'Do you study or work?' A Lesson from the textbook “A Window to Lithuanian” / Ar tu studijuoji, ar dirbi?

2021

Students

Business & Communication

Classroom Context

Lithuanian

Any language

A1

Guiding resources (online course/book)

Vocabulary
Grammar

Listening
Speaking
Writing
Reading

This publication comprises 10 language lessons and is dedicated to foreigners who have just started learning the Lithuanian language. The textbook was designed in line with the communicative foreign language teaching methodology. The material is displayed in a consistent and clear way. It teaches learners the ways of expressing the most important communicative intentions. The textbook contains many diverse tasks and exercises for practicing reading, listening, language use, speaking, and writing skills. The tasks are engaging, clear, and authentic, they teach students what they need in real life (to greet each other, to enquire and provide some information, to talk about study or job activities, etc.) This lesson, like every other lesson in the textbook,
introduces learners of Lithuanian to the most common public notes that will help them feel more comfortable in Lithuania.
At the end of the lesson, learners are expected to be aware of the most common phrases typical of study contexts or working environments, be able to ask questions of a personal type and to answer them appropriately, to understand some notes in the city, to take notes themselves or to write a message. Useful tips of socio-cultural knowledge will help learners to feel better and adapt to the country in which they have arrived. The textbook is written in Since the textbook is written in Lithuanian it is meant for work in the classroom.

The publication “A Window to Lithuanian. Lithuanian Language Lessons for Beginners” originated in 2011. Subsequently, due to the students’ and professors’ feedback, it has been constantly updated till the very day of its submission to the publishing house in 2021. This textbook has been a successful teaching aid while working with the Erasmus+ program students at Vilnius University, it has also been used for teaching
Lithuanian at Frankfurt University (Germany), the University of Washington in Seattle (USA), at Humboldt University Summer School, Vilnius University Winter and Summer Courses, and at Vilnius University Evening classes for the public at large.
Although the textbook is meant for students, teachers can use it while teaching other target groups as well, by skipping some pages of the lessons or adding some extra material according to the learners’ needs.
Learners’ positive feedback (authentic everyday situations, engaging true-to-life tasks, consistency in teaching grammatical categories) gives the background to state that this textbook meets their expectations.

It is recommended to start the lesson with an analysis of the title and phrases that follow afterward. Then attention should be paid to the vocabulary, all the words can be said/pronounced aloud and the phrases given in task 3 read aloud. The lesson can be divided into two parts: studies and work. Tasks 8, 9, and 10 are meant for the consolidation of the vocabulary related to studies. Then grammar tasks (1 and 2) could lead to the field of grammar, and task 2 would sum up one’s knowledge in grammar. Tasks 11-15 revise the usage of time expression with the help of prepositions. Before doing them Table 6 presenting grammar review is expected to be analyzed. This unit teaches the names of the months, task 4 is for consolidation of this knowledge. Then the expression of time can be studied with support of tasks 4 and 5 (grammar) and tasks 5-7.
For finalizing the theme about studies, tasks 16-19 are recommended to be done and followed by reading 1-7 exemplary conversations as well as performing their simulations. The theme about work should be started with tasks 1 and 3, followed by tasks 20-25. Subsequently, conversations 8-12 should be read.
There are two tasks (26-27) at the end of the lesson to consolidate the use of present, past, and future tenses. Before doing them, the formation rules of the mentioned tense forms should be revised.