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Sarcastro · Joined: 18 Dec 2010 Posts: 89 Location: Ann Arbor, MI

Or at least that's what I want to say.

But honestly, Im not one of those teachers that believes that its the kids' fault for not understanding what is being taught to them. I believe that it is the teacher's responsibility to teach in a way that is not only understandable but also that students can take and add what is given to them to their understanding; creating a form of wisdom.

I have been teaching in my Haining high school since the beginning of the year and I am doing ok with the first part considering I know nearly no Chinese. The second however is just not coming and Im at a loss as to what to do.

I understand that my kids have been conditioned to do not much more than regurgitate the answer and say only as much as what they think the teacher wants to hear. Very little is taught to them about making their own answers--its like nothing much was taught to them on the importance of "How?" and "Why?". This is hard for me because I am supposed to get these kids ready for studying in the US and from what I know, in most cases, we value much more how you got to the answer than the answer itself.

So how do I do this? I try to ask basic how questions of my students and I get blank stares or short, one word answers. Its frustrating, especially since part of what I teach needs to put two things together to say how they are related. They can tell me what each thing is and means but cant get further than that.

Any of you have good ideas about increasing comprehension and application in kids that dont have much of either, Id love to hear them!

Non Sequitur · Joined: 23 May 2010 Posts: 4724 Location: China

Are you doing a warm up activity?

Shroob · Joined: 02 Aug 2010 Posts: 1339

Have you done any teacher training?

Sarcastro · Joined: 18 Dec 2010 Posts: 89 Location: Ann Arbor, MI

Yeah, its set up with a reading activity, then a listening activity, then explaining how the two are related.

I go through the reading activity which is just one short paragraph. I ask key words, if there is vocab they dont understand, then go into what main ideas are addressed until I know that they understand what it is about. Then I do the same with the listening.

Then I ask them about how the two are connected and 90% of the time they just summarize or re-explain the audio part without reference to the first. So they get half of the activity done.

Sarcastro · Joined: 18 Dec 2010 Posts: 89 Location: Ann Arbor, MI

Non Sequitur · Joined: 23 May 2010 Posts: 4724 Location: China

I'd start with a song or word race.
You're describing a cold start.

Sarcastro · Joined: 18 Dec 2010 Posts: 89 Location: Ann Arbor, MI

For getting them settled into using English for the class? Sure, but this is an English intensive program where they are using it in every class they have. My class is all in English, I have no interpreter and nor does my colleague.

I mean I like the idea but that is just too simple especially when they blare western music from the class computer during their breaks.

it'snotmyfault · Joined: 14 May 2012 Posts: 527

Maybe with the reading activity you could turn it into a dictogloss activity. Where they write the paragraph down as you read it, when I've done this with my writing class the general gist tends to sink in. They have to concentrate !
It's a bit time consuming to do it as some of the books suggest though.

read it once slowly and then ask a few concept questions.
read again and they take notes
read it slowly and they try to write it word for word
read it at normal speed and they check for mistakes
can then get them to peer mark it with the original text

Could be that their goldfish like attention spans have instantly forgotten the reading part... Just an idea

rogerwilco · Joined: 10 Jun 2010 Posts: 1549

Starting with a reading assignment would put me to sleep also.
Something more active might be a better start to a class.

it'snotmyfault · Joined: 14 May 2012 Posts: 527

I'm forgetting we're in China..

Have you tried singing the reading bit? Or pulling a funny face while you read? You could even wear some Groucho Marx style glasses and tache.
Problem solved Laughing

Shroob · Joined: 02 Aug 2010 Posts: 1339

GuestBob · Joined: 18 Jun 2011 Posts: 270

They're just repeating what they have learned throughout their school career. There's no magic arrangement of activities which will solve this - warm up activities are not normally used in Chinese classrooms, so I wouldn't really go down that trouser leg.

What's wrong is your questioning pattern - inside Chinese classrooms IRF cycles tend to be repeated (imagine the same set of questions being repeated for each paragraph of a text). Now that's not how you want these kids to think but you're going to have to use it initially otherwise you'll achieve squat.

There's no simple way to get students in China to "stretch" to those higher cognitive questions but research indicates that truly open ended questions are much more likely to be answered than evaluative or analytical questions.

Try asking the student an opinion question and then exploring their line of reasoning for that opinion. The moment there is a right/wrong answer (such as with an evaluative question), students will clamp down on that and the process ends.

So there you go, teach a lesson on their terms for a while and then find a way to get them to explore an issue which is important to them, then explore that thinking process.

xiguagua · Joined: 09 Oct 2011 Posts: 768

They are blaring western music in the breaks, but just because the like the sound.......they're not actually LISTENING to it, especially not the English. Maybe the know some of the words, but do they know the significance or overall meaning?

I agree teachers need to accept some responsibility, but not all of it. I believe it's 50/50. Students gotta put some effort into trying, otherwise they won't get it; ESPECIALLY with language.

I think Guestbob's advise is good. Open-ended opinion questions are great for getting people to actually think. Depending on their English level you can do some great hypothetical questions. There's a interesting site http://www.yourather.com that is all user-submitted hypothetical questions. Some are inappropriate but some are ok. Good for getting students to think.

GuestBob · Joined: 18 Jun 2011 Posts: 270

roadwalker · Joined: 24 Aug 2005 Posts: 1750 Location: Ch

I'm not saying this to ask you to set your bar low: but maybe your expectations are too high in terms of how quickly they should be able to adapt and thrive in a new teaching environment in a foreign language. Keep plugging away, try some of the suggestions offered but you may still get blanks. Hopefully fewer and fewer. It seems to me that a lot of teaching is planting seeds. At least when your students get to the States, they won't be completely ambushed, and some of your methods might finally start to resonate. (Of course, the US has gotten high-stakes test fever too, so maybe thinking for yourself will be a non-issue by the time they arrive.)