Job Discussion Forums

[ouyang]

I took a TEFL course where I learned the Direct Method for teaching English. For those who don't have a TEFL diploma, it relies on the student's natural "language acquisition device". People learn their native language without any written materials, and the Direct Method is an attempt to simulate this process, grammar is taught inductively with no explanations, the learner's first language is not used in the class, and new vocabulary is introduced by demonstration.

I would like to know how many teachers in this forum use this method. I think it has a lot of merit, but in classes of 50 or more students I don't think it is always that practical. I use a networked computer for making presentations and I use an online dictionary (http://www.tigernt.com/cgi-bin/cedict.cgi) to quickly introduce new vocabulary during class, or I prepare short vocabulary lists beforehand from this dictionary that include chinese characters next to the words I'm introducing.

At my last job I was teaching at a middle school where my main responsibility was to increase the students' interest in English by making presentations on western, mostly U.S. culture. Whenever I asked for advice from the chinese teachers, they would usually tell me to "talk about the NBA". I had pretty much covered that in the first month, and a fair amount of students and most of the girls didn't care about basketball anyway. I ended up playing a lot of mp3's after we analyzed the lyrics and did my best to keep them entertained.

The TEFL techniques I learned were great for using games and dividing my big classes into teams, but the students never had much enthusiasm for participating in role plays where I was supposed to walk around the class and monitor their pronunciation of the various phrases I had modeled beforehand for a particular topic and situation.

Now, I'm teaching English listening and Business writing classes at a small university in a small town. I've also been asked to teach six weeks of oral English for the freshman after they finish their military training. I'm not using much of the Direct Method for my current classes, but I intend to make a fresh attempt at it in my oral classes. I hope I can come up with more interesting situations for conversations. I may also be given textbooks, which I have for my other classes, but which I didn't have at my middle school.

Anyway, it seems to me that the Direct Method requires a fair amount of skill to implement successfully and is particularly difficult in large chinese classes. Any thoughts or suggestions?

[Susie]

你好欧阳. 你是那里人？ Ouyang, do you call yourself 'Nancy'?

I use the direct method.

http://www.aber.ac.uk/~mflwww/seclangacq/langteach5.html

Would you say that you have the 'fair amount of skill' required to implement the direct method successfully?

Besides the 打篮球，you might be able to get some ideas on American culture from websites below if accessible in China:-

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/index.html

http://www.zompist.com/amercult.html

http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/home.html


www.yahoo.com (search: anything you like)

[ouyang]

你好。我的学生给了我名字欧扬。我是老美国男人。我的普通话不是好.

Thanks for the direct method link. The disadvantages of the purists really rang true for me, "Teachers would be jumping over desks flapping fins, rather than say that the English for 'saumon' is 'salmon'".

I think I have enough skill to use some aspects of the method, but as the site points out, a "Successful teacher of the Direct Method needed competence in his language / stamina/ energy/ imagination/ ability and time to create own materials and courses - beyond capacity of all but gifted few."

I'm currently organizing the vocabulary, phrases, and activities I will use by topic, and I wonder why no one has ever done this in a reference or textbook, specifically for this method.

I also liked your "How to tell if you're American" URL. I've bookmarked the others as well for reference. Thanks a lot.

Have you ever read the 102 Ways to Tell if You are Chinese
http://homepages.cae.wisc.edu/~mxu/CSSA/html/msg00543.html?

[Susie]

http://www.eslteachersboard.com/

I hope 一位美国男人finds the above site useful for lesson plans and useful generally.

[lao hu]

I also learned the Direct Method in my TEFL training, which I took AFTER I had taught for a semester in a university. I think the Direct Method is the right idea, and I plan to use it in my next teaching assignment.

That said, I concede that it won't be easy. Students will attempt to scoot around the dictum that says that nothing should be done or said in their native language. They will chatter among themselves and they will bring useless electronic dictionaries to class. My recommendation -- and planned approach next time around -- is to forbid all that, confiscating electronic dictionaries (to be returned at the end of the semester) and threatening all sorts of cruel punishments for other offenses.

These things won't make you popular, but the students will learn more, which is what it's all about. The best students in the classes my wife and I taught last term said this is what their previous teachers had done and it was why they were so good.

[Ger]

Perhaps there is some confusion between 'the direct method' and 'the dictator method'; please advise.

[lao hu]

Sorry if I sounded to dictatorial in my advice, but my experience -- and also that of several longer-term TEFL veterans I worked with -- is that an iron-fisted approach is necessary, at least in the beginning. You can always loosen up later, but if you start out soft, it's hard to tighten up the discipline.

The veterans' counsel to me was to announce at the outset that it is an English class and will be run by English rules, with no other languages allowed (in class). Of course, the students will talk to each other and help one another in their native language outside class hours, and you can use that positively.

[Rice Paddy Daddy]

[lao hu]

OK, please say more. I'd like to hear the reasons it's "so wrong" so I can learn, too. Thanks.

[Ger]

I'd like some comments on this situation:-

I am trying to learn Chinese and I expressed in my advertisement that the Chinese tutor should use elementary chinese in all communications with me and should not use English. However, the Chinese teacher used a lot of words that I hadn't learned and I would have to look in my electronic dictionary to be sure of the meaning. This took up a lot of time during paid lessons - I pay. Then the Chinese tutor started to write the English translation for almost every Chinese word she uses. I want to tell her again about the guidelines, but am afraid that she won't continue teaching me. Believe it or not, in my experience, it is very difficult to find a half-suitable Chinese tutor in southern China! Any comments?

[ouyang]

Ger wrote

[lao hu]

The average Chinese tutor probably has minimal training in TCFL (Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language), so you get what you pay for, more or less. The situation isn't all that different in hiring "native speakers" off the street to teach EFL.

I have been told that the Center for Chinese Studies at Yunnan University in Kunming teaches Chinese according to something that sounds like the Direct Method. Supposedly, if they catch you speaking anything other than Chinese three times, they kick you out. I don't know about the verity of this, but I can testify from personal experience that (a) the weather in Kunming is much better than most other places in China; (b) Yunnan University is a lovely place; (c) the accomodations at the Chinese Center are quite good; and (d) the staff there are quite friendly and helpful. So maybe you can check it out if it seems to fit your needs and your budget.

[Rice Paddy Daddy]

Berlitz has popularized the direct method *now commonly referred to as the Audiolingual Method*.

The direct method is premised on the belief that L2 learning is the same as first language learning (which we now know to be false).

The method forbids translation exercises, use of the student's native language and analysis of grammatical rules which does not work well for adult learners.

"The Method" has failed as a viable approach to teaching languages. It is based largely on Behaviouristic principles and has not succeeded in improving students overall communicative skills.

Language is simply not a matter of 'habit formation.'

do a google search on 'Audiolingual' and 'Direct' methods.

are you sure this is what you want...?
it does work better with lower levels, imo.

[Ger]

Look, Ou Yang, an ad. on-line may not be a very good method, I even went to the local uni. and put up some posters, you would be amazed at what turned up from there. The on-line ad. was more fruitful.

Anyway, about planning a Chinese lesson myself, I supply the Chinese books for the tutors to use, there are new words, texts, notes, grammar explanations and exercises. There isn't much for them to plan, I just need them to use the material creatively and meaningfully, but they have difficulty doing even this. I want to fall asleep in some of the lessons.

The other day during the course of paid tuition lessons (I pay) covering the grammar section of the book, I asked two of my Chinese language major Education Degree undergraduate tutors (4th year student) at different times to explain :-

1. a complement of result 结果补语
2. a directional complement 趋向补语
3. a potential complement 可能补语

but neither of them could do it, had to go back and ask their teachers. I am still waiting for their replies. It is very frustrating. The book even uses Chinese characters for the above terms and only a few sections of the books are translated into English, so I really don't understand how they couldn't answer the question. RMB100 per hour is not a small amount of money.

[Ger]

So I explained very politely to my Chinese teacher that it is a bit hard on my brain to try to think in Chinese and then to have to switch back to English when she writes English words (many of which are spelt incorrectly - bit I didn't tell her the bit about the spelling mistakes). Anyway, as I suspected, now she can't come to teach me!