English mistakes Russian-speaking kids make

a, an, the: words Russian doesn't have

Russian has no articles, so 'I have dog' and 'It's cat' sound complete. Then, once the teacher starts correcting, comes the opposite: the everywhere ('I like the music', 'I go to the school'). Articles are the last thing to settle even for adult learners, so with children aim for one habit at a time: a with a single thing you name, nothing with things in general.

• Mystery bag: objects come out one at a time while the class chants 'It's a… ball!' The a is part of the drumroll, so nobody drops it.
• One finger for a: whenever one thing is named, a finger goes up with the a. It is cheap, silent and quick to correct with: you just hold up a finger.
• Do you like…? survey with plurals: 'Do you like cats? Do you like rain?' No the in the answers; the is saved for what you can point at.

Missing am, is, are, and 'I am agree'

Russian drops the verb be in the present: «Он учитель» is 'he teacher', «Я дома» is 'I at home'. So 'He teacher' and 'She happy' come first. Then the cure overshoots: once children learn I am, they put it in front of everything ('I am go to school', 'I am like pizza'). And «я согласен» works like an adjective in Russian, which gives the classic 'I am agree', a mistake that often survives into adult English.

• Two baskets: am, is, are go with describing words (happy, ten, at home); action words like go, like and play don't take them, at least until -ing arrives. Children sort word cards into the is basket and the do basket at speed.
• Robot clap: sentences in a robot voice with a clap on every am, is and are. The clap makes the small word impossible to skip.
• Agree is an action: act it out with a big nod and a thumbs-up, 'I agree!', then 'I don't agree!' with a head shake. No am fits into either gesture.

Questions without do, and Russian word order

A Russian question is a statement with a rising voice: «Ты любишь пиццу?» is word for word 'You like pizza?' A wh-question just adds the question word: 'Where you live?' English needs do, and needs it in a fixed place. Russian word order is free because endings carry the meaning; in English the word order is the meaning. That is also where 'I very like pizza' comes from: «я очень люблю» keeps very in front of the verb. In English it's 'I really like pizza' or 'I like pizza very much'.

• Do is the key: a big paper key with do written on it. The question 'opens' only when someone holds the key up: 'Do… you like pizza?'
• Human sentences: give word cards to children and let them line up as the sentence. Swap two of them and ask, 'Is it still English?' Russian speakers love discovering that it isn't.
• Find someone who: three do-questions each, twenty askings per child, and nobody calls it grammar.

One present in Russian, two in English

«Я играю» covers both 'I play' (every Sunday) and 'I'm playing' (right now), so children pick one form and use it for both: 'Look! He plays football', or 'I am playing football every Sunday'. The difference only makes sense when children can see it, so make it visible: now versus always.

• Freeze and describe: a child mimes an action and freezes; the class says what is happening now: 'He's swimming!' Then the habit question: 'Do you swim on Saturdays?'
• Two signs on the board: a clock face for every day, a camera for now. When a child speaks, you just point at a sign and the child picks the form.

'How to say in English?' and other classroom phrases

«Как сказать по-английски?» becomes 'How to say in English?', and «Как будет „кошка“ по-английски?» becomes 'How will be cat in English?' Other everyday phrases go the same way: «В моей семье четыре человека» gives 'In my family four people' (English says 'There are four people in my family'). These phrases come up in every lesson, so teach them as fixed chunks, not as grammar.

• Phrase of the week: one classroom phrase lives on the board all week ('How do you say … in English?'). Anyone who uses it wins a point for their team, and the phrase stays for life.
• Answer only the right version: when a child asks 'How to say…?', smile, tap the poster and wait. The right question gets the word at once.
• Family count: 'There are four people in my family: my mum, my dad, my sister and me.' Children draw their family and present it with the frame.

Sounds: th, w, h, endings and long vowels

Russian has no th, so think becomes 'sink' or 'fink' and this becomes 'zis'. It has v but no w, so wet becomes 'vet'. Russian х is rougher than English h, so hello can come out as 'khello'. Russian devoices consonants at the end of a word («дуб» is said 'dup'), so dog becomes 'dok', bed 'bet' and bag 'back'. And Russian vowels have no long and short pairs, so ship and sheep sound the same.

• Tongue out for th: in front of a mirror, the tongue peeks out between the teeth and blows. It looks silly, which is why it sticks. Count 'one, two, THREE' with the tongue out on three.
• A kiss for w: w starts with lips rounded as if for a kiss, v with the top teeth on the lower lip. 'Wet vet' with exaggerated faces is a favourite.
• Warm hands for h: h is breathing on cold hands, not clearing your throat. Children 'warm their hands' on hat, hen and house.
• Buzzing endings: in dog, bed and bag the last sound keeps buzzing; put a hand on your throat and feel it still going at the end. Then a pair race: bed or bet? bag or back?
• Stretch the long ones: arms wide for the long sound in sheep, fingers pinched for the short one in ship.

Stress: crocodile is not крокодил

Words that have a Russian twin often keep the Russian stress in children's mouths: crocoDILE (крокодил), chocoLATE (шоколад), taXI (такси), interNET (интернет). In English all four are stressed on the first syllable: CROcodile, CHOColate, TAXi, INternet. Russian-speaking children also tend to give every word in a sentence full weight, while English squeezes the small words (a, to, of, and) between the stressed ones.

• Stand up on the stress: say the word slowly; children stand on the stressed syllable and sit on the rest. CRO (up), co (down), dile (down).
• Big clap, small tap: a loud clap on stressed syllables, a finger tap on weak ones: 'a CUP of TEA, a PIECE of CAKE'. The small words get the small tap.

Vocabulary traps and the coursebook

False friends (magazine is not магазин, fabric is not фабрика) have their own article with the dozen that really bite. If your school teaches from Spotlight, there is a module-by-module map of free packs and games that sit alongside the book. And for the correcting itself: echo, don't lecture.