I am an extremely self-motivated, creative, passionate and enthusiastic person with excellent communication skills. As a teacher, I am very flexible, decisive and able to think on my feet.

For many years I have had genuine interest in teaching Russian to foreign people. It is not something I take for granted like it is my native language or just a part of the daily grind. Since school I have always felt the language and have had natural literacy. Teaching Russian is not just a job for me. It is a craft, a very creative, challenging process with something very valuable in the end.

I am prepared to meet and surmount any challenges and unforeseen problems that I might confront during the teaching process. This adaptability allows me to react appropriately and effectively to a wide variety of different situations in the classroom and in many cases, use them advantageously. Additionally, I am a very organized person and always on time to classes. I am a good leader, goal-oriented, determined and very attentive to any task given to me. I would like to say that my role as a teacher is not to prove or show my authority, but to enable students to feel comfortable so that they could see me both as a professional and a friend at the same time.

First of all, I would like to say that I have been giving online lessons via Skype for more than four years and gained enough experience in teaching Russian as a foreign language. To be perfectly honest, I began tutoring in 2008 to a group of my foreign colleagues-English native speakers until I earned by certificate in Teaching Russian as a Foreign Language. I mostly work by Skype because the university that I work for is situated in Moscow (MSU), and I live in Saint-Petersburg. Presently I have many students with different cultural backgrounds who want to learn Russian.

Besides teaching Russian language, I also have over ten years’ experience in teaching English to Russian students of different age groups.

Good knowledge of the English language is an important pre-requisite for me since it can be rather difficult to flourish in that position without a really strong knowledge of English because you can’t expect students from different corners of the world to speak Russian at the beginning at all. That is why English is used fairly often, especially when I fix a consultation (a free lesson in order to find out the student’s needs).

2000-2005 Nekrasov Teacher Training College №1

Bachelor’s degree

Faculty of foreign languages -English

Specialization: Teacher of English

2005-2007 The Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia (Herzen University)

Faculty of foreign languages –English

Specialization: Teacher of English

2008-2010 Saint Petersburg State University

Faculty of Philology

Specialization: Interpreter in the field of professional communication

2013 Lomonosov Moscow State University

Certificate of M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University Russian language centre

“Methods of teaching Russian as a foreign language”

Specialization: Teacher of Russian as a foreign language

Work experience

October 2013-present

MSU (Lomonosov Moscow State University)

Teacher of Russian as a foreign language

Duties:

-Online teaching of general and business Russian to students of different ages, levels, and cultural backgrounds;

-Developing specialized programs and online materials for individual students relevant to their academic needs;

-Providing students with a variety of additional online materials and resources, including test materials for exam preparation;

-Assisting students to master the most important grammatical usages as well as developing their speaking skills so that they become competent using a wide range of communicative speaking activities;

-Practicing conversational Russian with foreign students at all levels of proficiency

December 2012-September 2013

Volkshochschule, Augsburg, Germany

Teacher of Russian as a foreign language

Duties:

-Russian language consultant;

-Designed a special course of Russian for businesspeople;

-Delivered lectures on Russian for business purposes (December 2012)

October 2009-present

Master Class School of Foreign Languages

Teacher of English and Russian as a foreign language:

Duties:

-Teaching students of different age groups and class levels using various techniques and methods;

-Specializing in developing and using interactive games and role-playing to improve communication skills and vocabulary;

-Prepared Russian students with English language skills for IELTS, TOEFL, and State exams;

-Attended several professional conferences on ESL teaching, and was in charge of two specialized seminars dedicated to the problem of teaching grammar and vocabulary;

-Significant and successful experience in teaching Business English to corporate clients;

-Coordinated a Russian conversation club;

-Preparing, conducting and evaluating tests of Russian as a foreign language (TORFL) and providing feedback;

-Counselling students in overcoming their educational obstacles

Speaking of my role as a teacher, I do want to help learners of Russian become more confident and fluent in expressing their ideas and thoughts in this language and watch their progress. The first thing that I always do is creating friendly environment where I will be able to encourage students to talk and enhance confidence in their abilities despite how difficult some grammar and vocabulary issues may seem to them.

I do my best to create all necessary conditions so that they could have an easy but natural conversation. I tackle this in several ways. First of all, I will put speaking skills on top. All the tasks will be based on the communicative approach which enables me to fulfil my main teaching strategy: to show how to use the language in everyday situations effectively not being afraid to sound wrong. We will cope with grammatical issues in an interactive way by creating live discussions and debates on various topics. To reach this, I normally provide learners with numerous speaking opportunities for their successful communication.

I always try to convey a very simple message - Russian is not all about cases, genders, spelling difficulties or enormous number of exceptions. I wish to prove that learning is a kind of a challenge - difficult but exciting at the same time. My main goal is to break all possible psychological barriers and fears that might slow this process down. Besides grammatical and vocabulary peculiarities, I often share some special knowledge about our traditions, habits, teach colloquial and idiomatic expressions, and help English learners discard wrong stereotypes about our country.

My mission is to expand students’ interest in the Russian language by using a huge number of methods and techniques. Due to this knowledge and my passion I am able to teach any level class and handle all the difficulties that may occur at the lesson.

To sum it up, I would like to say that the role of a teacher means not only sending various papers or handouts for me but being a motivating power, a guide, a prompter to people who sincerely wish to learn the Russian language and maintain their motivation for a future learning.