If
someone told you that after studying a FOREIGN language for 30 minutes, you'd
begin to read it well, you, most likely, would have serious DOUBTS. Your
disbelief, however, would turn out to be unfounded. No TRICKS!
Famous
Russian philologist from St.
Petersburg, Dr. Nikolai Zaitsev, conducted many demonstrations at American
Universities in Texas,
Oregon,
Missouri,
and Kansas
to show his ability to teach Russian in less then 30 minutes. Dr. Zaitsev is the author of more than 30 textbooks. After
graduating from Leningrad Pedagogical Institute with a degree in philology, he
worked as a teacher in an orphanage, in a correctional facility for adolescent
criminals, in schools for mentally retarded children, and taught Russian and
English in public schools and Universities.
“I
dislike traditional methods of teaching, probably, because of my own school
experience,” Dr. Zaitsev said. “That’s why I have
been working on my
system.”
Now
Nikolai Zaitsev has thousands of students and
followers across Russia
and around the world. Education officials are surprised by his “extraordinary”
results. Zaitsev’s accomplishment is that people in Russia
are no longer surprised to see 2-3-4-year-old children read. Julia Andreyeva, daughter of Zaitsev’s
assistant, started to read through the new system by the age of two and half
years. She began school when she was seven, at a fifth grade level. She
graduated from high school when she was 13 year old. Now she is a senior at the
English department of St.
Petersburg University.
She is a typical “Zaitsev child”.
---------------------
The
past five decades have witnessed a giant leap in the development of science,
technology, economics, and politics. Education systems that formed nearly two
and a half centuries ago, however, remained unchanged. In October 1967, in Williamsburg,
VA, an
international conference was dedicated to the issue of the education crisis
around the world.
In
the 1980’s and 1990’s the matter started to bother not only the specialists,
but also politicians. On the opening day of the 91-92 school year,
President George Bush spoke at one of the educational institutions in Lewistown,
ME, -
“American schools face hard times; each day brings new evidence of their
crisis.”
It
is simply unrealistic to overcome the education crisis. It is necessary to
alter the whole pedagogical process. Fortunately,
already today, there exists an education system that answers the society’s
desire to shape
literate and clear-thinking individuals. The author of this system is Nikolai Aleksandrovich Zaitsev. Thanks to
uniquely-designed published training materials for reading, writing,
mathematics, Russian language, and English language, the system is accessible
not only to education specialists; it can be freely used by parents, and even
5-6-grade students who’d like to teach their younger siblings.
Ever
since the first edition of “Zaitsev’s Cubes”
(learn-to-read guide) in 1989, the number of literate under-school-age children
has been rising in Russia.
In many Russian regions, as well as in other countries (US included), Zaitsev’s methods of education are utilized by individual
teachers and faculty groups with unwavering success and stellar results.
Several kindergartens had to reorganize their programs to accommodate Zaitsev’s children, who surpassed ordinary kids.
With
the involvement of interested specialists, an all-subject curriculum can be
created under Zaitsev’s system. Zaitsev
himself is able to lead the development of an educational program for studying
any language (there is a vast experience in applying the methods to English,
Kazakh, Tatar, Ukranian, and Byelo-russian).
In all, it would be possible to create a unified international teaching base.
The
ideas of American doctor Glen Doman concerning a
correlation between physical and intellectual developments come to life under Zaitsev’s system. Children, who use Zaitsev’s
approach, are not only academically acute; they remain healthy. The studying
process is done in a form of a game: everything is effortless and unforced.
There is no choking authority and boredom that accompany the traditional process
of education.
Specific points of new teaching technologies include:
Effectiveness.
3-4-year-old children begin to read after several half-hour sessions. In a
period of five months, first graders cover the same material as they would in 5
grade levels of ordinary education. Adult foreigners, who never studied Russian
language before, are able to use cubes to create simple words and to read them
after one 30-minute study period. Russians, who do not know English, learn
pronunciations and spellings of 2000 most frequently used English words by the
end of their first Zaitsev class.
Health benefits.
According to scientific opinions, Zaitsev’s systems
are ideal in their healthcare perspective. In kindergartens that switched to
new study methods, disease rate dropped 3-5 times. Many places use Zaitsev’s manuals to rehabilitate mentally ill kids.
Thrift. Zaitsev’s education materials consist of a series of
manuals that cover various subjects. Each set of materials may be used equally
well by a large group of students or by a single individual. Zaitsev’s materials would cost considerably less than usual
teaching textbooks that cover topics in a fragmented way.
Possible collaboration with US partners can occur along the following
lines:
1.
Participation in publishing additional copies of already-existing educational
materials; creating new computer-based learning programs, electronic games,
etc.
2.
Participation in developing education programs for learning to read and write
in any language.
3. Creating
new programs on basis of Zaitsev’s education approach
and copying them.
Collaboration with education structures:
1.
Distribution of Zaitsev’s education materials by
organizing lectures, courses, or seminars.
2. Training
perspective employees and creating specialized centers that
operate on Zaitsev’s basis.
3. Teaching
instructors and entire faculties; supplying them with materials.
N. Zaitsev Educational Methodology
Tel.: +7 -
812-247-7013
e-mail:
elen@peterlink.ru
