Job Discussion Forums

[Lord T]

You are an ESL teacher at a technical college. All subject courses are taught in English, using teaching materials suitable for students with C1-C2 levels of spoken/written English (CEFR).

You are given a class of new students to teach for 12 hours a week. Their level of English is A1 (near beginners).

The subject teachers refuse to simplify the English that they use in the classroom.

You are required to find a way to help your new students improve from A1 to C1 in 12 weeks.

What would you do?

[johnslat]

Been there - tried to explain to the subject teachers how it would be impossible to raise students to the level required by their materials (which were photocopies of university-level textbooks) in the time allowed for teaching them English.

It did no good, of course, because that would have meant that instead of photocopying (i.e. pirating) textbooks, they'd actually have to work and create appropriate material.

Hope you have better luck.

Regards,
John

[veiledsentiments]

Fall on floor... laughing hysterically... (OK... maybe not... but I too have been there)

Once I caught my breath I would suggest that based on my 15 years of teaching Arabic speakers, this will take one to two... years.

VS

[grahamb]

A1 to C1 in 12 weeks? You might as well send a fat cheque to Jim Bakker.

[bigdurianthesecond]

Just do the best you can, don't blame yourself, it's the system, not you.

I worked in an 'international' school before. Everything was supposed to adhere to the American CCSS, and on paper, in a poor way it did.

But there was no way the students were capable of operating at that level.

It's all just for show.

And ultimately it doesn't make any difference what you do. The family name and nepotism does more for their future careers than your teaching.

Just take the paycheck.

There's an old saying in Thailand: don ting too mutt.....

[plumpy nut]

Would this be in Khamis Mushait, King Khalid University?

[scot47]

Father of student with level Zero to us at ELS (where I was moonlighting) -

"He can do TOEFL after one month ? We go America soon."

[Gulezar]

[desertfox]

A thought provoking and considered exchange of views. Quite refreshing!

Gulezar - My instinct is that IELTS would be a too difficult place to begin to benchmark any assessment as Lord T indicated the students were (near) beginners.
I don´t however claim a monopoly of knowledge on these matters.

The comments made by bigdurianthesecond reflect more closely my own experience. It is not uncommon to be set unrealistic goals, it is indeed ¨the system¨´, and not you as a teacher who is at fault.

The crude but widely used phrase "cover your arse" comes to mind. At the end of the day you do what you can - in the knowledge that you are often operating with one hand tied behind your back.

There are so many variables to take into consideration, especially teaching in different parts of the world, not least in the Middle East.

Teaching and learning is essentially a human activity. People learn in different ways and at different paces, and depends very much on cultural (and other) factors way beyond any teacher´s control.

Your teaching, if it is to be at all effective, will need to reflect that. It is often difficult to squeeze all that into an arbitary time frame.

It is very much the art of the possible. I believe there are many factors that contribute to unrealistic goals being set.

Not least because we operate in a market orientated
situation, and managements often seek to satisfy a client´s aspiration over and above that which can be realistically achieved within certain period of time.

It´s not the only reason, but it is a significant factor.

[MixtecaMike]

[Gulezar]

[In the heat of the moment]

What's the age range in a technical college? Have these students been through the schooling system and come out of it with A1 level English and, presumably, similar levels in other subjects? If so I'd think it somewhat ambitious to aim for C1-C2 levels of spoken/written English in 12 weeks.

I'd also be prepared to be teaching them for longer than that, if the subject teachers have any say in the matter.

[Lord T]

MOD edit

[Lord T]

MOD edit

[Allahtellya1]

Since the focus of said technical school is to get them to the point of writing a Thesis and presenting said thesis in English, it might be of use to follow the curriculum set forth. there have been zero completely illiterate students at this school so you wont be teaching them the alphabet. they can write simple sentences generally speaking although some very badly. scaffolding the higher level students with lower level students and focusing on group work is a start.

Next, focus on simple, to compound to complex sentence buildup using in general an inductive approach to grammar.

Get an early start on paraphrasing starting with synonyms which you drive into them with every reading possible and introduce them to the thesaurus.

once you have done adequate exercises in complex sentences work towards the hamburger paragraph. exercises in reading using the jigsaw method is quite useful for slow readers.

once they have read their paragraphs take away the paragraphs and have them work on paragraph paraphrasing. I utilize a step by step powerpoint I devised.

Writing and reading from sentence to paragraph is repetitive and as we read in class we paraphrase by synonyms, grammar changes, change of voice to total structure.

The teacher needs to be patient but driven, willing to put in extra time. I also suggest using a formative assessment system with homework where students upload assignments to google drive on an eportfolio where they can constantly submit assignments for review by the instructor who gives them pointers on how to improve.

Expect copying and pasting in the beginning, but if you repeat the rules for paraphrasing and practice in class, they eventually overcome sloth and get work done especially if their grades are low to begin with.

Will you get to you goal of C1 and the end of 1 trimester? not likely, however, if all the teachers are following such a model it can happen eventually. we have to start with a good single paragraph. again and again and again.

the large joint classes are utilized for speaking and presenting skills as well as review of paraphrasing and writing techniques.

Key to all of this is of course, a positive attitude and a will to try your best , afterall, some people actually enjoy teaching!