Читать книгу Russian She-bear in American and British Settings - Юлия Кузьменкова - Страница 5

Americans’ attitude to college policies and regulations also deserves attention. Russians are often criticised for dogmatic and authoritarian classroom management; our strict approach to maintaining discipline is also said to deprive students of freedom to behave naturally etc. Below are a few extracts from The ELTI Student Handbook for the readers to consider.

Attendance. The ELTI (English Language Training Institute) has a strict attendance policy: you should go to all of your classes but you must attend at least 80 % of your classes to complete them successfully. This does not mean that you can miss 17 – 19 % of your classes and that will be okay – your teachers will lower your grade if you miss close to 20 %. You may think, “I can miss a few classes and it will be OK.” However, if you get sick later, the classes you missed earlier will add to your absences from illness and you may fail the class. Try to schedule any appointments at times when you are not in class; this includes any trips you want to take.

Punctuality. Coming to class on time is necessary for the class to start when it should. When students arrive late, they disturb the class, and in our culture this shows disrespect for the teacher and other students. Being late for class may affect your grade; in fact, your teacher may add two or three of your tardies (being late) to equal an absence.

Assignments. You must complete all assignments on time. Each ELTI instructor will tell you the assignment policy at the beginning of each term. It’s your responsibility to follow your teacher’s policy.

Academic Honesty. Copying the words or ideas of other people is called plagiarism and is a serious offence in the ELTI. Cheating is also a very serious matter in academic work. If you plagiarise or cheat, you will fail the test or assignment.

Needless to say how much we were surprised by the ‘freedom’ of behaviour demonstrated by some ELTI students (and not only those): they could walk up to a pencil sharpening machine or even leave the classroom, they interrupted their teachers and asked us, foreign visitors, questions that had nothing to do with the subject of the lesson, not to mention ‘tardies’. If it were the norm, one could only guess what was meant by ‘disrespect for the teacher’ in the Student Handbook.

And my bear promptly remarked that students’ good manners should be searched for in Russia.