The Importance of Learning English

I think secondary education authorities walked into a cult. There crime? They had declared “Wake up the English exam is coming!” pioneering modern methods of psychological torture for the young Russians.

Their aim is to build a new national English speaking identity here in Russia similar to cheap English speaking African or Indian labour under the British Empire. And this is not so very surprising since at every opportunity particularly through the presentation of the notorious Federal State Educations Standard as the only method of school teaching, efforts are made to indoctrinate the spiritual and cultural descendants of Saint Kirill and Methodius into thinking this is the case.

The national education system has been most effectively shaped and moulded to teach children the English language. Ordinary people may have seen this as a noble objective, but the global elite was clear its concern was to fight to hold on to as much as possible of the massive chunk of the global labour market they already owned and controlled by destroying national identities and cultures. Yet, so successfully have ESL teachers been indoctrinated into the mythology of the Federal State Educations Standard that most of them refuse to entertain any alternative possibilities.

Following this approach clear economic and personnel decisions are being made to disregard the explicit use of the Russian language. There is instead informal English which is relaxed and friendly without being restricted by rules – just enough to organise the workforce at their foreign masters’ commands. Technically, it is achieved by bringing to English classes the so-called Communicative Approach – an influential idea dominating 21st –century linguistics in this country and notorious universal educational activities.

On a brighter note, it is possible that most Russians will speak English when travelling abroad in the nearest future. (Fr: Eh bien, chapeau bas à vos compagnes, mais je ne vais pas construire ça!)

Following USE Requirements

For the most part Unified State Exams (USE) in this country are extremely formalised discouraging good pupils, smart ones from language learning. Also of note, ESL language proficiency in Smolensk is significantly affected by schlocky bachelor and master courses.

These are some points that may be discussed later in greater detail.

1. Here in Russia, to know how to fulfil all the requirements of the assessment policy with the bureaux of the parent bodies is of major importance. It seems to be more important than teaching itself. Following this approach, the teacher should not correct identical grammar errors. But, everything must be done to ensure that the address in a letter, for example, should be written on the right side because this requirement was once spelled out in the guidance document.

2. USE experts recruited lack a common understanding of the ways of measuring the pupils oral answers. It is not allowed, for example, for a pupil to describe a given photo by saying something like “I took this picture... / This photo was taken by me...” because such a claim might lead to a factual mistake. Instead a decent pupil should have come up with something neutral like “ The photo in this picture shows ...etc”.

3. Security during the school USE is heightened with metal detector searches, police presence, and ID checks humiliating both teachers and students as though they were thieves or petty criminals.

On a brighter note, the Department of Education is examining ways to further reduce the time taken to mark the examinations and to provide administrative support for the examination process. Okay, ha ha, very funny! But, this is just a rough sketch.