Наш английский коллега Mr. Neil Pockett вновь посетил занятия наших маленьких студентов и в "Инфинитиве" на Веденеева и в "Инфинитиве" на Просвещения, пообщался с ребятами, послушал их английский и поделился с нами своими впечатлениями об этих визитах и об уровне английского наших деток, а также о том, как этот уровень изменился с последнего его визита. Предлагаем вам ознакомиться с его интересными  и полезными комментариями.

Посещение в школе "Инфинитив" на Веденеева:

Kids Beginners   with    Olga Gnitienko

The two students present were surprised by my visit but never-the-less greeted me with smiles. Diana was able to answer my questions well albeit with one word answers but her understanding appeared sound. Daniil was a little shy but it was clear his understanding was more developed than his speaking. The topic the children were working on was about the city and they were able to give me some information about their sporting likes as well as which were their favourite films. I also learned about their birthdays and Daniil expressed his pleasure at having his birthday so close to Christmas so that he could enjoy a good number of presents!
 

Teens Low Elementary  with  Olga Gnitienko

Having met some of this group before it was interesting to see how they responded to my questions and discussion. Overall the responses were clear and using appropriate vocabulary and we discussed a wide range of issues. The children became more confident with their English as the session progressed and I was able to ask them individual questions such as “Tell me about the sport you play” or “Please explain about where you live and the house you live in” - questions that required more than one word answers. Listening skills are improving and children concentrated well for what was quite a rigorous session for them. They deserve to be pleased with their progress.
 

Teens Upper Elementary   with   Irina Trofimova

A warm welcome from the group was a pleasant experience and it was quickly clear that the group had been working hard on their most recent topic ‘food’. All members of the group were very happy to share with me their thoughts about their favourite food with one or two rather exotic and sophisticated tastes. We extended the conversation to include cooking ingredients, their individual abilities as cooks in the kitchen and the merits of healthy eating. The ability of the group to engage in a quite complex discussion is evident with some of the group showing an increasing confidence in their speaking ability. Overall this was a most enjoyable and satisfying discussion.
 

Teens Low Elementary  with   Olga Sukhanova

Although not possessing such a wide ranging vocabulary, this group tried very hard to put into words what they wanted to say. I was able to discover details about Jane Eyre, the groups individual favourite films, books as well as details of their travelling experiences. During my time with this group I was soundly beaten in the electronic game of touch hockey, much to the amusement of the students! Most students showed an emerging confidence in their speaking and listening and are able to communicate their thoughts with more complex sentences.


Teens Pre-Intermediate with   Irina Trofimova

This cheerful group proved to possess some sound listening skills in addition to a confidence in expressing themselves. We discussed a wide range of topics which included the weather, the Russian school day, the future winter Olympic games to be held in Russia, skiing and the after effects of the earthquake in Japan. Several students expressed themselves with considerable clarity although not always using the correct tense, and most showed a good level of pronunciation for their ability level.
 

Teens Upper Intermediate  with  Maria Tikhomirova

It was with great pleasure that I spent some time with this group having enjoyed many previous discussions with them. The level of vocabulary, complex thinking and very good pronunciation is excellent. The group very clearly expressed their opinions about the recent elections and demonstrated clear and well argued comments. All show an impressive and mature level of speaking. The girls have learned to listen well and can counter argue points made by others which shows a very good level of understanding of the English used. They are all a credit to the school.
 

Teens Lower Intermediate  with    Larissa Sterkhova

This group was one of the larger groups I visited and enjoyed talking with. It was therefore more difficult to engage everybody all the time. None the less we were able to cover a wide range of topics that included politics, cooking, the UK school system and Steve Jobs (prompted by my apple mac computer). A quick survey of the group found a high percentage of Apple products were owned by the group. Listening skills are developing well and confidence is growing with speaking skills. Work is needed on pronunciation skills since at times I found it difficult to fully understand the speaker. Never the less progress has been made since I last enjoyed talking with this group.

Посещение в школе "Инфинитив" на Просвещения:

Kids Elementary   with   Mary Panfilova

The group were playing an interesting game with a puppet elephant to stimulate the learning of colours when I entered the room. The group were interested and lively, interacting well with the teacher. The children then participated well in a question and answer session in which I learned a good deal about their family, pets and favourite holidays. They responded well to the pictures that were shown to them of Sidmouth in Devon which depicted tourists on holiday, beach scenes and bright blue sky. They retold their own holiday destinations and I found them to be a well travelled group. The English spoken was sufficient to be understood and all members of the group tried really hard.
 

Kids Elementary   with   Ekaterina Slyunkova

This was my second visit to this group having been warmly welcomed by them all during my last visit. They performed a song for me with an excellent recall of the words prior to playing a game of questions and answers. The students asked a good range of questions to each other and me and their responses demonstrated a very correct use of English. The more challenging and interesting aspect of this game was the second part. This involved individual students having to recall each of our likes or dislikes and students displayed an impressive recall of information. This demonstrates increasingly sound listening skills from the group which is most encouraging for future learning.
 

Kids Elementary   with  Maya

This is another group that I had met on my first visit to the school and they also welcomed me with large smiles. To start the session we discussed different zoos and in particular the difference between London Zoo and the more modern safari parks in the UK. Speaking and listening skills are emerging from the group although they found listening to a native English speaker demanding. Maya then explained a game called ‘Mafia’ that I was unfamiliar with although the children clearly did. Throughout the game the children had to converse in English, listen to instructions in English and the game achieved the objective of encouraging the students to communicate in English.
 

Kids Beginners with  Olga Gnitienko

Since this was a beginners group it was no surprise that they found the initial stages of speaking and listening to  native English speaker a nervous experience. However, the children were able to introduce themselves and give me some information about their siblings if indeed they had any. It was good to note that they all appeared to understand and were amused by a simple mistake by one student who described her older sister as being seventy years old instead of seventeen (a very common error of pronunciation). The laughter relaxed the group and most children then became more confident. They were able to tell me about their pets using simple sentences and vocabulary. I hope the experience of talking and listening to a native voice will help them make progress in the future.
 

Teens Elementary   with   Olga Gnitienko

Sadly all but one of the group were absent for this class. It was therefore rather daunting for the single student to be confronted by a visitor from England. Fortunately we had met before. Despite being a little nervous she tried very hard, in the short time we had together she demonstrated a reasonable level of listening skills. However, her speaking skills were a little uncertain although she showed flashes of good sentence construction with some correct vocabulary.

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