I grew up in the peripheral part of Russia, where the use of English outside the classroom was limited to the Internet (which became available to me only after I began studying at the university). I started learning English when I was about 7-8 years old, as an extra-curricular class. First, I learned some rhymes and English-Russian poems. Since there were no audiotapes to listen to and imitate, I had to write the English words using Russian letters so that I could memorize the poems. Then, I learned to read (and write) transcribed words along with their translation, and after that began grammar (sentence structure and grammar tenses). The classes that I had in school (grades 4 – 11) consisted mostly of reading (first, sentences; later, texts), translating, retelling / summarizing texts, and asking and answering questions based on sentence structure. We usually did not have fill-in-the-blanks or multiple-choice tests, but accuracy was the major focus. Every grammatical error was corrected (whether spoken or written). We did not learn conversational English. Most of what was spoken had to be written down first. On the contrary, in the English course that I continued attending outside school at that time, there was little emphasis on writing. Speaking – my biggest fear and challenge – was paid more attention to, and for me the progression was from producing simple questions and answers and memorizing sentences and parts of the texts to more extensive conversations and monologues. So, in my case accuracy preceded fluency and gave me sufficient confidence to actually use English.
At the university, during my first two years my English (both written and spoken) was evaluated mostly on the complexity of grammar structures and vocabulary used, as well as grammatical mistakes. The exceptions were classes taught by native speakers of English (we had a couple of Peace Corps volunteers at that time). Their teaching usually constituted some part of the course. During my third through fifth year, the focus was on writing different formats of essays (e.g., for-and-against essays and problem-solution essays) based on newspaper articles pertinent to my major (i.e. US & Canadian Studies). Essay-writing was more process-oriented, involving several stages of writing and several drafts. At the same time, the content was limited to the information in an article(s) and possible foci were discussed in class prior to writing. In fact, content was a by-product of writing. It was essay structure and logical development of ideas that were evaluated. This experience formed most of my original approach to teaching English.
It's a well-written narrative, Alyona. I had no idea that written English instruction dominated the ELT profession in Russia when you were learning English.
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