Job Discussion Forums

[jjm]

My first uni. job in China is less than what I expected- The kids (freshman) are not too interested and often a little rude. I am supposed to be teaching speaking and listening. The school has provided some suggested resources but often lack some of the resources. I took a CELTA, but this type of teaching requires something different. I do not want to do things like play alot of games , watch American garbage tv, talk about Justin Beeber and basketball during class. What should I do? Tired of spending 3-4 hours a daty preparing for indifference and disrespect. Please help, do not know how to remedy.

[7969]

You should have mentioned how many students you have, what their major is, and if they're mostly male or female. How are they being rude?

What should you do? Here's a suggestion: Find out what the students are interested in and use those ideas as places to start discussion. If that means movies, TV, and basketball then just do it. You can get more creative once you get them speaking a bit.

The internet is full of ideas. Spend a bit of time reading this forum. Search. If you do you'll find threads like the one below that can help you.

University Oral English - "Useful" Homework

[doogsville]

Sounds familiar, though at least I have a textbook to follow. I have a class I teach twice a week that sound very similar. Actually, about half the class are disinterested and rude, the others, while not hanging on my every word, at least speak when spoken to and don't fall asleep in every class.

Two things that help me are perspective, looking at the situation from their veiwpoint. My students are mostly business administration students. They didn't choose that major, so the majority have no interest in it. My two weekly business English and listening and speaking classes are the only classes they have in English, and their level is very low. They struggle with the textbook, and the listening and speaking exercises in the other book are very boring and have little cultural relevance for them. Unfortunately the uni writes the exam for that class so we have to stick to the curriculum. Once you realise that they really, really don't want to be there it makes it easier to live with their indifference and rude behaviours such as falling asleep and playing with phones. Not that I let them do either, I wake them up and make them put the phones away. I don't take it personally though, because now I know it's the course, and life in general that they hate, not me and my teaching.

The other thing is finding the students that do care, or listen, even if it's only to be polite. I don't advocate teaching them to the exclusion of the others, because you have to keep trying to help all of them, no matter how hard that is, but at least when your close to exploding or crying or just quitting, you can focus for a while on those students who you know will respond to your lesson.

I know it's not a lot, but the reality is you have to either develop a very thick skin, or look for a job elsewhere. A CELTA is unfortunately of very little use in most teaching jobs in China, since most EFL teacher training makes the assumption that the students will take part in the class. I don't have a CELTA qualification, but I have spent hours and hours planning and preparing classes only to be met with thunderous silence at best, or a room full of people chatting to their friends in Chinese at worst. It's very disheartening, but after a while you learn to adapt and find ways to teach those few students that are interested and willing to take a little risk. Good luck with it, I hope you find a way through.

[choudoufu]

[Shroob]

To say the CELTA is useless for teaching in Chinese universities is wrong in my opinion. I agree that not everything you learnt on the course is put to full use but there are many aspects I use every day when teaching.

My advice would be to accept that there are just some students who will not be interested. As others have said, the students most likely don't want to study English, it's a class they must attend. Focus on the ones that do want to learn, try and engage everyone, but from what you have said that probably won't happen. Try not be disheartened.

[Non Sequitur]

Remember they get plenty of 'dud' teaching from the Chinese staff, so try things that they won't get in those classes. A song as a warm up - something that has bounce all the way through - not a catchy chorus and awful verses.
I use Beatles stuff 'I say yes, you say no' is good and teaches pairs.
Word races - anything to get them out of their seats.

[hochhasd]