Name: Olga Evgenievna Drozdova.
Job: head of the department of linguistics at the Moscow Institute of Open Education, teacher of linguistics at gymnasium No. 1541.
Experience: since 1993.
Regalia and titles: candidate of pedagogical sciences, honorary worker of general education of the Russian Federation, laureate of the Moscow Grant competitions, laureate of the Moscow city competition “Teacher of the Year”, author of 67 publications, including the textbook “Fundamentals of Linguistics for Schoolchildren.”

About the first gymnasiums and linguistics course

I have been working at the school since 1993, and the next year it became gymnasium No. 1541. Previously, it was the 41st French school, very famous, even elite. When I arrived there, there was a big wave in Moscow of a return to the traditions of gymnasiums and lyceums, a real upsurge in the world of education. People created their own schools. The first gymnasiums in Moscow appeared in 1991, and, in general, it was a social order. In the early nineties, in addition to all sorts of economic cataclysms, enormous opportunities appeared and the world opened up. It has become important to learn not one or two languages, but several at once. And it was precisely on this wave that the idea arose to introduce the teaching of three foreign languages in gymnasiums and to develop a special course in linguistics.

Just in time for my arrival, the school began to introduce the study of a third foreign language. German was taught as a third language with the expectation that children already knew French and English well. French was from the 1st grade, English from the 6th. This then began to vary, and now English is largely replacing French. Then they began to figure out how to create a linguistic basis for learning several languages. We decided to make a separate initial course - the linguistic alphabet - to explain the difference between sounds and letters, tell us what translation from one language to another is, what dictionaries are - in general, about what we will often have to deal with in the future.

How to remember better

From the first year of work at school, I began to write a textbook on linguistics and immediately use it. In 1993, I visited all my linguist friends, visited libraries, came to lessons with notes: the children wrote something from dictation, something they copied from the board.

Every year, after a corresponding series of lessons, I give the students an assignment - a review of the world's languages. Children must draw a tree with leaves: green leaves are living tongues, yellow leaves are dead. Such a picture is remembered for a lifetime, especially if the child drew it himself. I explain to them: if you think about this name and write it with your hand, then you remember it in a completely different way.

I tried to give an overview of the languages of the Indo-European family in the fifth, sixth, and seventh grades - and I realized that, oddly enough, it works best in the fifth grade.

About the Brothers Grimm and how to explain complex topics

When talking about languages and linguistic phenomena, you need to find some clues from everyday life - so that it seems not something distant and academic, but understandable and familiar. For example, when talking about comparative historical linguistics - a seemingly difficult topic for fifth grade - I say, among other things, that in Germany its founders were the brothers Grimm. In fact, Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm were very serious philologists; they collected folklore and published fairy tales in literary adaptations in order to earn money to pursue science. Modern children understand this - the situation is close to the modern one.

Another very important point is that you need to treat your child like an adult; children really appreciate this. I have come across a lot of children's books on linguistics: there was a period when many were interested in this, famous linguists wrote books about the subject for children. I really don’t like something like “Journey to the Country of Linguinia” or “Professor Storytellers will now tell Pochemuchkin...”. It seems to me that modern children find it unpleasant when people communicate with them like this.

I really don’t like something like “Journey to the Country of Linguinia” or “Professor Storytellers will now tell Pochemuchkin...”. It seems to me that modern children find it unpleasant to be treated like this

About mathematical techniques and school conference

The linguistic component in the entire educational process turned out to be in great demand. In the first lessons, we immediately talk about the fact that linguistics is related to different sciences. When studying phonetics, we touch upon such an area of physics as acoustics; when talking about articulation, we turn to biology. Or a task: find a synonym for the word “rain” such that the difference in meaning is the same as that of the words “cry” and “sob.” This means that we need to create a mathematical proportion in which the word “rain” relates to X in the same way as the word “cry” relates to the word “sob.” The child must understand that the difference in values will be amplification, and match “rain” with “rain.” Mathematical techniques are very productive because they help to understand linguistics as a full-fledged discipline and a real science.

In 1997, we began holding a school linguistic conference, which later became known as “Linguistics for All.” We still hold it every year; people from schools all over Russia come to us with reports, and in recent years there have been foreign participants as well.

Schoolchildren who have participated in the conference for several years, even if they do not go further into linguistics, are still interested in language for the rest of their lives. These children become very attentive native speakers.

About the difference between content and content, and format and form

Many people often use words in the wrong meaning and context. There is such a term - “agnonym”, that is, when you use a word, but its meaning is not completely clear to you.

Another feature of our time is that the content of conversations or texts is not as important as the format in which we upload this content. This was formulated very well by the famous linguist Irina Levontina. Some words become symbols of the era and indicators of some changes. It is very revealing how the words “form” and “content” were previously related and how the words “format” and “content” are now related. As if in the modern understanding this is the same, but in reality it is not. Previously, everyone understood that content is more important than form. Of course, without form it is impossible to convey content, but still content is more important. And all the older people will say so. If we compare format and content today, then format is more important, and content is what is poured into the format.

I explain to children that content should be important content that you work on and produce yourself. Language is the most suitable material for this, and my subject teaches us to understand language, and through language, to understand the most diverse areas of life that we touch upon.

Big city teachers. Olga Drozdova