Mall Kulasalu: Creating a positive attitude in the classroom is of primary importance for me
Warm and positive interview with Mall Kulasalu, a lecturer of Estonian at TalTech with over 25 years of teaching experience. Mall talks about student motivation, her free time, challenges and surprises of teacher’s job.
I have never searched for a job, it has always found me
I was educated at the University of Tartu as a German-Roman philologist, pedagogue, and translator. After graduation in 1979, I taught Latin to medical students at Tallinn Medical School, (called so at that time) for 15 years. It was a wonderful time, which laid a good foundation for my skills of teaching boring things in an acceptable way and my wonderful colleagues preparing me well for my future careers.
As the Latin language does not develop, I felt I needed a fresh start and joined a private business school as an English teacher. I happened to be in the right place at the right time: I was invited to join the team that founded a new business school (now known as Audentes), which soon developed into a private university. I worked there as the head of the language centre and a lecturer of Business English for 13 years, until the university part of Audentes was acquired by TalTech, and that is how I landed here.
I have never searched for a job — it has always found me instead, and I am not good at saying “no”. The same happened to me becoming a teacher of Estonian. At Audentes (in around 2006) we wanted to start an intensive summer course of the Estonian language and culture for incoming Erasmus students, but our teacher of Estonian did not agree to work in summer. First, I agreed to teach half of the course, but later fell in love with that job and have taught these courses every year ever since. The last group of Erasmus students just completed their Estonian language and culture course in the end of August, and they were very good at it.
Courses at TalTech
I still teach Business English to local and international students and three years ago, due to increased demand, I was asked to start teaching the Estonian language and culture to the master’s students. This year I also teach a more advanced Estonian course. In addition, I translate and edit several documents and texts for the university and have also run Estonian courses for TalTech staff members.
Positive energy between teacher and learners
Regarding Estonian, I am emotional and our classes are interactive, intensive, and full of fun — we do a lot of singing and saying and repeating words and phrases together. Creating a positive attitude in the classroom is of primary importance for me. I am impulsive and may change the planned topic if I feel students are not in the right mood. I like contact classes, interaction in the classroom — to make students cooperate with me and be playful. Beginner level learning requires a lot of verbal effort and it is important to encourage them so that they would not be afraid of making mistakes and saying things in the wrong way and enjoy the process. There should be a flow of positive energy between the teacher and learners to achieve better results. I do not like textbooks — they limit creativity. I usually develop the tasks myself according to the topics we cover in the classroom, which enables flexibility but it takes a lot of time and creativity and it is hard to be systematic. I apply the discussion style to teaching English but it does not work at a low-level Estonian.
Challenges
Currently, it is getting students back to the classroom — distant learning is not the best way for beginner level teaching a language. For me it is very important that we are all in the same boat — that students accept me, (I could be a grandmother for most of them,) feel relaxed and not afraid of the teacher or their fellow students; that students from different cultures are friendly and positive towards each other and willing to work together, to produce complicated funny Estonian sounds (öö), to tell each other about themselves, etc.
Difficult Estonian
The system of cases, especially partial and total object, and the usage of -ma/-da infinitives. Cases are especially problematic for those students whose native language has no cases at all. (English!)
There’s no language without culture
Yes, I do. It is impossible to teach a language without including culture. The greeting word tere already reflects the nature of an Estonian –it is short, sharp, and laconic, impossible to be said with a smile, and carries a meaning that you are healthy (terve) and there is no further need for any small talk. I also try to keep students informed about current cultural and political events in Estonia. A lot of teaching is Estonian music-based — we learn a lot of phrases from songs.
Heartwarming surprises
My classroom experience has always been positive, and the most heartwarming surprises occur at the end of the course when I discover that they have really learned something and perform well. That is the most rewarding feeling. Of course, I have received many sincere thank you letters or speeches, and once a student even dedicated a poem to me.
Motivating students
The need is the best teacher — if they need the language, they are motivated. And they do need Estonian here in Estonia. I also think that if the teacher is enthusiastic and the student feels welcome in the classroom, even if not prepared or is a bit late for the class, they are thankful to you and thus more motivated. Praising and individual approach is also important — if you see that a student makes slow or poor progress, help, and support carefully, try not to put him/her into embarrassing situations in the classroom.
Free time activities
I am physically active — jogging in the morning to wake up properly has been a part of my everyday routine for decades. I have also regularly attended group training in the sports club — I do Shaping or BodyArt twice a week, I also do Nordic walking and go cycling. We often go out with friends — theatre and concerts and other cultural events, trips to the nature inside and outside Estonia, skiing and skating in winter. We live in a full swing — my husband is very active too. We have two homes, both with gardens — here in Tallinn and a summer home in the countryside near the sea. Gardening, home furnishing, and decorating keep us busy. I also like reading. We have a big family — three children and their children — a lot of enjoyable family gatherings and celebrations. It all charges me with energy that I try to bring to the classroom and infect my students with.
Favourite place at TalTech
Library cafeteria. I like to sit and eat there at the counter facing the glass wall. A very relaxing and calming view. I also like the lobby of the main building at busy times, when it is noisy, full of students coming and going and meeting each other.
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