bobs12
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
Posts: 310
Location: Saint Petersburg
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 Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2004 3:44 pm Post subject: |
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I read this article quite a while ago, when I was still teaching children. Come on folks, read it and let us know... to me it seems out of date, especially:
| Millrood wrote: |
| It is not uncommon in most serious cases for the teacher to refuse to work in a certain classroom for the reasons of bad behaviour of learners. This is usually met with understanding among colleagues, parents and many pupils. |
I'd disagree with that. I was generally held resonsible for class behaviour. If I complained to school management (limited to one organisation, admittedly) about a disruptive class, the response was along the lines of, "You can't control them, you're a bad teacher, do you want a wage cut or would you prefer to stop complaining and get on with the job?" I got a ticking-off for making a complaint through a school headmaster to the parents of one kid who was a total menace. Response along the lines of, "It's not your place to interfere with our customers."
| Millrood wrote: |
| Schools and teachers are held responsible for the academic performance and behaviour of learners, though there are attempts to find a more balanced approach to responsibilities shared by the school, the learner and the parents. |
That bit is true. Maybe with children it's fair that the teacher has a high responsibility for the learner, but with adolescents and adults, that attitude is really taking the cookie.
| Millrood wrote: |
| The general attitude should be error-intolerant or else the learners will never get rid of the mistakes in their speech |
I think you'd be thrown out of CELTA for that, no? 
I couldn't really get the point of the article. It may be my stupidity or the fact I couldn't quite follow the train of thought, but I got the impression that he was telling us to teach teachers to teach better, but not really giving any clear advice on what we should be doing in order to succeed in the classroom.
| Millrood wrote: |
| gestures, exclamations, explaining everyday behaviour, e.g. how to wait in line "in the American way" etc. |
| Millrood wrote: |
| There is a mass exodus from teaching profession of English language teachers in favour of careers in business. One may find oneself among the teachers without the necessary full professional background and not capable of using the language freely. A foreign English language teacher from abroad may feel it necessary to adapt the level of teaching in his/her own class to the teaching level in the rest of school and to make efforts to bring up the professional level in the rest of the teaching staff. English language learners in other classrooms would not like to be disadvantaged in any way. |
What?! Unblievable!
Sorry folks, I know I'm probably the most opinionated bugger on this forum at the moment, but I can't accept that 'adapting' our approach to shadow local methods is the way forward for our learners. Anyone who has worked in state schools will be familiar with the teaching there. I've met some excellent teachers who were great with kids, well organised and very professional, but lacking in the ability to foster real communication because it wasn't in the accepted 'style' of teaching, and because they lacked the necessary linguistic skills.
Is he saying we should hobble ourselves in order not to compete unfairly?
What's the point of paying extra money for a native teacher if he's going to teach exactly the same way as a Russian teacher?
A lot of it seemed to be waffle. I wonder if there's any money left in the pot for another study to be carried out?
His conclusion was pitiful. I'm sorry, but I'd have been thrown out of research methods at university for writing something like that!
Anyone else with ideas? I just feel that the 'research' seems to miss the whole point of hiring native teachers as opposed to locals. I would question the validity of the research in terms of impartiality, sample selection and, if nothing else, there's just something funny about it. It looks like the kind of article a Russian teacher would write if he were unhappy about unprofessional native 'teachers' coming along and somehow 'upstaging' locals.
Or maybe I need coffee...  |
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