Teacher Discussion Forums

Dear Members of the Forum,
I very much appreciate the fact you decided to have a look at this message.
Make a long story short - I've been teaching English for 2 years by now and I hope I'll go on doing it. I'm not a native speaker of the language and it does have its merits and demerits. The main drawback is that I don't seem to be an example to follow concerning pronunciation, sentence stress and melody, no matter how much I try to practice. As to practice, I should however say that even in the one of the most European of Russian cities - Saint Peteresburg (the one I live in) - there seems to be a shortage, or rather a lack of authentic audio materials on sale. I mean, we have resources, cassettes mainly, but they normally are materials accompanying this or that text book, while what makes my concern is the practice in listening comprehension, which shouldn't be limited to my (non-native) speech and course recordings, which hardly last more than 10-15 minutes each class. And back home students are deprived of any possibility to practice listening, except for some recordings on the student's cassette.
Well, as far as I have been making use of various coursebooks (Headway, Cutting Edge, Enterprise, WaveLength, Matters, MarketLeader, etc), I try to grab all audio materials from cassettes onto CD (at least to keep the quality) in mp3 format and make cassettes for listening, but I belive a great better effect could be achieved should I have not a reproductory task of simply learning and retelling texts, but listening to some gems of English literature and writing assignments, making discussions in class). You see, I'm an anxious teacher, I can hardly get satisfied with only one coursebook, I want to invent and develop through invention. I try, really, but I'm not the right person to judge myself objectively, though I evaluate whatever I do.
So, closer to the subject - yes, I'd like to ask you to do me a favour, and this seems to be a really impudent request - could anyone, please, kindly grab whatever materials they have and send me on a CD in .mp3 format.
I know what I am asking from you is definitely called a violition of copyright laws, and I hate to ask you, really, because I wouldn't like to trouble you. I was only hoping you would see some thinking behind these lines. I pretty well understand that what I am asking from you will also help me develop as a teacher and that means I am trying to reach my personal goals with your assistance, being the only to benefit except for those whom I teach English. Well, I quite agree with you. I can only assure you that in case the delivery is less than $10 USD I'll pay for it myself. Sorry, I'm trying to be most frank with you. I don't yearn more than $200 per month, 30% of which I spend to pay my rent (I've been living in Saint Pete for only 1 year).
Thank you anyway for reading it - it took you some time. I appreciate it, believe me.
Best Regards, your colleague,
Vladislav Maltsev

Hello Vladislav,

I'm sorry, I just wouldn't feel right sending any copyrighted material, but I did want to respond to your obviously heartfelt plea. Have you tried getting some native speakers to do some recording for you? Do your students have any access to computers? There are some listening activities on the Web as well.

Well, it IS a great pleasure to realise you've been heard and even understood. Viva communication and English as lingua franca. It's been kind of you to answer.
As to your questions, well, yes, some of them do have an access to the net, but it costs a fortune here and I doubt if they would think of it. Really, being a teacher means being a sort of a leader, organiser.
Best of Luck.
How did you find yourself a teacher of English?
(Sorry, wouldn't give an answer for myself .

Hello Vladislav,

I feel the same as Lorikeet, here. Your desires to do well by your students is certainly an attitude to be admired. Are there any native English speakers there in St. Petersburg whom you could approach to do some recording for you from, say, literary texts? There would be no copywrite infringments to be concerned about with some of the old masters, for instance, something by Nathanial Hawthorne. Surely there must be some way for you to provide, at little or no cost, some listening materials for your students.

I wish you the best of luck. Keep teaching. Your students need you more than you might think.

Larry Latham

OK, a little bit of lateral thinking here.

If I understand correctly, you're looking for audio recordings of native speakers using English in various ways. I agree that the best solution would be purpose-made 'education' CDs or cassettes. However, here's an alternative.

There are many international companies that have publicity material available in all kinds of formats (video, posters, books and of course audio). As you have access to the Internet, why not send some e-mails to companies (or organizations or institutions...) and say you want to do a project on them with your students. Mention that you are particularly looking for audio material. You might be surprised by the response. (I did something similar lest year to get material for a new class of students who work in banks. One company even sent a video tape by Fed-Ex from New York to me here in France !)

Of course, the company gets something from the deal - they get exposure for their product or company.

If you want to send me a private message, I'll give you some more specific details.