Job Discussion Forums

[Listerine]

Has anyone ever taught classes here with foreign students in them? I'm teaching English to International Trade students next semester and according to the attendance list around a quarter the number of each class are non-Chinese. Indonesian, Turkish, Mongolian, Saudi, Tajik, Kazakh, Botswanan. Likely a massive variation in levels, slang, accents, pronunciation issues, grammar problems etc.

It should likely be interesting, but I'm just curious (apprehensive?), considering it's a speaking class about if there's much interaction between them and the local students, or if anyone else has done likewise what kind of pitfalls they saw.

I did teach an elective class here with a handful of Saudis a few semesters ago and they were the laziest, most unmotivated, worst attending of the bunch. Terrible English, unable to construct even the most basic sentences. Their average final score was 12% which was still probably being generous. When I asked the boss if they would need to do a re-test or would be considered to fail the class his reply was just "Don't worry about it - the foreign students always pass". During the semester both the teacher liaison and class monitor's suggestion about the Saudis had been "Just ignore them - let them do their homework for other classes or sleep"

Hence I figure the school's expectations of what they are all going to achieve is likely pretty low, but I'd still like to give them *something* worthwhile, you know?

Anyhow, advice, suggestions or warnings would be much appreciated.

[nomad soul]

[JamesD]

Had this once a few years back, Japanese/Korean/Chinese.

The most interesting part was teaching them listening regarding accents. The majority of Chinese students expect to go anywhere and hear either Midwest American or British English. It brought home to them that they needed to hear English spoken with a variety of accents since that is what business and trade people have to deal with.
When a student of one nationality presents, quiz the students of alternate nationalities. This convinced them that I wasn't just blowing smoke when I told them that not all English speakers would sound like me and even a native speaker sometimes has trouble with some accents.

Other than that there were few issues. I'd suggest making sure that any group work is mixed, don't let them combine by nationality.

Also makes for an interesting lesson on social skills and ways to politely interrupt.
"I'm sorry, I'm having trouble understanding you. Could you speak more slowly, please?"
"What was that word?"

[Mr. Leafy]

[Dan123]

I'd be pretty excited about teaching classes with so many different nationalities to be honest. I'd be able to just revolve every lesson around different aspects culture and actually manage to make it interesting for myself and the students, especially if you get students from unusual countries like Tajikistan, which I personally know next to nothing about.

[Non Sequitur]

If your assigned subject is Oral English then 'interesting cultural content' should be the last thing to focus on.
Create opportunities for your students to vocalise on anything in English.
I have seen reports from Germany that Muslim migrant students are told by their imams that they can learn nothing from a kaffir nor has the kaffir anything worth learning.
Stats from the UK indicate that 50 percent of male Muslim migrants are dependent on welfare and that figure is 70 percent for females.
I would corral off the Saudis and let them dream of their oil wealth and get on with the ones who want to learn.

[Dan123]

[Non Sequitur]

Needless complication.
In an 18-week semester and a 50-student class, chances are you will get to hear an individual student 5 or 6 times.
Better to set a generic dialogue topic like 'Help me buy a new winter coat' than 'Compare winter clothing in Shenyang with winter clothing in Miami'.
Also cultural content involves more speaking by the teacher, which is time taken away from the students.

[wawaguagua]

Not different nationalities, but working in Xinjiang, I teach classes of various ethnic groups who come from different language backgrounds. In one class there might be Han and Hui, Uyghur, Kazakh, Mongol, Kyrgyz, Tajik, and Xibe students. It can be a bit frustrating if the students come from different levels of English - A Han student who has been learning English in a classroom since primary schools and a Uyghur student who never formally learned English until entering college in the same room, all learning from the same textbook that seems to assume Mandarin as the native language.

[OhBudPowellWhereArtThou]

[plumpy nut]

[Non Sequitur]

Germany has decided to write and sign its own execution order.
Ditto many other EU states, including Holland where 'refugees' complain that (a) Holland is cold (b) the clothing gifted to them is inadequate (c) they don't get enough food and finally (d) the internet speeds are slow.
The real whammy though is what these refugees really think about their saviours and benefactors:
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2015/09/video-arabic-speaking-woman-tells-what-migrants-really-say-about-infidels

[roadwalker]

Yeah the world would be a better place if we could get rid off all the foreigners.

[Non Sequitur]

http://www.breitbart.com/london/2015/09/28/germany-segregating-christians-as-migrant-violence-escalates/

Yep. Shariah. Coming to your neighborhood soon.

[Double_Dragon]