On September 20, the first class with Jocelyn Pihlaja, an American lecturer of the English Language and Literature at Lake Superior College (Duluth, America), was held at the Centre for Foreign Languages Study.
Jocelyn will provide a class once a week for all the students studying at the Centre to give them an opportunity to have a live dialogue with a native speaker.
Two groups of the Pre-Intermediate level attended the class at the same time. They started with acquaintance and proceeded to the creative task: Jocelyn asked the students to create presentations of Polotsk and Novopolotsk places to visit. It was necessary to include cafes, restaurants, sports grounds, shops and sights in the list. Each team member was supposed to participate actively in both the creation and the presentation of the project.
Jocelyn, as an experienced lecturer, created a very good atmosphere at the lesson. All the students were involved in communication, used the opportunity to share the information about their favorite places to visit and asked Jocelyn about her preferences.
Jocelyn admits that she was very nervous before the lesson: “When I learnt about their level of English, I thought that they would be keeping silence or give me one-word answers. Their willingness to communicate and the speed of coping with the task impressed me a lot. Their word fluency and speech were above all praise.”
Moreover, she notes other features: the students respect the lecturers; they are polite and considerate to the representatives of other cultures. Furthermore, the students are ready to listen attentively.
In their turn, the students thanked Jocelyn for the interesting tasks, pleasant communication and clear instructions. The students didn’t even want to leave when the lesson was over. Without any doubt, it was a compliment to her teaching skills.
Such lessons will be held on Thursdays on the basis of the Centre for Foreign Languages Study. Besides, those who study at the Centre will have an opportunity to practice English with Jocelyn.
A. Zhuravskaya, Centre for Foreign Languages Study