Job Discussion Forums

[FreakingTea]

This is all that I have, all oral English classes. I'm pretty sure I'm the only FT that got no English majors, and three other newbies here I talked to don't have a TEFL cert, while I do. Whatever. It was just an online one. I'm flexible. Looking for the bright side.

So on the one hand, I only need one lesson plan to work from every two weeks, really honing it with twelve different groups. On the other, it sounds like all of my classes will be like pulling teeth. "They will need some more encouragement. Your job is to make them comfortable speaking English." Those are the exact words, and they don't bode well. I've got some ideas for lessons, and I've mostly got the first lesson figured out, but I don't really know what level of participation I can reasonably expect. My idea is to minimize individual pressure as much as possible while still getting them to open their mouths and have something like English come out. Group work, correction as a class, emphasizing the usefulness of mistakes, that sorta thing.

Anyway, I'm really anxious about this. I'm afraid my semester is going to suck and it'll put me off teaching forever, even though it's just uni oral English.

I start tomorrow. Any words of wisdom?

[Non Sequitur]

If their major is some public facing job like hotel management or tourism, chances are they will have a level of English and even some enthusiasm for it.
If they are IT geeks you're in for a long semester!
My advice is really hammer the warmup with a song and maybe a word race.
Word races are about the only physically active warm up you can do in the bolted down desk format.
If you have a text of dialogues then randomly select pairs to come to front to recite.
Stand close and quietly correct and encourage those that stumble.
Do dialogues only for the first 45 and then go to a cocktail party game or other similar, if you can find a spot where you won't disturb other classes.
A word of warning. Ask if it's OK to take students outside. If you don't get permission, the college president will be furious. If you do get permission, the college president will tell all his visitors it was his idea.
Use the song again before the bell.
Best

[LarssonCrew]

I don't believe in the song warm up, seems a bit dancing monkey to me, but yes, games are a great idea.

Perhaps working them in groups is a good idea, it gets them a chance to practice without exposing their flaws to the entire class.

Some activities I have used have been playing a game of top trumps and having them say, 'My card is more powerful/faster/stronger etc. than yours.'

I've also worked on vocab by bringing twenty items to class and laying them on the table, the students then stand around it for one minute, then I cover it up. In their groups they have two minutes to write down as many as they can, it's memory and English training in one.

I also did a pop quiz/general knowledge quiz in the last day of the semester which they loved!

It was quite general and they knew more than I suspected, although some of the questions did involve China, e.g.

'There are two major tea producing countries in the world, one is China, which is the other?' I did maybe twenty questions.

[roadwalker]

You might be thinking: "sing a song? Is that a joke?" But actually, it's a common thing with some Chinese. Sometimes the one late to class has to sing a song. Some students are much more comfortable singing a song than speaking English.

On the other hand, it's not for me- I don't have the talent nor the desire for it. If it is something you think you can use, either to teach a song and therefore a language point, or to warm things up and get students "in the mood", then go for it. If not, don't.

First day I usually introduce myself, unless I happen to have students I have previously taught. Spend 10 to 20 minutes the first class talking about yourself since they will no doubt be curious. Then have the students introduce themselves one by one or to each other in groups. Ask them to name their hometown, their hobbies, and if it varies, their majors. If you still have lots of time, work on greetings, formal and informal. This will be considered useful.

They WON'T respond if you ask for volunteers: "anyone here been to Beijing?" Have them fill out the roster or bring blank paper to fill out Chinese Names, pinyin (alphabetical transliteration) and any English names they have. Then call on students.

I agree with NS: use the second hour to have them be more spontaneous (the introductions usually take most or all of the first class for me though). That will let you know who the stronger students are, as well. The weaker ones will look more lost without scripts to follow. In the future you may want to pair stronger students with weaker ones. You'll be fine, really.

[Non Sequitur]

On the other hand, it's not for me- I don't have the talent nor the desire for it.

Great student-centred approach there!

[roadwalker]

[FreakingTea]

[FreakingTea]

Also, thanks for the encouragement and suggestions! I was in a crummy mood this morning, but this thread helped a lot.

[Bud Powell]

Freaking Tea:

Take heart. On my very first gig in China, I was assigned upper classmen for all courses. Half of my classes were a mix of majors while my colleagues' classes were all freshman English majors. I was a bit worried myself when I looked to see that some of the material that I was to teach was pretty technical and advanced. I had the very same thoughts that you did.

I found out why I was chosen to teach these classes: I was the only one qualified to teach anything. I had masters degrees while the rest of my foreign teacher colleagues may not have even graduated from high school. In addition, I learned that the university was short on English teachers. I was told this at an informal dinner attended by only Chinese university professors and one Australian honest-to-God Ph.D from another university who asssured me that this was the truth.

I felt a LOT better at that point. In fact, I felt complimented.

This may very well be a similar situation in which you have found yourself. Your supervisors may not have high expectations for you nor for the students, but they have done their best to provide the students with the best teacher available.

It turned out that a lot of these students were not typical non-English majors. Many were business majors, engineering majors, international trade majors and the like. They had better-than rudimentary English skills and they were enthusiastic.

While my FT colleagues were playing games and singing songs, my students were learning interesting and necessary business terms and idioms. When I look back on it now, those classes were probably the most intellectually challenging and emotionally satisfying classes I've ever taught in China because of the level of enthusiasm of the students. There were some whose English was quite deficient in the beginning, but their attitude was excellent.

You may also have been assigned groups of malcontents--- students who wanted to gain entry to better English classes but who were denied because they were not English majors.

It is shameful that universities don't communicate well with their FTs. (At least, this has been the case in every school I've ever worked for). I am willing to bet that the same dynamic as I described is the same that exists in your school. You just haven't been told yet.

About singing songs in class: on the college and university level, you may run into resistance on this, not from the students, but from the administration, especially if they expect more from you. I've spoken to university students about their past English learning experiences with FTs, and many of them expressed resentment at being treated like children and didn't like the idea of singing Happy Birthday and Old MacDonald at their ages.

My suggestion is to poll the class, find out their majors, try to engage them in informal discourse, then gauge their abilities. If they're mostly at the Happy Birthday level, start there. You'll probably find that most are beyond that (and want to go well beyond that).

The idea of the cocktail party/social event scenario is a great idea. This will allow you to mingle about their groups and assess their abilities. The good thing about this approach is that they'll probably gather into small, intimate groups with people with whom they feel the most comfort.

This is a good start, especially if you decide to work with situational dialogs for the rest of the term. You'll have greater acceptance among the students if you eliminate the tedium of nitpicking at small issues of pronunciation and the like.

Good luck.

[FreakingTea]

[LarssonCrew]

One thing that I think you 'learn on the job' is pacing and how to handle reactions.

You can play an activity, but when you realise the student's are not at the standard required, do you swiftly move on or try to dig it out.

I've done activities where I'm ready to give up, gone through it one more time and it's suddenly clicked in the students heads.

Also, the timing, now I can guess roughly how long things will take.

[Non Sequitur]

[FreakingTea]

So I've had two classes now, and both of them were pretty enthusiastic, mostly hotel management and tourism majors in the first class, and the lesson was kind of awkward at times, but overall good. The second class was mostly law and political majors, and everything worked out wonderfully with lots of spontaneous talking. The timing thing will be tricky, but I can always add more things to the lesson just in case.

I still have ten more groups to meet, and even if some of them are more difficult, at least I had a good start. Just to keep things interesting for myself, I think I'll try to tailor the lessons to their majors the next times I see them.

[Non Sequitur]

Great!!
Don't forget to get some form of assessment into the class mix soon.
You'll be surprised how fast the semester goes.

[FreakingTea]