Spoken English is taught to the Russian language majors throughout their University course. Teaching English to Russian majors in their final year has always presented some problems as the syllabus hasn’t been clearly defined. Therefore, we had to decide upon speech topics that would guarantee effective communication and provide a stimulus for conversation.

Some years ago a course in Business English was introduced in Russian majors’ spoken English classes, but though the suggested course could have been used as a basis, still it had to be considerably revised. Gradually it became clear that the students’ Business English skills acquired in this revised course should be tested, alongside other areas, during their final English examination.

Business English has become a very popular ELT area; at the moment, there is a wide choice of course-books available, complete with audio and visual materials. But those could be only partly used as very often they provide specific information, which appears to be of little immediate interest to Russian language majors. Consequently, we realized the necessity to adapt a great amount of available material including books, newspapers, magazines, brochures, tapes, etc. to the needs and interests of our students. Besides, realizing that four hours of conversation a week prescribed by the curriculum is insufficient for developing necessary skills on a desirable level, we chose the technique which we considered most appropriate for achieving our teaching purposes. We decided to follow the method of the maximum concentration of the material, known as synthesis, which allowed us to combine developing comprehension, reading, writing, translating and debating skills. At this point, we immediately faced the problem of material selection. We chose to follow the trial and error method as we considered it reasonable to let the students themselves decide which problems seemed to them most appealing. We tried a problem out to see how it worked; if it was found suitable for our students, we took it a stage further, making more room for it in the curriculum. If the activity proved unsuccessful, we switched over to another task. On the whole, however, most of the problems that we suggested to our students generated considerable interest and often brought about spontaneous discussions.

In our Business English course we have chosen to concentrate on practical aspects of language use and suggested a job-hunting process as a basis for discussion. Job-hunting covers a wide range of problems. We started with CV writing, carefully analyzing different sections of a sample CV and having each student present his/her own CV in written form, providing accurate and complete information about themselves. We followed the same principles in dealing with the problem of writing application letters in reply to job advertisements, treating it as a vitally important aspect of a job-hunting process. Besides we organized discussions, encouraging the students to evaluate each letter of application, so as to point out which relevant details were mentioned and which, if any, were missing, and to decide how the letters could be improved. We aimed at making the students active participants of the process rather than passive listeners.

Another important point was concentrating on a winning job interview. Here we were free to arrange tasks of different types, aimed at developing the students’ communicative, presentation and listening comprehension skills. The classroom activities included discussing do’s and don’ts for applicants and the appropriate deportment at an interview, tape listening, and translating Russian texts picked up from various newspapers. In fact, the translating practice turned out to be the most difficult one for our students, because they had always had very limited exposure to the field of Business English.

Finally, we tried role-play, when each pair of students had to enact the job interviews they had composed themselves at home, with one of the pair performing the part of an interviewer, and the other, that of an applicant. Most of them coped with the task far better than we had expected, contriving to make their dialogues sound interesting, natural and witty, choosing their own approaches to the problem.

Though being rather short of time, we could not ignore the personal aspect, that is encouraging our students to speak about themselves, an activity that very often proves highly successful. The students practiced discussing their suitability for a particular job using what is known as “Mini-idi” (interpersonal dynamics inventory). They had to decide to what extent they display traits of character listed in the “Mini-idi”, then they counted the points and, based on the results of the self-evaluation, found out that they belonged to one of the four groups of personality styles. They ultimately got to know themselves better from a psychological point of view. Besides, the students could be asked to arrange a number of jobs in the order in which they are esteemed and paid for in this country, and give reasons for their choices.

We also tried out discussing teaching as a profession, and, fortunately, the students showed profound interest in the sphere and eagerness to discuss it, stating the advantages and disadvantages of the job, giving their reasons, thinking over their own teaching practice and educational values in general. We also encouraged them to decide whether they consider teaching to be an art or merely an occupation, what qualities they expect to find in an ideal teacher, and how, in their opinion, teaching skills can be developed. Most of the students obviously enjoyed their Business English classes and supplied us with interesting materials on their own initiative.

However, we decided not to confine ourselves to Business English classes and tried to find other challenging points for discussion, which would not only be up-to-date and interesting for the students, but would also involve more use of specific vocabulary. Therefore, one of the topics chosen was Crime and Law. The students’ vocabulary related to the topic was quite poor at the beginning: when asked to name different typed of crime, all they could come up with in English was “murder”, “robbery” and “theft”. Here we also tried various activities, such as reading and discussing texts, tape-listening, translating Russian articles. The crime-and-law problem once again allowed us to concentrate on developing our students’ debating skills. For example, they were asked to express their ideas on capital punishment and to say whether, in their opinion, it should be abolished or not. The students in the class were divided in their attitude to the problem, each partygiving arguments to support their viewpoint. Most arguments were not far-fetched, but serious and convincing. Another spontaneous discussion arose when someone mentioned the favourable conditions in US prisons and tolerant attitude towards ex-prisoners in society. Some of the students considered it the right treatment of people with a criminal record while others disagreed, and rather an emotional discussion followed.

Sometimes the students treated tasks given to them in a very creative manner. When asked to give a talk on a chosen subject related to crime, they did not confine themselves to rendering a newspaper report or retelling TV news. Someone even used Scottish folk songs as a source of information, as some of them are based on stories of criminal love, murder for jealousy, etc.

We conclude our course with the topic Family, though we doubted whether this topic was worth introducing, because we supposed the students were familiar with it. Contrary to our expectations, they displayed a keen interest in the subject, particularly in such issues as Why do young people postpone marriage and childbearing?, Unmarried couples living together: pros and cons, Single parent families and their problems, Effects of divorce on children, What constitutes a happy marriage, etc.

On the whole, Russian majors’ spoken English classes proved to be a stimulating experience both for the students and the teachers. Therefore, we would like to pursue our studies in the suggested direction as they offer a wide range of highly creative and original activities, making the learning process more involving for the students while at the same time giving them useful practice in their preparation for the final English examination.
 

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