English Courses
I am often asked about my English level. And I reply that it’s not good. It’s even embarrassing to admit. I studied it in school, studied a bit in college, but I can’t speak or even understand Americans well. Of course, it’s a problem that I have no language practice. We speak Russian at home. Marik also has good spoken Russian, in my opinion. He just doesn’t know how to write and read lowercase letters, and we read Russian books together during summer vacations. So, it’s easier for him to communicate with me in Russian. In 2018, I attended an English class at the library for a short time, but now, during the pandemic, the library is closed, and books are issued only by pre-order through a window.
We knew that in Arizona there is a free program for people who do not speak or speak English poorly. This program is state-funded and is aimed at providing language assistance to those with a residence permit. Therefore, when enrolling in these courses, one needed to provide a driver’s license and ID number. A friend of Valya attended these courses last year and told us about them. But signing up for them was somehow not successful; we needed to find time to drive me to the classes.
The program is called Burlington English and was developed at Burlington University in Vermont
In 2020, when the pandemic started, we thought that they had closed just like the libraries. It turned out that they moved to online learning. This form of learning suited us very well, but I had to appear in person the first time to take a test to determine my level of knowledge and to enroll me in the appropriate class. Valya signed up online. We were scheduled to take the test on Monday the 25th, but there was heavy rain and even a small hailstorm, and Valya had a lot of work, so we rescheduled the test for January 27.
We arrived by noon. Our temperature was measured with a non-contact thermometer, all my data was recorded, and Valya went to wait in the car while I took the test on the computer. The test was difficult. I had to listen to a text and choose an answer from the options provided. I felt like I understood almost nothing the first time, and there was no option to replay it. Then I was given another test, which turned out to be very easy for me.
I was placed at the High Beginner level. They gave me access to the website where I needed to take the online learning program, and provided me with the login and password.
The program is called Burlington English and was developed at Burlington University in Vermont. The program includes six levels:
- Basics — Basics of English
- Low Beginners — Lower Beginner Level
- High Beginners — Upper Beginner Level
- Low Intermediate — Lower Intermediate Level
- High Intermediate — Upper Intermediate Level
- Advanced — Advanced Level
Each level includes ten topics with various assignments on grammar, listening and understanding texts, grammar reviews, vocabulary for each topic with pronunciation and examples. The program has a reading practice section where books adapted to different levels of English knowledge are collected. Books can be read and listened to. There are also twice-weekly one-and-a-half-hour online classes via Zoom with a teacher and a group of 6 – 8 people.
When I joined the classes, the group was already on the fifth topic, so I had to catch up on the initial topics of the High Beginners level and integrate into the group. The group is very diverse: from Taiwan, Africa, Turkey, several people from Mexico. There’s even one woman from Russia. The age group is mostly young, and I am the only older one. I noticed a peculiar feature. We Russians have difficulty understanding conversational English and speaking, but we perform the tasks well. Many other group members, on the other hand, have trouble reading and understanding grammar but speak fluently. Although I still have trouble understanding their accents. But the teacher understands them. By the way, the teacher is a volunteer, a Mexican who graduated from Arizona University.
Today is March 26, 2021. By now, we have completed the High Beginners level and covered two topics of the Low Intermediate level.
