u ovom broju:

nekoliko reci o nasoj asocijaciji

skole koje su stupile u kontakt sa nama

procena kvaliteta jezickih skola

kada dete treba da pocne da uci strani jezik?

internet u nastavi stranih jezika

in this issue:

a few words about our association

schools that have made contact with us

 "quality assessment of language schools" seminar

when should a child start learning a foreign language?

using internet in foreign language teaching

Nasi ciljevi

Osnovni cilj YALS-a je promovisanje kvaliteta u nastavi stranih jezika. Ovo se sprovodi na dva blisko povezana polja. Prvo se tice korisnika nasih usluga i neprestane provere kvaliteta usluga koje oni dobijaju. Kako bi se obezbedilo postovanje visokih profesionalnih standarda, sprovodimo godišnje inspekcije skola koje ukljucuju: nastavu, kvalifikacije profesora, skolsku administraciju i prostorije. Inspekciju skola vrse clanovi Upravnog odbora i jedan nezavisni strucnjak. Kao deo aktivnosti na ovom polju, obezbedjujemo i detaljne informacije o skolama i kursevima kao i precizno utvrdjenu proceduru u slucaju zalbi koja treba da zastiti i polaznike i same skole.
Osim ovoga postoji jos jedno polje rada nase Asocijacije namenjeno tome da pomogne profesorima i skolama. Ovo polje ukljucuje organizovanje obuke za profesore, seminara i radionica, razmenu ideja i iskustava, informacija o nastavnim materijalima - gde se oni mogu naci i kako se mogu prilagoditi. Ovde takodje spadaju pitanja kao sto su: oglasavanje, cene, poslovna politika.
Jugoslovenska asocijacija skola stranih jezika je osnovana u uverenju da sve ono sto zelimo da postignemo kao posebne skole mozemo da postignemo jedino ako saradjujemo. Smatramo da to vazi i za regionalnu saradnju i mogucnosti koje ona otvara.

Upravni odbor YALS-a

YALS is a non-profit making association with the main aim to promote quality language teaching by maintaining high professional standards recognized throughout the world.
The idea of the Association started in Belgrade where the Association now has its headquarters. However, as we began working on establishing it, many schools outside Belgrade became interested so we decided to register as Yugoslav Association of Language Schools, thus making it easier for new members to join. Even though the Association is relatively new, we believe we can profit very much by sharing the rich experience of our founding members. We also hope that more schools will join soon, thus starting a network of quality language schools in our country.

Our Objectives

The primary objective of YALS is promoting quality language learning. This is done through two related areas. The first one concerns our clients and the continuous assessment of service they are getting. In order to insure that the highest professional standards are respected, inspections are carried out yearly and they include: teaching practices, teachers' qualifications, school administration and premises. The schools are inspected by the Association board and one independent expert. As a part of the activities in this area we also provide detailed information about schools and courses as well as an established complaints procedure which protects both clients and schools.
On the other hand, there is another area of activities which is intended to help teachers and schools. This area concerns providing teacher training and development schemes, organizing seminars and workshops, exchanging ideas and sharing experience about teaching materials, information where to find them and how to adapt them. It also includes other issues like: advertising, prices and all other business practices.
We started the Association believing firmly that everything we wanted as separate schools would be possible only if we cooperated. We believe the same about regional networking and the possibilities it opens.

YALS Board

Postovane kolege i buduci clanovi naseg udruzenja!
Iz naseg programa i ovog biltena saznali ste osnovne podatke o nama, kao i zasto nam je stalo da budemo profesionalna i ozbiljna organizacija. Zeleli bismo da vas ovim putem pozdravimo i pozovemo na saradnju i pristup nasem Udruzenju ukoliko ispunjavate uslove i standarde za koje smatramo da su neophodni za obavljanje ovog posla. Kao odbor zaduzen za upoznavanje novih clanova sa postojanjem i ciljevima naseg Udruzenja do sada smo uspeli da stupimo u kontakt sa sledecim skolama:

Schools That Have Made Contact With Us

Dear colleagues and future members,
You could find out everything about us from our brochure as well as from our first newsletter where you can also see why we want to become a professional and responsible organization. We would like to use this opportunity to invite you to join our Association if you meet all the requirements and standards which we set and thought were necessary for doing this job properly.
The addresses of the schools we know of are: 

Srdacan pozdrav,
YALS

With kind regards
YALS

Kada dete treba da pocne da uci strani jezik?

Kao profesor sa visegodisnjim iskustvom u radu sa decom predskolskog uzrasta, smatram da je najbolje vreme za zapocinjanje ucenja stranog jezika dve godine pred polazak u skolu. Deca uzrasta izmedju cetiri i pet godina poseduju vec znatne sposobnosti, razvijenu radoznalost i veoma cesto, znacajnu motivaciju za ucenje stranog jezika. Jedan od najpopularnijih stranih jezika kome su deca najvise izlozena, jeste engleski jezik. Engleski jezik predstavlja dobar deo globalne decje kulture: crtani filmovi, igrani filmovi, popularna muzika, kompjuterske igrice, kao i rad na personalnim računarima, dobar deo satelitske televizje, Internet, itd. U mnogim zemljama sveta se smatra da engleski jezik nije strani jezik vec drugi jezik.

Na predskolskim kursevima insistira se na komunikaciji medju decom, zatim na vokabularu koji je primeren deci i nacinu ucenja koji je prilagodjen decjem uzrastu. Ucenje se odvija kroz razlicite aktivnosti u kojima deca ucestvuju koristeci svoje raznovrsne sposobnosti: pevanja, igranja, crtanja, glume, oponasanja, pricanja prica, slusanja prica i igranja igara. Tako se maksimalno koriste sve decje sposobnosti tog uzrasta, kada deca uce brzo i lako, a bez ucesca svesti. Sta vise, pri ovakvom nacinu ucenja deca istovremeno uzivaju u drustvu svojih vrsnjaka, kao i ideji da su krenuli u "skolu". Prilikom nastavljanja ucenja jezika, deca koja su prosla kroz predskolske tecajeve, u znatnoj su prednosti, posto su mnoge oblike jezika vec usvojili, tako da je proces daljeg ucenja znatno brzi i efikasniji. Izgovor, intonacija, veliki deo pocetnog vokabulara kao i mnoge gramaticke konstrukcije su nesto sto su deca vec usvojila i sto im je vec poznato. Smatra se da se izgovor stranog jezika na nivou maternjeg govornika, moze adekvatno usvojiti samo ako se sa ucenjem pocne pre uzrasta od pet godina.

Vanda Perovic, profesor engleskog jezika.

Studio za ucenje jezika "Dositej"

When should a child start learning a foreign language?

My experience as a teacher who has been teaching very young learners (5 to 7 year olds) for many years, shows that the best time for a child to start studying a foreign language is two years before he/she starts school. Children of five have a considerably developed competence, curiosity and very often a genuine motivation for studying a foreign language. English is the foreign language they are most exposed to. The global culture of young children is in English: cartoons, films, all kinds of music, computer games, work with computers in general, satellite television, the Internet, etc. English is considered to be a second and not a foreign language in many countries of the world.

English courses for very young learners are communicative based, the vocabulary is adapted to the children’s needs and age. It is an activity based curriculum in which the children use all their different abilities without being inhabited: singing, dancing, playing games, drawing, acting, story telling, miming. All the skill are used to learn without making a conscious effort. The children enjoy working in groups and pairs thus socializing with their peers developing group rapport and the idea that they too have started attending school as their older brothers or sisters have.

Children who have started studying a foreign language at such an early age have a considerable advantage over the ones that have not because they have already mastered the different forms of language. So further progress of learning is much easier and more effective. Pronunciation, intonation, a lot of the vocabulary and grammatical constructions have already become familiar and acquired. It is considered that the pronunciation of a foreign language at the level of a native language can only be acquired if the acquisition is started before the age of five.

Vanda Perovic, teacher of English language

Foreign Language School “Dositej”

Prezentacija projekta integrisane i sistematske primene interneta u nastavi u školi stranih jezika LINGVA u Valjevu je održana 9. maja 2000, na redovnom sastanku YALS-a u školi stranih jezika HELLO u Beogradu. Obuhvaćena su tri aspekta primene: časovi nastave podržane internetom, koji su integrisani u redovne opšte kurseve engleskog jezika, sajt za učenje engleskog kao stranog jezika LINGVA ESL Cafe, i elektronski časopis LINGVA WEB THISTLE. Projekat je predstavila i demonstrirala Mirjana Ljiljak-Vukajlović, Direktor Lingve u Valjevu, škole koja je postala članica YALS-a 11. aprila, 2000.

U grupama dece mlađeg uzrasta, LINGVA koristi sajtove sa interaktivnim pričama, ili sajtove elektronskih rečnika, u cilju vežbanja veština razumevanja teksta i pisanja, kao i uvođenja istraživačkog rada na internetu. Deca razgovaraju o pričama ili odabranim odrednicama na post-internet časovima. Sa starijom decom, srednjoškolcima i odraslim polaznicima na srednjem i višim nivoima učenja jezika, rade se istraživački projekti vezani za teme odabrane na osnovu individualnih potreba polaznika. Informacije preuzete sa interneta se koriste kao pripremni materijal za pisanje intervjua ili prezentacije, koje nastavnik pregleda, a zatim organizuje dramsku igru ili usmenu prezentaciju na jednom od sledećih časova. Ovo se snima pomoću kamkordera da bi se za polaznike obezbedila stimulativna nagrada u vidu zapisa celokupnih napora i energije koje su polaznici uložili u raznim fazama ovih projekata.

LINGVA ESL Cafe na adresi www.lingva.co.yu je sajt rađen po uzoru na većinu drugih ESL sajtova koje trenutno mogu da se nađu na mreži, tako da uključuje neke standardne karakteristike kao što su gramatička i rečnička vežbanja, kvizovi, čet, forum i veze sa internet rečnicima, kao i sa drugim sajtovima korisnim za ESL polaznike/nastavnike. U izradi kvizova, polaznici nisu samo pasivni primaoci, nego su i aktivni kreatori internet vežbanja. Kvizovi se na internetu pojavljuju pod imenima svojih autora, što je dodatni stimulans za polaznike da učestvuju u ovakvoj vrsti vežbanja.

Još jedan trajni zapis radova i polaznika i nastavnika LINGVE obezbeđuje se u vidu godišnjeg elektronskog časopisa koji se zove LINGVA WEB THISTLE, takođe smeštenog na adresi www.lingva.co.yu. Prvi broj je postavljen na internet u januaru ove godine. Prilozi obuhvataju radove u rasponu od crteža mlađih polaznika, koji predstavljaju njihov stvarni ili svet iz mašte, propraćen jednostavnim opisima ili porukama, do složenijih radova srednjoškolaca i odraslih polaznika - deskriptivnih sastava, članaka, anketa, izveštaja, literarnih prikaza i prevoda.

U diskusiji koja je usledila posle prezentacije, istaknuta su tri glavna argumenta u prilog nastavi podržanoj internetom:
- programi za korišćenje interneta se sve više pojednostavljuju da bi bili pristupačniji svim grupacijama običnih ljudi, uključujući i nastavnike;
- WWW mreža je moćan resurs koji je dovoljno fleksibilan da se lako intregriše u glavno jezgro bilo kog programa nastave engleskog jezika;
- nastavnici će odmah uspostaviti prisan odnos sa većinom polaznika kada ovi drugi uvide da im je jedan deo fascinacija zajednički.

Mirjana Ljiljak-Vukajlovic
Lingva Valjevo

The presentation of the project of integrated and systematic Internet use in the classroom at Lingva Foreign Language School in Valjevo was made at the regular meeting of YALS, which was held in the HELLO School of Foreign Languages in Belgrade on May 9, 2000. Three aspects of use were covered: the Internet-aided classes integrated in the regular general English courses, LINGVA ESL Cafe, and LINGVA WEB THISTLE Electronic Magazine. The scheme was presented and demonstrated by Mirjana Ljiljak-Vukajlović, Director of Lingva, Valjevo, which became a member of YALS on April 11, 2000.

With lower primary groups, Lingva uses sites with interactive stories, or electronic dictionary sites to practice reading and writing skills, and introduce reasearch on the Internet. The students discuss the stories or selected dictionary entries in post-internet classes. With older primary, secondary and adult students at intermediate and post-intermediate levels, research projects are done, connected with the topics selected according to individual needs of students. The information retrieved from the Internet is used as a preparatory material to write an interview, or a presentation, which are corrected by the teacher and then assigned for a role play or oral presentation in one of the next lessons. These are filmed with a camcorder to provide students with a stimulative and rewarding record of all the efforts and energy they have invested in the different stages of these projects.

LINGVA ESL Café at www.lingva.co.yu is a site modelled after the pattern of most ESL sites that can currently be found on the web in that it includes some standard features such as grammar and vocabulary exercises, quizzes, chat, message board, and links to on-line dictionaries, as well as to other sites useful for ESL students/teachers. In making of quizzes, students are not only passive recipients, but active creators of the Internet exercises. The quizzes appear on the Internet under the names of their authors, which is an additional stimulus for the students to take part in this kind of exercise.

Another permanent record of both students and teachers work at Lingva is given in the form of an annual electronic magazine called LINGVA WEB THISTLE, also located at www.lingva.co.yu The first issue was uploaded to the Internet in January this year. The contributions range from primary students' drawings of their imaginary or real world, combined with simple descriptions or messages, to more advanced secondary and adult students' descriptive compositions, articles, surveys, reports, literary reviews and translations.

In the discussion which followed the presentation, three main arguments in favour of internet-aided classes were pointed out:
- Internet browsing programs are being increasingly simplified to be more accessible to all categories of ordinary people including teachers;
- the World Wide Web is a powerful resource which is flexible enough to be easily integrated in the main core of any ESL syllabus;
- teachers immediately create rapport with most of their students when the latter realize that their teachers share some of their own fascinations.

Mirjana Ljiljak-Vukajlovic
Lingva Valjevo