Palme School

What is RCT? 9 questions about RCT to the methodologists of Palme School.

Hi! This is Palme School. Today we are discussing the RCT methodology and its peculiarities.

What is an RCT?

This section began to be studied intensively only in the 19th century during the period of Russification of indigenous peoples in the Russian Empire. But RCT is still relevant today, because during 2 centuries there were periods when it was necessary to teach Russian to foreigners. Now Russian as a foreign language is taught in universities in Europe, the USA and Asia.

The Pushkin State Institute of Russian Language is the leading organization that develops teaching methods.

Why do you need special education to teach RCTs?

RCT includes the fields of: linguistics (linguistics), psychology of learning, pedagogy, cultural studies, ethnopsychology and history.

 

To become an RCT teacher, it is important to consider each of the areas, and also the details of the student's native culture and language.

 

Now such education can be obtained in some universities in Russia, as well as in Poland, Germany, Great Britain and the USA.

What is the reason people learn Russian as a foreign language?

  • Read fiction in the original. No most elegant translation can replace Pushkin's poetry in Russian.
  • Communicate in a domestic environment. For example, with relatives or friends.
  • Immerse yourself in the culture while traveling around the country.
  • Understand the lyrics to your favorite songs.
  • Watch movies, series, youtube channels.

 

What kind of motivation can children have?

 

  • Communicate with parents and grandparents in their native language.
  • Texting with peers.
  • Watch cartoons and programs in Russian.
  • Read the books in the original.

How is RCT different from teaching native speakers?

Learning concepts for native and international students are different because:

 

  • Any foreign student enters language learning from scratch, while a native speaker learns to speak from the age of 1-2 and masters the language gradually and at home.
  • Structures vary from language to language. For example, in English, sentences are structured as Subjects + predicate + secondary members. It is not necessary in Russian. And in Georgian there are no genera, which is critical in Russian.
  • One of the most difficult barriers is speaking a new language. The student knows the grammar and vocabulary perfectly, but is afraid to say even a short sentence for fear of making a mistake.

 

The RCT is divided into 4 units of study: writing, speaking, reading, listening.

 

And the program is structured like this principle:

 

  • Basic vocabulary to build up vocabulary.
  • Cases in special order: nominative (who? what?), local (where? on what?), prepositional (about whom? about what?), accusative (whom? what?), genitive (whom? what? what?), dative (to whom? what?), creator (by whom? what?).
  • Verbs of motion.
  • Verbs in 7 forms.
  • Time, direction, location, types of verbs.
  • Syntax: complex sentences, participles, de-particles.

What are some approaches to teaching RCTs?

Akishina A.A. In the book Learning to Teach, emphasizes these approaches:

 

  • Translation-grammatical methodwhere the teacher actively uses the student's language. The essence of the method is translation from a foreign language into the student's native language and vice versa.
  • Direct (active) method, where the instructor does not use the student's native language, but introduces new vocabulary through pictures, drawings, etc.
  • The audiolingual method, where the instructor uses only the foreign language and students repeat a dialog or audio fragment to derive a new rule.
  • The audiovisual method, where the teacher uses a movie or video excerpt, then asks questions of the class.
  • An activity method where the teacher uses commands in a foreign language for the students and monitors their performance.
  • Group (communal) method, where students build dialogues with each other using only the foreign language.
  • Cognitive method, where the instructor explains the material in the student's native language and gradually introduces new vocabulary.
  • A natural method where students are immersed in the language environment, describing objects or other students.
  • The situational method, where the instructor immerses students in a situation, using movies, pictures, or other clues.
  • Suggestopedic method, an unusual method where the instructor suggests students to do less difficult processes, listen more to a text accompanied by classical music or watch a movie, and then discuss in the form of some kind of role play.
  • Communicative method, where the instructor's goal is to teach the student to interact with other people, to overcome the language barrier.

What approaches does Palme choose to take?

The Palme School's methodologists develop our course programs using A communicative and lexical approach.

 

We do not teach children individual words, but whole lexical units. They learn to speak in phrases, word combinations, phraseologies and sentences. We mix several approaches so that children learn to interact with others in Russian.

 

Here. we have already told you what Russian lessons at Palme School look like.

  

The essence of the communicative method is the skill of communication:

 

  • Knowing the grammar and vocabulary of the Russian language is intermediate to learning to speak.
  • The method consists of etiquette and cultural peculiarities of a particular country. We don't just teach the phrase "Give me a book", we explain the meaning of the word "please" and how to use it.
  • It is important to motivate students to speak for themselves, share their opinions, and ask questions rather than retell and memorize.

What if you teach the wrong way?

The student will not arrive at a result.

 

It is important to understand what the student's goals are and how he or she perceives information. If we choose an inappropriate methodology, a student may memorize 1000 words but never speak Russian. Or a student may be able to maintain a conversation on 10 everyday topics, but will not pass the grammar exam.

 

Despite the approved methodology, we always ask a few questions of our students and their parents.


  • What is your learning objective? Someone wants to talk to Russian-speaking relatives, someone wants to read books in the original.
  • How will you know you've reached your goal? 
  • We give a test to determine a student's starting level of knowledge.
  • We also determine the student's temperament and ways of absorbing information.

 

All of these points are important even for group classes.

What about different students in a group?

We gather the children in small groups (6-8 people) to accommodate the specifics discussed above.

 

In each lesson we practice writing, reading, speaking and listening. We use different formats of tasks: pictures, text, dialogues in pairs and in groups, videos, music, projects, situations, etc. 

 

This is how we capture each student's strengths, and we also give them assignments of increased difficulty to develop skills that are not strong enough right now.

What to do with students with poor memory?

Let's start by defining a bad memory. What is it? When a student can't memorize a long verse in an hour? Such a student may be better at memorizing charts and tables. Or is it bad memory in a student who memorizes a verse quickly, tells it, and forgets it? Such a student has excellent short-term memory. 

We work not only with different formats, but also with repetition of topics, different tasks, associative, visual, auditory and motor memory. As with the formats, students will grasp quickly where their memory is excellent, but will learn to absorb information in areas that are weaker.

We teach children Russian from scratch. You can learn more about teaching your children Russian language at our trial lessons.

 

And you can sign up for a free trial lesson here

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Submit a request for a free first session with a guidance counselor to get to know each other, determine your goals, and match your child with an educator
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Submit a request for a free first session with a guidance counselor to get to know each other, determine your goals, and match your child with an educator