Teacher Alina: In my first meeting with Russian language students that come to Petrozavodsk “Enjoy Russian” school to learn Russian, I tell them that we use the project-based language learning method and propose every student create their own project at the end of the course. Most people have no idea what project-based language learning mean. Let me give you a few examples and explain why it’s a great way to learn a language.

The idea of the project-based language learning method is that you learn while creating something or you use everything you’ve learned to create something personally new and unique. We inspire our students to use it because

• this is how they can see how much they have learned and how much they really can do with the help of the Russian language. Usually, students make a project on the basis of the vocabulary they’ve learned during the course, like taping a video film “In a restaurant” or creating a quest around the city as the result of learning the verbs of motion with prefixes;
• everyone enjoys sharing something they know and good at with everyone else, that’s why in their projects students can embody their skills, talents, hobbies, interests, and so on. Every project is unique and there are no restrictions. The only condition is that you must use the Russian language;
• the project is physical evidence that shows how good the students’ Russian is, that’s what they can show to their friends and family to prove that they really studied Russian and not just spent a fun vacation in Karelia together with bears and famous Russian… tea;)

As an example, have a look at photos and videos of our students’ amazing projects!