27 January, 16.00-20.00

2 workshops:

• Tatiana Skopintseva, English as a Lingua Franca Pronunciation Features for Russian Learners of English

• Evgenia Lubennikova, Teach from your strengths: driving positive change in a meaningful way

Topic 1

English as a Lingua Franca Pronunciation Features for Russian Learners of English

English as a Lingua Franca learning and teaching pedagogy emerged about two decades ago and has been challenging the traditional EFL/ESL approach ever since. The majority of classroom research data collected in multicultural academic settings testify that the pragmatic approach ELF entails is of undeniable importance for the real-world communication practices.

Back in 2000 Jennifer Jenkins, a strong proponent of ELF, published the results of her classroom research at an international university and put forward the so-called “ELF pronunciation core” for non-native learners of English claiming that pronunciation transfer from L1 to English may affect intelligibility and even cause complete breakdown in communication between speakers whose mother tongues are different.

In the first part of the seminar, I am going to answer the following questions:

• What factors have caused the emergence of ELF pedagogy?

• What are the benefits and hindrances of implementing ELF pedagogy in ELT?

• Why and how does pronunciation impact intelligibility in ELF communication contexts?

In the second part of the seminar, I will share my classroom and research expertise of teaching English pronunciation to Russian learners and point out segmental and suprasegmental elements that are, from my point of view, crucial for Russian learners of English. The findings are based on extensive research at the Department of Phonetics at Moscow State Linguistic University and are viewed from ELF perspective.

Speaker

Tatiana Skopintseva is Chair of the Humanities and Languages Department at New Economic School in Moscow. She graduated from Moscow State Linguistic University (former Maurice Thorez Moscow State Institute of Foreign Languages), where she earned her Ph.D. (“kandidat nauk”) and an Assistant Professor (“docent”) degrees from the Department of English Phonetics at the Faculty of Humanities and Applied Sciences. At MSLU Tatiana taught English phonetics for TEFL undergraduates, graduates, students of other majors (economists, lawyers, political analysts), and led teacher-training seminars for Russian in-service teachers.

Since Tatiana joined New Economic School in 2008, she has taught a variety of ESP and EAP courses for upper-intermediate and advanced students, has designed a pronunciation course Well Pronounced for NES M.A. students, and is currently supervising the Public Speaking component of the M.A. ELT curriculum.

Tatiana is an IREX scholar exchange program alumna, a frequent speaker at international conferences (IATEFL, ASIATEFL, HAAL), and an invited speaker and teacher-trainer for Russian Universities and ELT organizations (HSE, ITMO, MISiS, TPU, KELTA, FEFU).

Fields of professional interest and teaching specialization: phonetics and phonology, ELF, EMI; English accent and pronunciation, diction, fluency, public speaking.

Topic 2

Teach from your strengths: driving positive change in a meaningful way
What is a meaningful life? Martin Seligman, the father of Positive Psychology, argues that this is about developing what is best within yourself and using your skills, strengths and talents in service of something greater than yourself. Similarly, meaningful work is work that is aligned with your core values. While meaning provides context for your life, your purpose provides action.
In the workshop, we will explore your values and strengths and how you act on them. We will also delve deep into what gives your life meaning by doing the “meaningful photos” exercise. So, please bring 6-7 photos, real or digital, which are meaningful to you to the session. Finally, we will use a pack of metaphorical cards (a strong psychological tool based on projection) to set meaningful goals for 2024.

If you don’t know much about our community, follow this link http://teacher-mentor.tilda.ws/ to find out more about our events and our members.