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Flo · Joined: 29 Mar 2004 Posts: 112

Peruvian students where I work are definately from a class of their own. I work at a private University, but I have heard the younger children and public schools are worse. My students are addicted to their cellular phones and text messages. There are two categories of students: those who want to learn English, and those who only want the credit so they can graduate. Regardless of motive, attendance is horrible. University policy is the students can miss 15 classes (out of 75) and still get credit. On the 16th or 17th (or sometimes 25th) absences, the students come to beg me to erase their latest absences because their grandmother was ill or they had to go to the doctor. I simply ask them if they had to go to the doctor for 16 days, and they look confused and try to put on this puppy-dog face.

After the students miss class, don't complete the homework, and fail the exam, they come begging for more points so they can pass.

In class I have some students that talk constantly in Spanish to their friends. I ask them to move to a different seat, which embarrasses them tremendously, and they are cured of talking for the day. I have other students who never talk, and some that are always falling asleep.

My students are also great inventors of stories. They will lie to get out of anything (although they don't consider it lying). I don't consider them to be any worse or better than my students in the U.S., just more selfish and spoiled. I don't like to generalize too much, but Peruvians of any age have trouble accepting responsibility for their decisions.

naturegirl321 · Joined: 04 May 2003 Posts: 9041 Location: home sweet home

Flo and others, So what have you found to work the best for discipline problems?

MELEE · Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2004 5:33 pm Post subject:

The biggest (only notable) problem I've found is chatting in Spanish durning the class. Especially when you have students who only see each other in English class (they have a lot of catching up to do).

naturegirl321 · Joined: 04 May 2003 Posts: 9041 Location: home sweet home

But how do you get them to behave in class?

MELEE · Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2004 2:13 pm Post subject:

Sorry,

I ment to add that I don't really consider that misbehavior. I work at a university with rather strick rules for the students. One of which is required class attendance in all subjects. If a student continues to chat after being told to stop, sending them out of class usually does the trick. They come back the next day and behave fine.

M@tt · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 473 Location: here and there

my students tend to be very friendly and not particularly motivated to learn english. they make it hard for you to get angry with them because they are generally very likeable as people, but when you have 20 of them giving you lame excuses for not doing any work, or they keep chatting in spanish, or cheating!!!, it is hard not to get frustrated. i feel like my biggest problem is getting them to use english in class. if we could have solid english (in the advanced class, at least) i would not feel so bad about their lack of homework. it's an uphill battle with private school/rich kids because some of them know they don't need to work a day of their lives and they will remain comfortable.

i would say 75% of my students have celphones and that is also a problem but if you start taking away celphones that ring, the rest of them get the picture.

there are the occassional great students that make teaching fun, or the average student groups that just get along really well and make a whole class fun even when you're not making much progress. my students tend to get along pretty well with each other.

the main negative/challenge i have encountered is flat-out immaturity. but we already covered that in another thread.

Flo · Joined: 29 Mar 2004 Posts: 112

Half my students want to learn English while the other half only want credit for taking the class in order to receive their diplomas. Most of the problems I have are with the latter. However, I have attendance problems with all the students. Part of it is culture, but I feel it is disrespectful arriving 10, 20, or even 45 minutes late for class. The students here are grade motivated. I have started giving them "reward points" on their exams if they have good attendance. This has improved the situation in some of my classes.

As for the chatting in Spanish, I ask students to change seats if they are talking. They get embarrassed, their friends laugh at them, and they are quiet for the remainder of the class. However, I have to repeat this day after day until they get the idea to be quiet. Some of them never learn.

If their cellulars ring or vibrate in class, they have to bring food for the class or they lose points on the next quiz. Eventually they all learn to put the phones in silent mode when they come to class. It is funny to see them all switching the phones over as class is ready to begin.

The students I teach are from the Upper upper class, so they are all caprichosos. You have to be creative and do what works for your group.