As a bona fide news junkie, one of my favorite magazines is Foreign Policy. Each dead-tree issue has a section called “Think Again” in which a writer analyzes a series of assertions about a particular subject, say, the Israel/Palestine situation, and offers a slightly contrarian take on what many consider to be conventional wisdom.
Let’s apply this method to a topic slightly more pertinent to the readers of this blog: teaching ESL in China. Many of us received formal or semi-formal training in the field prior to walking into a classroom for the first time, an experience rather like being told about bungee jumping before experiencing it. Everything ones learns from teaching comes from trial and error.
For newbies to the field, here are a series of statements regarding the craft that were uttered to me at one time or another. How valid are they? Let’s find out.
1. Knowing Chinese won’t make a difference, and in fact it’s better that you don’t so you can foster an English-only environment in the classroom.
Wrong
An effective teacher anticipates a students’ frame of reference and acts accordingly. For example, your approach to teaching an eight-year old won’t be the same as your approach to teaching an adult.
All of your Chinese students have one thing in common: their native language. A little knowledge of Mandarin can help you understand exactly why all your students seem to make the same mistakes, why they feel comfortable with certain words and not others, and why certain skills in the language come more easily while others don’t come at all. Lesson plans can be adjusted accordingly, and paying attention to what your students say and write can actually make your Chinese better.
Furthermore, an English-only approach can be extraordinarily inefficient. Issuing a command or explaining a concept in Chinese will likely save you the unnerving experience of talking to a group of people who have no idea what you’re going on about.
2. Learning lists of vocabulary isn’t helpful. Try to work around vocabulary by getting students to explain concepts in simple terms.
Only to an extent
Everyone has had that student who sits with her pocket dictionary and practices million-dollar words that even you don’t know how to use. This same student, invariably, will have trouble stringing together the simplest of sentences.
Western education experts scoff at the Chinese focus on vocabulary, and to be fair the Chinese habit of waging a war of attrition against the dictionary isn’t the soundest method of learning English. Too many teachers, though, go out of their way to avoid the teaching of vocabulary at all. These same teachers, when studying Chinese, will then ignore their own advice and write lengthy lists of Chinese characters. At least this is what I did!
The best way to teach vocabulary is to choose a group of words similar in meaning and teach students subtle differences between them. It isn’t important that your students know how to use “antidiluvian” in a sentence. Learning how to differentiate watch and see, though, is something that they’ll take away with them.
3. Always plan your lessons meticulously, and include contingency plans.
Definitely
Every teacher has this story. For whatever reason, whether it be a bad hangover, or a phone call from home, or some other distraction, you just go into the classroom and wing it. Can’t be too big a problem, can it?
Oh yes it can.
Standing in front of a room without the slightest idea of what to do is simply terrifying. Students, even young ones, always know when you haven’t done your homework. If you work at a desk job, it’s easy to get away with a bit of slacking off. Not so with teaching- you’re a performer, and when you miss your lines the audience can be unforgiving.
Lessons often don’t go to plan, but having a plan is absolutely necessary. Not only will you do your job better, you also never have to experience that awful panicked feeling again.
4. Don’t be too serious in the classroom- keep your sense of humor intact
Good advice
Being a student in China, particularly in high school, is stressful as hell. Ever walk by an ordinary Chinese class? The students sit in rapt silence, taking notes while their teacher barks facts at them in a humorless monotone. When you factor in the long schooldays, the hours of homework, the gaokao, and the lack of any kind of free time, Chinese students have it rough compared to their Western counterparts.
Your class, typically, will be seen as a bit of relief. While you’re still getting paid to teach, being a hard-ass does no one any good. Your kids will like you better if you laugh and smile a lot, tell a few jokes, and even talk about your personal life. Anything to contrast you with the other teachers will score you major brownie points with your students, and when you do have something important to say your kids will listen more carefully if they like you.
Can you add any others?
i recently hung out with some young chinese kids in a good school in Changsha, and was amused at how they mocked their foreign (american) english teachers at their school …
they are all so fat, was the first comment … (that i was thin was a surprise to them) and the teaching was so bad, not nearly enough vocabulary, and way too many games …
i would talk to the teachers, were i to meet them, but i doubt it would do any good …
Nice post. As a serial ESL teacher I’m always interested to hear peoples advice and experiences about teaching English.
I totally agree that being able to speak Mandarin (or whatever your students local language is) improves your ability to communicate your message in the classroom. However, as a first time teacher you do NOT need to know your students native language in order to be a good teacher. Quite often you are simply there to create a sort of immersive environment where students are forced to utilize the language abilities (including their listening ability) that they’ve gained so far through their regular studies. Also, many schools offer local assistants who can translate particularly difficult concepts when needed. So although being able to speak your students local language definitely makes your job easier, it is not essential for a vigorous and prepared teacher.
Good post, especially the vocab. thing.
I would add: It’s not about you. I’ve seen far too many Western teachers walk in convinced that it’s up to them to make all their students learn, and when some don’t respond, the inevitable rant is “They don’t respect me! They’re so rude!” Back in the real world: Extract cranium from posterior, understand that whether they will learn or not has as much to do with their own attitudes, desires and motivations (as well as all those complications life throws up) as it does with you, put an honest effort into understanding where your students are coming from, and pitch your teaching at them.
Ahem, yes, sorry… it’s been a frustrating semester.
@Stephen: Fair point, but I would say that some language learning experience is essential (and that’s one reason I loathe all these TEFL/ESL/whatever certificates, including CELTA), and if one is teaching Chinese students in China, that should include some Mandarin learning experience- and perhaps some of China’s other languages, too, depending on the situation.
my browser just crashed and took my rather verbose post with it. in summary, knowing some chinese is incredbly helpful.
i’d add one more point, cynical as it is:
5) you don’t really matter that much. chill.
you’re there for immersion, or you’re there to help some pronunciation, but in most cases you’re there just to be there. hell, the owner of the last place (training center) i worked referred to the foreign teachers as a necessary evil, something to get the students in the door.
you’re not going to single handedly change china’s policy on tÑ–bеt or the feelings of your students toward japan. and you can pass that kid that never showed up, but chances are your grades will be changed shortly after you submit them (which happened to me). when you leave, most everyone you ever spoke to will still think all uÑ–ghurs are rÑ–otous thieves, japanese are some form of dog-loving phantom and all foreigners are portly, rich, blond-haired, blue-eyed republicans. some will actually remember you and consider your position on things, but don’t go in thinking you’re going to change the world. you’ll probably just alienate your students before you really have a chance to influence anything.
that said, i do have students with whom i still keep in touch and who really have come to a different point of view due to exposure to foreigners in the role of english teacher. just don’t expect it to be the norm.
Good points all. I’d just like to add that rather than putting square pegs into round holes, it’s better to work within the system that the students are used to. I used to get very frustrated at my students’ passivity in class and now realize I’d have been more successful had I just gone with it and taught them in terms they understood.
#1 is a fantastic point and I’ve found it to be all too true. Learning Chinese has helped me so much in the classroom. Primarily just for the reason stated that I understand why my students are making the same mistakes over and over again. Also, it helps me to anticipate possible problems when coming up with lesson plans, and I can throw in a 5 minute or 10 minute block to tackle the problem that I know will come up.
A great list overall, but #1 definitely rings true for me
Matt, you know what I liked about this post — for China your points can apply to doing business in China among a myraid of other things.
Knowing Chinese will make a difference
Always plan
Dont be too serious
The last time I taught English was many many may mons ago in Taiwan. Always great to get an insight into how its done here.
What’s that supposed to mean?!
and what is champdorestate.com? :S
**I agree with Graham about #1!
Great post, Matt!
#1 is very important because we need to know where our students are coming from linguistically. By understanding more Chinese ourselves, we can anticipate Chinglish, address issues of vocabulary confusion, and focus on core problems in pronunciation. As for whether we ought to actively use Chinese in the classroom, that depends on the level of the students. With my low-level students I may give them their phrases in Chinese and then again in English, while with higher level students I translate confusing words as needed (provided I know the vocabulary, of course). But teachers should be careful that a student doesn’t abuse their foreign teacher’s Chinese skills by lapsing repeatedly into Chinese during the lesson — they need to be speaking English as much as possible.
Your other points are very true, especially the need to be prepared and the usefulness of humor. I’m known as a bit of an educational hardass, so whenever I can give students a chance to relax and laugh, they appreciate it immensely. Varying up one’s style works wonders for the students and even for oneself. As for vocabulary, I’ve found that it becomes more and more worthwhile as the student’s level progresses. For higher-level students, vocabulary is the single most indispensable tool for having worthwhile, fluent conversation, as they have likely already mastered grammar and have rock-solid listening and pronunciation.
While I agree with Kellen too my own #5 to add is that teachers who have been here for at least a year and plan to stay here for awhile longer should take the time to learn about the Chinese educational system and how it affects the students we teach. This goes hand in hand with the need to learn at least some Chinese, since we can better anticipate many of the problems students must struggle with， learn how to properly motivate the students, and, if we care about teaching, prove to our students that we are more than just “会讲英è¯çš„人.”
Hi Matt. Good post.
I agree with ‘learning some Chinese’, I came here already knowing a little and immediately noticed that common mistakes most often come from direct translations, much in the way using google translate to translate Chinese to English leaves you having to rearrange sentences. Knowing about things such as ‘dou’ (both/all) and ‘ta’ (he/she) are very basic ways in which we can learn to understand why Chinese students often get mixed up with the use of both/all and he/she, etc.
You are right about the role of the foreign teacher here, we are not really all that important, and are sometimes only here to give the school ‘face’. No self-respecting English school can afford to be without a ‘wai jiao’ these days. It is true that among Chinese teachers and staff, as well as older students, there is little respect for the foreign teacher – and that is something we just have to learn to live with. We are primarily here to entertain and give the students some 1st hand experience of discourse with foreigners. Unfortunately, this is reinforced by the fact that many foreign teachers come here without the proper qualifications (such as myself, even though I have a degree, some experience, and the will to improve), or without knowledge of how things work here, but worst of all without a sense of professionalism.
I feel that, although at times we may not be respected, and some staff and students even consider English a ‘joke degree’, and many students do not even have the will to learn and were forced into this – it is still our duty as foreign teachers to inject some professionalism into our work. Too many foreigners come here and just ‘go with the flow’ and give all their students marks over 90% while ignoring plagiarism and not trying to help the struggling students in the least.
So, as a #6 (because I also agree with Kellen’s #5) Even though you are expected to only ‘be there to be there’ or be there to entertain, your actual contract says you are a teacher, and you are being paid to teach. So try to be professional, not for the sake of the school (because they probably wouldn’t notice anyway), not for the sake of the students even (despite this being our primary objective), but for the sake of future foreign teachers. Let us try to win back some respect from our Chinese counterparts.
And #7, Try to understand why Chinese teachers consider us a ‘necessary evil’ and do not respect us. The fact is that we are often paid at least double what a Chinese teacher would make. We often work shorter hours, and often don’t have an actual ‘teaching’ qualification like they do. Of course, they don’t understand that we often have ‘foreign-sized’ bills to pay that may be 5-10 times higher than what Chinese people pay. They have never had reason to even think about things like that, so be understanding and patient, and if you get the chance try to (if not justify) at least explain these sorts of things. Sure, they may still resent it a little (wouldn’t you?) but I find that many Chinese are often understanding if they are presented with your view.
And, #8 – Learn a little about ‘Guanxi’ and ‘Mianzi’ (social networks and face) as well as ‘filial piety’. All 3 of these things are extremely important to most Chinese. The website http://www.middlekingdomlife.com has an excellent article on guanxi and mianzi, I suggest any new teachers read it before coming here. Also, if you have the time, read up a little on Confucianism. Although officially there is no religion here, Confucianism is still very, very strong in China in many respects. (whether it is a religion or a philosophy is still up for discussion). I find that as a foreign teacher my students feel more comfortable with me being outside of their regular ‘guanxi’ circles, they can approach me with things they would never, ever consider talking with a Chinese teacher, their parents, or even their friends about. However, they do expect me to respect the role of ‘mianzi’. Embarrassment in public is one of the worst things that can happen to Chinese people, so do try to understand mianzi and go with it. You don’t have to agree with it (in fact, as a foreign teacher you may grow to hate the entire concept, because this is what stops your students from answering question in class) but just learn to live with it, it will save you many a headache.
I have only been teaching here for 5 months now, and have learnt so much from such very small points as mentioned above. When I arrived I expected to find what I had often heard referred to as ‘some of the best students in the world’ and ‘people who hold their teachers in the highest regard’… what I found was ‘a classroom of tired, stressed out, nervous young people who didn’t really think of me as a ‘real’ teacher’. Although I had several Chinese ‘liu xue sheng’ friends back home these people bred misconceptions in me. The ‘Liu xue sheng’ (overseas students) had gotten used to how education worked in my country (the UK) and were indeed incredibly diligent and hardworking. But the system here is so very different, there is a thousandfold pressure on students to succeed. It did not take me long to accept the facts that being a foreign teacher here is not like being a foreign teacher back home. I am indeed now wondering what my Chinese teacher in the UK thinks of the differences.
The differences #9 – When I expected a classroom full of diligent, hardworking students and found that perhaps 40% were paying attention, 40% were on their mobile phones, and the rest were just chatting amongst themselves, or even trying to fall asleep, well…. I was a bit surprised to say the least. But as Matt said, this is where understanding the Chinese system comes in. The students here are incredibly stressed out, and under a massive workload. It is because their education system is exam oriented, almost everything they do is towards succeeding in exams. I guess because the sheer amount of students that have to be processed each year. As a foreign teacher do not be surprised if your module is worth 10% or less of their overall score, and as Kellen said, do not be surprised if the score you give is changed (possibly due to superior guanxi ratings). The pass mark in China is 60%, and when I came here without knowing this, I was giving UK sort of marks (even if on the generous side) for my 1st homework assignment. I found I had to increase me marks by 10-20% because here 50% is not an average, 75-80% is. The exam system here does not fill me with confidence, it stresses ridiculously perfect grammar that not even a 1st language person would know, and it ignores such things as basic sentence construction. It is up to you as the foreign teacher to support students as they try for their insane exams, while also pointing out that they are better off listening to you if they ‘really’ want to learn English. It is a fine line to tread, and you do not want to make the students feel that all their exam efforts are useless for using ‘real’ English.
And finally #10; As Matthew Stinson said (why so many Matt’s?, all with the double t as well…) – Motivation! This is most probably what I have struggled most with in my time here. For want of a better word, this can be a total head-fuck. Most of your students got up at 6AM and were forced to exercise, most of them have insanely difficult exams to prepare for, most of them are literally addicted to mobile phone use (a problem that easily rivals online gaming here in China), and many of them did not even choose to study English. Motivation is pretty much the be all and end all of your job here. If you can not motivate at least 5% of your students then you are lost. 5% sounds low? Well that is the probable amount of students that are really motivated to learn English. Many can not see beyond getting a basic job that requires a little English, most can not see a use in the skill at all. Get used to it, but also try to give them something to aim for. Last year I had several students who would make wonderful children’s authors for Chinese learners, but did they even think of that end? Did they realize that they could do something beyond working for a company that requires basic English? Not at all! Motivate for your life’s worth, and if you find a technique that works for this then please share it with us, for motivation is the foreign teachers most difficult task in China.
As an aside, Matt – Are you still in Kunming? I have a friend who is possibly moving there to teach soon, and am also looking at the area myself (I’m signed up for next year here in Jiangsu) but am looking south. Drop me an email if you are still about.
I wish I knew Chinese when I first started teaching–would’ve made things much easier. It definitely helped when I could show my grad students that my Chinese was better than their English even though they claimed they knew enough. That little bit got quite a few to stop talking in Chinese during class.
I’m really enjoying the comments here, theyre really insightful!
@Matthew Llewellyn I think if you stop feeling sorry for your students for being tired and overworked, and instead crack the whip a little you will see a far better result. The students take advantage of teachers in the classroom because they sense weakness in them and naturally exploit it. Don’t you remember what you did to your substitute teachers when you were in middle school? Why were you more likely to obey your regular teacher than your sub? My teachers didnt let us get away with anything. One in fact got into a fist fight with a student. But that was just a tough school. Point is you gotta take control.
Someone once told me that teaching is like being the captain of a ship. You have to give them direction otherwise they’ll be lost at sea. Personally I’ve never had cases where students were talking on the phone or smoking in class or any of these horror stories that I hear going around. The reason is I command respect from the outset. I’m not a jerk to my students and we often have fun in the classroom; I just dont take any shit and I let them know it right away. (picture leonardo dicaprio as teacher in “catch me if you can”)
This is probably better done on a forum, but since this site is still working on it’s forum:
I am looking for a new ESL job, I just want to say that this:
“3. Airfare: Instructors’ international airfare will be reimbursed with the maximum amount of RMB8,000. Instructors already in China will get a reimbursement of up to RMB4,000 for their domestic trips. Free pick-up at the airport can be arranged upon arrival.”
is bullsheet.
Thanks…looking forward to a good year.
I understand where you are coming from Stephen, but my students are not middle school students, they are mostly English majors. It took me a little while to figure out that universities here are almost nothing like uni’s back home. In the UK students seem to know that they are paying vast amounts of money to have this education, so approach it with a little bit of desire to succeed. Here the bill is often paid for by parents, and the students have little appreciation of the cost beyond ‘passing for the sake of passing, for the sake of their parents’ ‘face’.’ There is no thought of ‘getting your money’s worth’ at all. When I arrived I expected something similar to my own experiences of uni, but within a week or 2 it became evident that uni’s here are more similar structurally and socially to high schools back home. The culture, the way the education system works, and the ‘cosseting’ that goes on means that students are often ‘socially younger'(not intellectually) than the equivalent in the west. I think that is something that people coming to teach at university should try to understand. Having said that though, I am planning to be a bit stricter next year. The mobile phone thing is pretty much my only pet hate, and it has never really been that bad – more of a sort of running joke with me confiscating phones every now and then. But it does mildly disrupt the class, and I owe it to the 5% that are really there with a desire to keep the flow. I don’t think I need to be mean or even tough, but a little bit stricter might help…. (I am a laid back kinda guy, so active strict is not my thing… I prefer to adopt an attitude of students wanting to ‘be there’… I need to go against everything they have been taught to believe and prove to them that an English degree has value beyond the basic ‘get a job with an English degree kinda company’.) To be honest, there are students with the talent to really do that, it’s just that their teachers, their peers, and everyone else tries to put them down for studying English. I had 5 or 6 girls last year who could easily become English authors if they had the desire and drive to make it happen, I had 1 guy whose pronunciation was abysmal, but whose listening, emoting, and timing was fantastic – he could easily be a TV or film star if he worked on his pronunciation. We are really going against the grain when we say “Yes! You CAN do something with English beyond a basic ‘English degree job'”, and that I find is the hardest challenge.
Despite having spent about half my time in China as an ESL teacher and having an opinion on near everything, I’ve really got nothing to add to this list – great post Matt, and great comments everyone. Some solid advice all around.
Great discussion! I have a few ideas to add, from my experiences in both university and corporate settings in China.
I find that pictures and concrete questions trigger more interesting discussion than open questions. “Imagine that the guy in this picture is keeping a secret from the girl in that picture. What is it? Why? What will happen if she finds out?” was far more effective than, “Tell me how you really feel about this.” I think that Chinese students don’t have very much experience with vague, personal questions, and therefore specific, impersonal questions make them feel much more comfortable and willing to share ideas.
Also, for one-on-one training with adults, NPR and TED Talks are my favorite sources. They combine reading and listening, and bring up all sorts of interesting conversation topics.
I enjoy the variety of personal stories that I’ve heard through teaching here in China. I’m glad I took the plunge and moved across the world!
Great list. After four+ years as an ESL teacher in China I would agree with all the points.
To compliment #1 and the frame of reference suggestion: Most ESL books suck. The vocabulary is mundane (and often ridiculous), the grammar, sentence structures and phonics an evil disjointed mish-mash. For students to get anything out of the lessons these teaching aids have to be put in a frame of reference applicable to the students.
I used ESL books as a basis for my lessons and expanded upon the vocab and grammar in situations the students could get interested in.
I would add #5: Know your students. Their school/family/business life, their likes and dislikes: Where they are and where they’re headed. Teachers of Grade 1 kids or adults should learn as much as they can in the first few lessons. Success will follow.
Just wanted to say thanks for the good post and add my voice to the seeming chorus of your readers who laud your learn-chinese approach. One of the things that really turned me off from my CELTA course and instructors was the fact that none of them could speak any other language than english. When I found that I they lost a lot of credibility in my eyes. I just didn’t believe what they were telling me. I learned spanish fluently and am chugging along at Mandarin and I’ve always found the “NO L1!” dicutm to be asinine and inefficient as hell. anyway thanks good luck
jmcn
Quite readily, I do not claim to have the experience that most other teachers in China do. My experience with ESL teaching has been mostly of the “teach a few hours a week to cover rent while in school” variety. Certainly has never been a full time job, although I did once intern (as a volunteer) at a Canadian elementary school as a teacher’s assistant for a semester.
I do recognize a special commodity in the eyes of some employers of ESL instructors, however. I’ve studied in Chinese schools at both the high school and university level and despite the tragic condition of my Chinese, my “classroom leadership” vocabulary is not bad.
I have to agree with the point about knowing Chinese. I have two personal perspectives on this as a language student myself. In grade 9 French, I recall completely sucking at the language and could care less about my success in the course provided that I passed with a marginal grade and never had to retake the stupid course (in Ontario students are required to complete French up to grade 9, after which point it becomes optional). When the French instructor (a frail, weakling of a woman) would “immerse” us in French as she explained something, my eyes would glaze over and I would ignore her until she went back to English. The reality was that, I and perhaps many members of the class, had such poor levels of French speaking and comprehension that concentrating hard on her syllables wasn’t going to change the fact that our French vocab was basically no existent. She was just blabbing away, losing most of us in the process.
My French would have been much better served if she had quit with the French and taught me something that I was actually capable of learning.
On the other hand….
Years later while enrolled in the CSL student at Luhe Zhongxue in Tongzhou Beiyuan, Beijing, I and the other students studied in class about 35 hrs a week. Our teachers spoke English/Korean to us for about two weeks and then they quit and went entirely with Chinese. It worked. My Chinese significantly benefited from this “immersion” experience…partly because the rest of my life as largely conducted in Chinese too.
I say all that to say that the amount of Chinese/English you speak in a class should be based on the abilities of the students and what their potential learning capabilities stack up at.
A couple other suggestions for those just starting off:
*There are a couple ways to buck culture that won’t make you hated all too quickly. Although most teachers in China can get away with wearing jeans and a t-shirt, because I tend to look young for my age (and I am young to start with), I would always wear a shirt and tie. This both helped me look and feel professional and pushed me to be everything that I could be. This isn’t for everyone, but don’t be afraid to go the extra mile and areas that benefit you professionally and will potentially increase learning.
*Buy and printer and your own paper. Neither of these things are all too expensive in China and it will really give you a certain degree of flexibility when you don’t need to depend on school facilities. Also, find a small photocopy shop, where the proprietor appreciates your business enough to offer to share lunch with you if he is already eating when you arrive. I found having this kind of relationship was invaluable when crisis struck.
If your school/organziation limits your book selections, you can probably still get away with sneaking in some handouts of your own design. When possible, I skip that handouts altogether and design all my own curriculum, tailored specifically to the needs of each class. Keep in mind, however, that if I worked full time, this would be tough.
While I agree with most of the comments here, the blaming of everything on TEFL certificates is ridiculous. I’d say 90% of the teachers in China come here without any teacher training at all. The worst are the older men with business experience who think that the fact that they have made a few presentations over the years qualifies them to be paid 200RMB+ per hour.
Teaching requires skill and effort, and most of the problems here can be put down to lack of effective training.
Firstly total immersion ESL (the “Direct Approach”) is an old philosophy – any up-to-date TEFL instructor will tell you that using the L1 occasionally is ok – but the main language of the class should be English. If you’re speaking in complex English to students who do not understand it then that’s self-evidently inappropriate. Grading your speech to the correct level without using incorrect grammar is a basic teaching skill and anyone who can’t or won’t do it is not doing their job properly.
Secondly, there are lots of bad jobs, bad schools and bad students out there. You could even say the whole system is screwed. It’s your choice – either accept it and be another foreign leech on the Chinese education system, or make an effort to show that there is another way. If it makes the difference to just one student then it’s been worth it.
There’s a fascinating, hilarious article about the world of ESL in China here – http://chinaholisticenglish.org/articles/unqualified-teaching.pdf
#1 was definitely right. I always know all the swear words in Chinese coz I don’t like hearing it in my class. If I know they do, they’ll be punish and will be asked to clean my classroom.
Speaking Chinese:
1. Good to cut down on the negative chatter.
2. Good to show respect for the Chinese people. They need to know that they are not learning English to replace Chinese.
3. Eliminate fear. Some are just afraid to try. Teaching at votech colleges as I usually do, some folks have had ten years of useless English study and are paralyzed with fear.
BUT
1. I treat these folks as individuals. Adults, albeit as someone mentioned, with some childlike characterisitcs. That gives me licence to show my inner child :). After all, I’m only 58, still young.
2. As individuals they will all take away something different. I accept that. Some want to listen, some to understand, some to learn something new, some want to talk a little, some expect the universe to revolve around them! I try to show each that I will help thee with their goals but they must recognize that I also have to accommodate their classmates.
4. My ESL training and ed classes recently stressed content-based learning. I think this is best for my young adults.
5. But I try to teach the (very exciting) content within a limited grammar framework WITH THE GOAL OF CONVERSATIONAL UTTERANCES OF AT LEAST 5 WORDS. 🙂
As you all have said they can recite the dictionary and all the SAT words, but well five words is going to be a noun phrase and verb phrase and wow that’s a stretch.
6. I don’t think everyone should do as I do! Most colleges get several teachers and we’re all different and that’s great. The kids should know that people are all different. Even foreigners.
7. Re: directions. Well I’m going to be the teachers that teaches English directions if no one else does. My lessons tend to be a bit short so if it’s inefficient that’s ok. It just seems to me that if after 10 years of English if they don’t understand GET OUT YOUR BOOK. PUT AWAY YOUR PHONE. PUT AWAY YOUR OTHER HOMEWORK. TURN TO PAGE 25. READ THIS OUT LOUD. and REPEAT AFTER ME. Well then that’s what I am here to teach first. And then, no hard feelings if I have to say it a few times. 🙂
8. This world is so big and so complex, I hope we all teach something different. My greatest wish is to teach peace.
9. I had the students learn “Did you put your phone away?” by having each student say it to the student next to them one by one. Very boring. They hate being bored you know! I threaten to do it again if a phone comes out again. 🙂
10. One leader at one school made all of the foreign teachers use powerpoint presentations. I found that the picture takes away most of the lack of understanding. bing.com is the best site for finding pictures on almost anything.
Wishing the best for all of you.
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