I am super excited for today’s guest because I was finally able to chat with an English as a Second Language teacher. Olga Prepodobnaya, a Russian ex-pat who teaches in Italy, was the perfect person to discuss learning English with. Thanks to her extensive experience, wonderful personality, and willingness to discuss the pros and the cons of learning new languages, our chat was filled with wisdom nuggets for anyone interested in this topic. Her idea of teaching is based not on the principle of “eclecticism”: all the students are different in objectives, learning styles, age, and energy levels, and it is the teacher’s aim to define their needs and expose their language potential making use of various techniques and approaches. I couldn’t agree with her more.
I wanted to add that Olga is not only an English and Russian speaker, she also taught herself Polish, Italian and Japanese. I mean, she’s totally brilliant.
On today’s show we discuss how to learn languages by yourself, the pros and cons of living in new countries, the importance of imitation and language immersion, how Olga modified her accent by listening to Whitney Houston and Aerosmith when she was 5 years old and advice for adults learning English. Click on the link above to tune into Olga’s story.
In Today’s Episode We Discuss:
- The Benefits of Learning New Languages with Olga Prepodobnaya
- How to learn new languages by yourself
- The difficulties of living in new countries and being surrounded by new cultures
- Why code-switching is tiring?
- Mantras for English learners
- The importance of imitation and language immersion
- How Olga got rid of her accent by listening to Whitney Houston and Aerosmith at the age?
- of 5 years old
- Using eclecticism to teach English
- Advice for adults learning English
- How to improve your pronunciation?
All the Goodies From This Episode:
Click here to join the Accent Edit Group
Links From Today’s Episode:
Book links:
How to Teach English by Jeremy Harmer
Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ by Giulia Enders
Want Extra Tips on Mastering Your Public Speaking? Tune into my chat with Brenden
