Job Discussion Forums

[Karl B]

Hi everybody,
I have been reading this forum for a while, but this is my first post here
Thanks in advance for reading, I appreciate any feedback given.

I have been offered a job in a Prefecture level city University where the teaching hours will be approximately 12-14 hours per week and the content will be conversational English. The reason I chose this city was for my own personal recreational hobby, so I am willing to forgo a large salary in sacrifice for this.

They are offering me a salary of 7000 RMB per month plus a 2 bedroom apartment and return flights to Australia once a year.

My qualifications are:
- 3 Year Bachelor Degree
-120 hour online TEFL (w/20 hours of face to face)


I have two main questions:

1. What would it be like teaching at a University without any prior teaching experience?

2. Would the university likely have pre-planned lesson plans?


Cheers


P.S. do you think that this salary package is good? Or should I try to negotiate a better deal?

[ChrisHenry15]

1. Everyone is different.

2. Probably not.


*The package is common for public universities. Lower than average hours though.

[doogsville]

The salary is okay if they pay full salary for the holidays and over the summer if you sign up for the next year.

As to the teaching, it'll be tough if they don't provide you with a textbook to use. A textbook can be a useful start and fall back even for conversational classes. Even then, you'll need to learn to supplement the book with other material and activities. Without a book for you and the students to use and follow you're looking at a ton of time finding and preparing material for lessons, and a steep learning curve if you've no experience. Remember though that everyone has to start at day one, and a lot of uni teachers of all subjects have no teaching experience prior to starting their teaching careers.

[Karl B]

[Karl B]

[Non Sequitur]

Oral (conversational) English is great as there are no papers to grade.
BUT what you have is the need to mark continuously.
So don't drift through the first few weeks thinking this is a doddle and then wake up to the fact that you have no achievement data.
The minimum resource would be a book of dialogues. Probably crap but it's a start.
I would ask about class size and freshers or sophomores etc.
Remember freshers are straight from high school and the dreaded Gao Kao.
There is no Oral test in GK so students may be a bit slow at first.
Also for freshers this is their first year away from home among unfamiliar classmates. Greater awareness of opposite gender kicks in big time.
On balance and IMHO, this offer is a better gig to get you started than a language school.
If you take it get back to me and I'll send you a resource I developed to mark Oral.
Best
NS

[roadwalker]

If you end up teaching oral English at a university, and if they provide a textbook, you will probably find it only marginally usable. Some of them are good sources of topics to use, and it doesn't take too much to either correct (for grammar, for usage or other) the dialogues and other sections, or to write or find other materials. In my experience, the foreign language department will not be very hands on - you will be free to come up with your own lessons, whether you like it or not.

English major students will be generally good, with some obviously behind and others hiding their deficiencies or abilities. Other majors can sometimes be a lot more challenging, but there are usually one or two students who can understand you and translate to the others, if need be.

[OhBudPowellWhereArtThou]

This will save you a LOT of heartache at the end of the term:

1.When the department issues you grading books and class rosters, start setting up your books ASAP. Enter students' English names, their Chinese names written in Roman alphabet, and their Chinese names written in Hanyu. You can pick one or two students from each class to help you with the names in Hanyu. (If you are lucky and have a monitor who wants to be helpful have him/her help you. Failing that, you can have each student write his name in Hanyu at your desk).). When you turn in your books, the people in the department won't know whoPower Tool (yes, they choose those names), Rudolph, Shimzy, or Tom Cruise are. The secretary who enters the grades in all likelihood won't speak English, much less read English, so students' names written in Hanyu will be their only clue. (And don't wait until the end of the term to get their names entered in Hanyu).

2. For each class and for each day, create an attendance sheet that has their student number, and English name. Don't waste time taking roll. Pass it around. You may have a joker or two who will screw things up, but don't get flustered. Take a head count and take a guess about who is absent.

Treat the students like adults, and most will act like adults.

3. Buy plastic snap envelopes for each class in which to put a). graded papers or written evaluations and b). copies of assignments.

4. If you aren't given a textbook to work with, or if it is really not suitable for anything except recitation, ask if you can create your curriculum. Go online and find lists of idioms for the students to use in class.

Also, create scenarios which allows the students to create their own dialogs. Example: three students. Two are restaurant patrons and the third is a waiter/ waitress. One patron finds a fly in his soup. The group must discuss the problem and come to a resolution.

Create as many of these as you can. Keep adding them to your curriculum and use them in every oral English class.

5. Create short grading forms for each student for when they perform. Print the paper so that it can be cut into four separate forms. (You'll have to get a paper cutter for this or use a razor blade to cut an 8 1/2x11 inch paper into four pieces. The forms could allow you to grade for a few criteria: sufficiency of volume, pronunciation, use of proper idioms (if assigned) creativity. Keep it short, You need only put a check next to the criterion and leave a comment and/or a letter grade that you can convert to a final number at the end of the semester.

6. One way to keep the class engaged while the groups are performing: Cut up slips of paper for the other students to leave comments about the students' performance. Give the class's comments to the performers. (Make sure that the responses are written in English!. You don't need to read the class's responses).

7. Finally, you will probably be told to submit a syllabus for each class two days before you begin teaching. (Impossible) Haggle with the department and come to an arrangement which will allow you to submit your completed class activities at the end of the week. In all likelihood, the department will allow you to submit your "syllabus" for each class at the end of the term). For this, you will need a folder that will hold many preprinted forms upon which you will enter the class number, the date, and the time, page number (if applicable) and a brief description of the activity for each class. Make your entries during the last five minutes of class. Make a habit of doing this, and life will be SO much easier for you.

Be prepared for that last one. The department doesn't want a simple syllabus. It wants a year's worth of lesson plans submitted ahead of time.
The Chinese teachers have been doing the same thing for years, and they need to submit fresh plans only when they teach a new subject.

I can't stress enough the importance of being organized. The sooner you become organized, the easier life will be for you. You will be operating in an environment that will be insanely disorganized to your sensibilities. Your initial mission should be to concern yourself with your own organization. Get it together FAST.

In fact, you can start collecting websites for idioms. NOW. For dialogs, create situational dialogs in which the students talk about dating and marriage. Those are sure winners. Just STAY AWAY FROM POLITICS and explicit sex.

You'll get by on your university salary. If you're creative, you'll learn to cook in your apartment and save money.

Good luck.

[Non Sequitur]

Each student's unique number is worth recording too.
It may not be on roll but students carry their campus ID with them.
My last school recorded students' English names. Many students change these when they realise that 'Snoopy' isn't as cool as they thought.

[backtochina2017]

[OhBudPowellWhereArtThou]

[danshengou]

[The bear]

[ChrisHenry15]

[bograt]