Job Discussion Forums

[chryanvii]

I'm a little confused...I have done a lot of reading over the years on ESL web sites, and the general consensus seems to be that just "following the book" and going through the motions in China can be quite a "boring" and unengaging way to teach ESL...and is not considered appropriate.

But I sat in on a teacher today who was using the "Interchange" series, and the students appeared to be at least "somewhat" engaged. The teacher was just calling on students, but the format appeared to be working well, and the students appeared to be learning some new words and having the opportunity to speak from time to time. It was set up in a lecture-style, but the teacher was calling on different students to read different parts of passages, and he was checking their pronunciation, and teaching new words along the way.

I want to know what your opinion is about this. If you have a "good" book such as Interchange, do most people follow this book? And if so, do you do it in a in a linear fashion? Do you use the teacher's guide, or scrap it all together?

The only reason that I have "scrapped" the Interchange book is because I was worried that the students would find the material too boring. But in fact, there are quite a few words that the students might be able to learn in there, and it certainly is helpful for them to practice grammar.

Let me know your 2 cents...the preparation time seems nil for this type of style, and it is already set up for them, thus requiring no .ppt, but once again, I would be too worried that the students would not like this style of teaching in China.

[davelister]

re Interchange; one cannot polish a turd, but one can roll it in glitter

[Daveric]

I don't see why a teacher should be expected to go into a class and have to essentially create his own course from scratch when there are already very good courses out there, complete with class book, workbook, and teacher's manual written by professionals who are more experienced and well educated in the field. It drives me crazy when I am asked to create every lesson from scratch and I have to suggest the school invest in a textbook. Now you can add your own material and modify the book to better fit your class, so why not do it from the book?

[doogsville]

Interchange is one of the better books I've had to use, but it still has limitations. One of them, for me at least, is it's 'cultural relevance', or rather, the lack of it. A lot of the material is almost alien to people born and raised in China, and while they are generally interested in western culture, I find the lack of relevance to their daily lives makes the language harder to 'hook into', if that makes sense. I know from my own experience of learning Chinese that I'm much more likely to remember something that helps me achieve something that I can already achieve using English. As a beginner especially, I want to learn language, not culture, and I find it hard to remember stuff that I can't identify with culturally. I teach western culture just now, but only to students who's language ability is already reasonably strong.

As to following the book, I've just never found a book that I could use for an entire lesson, without having to supplement with other material, or at least bringing in other activities and exercises that I've learned over the years. In an ideal world it would be great to have such a book, it would certainly save time planning and preparing for classes, but if it's out there I haven't found it yet.

[wonderingjoesmith]

I'll address the "Follow the Book". Semesters or courses at schools ought to have a purpose, structure and measurable goals. Starting well with a clarity of what (level) the students are at and finishing with how far they have got is essential for all parties involved. Any educational product ought to have overall aims that are justified by books and reasons why students take part in.

Having said that however, it is necessary to note that a limited knowledge is dangerous. Books in classrooms are teachers' support; skills to educate there are teachers' duty. If the book has 200 pages, there may be another 2,000 pages of knowledge to be conveyed. How many more pages does one teacher instruct should depend on the academic program.

In the end, it mostly seems to be about motivating the learners here. Therefore, if it is, the entertainment and cultural exchange, which many students and especially their local teachers expect, can be the objective. Whether you keep your job or not may build upon your ability to satisfy your employer.

[Bud Powell]

I teach Universities and colleges.

Why I might not want to teach by the book:

1. There may not be a book! It's hard to believe, but I taught in one university that had an excellent English major program, but the school provided the FTs with no oral English book.

2. The book may be uninspiring, poorly conceived, or unchallenging. This is what I got when I told the powers-that-be at the above-mentioned university about my plight. Oh, they found books for me, and I was sorry. I declined the donation.

3. The book may be above the students' heads, or below their abilities. Believe it or not, the people who buy the books may not even speak English. They may not even be teachers.

4. The book may be okay, but it just doesn't work for me or the students. In situations where the class is titled "Oral English", in most situations, the school has enough faith in me to augment the book or skip parts of it completely in exchange for progress on the part of the student.

5. My material is better than what I have been given to work with. In the situation where the objective is just to get the students to talk, I use materials that i have collected over the years. It works better than anything I've found in any single book. Some of the concepts are derived from the textbooks that I've been given, the rest that I've created on my own.

6. The students hate the book. What comes to mind is "New Concepts in English". One-third of the book is okay for working with reading skills, but the rest is thoroughly useless it is modified or disregarded and augmented with other material. There are other reasons why the students hate the book, and each student may have his own reason.

7. Content is, at times, laughably incomplete. I don't remember the publisher or the name of the book, but one book was full of terminology which most students didn't quite understand. The situational dialogues made references to things which I had to spend time explaining. One term that came to mind was "dish washer". The students were a bit confused when the book referred to how most people's homes had a dish washer. I had to explain that it was a kitchen appliance. Some of the kids could not conceive of such a machine. (Some were from the country, some just had no experience with such a machine).

8. Sometimes the book is adequate. JUST adequate. This can be a good thing sometimes because it will give me a good outline upon which to base your own curriculum.

9. Sometimes the book bores the class. Bringing something extra to class will make my curriculum more interesting.


10. Sometimes the book bores the bejabers out of ME. Sometimes I need a reason to go to class other than the fact that I have a responsibility to do so. The class won't be engaged if I am not engaged.

There are other reasons why I don't usually teach by-the-book, but these are the top ten.

[Bud Powell]

[thechangling]

New Interchange and Passages were useful as a guiding tool from which we could go on to have related and unrelated discussions and Q+As about stuff in each chapter and beyond.
As others have said, it does have its limitations but as a starting point, each chapter was useful. Strict adherence wouldn't be useful because of its culturally out of date limitations and spontaneity is just as important when talking about stuff in english.

[JRJohn]

When I first started teaching, I had little experience, and followed the book more than I should have. This did bore some students, and in a Korean children's language mill, it would be fatal. Ditto in a Chinese language mill. When I was with Shane English school, in Japan they told me that the textbooks were to be open only for 5-10 minutes of each class. You spend the rest of the time drilling language, using flashcards doing role-plays and games.

But the Shane books main function wwas to tell me what the target language was for that class and in that way they were useful. I think it's still a good way of using the books.

[D-M]

I think using a book is a pretty smart move for most teachers, would improve most or many classes and would probably increase language skills and knowledge of most or many students.

Of course books may need supplementing, and need to be reviewed carefully by the teacher, ensuring the books are suitable in terms of language, content, relevance etc etc. But books do provide a decent framework for both teacher and student to follow, normally with clearly defined goals and aims.

As someone else said ... the authors of said books tend to be more experienced than the average Chinese EFL'er, and logic would then suggest the lessons prepared in books might be better and more useful than those prepared by the average teacher.

Ive got some great functional lessons that I have developed myself ... but they took a lot of time! And were reviewed and changed many times before they really worked ... but in honesty, I could pick up my favourite text book and find a lesson that teaches the same language point a lot quicker.

The big advantage to this is by letting someone else prepare the material (the books authors), I can focus my energy on having a clearly defined plan on how to teach it ... thinking about and hopefully anticipating my own students needs, wants, problems and issues.

[Bud Powell]

"As someone else said ... the authors of said books tend to be more experienced than the average Chinese EFL'er, and logic would then suggest the lessons prepared in books might be better and more useful than those prepared by the average teacher. "


Yes, most of the books would be adequate for the average CHINESE EFL teacher that I've met. I think that many (if not most) experienced western teachers in language schools have encountered their fair share of books that wouldn't make the cut for lining the bird cage.

When I taught middle school in the States, I had to work with less-than-desirable books whose content just didn't work very well in the class room. It's not just ESL or EFL in China. One will encounter crummy books everywhere.

That said, just because a Chinese university department gives me a book to use, it doesn't mean that I'll use all (if any) of the content. Most Chinese foreign language departments are well-aware of the shortcomings of Chinese-authored textbooks. That's why it's so common to see textbooks that are supposedly co-authored by a western professor. Such co-authoring doesn't guarantee that the textbook was really co-authored by a western professor, or that said professor even exists.

In most American universities, even lecturer level teachers can pick their own books.

I don't want to start a war here. I am not condemning Chinese authored textbooks. I've used son really fine Chinese-authored textbooks, some of which were western history books. I've seen some real stinkers.

[roadwalker]

I just heard from another foreign teacher who discovered he was listed as a co-author of a Chinese textbook that he did technically contribute to, although in a very minor way. I've had one horrible Chinese book that had a western co-author who took credit for it in a blog or online CV or something. Having read and having tried to use the book, I certainly wouldn't want my name associated with it. On the other hand, I had one Chinese book that I found well organized and very good for lessons. There may be diamonds in those turd piles.

If the book is relatively mistake free and serves the purpose of the class, of course the teacher should use it extensively. Being too wedded to the book doesn't inspire confidence that the teacher has any idea of what he/she wants to accomplish though. If you have taught or know you are going to teach similar courses for years, why not collect/write/create your own materials to supplement or replace the provided textbook, especially if that textbook sucks?

[wonderingjoesmith]

[msinglynx]

I never use the books from the schools. I've always had to beg for them before so I just prepare my own material. If you want some really good books check out the "dont laugh! I'm an English book"series. It's originally japanese but has excellent chinese translations and the enligh is perfect, timely, fun and interesting throughout the entire series. I even use it to study chinese.

[Non Sequitur]

I think you need to precede comments with an explanation of the subject you are teaching.
If Oral English, you need dialogues of some length.
Also the dialogues, if all students do them, provide a chance to grade.
New Interchange is a total turd and even the most unworldly American must accept that phrases like 'My name is Charles, but you can call me Chuck' have a cultural bias.
A dialogue of 2 or 3 speeches per character doesn't cut it.
Even with a halfway decent book or my own materials, I can't subject my students to 'book work' for more than the first 45 mins.
A more free flowing, student directed exercise like a cocktail mingle is my choice for the last half.
Showing the students that there is a 'reward' for the boring graft of the first part of the lesson, gets their buy in.