Exams are not the only goal with Beata Palinska
Abigail Fulbrook: Welcome back to the Elevate blog. I am here with Beata Palinska.
Beata Palińska: Hello. glad to be here.
Abigail Fulbrook: Welcome Beata. Where are you in the world?
Beata Palińska: Thank Abbie, I’m in Poland. I’m based in Warsaw, the capital city. Poland is in Europe. Yes, for those of you who don’t know. Yeah, Yes, that’s true.
Abigail Fulbrook: Yes, and you are an English teacher.
Beata Palińska: Yes, that’s true. I’ve been teaching English for over 20 years now. and I’ve got experience teaching all ages and types of students, types of courses, all levels. And, I’ve also worn many other ELT hats over the years. But teaching has always been the constant and my favorite thing to do.
Abigail Fulbrook: That’s nice. Who, at the moment, who are you teaching? What kind of thing are you helping people to do?
Beata Palińska: My main interest at the moment is teaching for exams and I specialize in Polish state exams but mostly I specialize in B2 first and C1 advanced Cambridge exams preparation because this is what I used to be the speaking examiner for. So I also know the exam from the other side and I know what people struggle with on the exam day. So watching that over the years at different levels helped me help people get better at certain exam skills.
Abigail Fulbrook: Yeah, I see. And is there a particular part of the exams that you specialize in or that you help them
Beata Palińska: I prepare people for whole exam no problem, but I know that there are certain things that people have more troubles with than others for example use of English or writing or speaking so of course I guide people and I do lots of self-study reading and writing and listening and we learn certain examples, strategies that might be helpful. But I usually focus mainly on writing, speaking and use of English because these are the parts of the exams that people struggle with the most. But not only with the exam as such. Many people struggle with their mindset with feeling good and doing their best on the exam day. some people find it difficult to organize their work or know where to start. Others have never really learned how to learn. So they need some help with learning strategies and with finding out what’s best for them, what works for them really, not at the moment but in the long term, or things like exams sometimes feel out of this world like something that’s inauthentic something that’s not connected to our real life something just to tick off and move on and I’m trying to help people see the connection between the things they learn while studying for the exam and revising things and the strategies we learn and their … how they can be used in real life and how they can be helpful because I’d like people who when they stop learning with me, I would like them to take out something for their future learning adventures as well.
Abigail Fulbrook: Yes, That’s so true, isn’t it? You study so hard for the exams and then it’s finished and you relief and relax and… then It’s all gone. What happened?
Beata Palińska: Yeah. Yeah. You wouldn’t like that. Yes. that’s why I’m so interested in making it relevant and something people can rely on later on, something to fall back on, all those learning strategies and all those useful language moments that we focus on. they are there to help someone tackle whether it’s the next exam in English or maybe some other adventure or maybe someone just would like to be a lifelong learner but for his or her learning to keep making sense and to forget less and to know how to take notes all of that is a package with And this is the rest of your life.
Abigail Fulbrook: That’s great. I think it’s important, isn’t it? Because the exam writers, they do try to make realistic type of situation and materials that you use. So, yeah, you shouldn’t just sort of put the dividing line. This is exam English. This is real life.
Beata Palińska: Yes. Yeah. True. All of my students are special and…
Abigail Fulbrook: So, It’s good to help learners incorporate them both together for do you have any students or memorable stories about your learners, any breakthroughs that they’ve had?
Beata Palińska: everyone is so different and I feel like, it’s always like when you meet someone and you learn what they need, it’s a little bit of a puzzle. So, it’s great to be curious and to find out more about the person and their abilities and their skills at the moment and where they are. So you can meet them there and hopefully help them to the next stage or the place they would like to get to. and sometimes it’s a true puzzle. one of my students that’s the story I think I’ll remember for a long time. his mom just wanted a second opinion. He was a teenager and he was told that he won’t be ready for the B2 first exam for at least a year. But when they asked about details, the teachers were not able to provide any what should we work on And everything wasn’t specific enough and she just wanted to check and we started with a full mock exam checking where he was at the moment. And the funny thing was that out of the four parts of the exam two he was great at he was pretty good at reading and use of English not great but decent. He was fantastic at listening no work needed basically just keeping the level. and he needed help with speaking, writing and bits of use of English really because he couldn’t see how some of the tasks work. But he was ready to work hard and he just needed guidance. and we were working to prepare him for B2 first I think for five or six months to cut down but the prep that they told him he needed but it turned out and it became really clear to me after a few weeks that he won’t like not only will he pass he’s going to do really well and
Abigail Fulbrook: Cool. Uh-huh.
Beata Palińska: And I was really, waiting for the exam results and keeping my fingers crossed on the exam day. and just because it was one point or something, but he got result from B2 first. he got an In six months. And that was a moment I thought this is amazing because if you guide of course it doesn’t happen with everybody. Yeah. But sometimes you are hoping for a sign that’s it that if someone really wants to work on something and if … how to guide them and if they listen and work on those things and trust you things can happen. Yeah. So he was super proud of himself and I think it’s an important moment for anyone especially as I love for example working with people who have already taken the exam and either didn’t get the result they wanted or they failed the exam… but they would like to try again but they don’t know how to get better. Yeah. So, I can help with that and I think that getting back on the horse or after that but trying in a smart focused way to see what’s missing because very often it’s not the language that’s missing. Yeah, that’s the thing. it’s an approach to a part of the exam or maybe there is a little bit of grammar or vocab work that’s needed but usually it’s not even that the people don’t know this language they don’t use it consciously like they are not aware what level of the language they are speaking actually when they are doing the task yes and this part of awareness for example and raising and making sure that they don’t start speaking level of language when they are for example talking about photos. Yeah, that’s key. Yeah. helping to see those little pockets of opportunity that are there within the exam.
Abigail Fulbrook: it’s so interesting because often it’s not a teacher. It’s more of a guide or a coach the need and that you’ve already got everything there but someone to just say be aware of this or…
Beata Palińska: Yes. Yeah.
Abigail Fulbrook: yeah just I found in the past learners especially with writing they write too much or they go off the topic and it just takes someone to come back only write only a 100 And 200 words will fail you even if they’re brilliant and C2 level the task is 100 words. Yeah. So having that coach and the guidance there can make the difference between the past and the fail I think. Yeah. So Beata why is it that you are still a teacher? You said you love teaching. what’s the reason you keep coming back to teaching?
Beata Palińska: I’ve never stopped. So there was no coming back. But yeah, I love meeting people. I’m really curious about others and what works for them. I don’t only prepare for exams because if I did only exam preparation all the time, that would be hard for everyone I think.
Beata Palińska: but I also run courses that are for example based on good news only that are vocab development and speaking courses. I still teach people at different levels of different ages. I create mini adventures. I’m trying to bring the best of tech and the best of analog still while working online because I think that it’s lovely to help people improve their language while doing something interesting or worthwhile.
Beata Palińska: And it’s a privilege to help someone achieve their dreams or get closer to them if English is something that will get them there. One of those things that they need.
Abigail Fulbrook: Yeah, I Yeah, I agree totally. it’s great thing to see your students progress and pass and nice feeling.
Beata Palińska: Yeah, it’s lovely. today I was looking I saw on LinkedIn I think one of my students giving she was going to give a speech at a conference and I looked what she does and she’s a global manager of something and I remember her when she was 10 years ago this lovely girl who wanted to I think she was taking advanced and she was like I need the best grade I need to work better I need to be able to write perfect emails it’s going to forward my career it’s going to be great yeah and today I was Nice. Great that happened. Yeah, absolutely.
Abigail Fulbrook: And yeah, as a teacher, it’s really nice to see that and have a little part of it, but it’s the learners themselves that have to take that
Beata Palińska: That’s every time someone says thank you, I say it’s not me, it’s you. Yeah. Because I was just there to help you make it possible. But all of it is learners and their work and their motivation, attitude and time spent on this and not on scrolling or anything else. Yes, that’s their choice.
Abigail Fulbrook: If you’ve got a nice teacher though who’s going to encourage you and help you with it, that’s much more motivating than doing it alone.
Beata Palińska: I think so. But I think that I remember it as one of the quotes I wrote down from Chaz Bza’s book that you can’t motivate anyone but you can create the environment in which the people will get motivated or stay motivated. Yeah.
Beata Palińska: Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Abigail Fulbrook: I agree. Definitely. Beata, it’s so nice to speak to you today. Thank you very much.
Beata Palińska: It was lovely to answer some really good questions.
You can get in touch with Beata here in the Elevate directory of English teachers
