Job Discussion Forums

[chryanvii]

I would like to compile a list of activities that you have managed to get to work in a university atmosphere in China [particularly among non-majors, and low-level students].

I would also like to know HOW you executed these activities, such that everyone had a chance to participate.

To be honest, I have developed a style for myself over the years of teaching, but I don't think it has been very successful. My system is more discussion-oriented, and basically set up so that the students who actually want to speak English do, and the students that don't want to...don't. Therefore, I am hoping to get some insight from others.

If you say "role plays" or "dialogues", would you please mind giving me more specific information? I would like to know exactly which role-play worked, AND how you executed it such that it was interesting for the class!

I WOULD list Balloon Debate, Desert Survival and all of those traditional activities that are found all over the internet...but to be honest, I haven't been too happy with the outcome so far! So if you have gotten these activities to work, please let me know how you executed them!

So far, I think these activities have been successful for me [in small ways]:

Alibi

Talk Show Discussion [give icebreaker cards to a "host" in each group,
then rotate the leader to a new group after a few minutes...
choose a new leader]

Mingles [use very simple questions, such as "what would you do if..."
or "would you rather..."]

"The Line" [put students all in 2 lines facing each other, have them
discuss a simple question. rotate people in one line after
2-3 minutes such that each person has a new partner
to speak with]

Discussion Questons [give a list of 10-12 relevant and interesting questions for students to discuss. Students must stand up. They must
find a new partner after about 5 minutes]

"Hesitate" Game. Groups of 4. Have a list of topics on the board. One student throws a ball at the board to choose the topic. One student in each group has a timer on their phone. They time each student to speak about the topic for 30 seconds. If they "hesitate" while speaking within 30 seconds, the others in the group shout "hesitate", and the next person gets to try. Restart the timer. Change the topic and timer after a few minutes.

Presentations. Students create something together in a group of 4
[such as a new APP]. After 10 minutes, each student is divided into a
new group of 7 people [Why only 10 minutes? Would you believe that some students seem to finish up after only about 3 or 4 minutes? One leader is chosen in each group to make sure everyone speaks English. Each student speaks about their design for 1-2 minutes. Students gather back together and discuss which design they thought was the most interesting
[*this has not been the most effective method, but is more
interesting than having each group go 1 at a time. Although
you are forcing students to speak English, it is very boring
for the rest of the class to listen] Any suggestions for making
it better?

*The biggest problems I have in my class are (1) students are speaking too much in Chinese, or (2) too much silence - generally for the discussion style activities. These things can be quite discouraging sometimes.

I really appreciate your input and suggestions! Thanks!

[hdeth]

In whatever setting in China, it is hard to get them to speak in English unless you ask them directly or have them perform in front of class. When they are talking with each other even my students who are fluent in English revert to Chinese.

I know getting my students to talk with each other in English is the most effective and efficient way to learn but in every class I've taught it's nigh on impossible, at any level. For one class of near-fluent high school students I tried sending students out in the hallway for a few minutes if they spoke in Chinese. Said they could talk about whatever they wanted and chat with their friends if they spoke in English. Sent a few kids out in the hallway and they were long gone in about 30 seconds.

I think you will drive yourself mad trying to get them to speak together only in English unless there is a strong disciplinary system set up (which there almost certainly isn't). Or you end up spending half the class marking students up or down for grades which don't really matter anyways.

For low-level college students you might try throwing up a passage on the screen, have them read it as a class, then ask them some questions about it. Skits work but it's hard because groups of 5+ tend to fall apart and with smaller groups there's a lot of idle time for other students (and they don't pay much attention to the students presenting usually).

One I liked to do on volume was start at one end of the classroom and quickly ask each student to tell me how much water was in a bottle I had. As I went around the classroom I drank a little bit of water at a time so it changed the drill. Doesn't get everyone involved at the same time but at least gets them speaking.

They just are too focused on the teacher. They don't see the value of speaking English with a fellow student, or learning from other students.

I found the survival stuff boring for students after about 15-20 minutes. The guy who introduced it to me said I could stretch it to 90 minutes...no idea how to do that.

[Timer]

You really should have some kind of text book for university classes, as making all your own lessons from scratch would be a pain in the ass. A lot of the ESL activities you can find on the internet seem to be aimed more at younger learners (though I have had university students that wanted to play musical chairs...). A textbook can also help you with focusing activities on subjects rather than just being random. If your school doesn't provide one you can download/buy one that you like the look of and use it as reference.

Generally I set a topic at the start of each class with a short introduction, ranging from showing some pictures, asking some questions, to telling a story. Following that is some kind of activity with definite rules that give the students a chance to use vocabulary related to the topic that I introduced in the introduction or is included in the activity in some way. Finally they do a similar activity but it's more open and reliant on their own ideas, experiences, or imagination.

The activities themselves usually use an article, a picture/series of pictures, some kind of questionnaire, etc. as their focus. I could list all the types of activities I've used but it would be a long list.

The activities are done in pairs or small groups of usually 4 people. The only time students would address the whole class would be during short feedback sessions after each activity. I've never tried a class discussion because I can't see it working well here.

[hdeth]

One activity I did recently that was pretty successful with some apathetic misbehaved middle school students...but should work for uni students and is scaleable...

Get them into groups (larger groups) to do a skit. Have one student be the 'teacher'. The other students are that teacher's students. Some or all of them are misbehaving in some way. The teacher has to deal with the behavior problem and they have to show whether the teacher was effective or not.

Seems to work best with the most misbehaved students. Nice to see some students who basically do nothing the whole class really get involved with something.

I did another one that was a real hit with my uni students but can't remember right now.

[Non Sequitur]

You don't mention 'assessment' and unless your classes are 'electives' you'll have to factor this in.
If you are assessing and reporting marks what proportion of the final mark is classtime and what is the final.
If it is Oral then the assessment opportunity is fleeting and if your class is large, then just providing an opportunity for each student to be heard doesn't occur too often over the 18 week semester.
So OP please comment on need for assessment, class and final proportions and class size.
I can comment further if I have that background.
Oh and another thing - how much mingle space do you have access to?