Christmas Surprise

Christmas Surprise

Впервые на кафедре иностранных языков произошло веселое, познавательное, воспитательное мероприятие Christmas Surprise среди студентов 2 курса экспериментальных групп КЭ и АК. Они в качестве проекта на английском языке подготовили Истории о рождественских символах и традициях и с рождественскими песнями и интерактивными играми отправились друг другу «в гости», чтобы поделиться предпраздничным настроением и попрактиковаться в языке.

On December the 13th, the educational event «Christmas surprise» for experimental groups was hosted in South Ural State University by the Department of foreign languages. Students not only mastered their language skills, but also showed their talents in songs, poems and interactive games.

English is one of the most popular languages on our planet. It can be found anywhere in the world. That is why many people try to learn this language in order to speak it fluently. SUSU students can’t say “the grass is greener on the other side”, cause South Ural State University expands its horizons and offers students more and more opportunities to learn English. The Director of the Institute of linguistics and international communications, candidate of pedagogical Sciences, Elena Yaroslavova piloted and got fundamental results of experimental language learning under the project5/100. Under the experimental programme, it was decided to host such project as «Christmas surprise» in order to improve the quality of teaching foreign language, the formation and development of students’ communicative culture, training practical mastery of a foreign language.

That’s enough on small talk, let’s get down to business. Looking at the projects of the guys, I realized that they want to get acquainted with the culture and traditions of the countries of the studied language and want to develop communication skills in English. What exactly were they doing?

Students have prepared a fascinating and useful material about Christmas. It was breath-taking to watch the performances: there was a sufficient amount of photo and video materials in the presentations. In addition, all the participants were dressed in Christmas costumes, the classes were pre-decorated with toys and garlands. So, there was a pleasant atmosphere around, so everybody could feel over the moon.

Preparations for the «Christmas surprise» went on for several weeks. Students worked long and hard to develop a plan for their performance, taking into account all details.

After talking with a second-year student of the faculty of higher school of Economics, Sophia Uluko, it became clear why such «non-standard» events are gaining popularity among students of SUSU:

— What impressions did you have after the performance?

— I think that I and my groupmates have coped with the task very well, the atmosphere was cheerful. The whole group united, despite the fact that in the beginning there were small disputes in the team.

— When did you start preparing for the «Christmas surprise»?

— I and my groupmates have been preparing for this event for 3 weeks. Firstly, we distributed roles, materials, responsibilities. Secondly, we have put additional touches and completed all the details, corrected all the mistakes.

— Did you like the format of the event?

— I dived into it and got a real satisfaction, it’s my cup of tea! In my opinion, practicing the language in such projects, competitions, games is by far more amazing than attending traditional English lessons. I would love to participate in such projects again.

— Do you think that without knowledge of the English language modern people have much to lose?

— Nowadays it is really difficult to do anything without English. As for me, this language helps me in my future profession as a programmer. Honestly, at first I was worried that my faculty would have a low level of English, but due to the fact that we were divided into groups, I now have the opportunity to boost my language level. I do my best and to try to master it step by step.

We hope that in the future there will be more extra-curricular events to enhance the English language competency. To put it under umbrella, I’d like to quote a Chinese proverb: “Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand”