Nadezhda Chubko: NGA in Philippines

December 8, 2014

Nadezhda Chubko, an instructor in the New Generation Academy and the Continuing Education Center, has recently come back from a teaching conference in the Philippines. She has been the only one to attend the conference from Central Asia (even signing autographs because of it) and gave a presentation to other attendees. She teaches English via computer games and multi-media and wears hidden microphones in bazaars for research; we were able to sit down and talk with her about the conference, teaching, and more!

 Can you introduce yourself?

My name is Nadezhda Chubko, I’m NGA (New Generation Academy) faculty member and I also work in the Continuing Education Center (CEC). I teach English, mainly test preparation and academics. I’ve been working in the CEC for 2 years and this is my first year in NGA. 

Are you from Kyrgyzstan?

Yes, I grew up in the south of Kyrgyzstan in Osh, but I was born in Ukraine. My family moved to Osh because during the Soviet Union my father was sent to work there. I graduated from Osh State University, the Faculty of World Languages, my major was teaching English. After that I applied for a Master’s Degree to KIMEP University and graduated with a degree in teaching English as well. Then I came to Bishkek, and now I am here.

So the obvious question is, why didn’t you study at AUCA?

Well, they didn’t have a major in teaching. I think it’s a good enough reason!

So recently you went to a conference in the Philippines?

It was the 11^th Asian EFL Journal International TESOL Conference, specifically for the teachers of English in the Asian context. The majority of the participants were from the Philippines as it was not too far to travel for them! Other participants were from Indonesia, Malaysia, with some from Japan and Korea, and a few from China as well as one from Turkey. I was the only representative from Central Asia! 

What was the process like of applying for the conference?

Well, completing my work and having my summer vacation, I gathered some data from my teaching. I asked my students to complete a questionnaire about how they feel while playing computer games during the test preparation course. I prepared them for the entrance exam for AUCA, and taught them using computer games. It was fun, and that’s why my lessons were a little bit different from other lessons in the Center. Almost all of my students survived to the end of the course, and almost all of them have entered AUCA.

How did you decide to teach using computer games?

Well, it was by accident. A trainer I had particularly emphasized the impact of an emotional approach. It is very good for students’ memory; they will remember the lesson for a much longer time compared to just traditional teaching. I wanted to do something like this! I went to Google, and I looked for some teaching articles. I looked through a game and thought it was just childish, but then I thought maybe this game was not so bad! So, I started using the games.

I had two groups who were playing and 2 control groups who were just learning traditionally. The results were surprising.After the 1^st month of traditional teaching, many students had a drop in their test scores. But in the games method, their scores increased. In the end they leveled off. But what was interesting is why they had this drop.What I found was anxiety is a big problem in test preparation courses. This seemed like a good topic for a conference, so I submitted my abstract, and was accepted!

So you gave a presentation during the conference?

Yes, they were taking video recordings, asking me questions, and asking for autographs! Yes. because they never saw a person from Central Asia before. The conference was great actually; it was just for 3 days and 2 more days I was on the road. There were actually 6 plenary speakers. What was very surprising is that one of the plenary speakers, Rod Ellis, a really big name in the teaching field, started with very old and basic grammar exercises that were subsequently turned intoa very different approach, a conscious evaluation of grammar where you need to come up with the rule yourself. Actually almost all of us failed the test he gave! But then he explained and the rule was very simple. It just had to do with the number of syllables and direct/indirect objects. It is grounded in history, short words are usually Anglo-Saxon and can take indirect object after them while longer words are from Norwegian and cannot be immediately followed by the indirect object.

Is this first conference you have been to?

No, it wasn’t the first conference, but it was the first one I’ve visited as an individual presenter. I went to three others in Kazakhstan before. At that time we were researching workplace language. We actually went to bazaars and markets and recorded how people speak there, and worked out some patterns for the speech and compared them to some theories about English in workplaces. It was a lot of work as well! No one expects this when they think of studying teaching. We had some special equipment, so the people couldn’t see we were recording them. It was fun! We also created maps, maybe the other research isn’t so valuable but the maps are very helpful for foreigners who want to know where to buy what!

Is there anything else you want to say?

It was very worth visiting, all of the topics were interesting. Actually I was afraid it wasn’t a real conference before I went. But the result was very good, and the local people were very friendly.

 There was a strange way of transportation, the Jeepneys. Kind of a little truck with benches inside. They are colorful sometimes. You just tell the direction to the driver, they do not have routes like our buses here. The majority of people must confirm some destination, and then travel there. 

How will you use what you learned at the conference here at AUCA?

I think I want to try the flipped classroom. I also learned a lot about reflection essays that help to learn what the students really have problems with. Also there was an interesting presentation on using crossword puzzles, which is a good way to check the students’ vocabulary knowledge. A major problem of our society today is that students don’t have as much of an attention span. They have a hard time concentrating.

Any plans for the future?

I would like to continue my work in Kyrgyzstan. I went to Kazakhstan and China but this is the best place I found to teach.

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