Homeschooling Russian

[Paul B. Gallagher]

Ajda Kljun wrote:

> I think an important distinction hasn't been made: it makes a
> difference if we are talking about a child whose foreign language
> acquisition skills are more or less average, or if it is a child who
> has "an amazing facility with languages", quoting the mother. I am no
> expert on this field, but I thought that my personal experience might
> contribute to the discussion.
> 
> ...
> 
> What I want to say is that for a very gifted - and motivated - child,
> workbooks are often too slow. He needs lots of interesting material
> that he can quickly go through and a teacher who will give him all
> his attention, putting emphasis on pronunciation and conversation
> skills. Or at least, I'm sure that's what I would have loved as a
> child :)

 From this comment and several others, we can glean an essential point 
-- that there is no one right answer that fits all students in all 
situations. In my limited teaching experience, one of the first and most 
valuable lessons I learned was that different students required 
different approaches, and even two students from the same background 
with the same level often required me to push different buttons. An 
extravert's learning style may be quite different from an introvert's; a 
student with an analytical mind may profit more from a textbook than one 
who prefers to learn "by ear." And so forth.

An ideal teacher (like an ideal chess player or an ideal lover) will be 
one who has a wide variety of tools in his/her repertoire and an 
adaptable mind that can easily switch gears as the situation warrants 
and one or another tool proves more or less effective. A rigid ideologue 
will succeed well with those students for whom his/her method is best 
suited, but fail dismally with others.

Our OP will do well to keep an open mind and not make final decisions 
before she begins teaching. She will need a Plan B, and perhaps a Plan C 
and a Plan D, because some things will go wrong and some things will not 
work. It's in the nature of teaching, just as in life.

-- 
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

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