Results 1 to 8 of 8

Thread: online discussion club for training conversational Enfglish

  1. #1
    Новичок
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Posts
    5
    Rep Power
    12

    online discussion club for training conversational Enfglish

    I have a problem in learning English. I can't switch on all parts of my brain to make my conversational English ABSOLUTELY fluent.
    I think that regular contacts ant talks with English speaking people can help to solve the problem.

    But these talks should have the following pecularities:

    1. Themes of talks should be much more (!) difficult than "My name is Vasya. I'm from Muhosransk..."
    For example, economics, politics, software development, recollections from personal life, psychology, science and other.

    2. All people participating in discussions should have at least intermediate level of English.

    3. The number of participants should be at least 5-10. In another case it will be very difficult to collect all people in the same time online.

    Does anybody here need such kind of English-speaking-listening training?

  2. #2
    Завсегдатай chaika's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Location
    Чапелхилловка, NC USA
    Posts
    1,986
    Rep Power
    19
    Вы в Москве или Питере? загляни в http://www.efl.ru/forum/ .

  3. #3
    DDT
    DDT is offline
    Завсегдатай DDT's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2004
    Location
    I have given up the Gambling, the Wine and the Cows!.. I'm in St Petersburg Russia
    Posts
    3,368
    Rep Power
    17
    Interesting site!
    Let me be a free man, free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to trade where I choose, free to choose my own teachers, free to follow the religion of my fathers, free to talk, think and act for myself. - Chief Joseph, Nez Perce

  4. #4
    Завсегдатай
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    My Time & Space
    Posts
    6,555
    Rep Power
    19

    Re: online discussion club for training conversational Enfgl

    Quote Originally Posted by yankee26
    I can't switch on all parts of my brain to make my conversational English ABSOLUTELY fluent.
    That's no problem switching ALL parts because only three of them take part in it, and all of them are in your left hemisphere if you're right-handed person.

    You can't become "absolutely fluent" just reading different posts. Natural language acquistion goes through these stages: first, listening; second, speaking; third: reading; fourth, writing. You'd better find a professional language training school which might satisfy your big needs.
    «И всё, что сейчас происходит внутре — тоже является частью вселенной».

  5. #5
    Почтенный гражданин
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    North Carolina
    Posts
    341
    Rep Power
    13
    This is probably not helpful to you, but there has been some interesting research on this subject in language acquisition. The idea is called "sheltered classrooms." This is apparently somewhat common in Canada. What happens is that a number of ESL students are all put in a class together in school to learn, for instance, biology. No native speaking students are allowed. The class is then "biology", but with special emphasis on learning the language.

    The research on these programs is that the students in these classes learn English JUST AS FAST as students who take an ESL class instead, plus they learn biology. This saves money and classroom space for the schools.

    So you are correct that studying some subject in English is a very good way to improve your English. If you can find a group to do this with, I think it will be a big help to you.

    When my Russian is better I would like to see if I can do something similar in Russian. My level is far too low right now

  6. #6
    Завсегдатай
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    Ukraine
    Posts
    5,073
    Rep Power
    25
    Thanks for the information, paulb, they have an interesting approach in Canada.

    As I know from my experience you really learn foreign language fast (or at least in a more relaxed way), studing some subject. While I'm still not fluent, I feel more comfortable expressing my thoughts and I increased my vocabulary all right, but I see one small problem here.

    I noticed that some words and terms I know in English I can't translate in Russian. I know what they mean and have a mental image of the subject or an idea they represent, but when somebody asks me to translate something, my mind goes blank, when I stumble upon these words.

    So it's a nice method if you want to get a practical knowlege or communicate in a foreign language, but that's not the best method, if you want to be an interpreter (i.e. to be able to express the same thoughts in your native language), imho.

  7. #7
    Почтенный гражданин
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    North Carolina
    Posts
    341
    Rep Power
    13
    Quote Originally Posted by gRomoZeka
    Thanks for the information, paulb, they have an interesting approach in Canada.

    As I know from my experience you really learn foreign language fast (or at least in a more relaxed way), studing some subject. While I'm still not fluent, I feel more comfortable expressing my thoughts and I increased my vocabulary all right, but I see one small problem here.

    I noticed that some words and terms I know in English I can't translate in Russian. I know what they mean and have a mental image of the subject or an idea they represent, but when somebody asks me to translate something, my mind goes blank, when I stumble upon these words.

    So it's a nice method if you want to get a practical knowlege or communicate in a foreign language, but that's not the best method, if you want to be an interpreter (i.e. to be able to express the same thoughts in your native language), imho.
    Yes, but translation is an entirely different skill than language fluency.

    My friend used to work for a large Swedish company. As you may know, everyone in Sweden is equally fluent in Swedish and English. My friend was sent a long email (many people had sent it back and forth) and the first part of it was in Swedish. So he asked a Swedish colleague to translate it for him. His colleague had a lot of trouble doing this. He was very comfortable speaking or writing in English or in Swedish, but not in translating from one to the other.

  8. #8
    Завсегдатай
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    My Time & Space
    Posts
    6,555
    Rep Power
    19
    The practical value of such studying is doubtful. Students just learn how to express themselves between each other, and they are just EFL students. Maybe it is all right for communication on biology topics since it is just specific talk. This method is similar to those for ESL students in Russia studying English according to their speicialty.
    «И всё, что сейчас происходит внутре — тоже является частью вселенной».

Similar Threads

  1. Proverb Discussion
    By rockzmom in forum General Discussion
    Replies: 32
    Last Post: September 7th, 2010, 11:16 PM
  2. Lesson Discussion: The Russian Alphabet
    By MasterAdmin in forum General Discussion
    Replies: 4
    Last Post: November 7th, 2008, 06:38 AM
  3. old record set of Linguaphone Conversational Russian Course
    By DaleD in forum Getting Started with Russian
    Replies: 3
    Last Post: June 24th, 2008, 11:06 AM
  4. The circuit training
    By Gorky in forum Translate This!
    Replies: 36
    Last Post: March 14th, 2006, 10:26 AM
  5. Discussion groups for Japanese?
    By laxxy in forum Japanese
    Replies: 5
    Last Post: December 11th, 2005, 12:38 AM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  


Russian Lessons                           

Russian Tests and Quizzes            

Russian Vocabulary