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Robert Leitch Site Editor |
An English teacher since 2001, Robert is currently working freelance in St. Petersburg, occasionally travelling to Scandinavia on secret missions ;) The rest of the time, he's maintaining VisaRus and trying to get it recognised as the top EFL site in Russia. |
| In contrast to labour camps, EFL language camps are usually comfortable, you are well fed and you can leave the grounds whenever you like. | ||
Language camps
For those needing a break from city life, Russian-organised language camps can offer all-expenses-paid 'working holidays' with locations ranging from the remote to the exotic. Finland and Sweden are popular destinations, there are occasional camps in Norway, Poland and the Czech Republic, and even some on Bulgaria's stunning Black Sea coast.
A useful thing about language camps is that they run all year round. If you find yourself out of work during school breaks, it's a great way to take a trip away somewhere and top up your earnings at the same time. It's entirely possible to spend an entire summer working at different language camps in Scandinavia alone.
If you're travelling from Russia, you should be able to go on the bus with the students. Be prepared for an early start though – many trips set off before 9am. When you arrive at the camp, you will never have to share accommodation with students. You may share with an organiser or another teacher, but accommodation is strictly single-sex.
In Finland and Sweden, meals are often served four times daily – breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner are standard, and sometimes there is an evening tea before bedtime. Food is served in a canteen, but the standard is generally very high. Note that in Finland food is often a little bland for Western taste buds, so you might want to invest in a jar of pepper or a bottle of chilli sauce.
The camps are usually held in public colleges. Facilities are almost always spotlessly clean and well-serviced. Most have dedicated computer labs with high-speed internet, and there is generally unrestricted access to a photocopier and printer. Although staff don't always speak English, they're eternally patient and with some careful gesticulation you can always find out where the paper is kept or why the printer won’t switch on.
Lessons are a bit more intensive than you might normally be used to, with five hours being the average (clock hours, not academic hours) per group per day. Because the camps are as much for relaxation as for English, you should usually try to maintain a balance of fun and productivity. If you can incorporate a game or a competition into your lesson on present perfect continuous, so much the better.
With children and teenagers, it's best to leave discipline up to the camp organisers. It's not unusual for students to take liberties when they’re away from home, and occasionally you have to remind them that whoever is paying for them to learn English might be very angry if they find out that they were sending text messages in lessons instead of paying attention to the teacher.
Although the organisers will love you if you get involved with evening karaoke and treasure hunts, if it's not in your contract you’re not obliged and you won't be paid any extra. Make time for yourself, check your email when the kids aren't scrambling over one another in the computer lab, relax and unwind. As the colleges are usually in small towns or in forests by lakes, it's an ideal chance to enjoy a walk in the fresh air.
You might need to spend evenings planning lessons for the next day, unless you're so organised as to have everything ready before the trip. This is often impossible because you rarely know the group's abilities until you arrive in the camp and go through the preliminary test. Choose exercises carefully, bearing in mind that while you have to keep things entertaining, you should also appear to be hard at work should the camp director walk in.
Having a lesson template saved in your email drafts folder is a great bonus in camps. You don't always have a lot of time to prepare materials, but what little time it takes to copy and paste a downloaded lesson into an attractive template can make a big difference to the overall impression of you as a professional teacher.
A test template, as well as a few ready-made tests, is tremendously useful. A lot of placement tests in language camps are blurred photocopies of crumpled, dog-eared originals. A crisp, clean, well laid-out test makes a good first impression on the students and your employers. Many camp organisers don't even have their own test, and instead rely on teachers' wits to group the students.
Don't get stressed if you realise that you can't split the students into equal-sized groups by ability - this is normal. Part of the skill of being a successful language camp teacher is being flexible enough to adapt as circumstances require.
If you can get used to the particularities of teaching in camps, there are plenty of opportunities out there waiting for you.
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