinitive School for giving me such a warm welcome - as ever I enjoyed my time with you and I hope you all enjoy a good and prosperous New Year for 2012 and enjoy your celebrations over the holiday period.

Yours sincerely

Neil Pockett 10.12.2011