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RWA1981 · Joined: 27 Mar 2014 Posts: 143

I have 15 students in my class which to me seems a bit much as all the kids don't get enough time to actively participate in practicing oral English skills in an open dialogue. I know Chinese class sizes are huge, especially in universities and high schools. What do you guys think? I think 10 would be ideal.

Voyeur · Joined: 03 Jul 2012 Posts: 431

I think a class of two students is "ideal", if unrealistic most of the time. But smaller is better, though two > one because they can talk to each other and do some group work of a sort.

But in practice you almost always get bigger classes with a variety of levels. My high school classes are about 18, which is far from ideal, but pretty good for high school.

rioux · Joined: 26 Apr 2012 Posts: 880

10 would be good.
Thing is expectations are so high (unrealistic) and with most students so terribly low 1 on 1 lessons would be the "ideal".

Voyeur · Joined: 03 Jul 2012 Posts: 431

Depending on what is being taught, I often find "classes" of two to be superior to one.

Toast · Joined: 08 Jun 2013 Posts: 428

Agree that one can be hard work on both student and teacher. I studied Spanish in Guatemala for several months, and was paying for one on one classes for an entire morning. After an hour my brain was absolutely fried. The teacher seemed exasperated too. Maybe I'm just a shit student.

2~5 for me is best, as they can feed off each other, but as I teach in a university here that's unrealistic. In which case under 20 is optimal. I find over 30 / class to be really difficult and unrewarding.

My school which made me redundant via text message last month asked me last week if I'd like to stay, but be moved over to a different department. Those classes have 50+ students in them. I said no chance. Wasn't staying anyhow, but that was the proverbial cream on the crap.

RWA1981 · Joined: 27 Mar 2014 Posts: 143

When I did a small class of just two students, I noticed that they were each trying to compete or get more attention than the other one. 10 students allows for a good discussion groups, games, and role play.

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

Large classes are best for me, as that's what I got started on in my 1st year.
I've developed my teaching materials for large classes and my teaching style has become broad to ensure I'm reaching the 'too cool 4 school' types trying to hide down the back.
Besides small classes plough through the work too fast and that means additional lesson planning.