Prior to February 2022, Svitlana never imagined she’d be playing vocabulary games with her students in a bomb shelter. Now, lessons like these are a commonality.

Originally from Lutsk, Ukraine, the English teacher of 28 years has been making sure that her students stay on top of their language learning despite the war that has been raging since February 24. “Unfortunately, our city is only a couple hundred kilometers away from Belarus. There is a greater threat of missile attacks and this makes following a regular teaching schedule all the more challenging. Yet, we try to make things work – everyone is playing their part in this war and it is my duty to play mine.”

Svitlana launched her teaching career when she was still in college. Upon graduation she was hired at a government-funded school, where she stayed as a teacher for almost three decades. Then, in the early 2000s, Svitlana started attending special seminars for teachers and learning about teaching methodologies in other countries. “It was an eye-opening experience. There was also wider access to teaching materials from abroad – we had an influx of textbooks from the US and UK, which were far superior to the state-funded textbooks we had been using previously.” she says.

The seminars inspired Svitlana to take on a leading role in a program for budding teachers – the Young English Teachers school – where she lectured passionate youths on teaching theory and methodology. Yet, Svitlana felt the urge to do something more. Eventually, she left the public school she was working at for a private school. “There was a notable difference in the way that the curriculum was taught. Having had experience teaching in both the public and private spheres, I started to notice the gaps in the public education system in Ukraine.” In addition to teaching at a private school, Svitlana also started her own tutoring venture, where she taught English to both children and adults.

When covid hit in 2020, Svitlana took her tutoring school online. “I was prepared. Prior to covid, I had started researching online teaching methods, as I thought online learning was the future of education. I got comfortable using Zoom, Quizlet, Padlet… – these are tools that made learning English more accessible to my students throughout both covid and the ongoing war.”

Yet, while Svitlana had initially switched to online tutoring at the start of the war, she now largely tries to hold lessons offline whenever possible. “The children need to socialize. Face to face communication is imperative to their development. My students genuinely look forward to coming to the lessons – it’s a safe, friendly space where they can eat cookies and meet their friends.”

“I came to the decision of resuming face-to-face lessons when I realized that facilitating my students with a fun environment where they could socialize and practice English would be a great way to distract them from the horrific reality.” To make the lessons more engaging and helpful for her young learners, Svitlana took it upon herself to become certified in neurographics. “I started incorporating neurographics into my lessons. I like to start my lessons by having my students draw a picture as their warmup. I found that was an effective way of alleviating stress for the kids, it was a sort of art therapy.”

When asked how she manages to keep her students motivated in such difficult times, Svitlana replied with a smile “I like to start the lesson by getting my students to list three positive things that happened to them on that day. Initially, some students would freeze up and declare that they had nothing positive to share, but I wouldn’t let them off the hook and urge them to keep thinking until they came up with something. Even in the toughest of times, there is always something to be grateful for. Acknowledging this helped my students see the light at the end of the tunnel in the face of adversity. I want to teach my students to be grateful for every day.”

Speaking activities like that are a commonality in Svitlana’s lessons. “My approach to teaching is a little unorthodox. I encourage my students to take risks and make mistakes – getting the grammar right is not everything! I realized early on that mastering a language is not about perfection. I had a student who was excellent in class, but when she had to speak with a foreigner at work, she got nervous and started to forget vocabulary. No amount of grammar will give you the confidence you need to actually use the language you're learning – practice is key. The most important success indicator to learning a language is to be able to communicate in an understandable way. This is why I like to encourage my students to make as many mistakes as possible, helping them hone the confidence they need to experiment with their language skills outside the classroom.”

Svitlana believes that the recipe to success in language learning consists of four main factors – the curriculum itself, acknowledgement of achievement, engaging and interactive lessons, and progress tracking.

1. The curriculum. “You need to use a coursebook that meets your student’s psychological needs and is interesting to your student. For example, a coursebook intended for young adults is not suitable for preteens. Preteens require books with more images and age-relevant exercises to stay engaged in the lesson. It’s really easy to lose motivation If you try to work with something you don't understand.” In her spare time, Svitlana works as a methodologist at a local bookstore selling textbooks from the UK. Her job includes advising teachers on the selection of textbooks for their curriculum. She usually recommends selecting books covering content that is just slightly below the students’ current language abilities. That way, when the students attempt an exercise and succeed, they experience a small victory which motivates them to push themselves to learn more.
2. Acknowledgement of achievement. “I think praise is extremely important in a student’s learning journey. Within the Ukrainian public school system, It’s rare for students to be praised by their teachers. Students rely on their official grades as an indicator of success. In my opinion, it’s not as important to assess knowledge as it is to assess effort. Knowledge can be obtained but can be forgotten just as easily. Effort should be rewarded as it stimulates learning and is a better indicator of future success.”
3. Make the lessons fun and engaging. “Everyone loves games – I incorporate games in all my lessons, no matter the age group. In a game, each student is motivated to win – that element of competition helps students learn new skills in a stressless and fun way.” Svitlana likes to create her own games on powerpoint and canva. “Ready-made online resources are great, but I like my lessons to be personalized and to meet the needs of my students. PrepYourLesson caught my attention because I can upload my own materials to the site and all materials are editable.”
4. Tracking progress. “It’s extremely important to keep track of your student’s progress in language learning. I get my students to sit a test at the start of their studies and make them take it again at the end of the year. The improvement is usually substantial. This further motivates students to learn, as their progress is more tangible.”
   

“All these are great methods for motivating students to learn. Yet, I can’t say that I’ve ever had any trouble motivating my students to learn English. At the start of the war, some of my students left the country temporarily as refugees and were exposed to different cultures and languages. Now that they’re back, they understand the benefits of being able to speak English and are even more determined to put that extra effort into their studies.”

The best thing about my job is when I can tell that my students are genuinely enjoying the lessons. At the start of the war, when we were forced to take our lessons online, I realized that so much was being lost at a time when human connection was most needed. To make in-person lessons a possibility, we had to find a suitable bomb shelter that we could use in case of a missile attack. Luckily, a church nearby converted its basement into a bomb shelter, which would serve as a shelter in case of an air raid warning. We got lucky – the church bomb shelter is furnished with benches and tables and is well-lit, meaning we can always continue our lessons in the bomb shelter during a missile attack. But, no matter where the lesson is taking place, be it in a Zoom room or in a bomb shelter, when I see that spark of pure excitement in a child’s eye, that’s what warms my heart the most.