Job Discussion Forums

J9 · Joined: 09 Oct 2004 Posts: 12 Location: Guangzhou, China

Hey all you dedicated TEFL professionals out there, I need some help.

Having recently started my third teaching job in China I have once again been forced to participate in the strange and wrongly-named English conversation corner.

Don't know if any of you have taken part in one of these, but they are hell. There is no real English conversation as such, just lots of students asking the same dull questions. Do you very like Chinese dumplings? etc etc it feels more like an interregation. The teachers complain and the students complain because they don't have a chance to speak to the 'foreigner', heaven forbid they would speak to eachother in English!

Anyway after all the foreign teachers kicking up a major fuss about having to do it I have been nominated to turn the farse into a real conversation corner. So far the only ideas I can come up with are fixed partners, to get them out of their Chinese speaking friend zone and different conversation subject rooms so the students can pick which subject interests them and it gives them some structure which the Chinese need.

And that's about it. If anyone out there has any ideas I would be extremely grateful to hear them.

Thanks,

J

Oh, I forgot to add I teach in a large state college with over 7000 students aged between 18 and 22.
Around 100-150 students attend the English corner, with students from every level possible.
And the best bit....... 2 foreign teachers.

Sinobear · Joined: 24 Aug 2004 Posts: 1269 Location: Purgatory

Sorry can't really help you except to say that is why it's called English Corner...you're English and you're cornered.

Try engaging them in an open debate over the semantics of Shakespeare vs. Chaucer. That will get the number of attendees down quick.

2 over lee · Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2004 1:25 pm Post subject:

Quite the wit these days Sinobear!

In answer to �J9� I know exactly what you�re on about. After some months of English corner I just couldn�t take it. My solution was to take control and to plan for it ( ie have a CELA style lesson plan) just like any other class.

That�s one possible solution, it worked for me, I hate confronting a Chinese audience wih nothing planned because otherwise either its an immense struggle to keep the ball rolling or you have to talk about �do you like China�.

I�d be intersted to know what other solutions are around.

2 overdone

Roger · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 9138

Who invented "English Corner" ANYWAY?

The Great Wall of Whiner · Joined: 29 Jan 2003 Posts: 4946 Location: Blabbing

anthyp · Joined: 16 Apr 2004 Posts: 1320 Location: Chicago, IL USA

Ha, yes, English Corner - the - Foreigner (as I have known it) is something of a Rite of Passage for us FEs in China.

I basically agree with 2 over lee, you have to go in there with a plan, otherwise it will be just torturous*. "Teacher can you tell us something about your homeland?" Seriously, how are you supposed to answer that? "No."

Though I go in there with a plan, that doesn't mean we are doing drills or taking dictation or anything too strenuous. I mostly used it to try out games I never planned on using in the classroom.

Have fun and remember -- it's only an hour of your life.

*Thanks mum for the tip.

Sinobear · Joined: 24 Aug 2004 Posts: 1269 Location: Purgatory

Freebie to GWoW: be my guest.
Freebie to Anthyp: torturous
Freebie to Sinobear: Why yes, you may have another brandy.
You're talking to yourself, again.
No, I'm typing to myself.
At any rate, you're quite possible insane.
Been there, got the DNA sample.
What the...

Norman Bethune · Joined: 19 Apr 2004 Posts: 731

laodeng · Joined: 07 Feb 2004 Posts: 481

Lesson plans for English Corners? I love you all dearly, but this is an over-the-top idea. I'll start doing them when the Powers start paying me for the time involved. Which will be never.

My motto after five years in China: No freebies.

quanxie · Joined: 11 Feb 2004 Posts: 91 Location: The Sticks

I agree with Norman, I rarely if ever do this things, none for over two years... But if I must, I find a student and make him my assistant... The assistant fields all of the repeated questions... For example, What country are you from? I say nothing and simply point to the assistant and he says the answer... Sometimes I have several assistants, this give them more practice using their oral skills...

Good luck,
Phil

Roger · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 9138

The first time I came across an English COrner was when I was a mere touroidn in transit in Kunming; an American Chinese, sorry: CHinese American took me under his wing and guided me there. THus he was sure of arousing curiosity and attention upon arrival.

It was that Cuihu Park, that to this day has a public English COrner once or twice a week. When my CA had been noticed with me in his tow, he and I were the centre of some noise (which sounded like English to me though I couldn't understand half of it, with the other half being questions that kept repeating themselves such as "where do you come from? America? Canada? England?").
My CA guide and chaperone managed to conduct most of the dialogues, and towards the tend I slouched off, tired and disinterested...
I later learnt that this CA was making a HELL OF A LOT OF MONEY BY CHARGING THOSE SILLY CHINESE FOR THEIR ENGLISH ATTEMPTS!

mike w · Posted: Mon Oct 11, 2004 9:44 am Post subject:

Don't go in with a prepared subject. Once you start to do that, the EC becomes nothing more than a free one-hour lecture.

EC's were 'designed' so that Chinese students had the opportunity to practice their speaking skills. The FE is present to correct the mistakes during the students' conversations.

If the students don't talk - do what I do - LEAVE.

My teachers are intructed NOT to go prepared, and each semester the students are told "if you don't talk - I will cancel the English Corners because you are wasting my teachers' time".

Answer is easy.

ChinaEFLteacher · Joined: 08 Sep 2004 Posts: 104 Location: China

I'm also at a U and it says in my contract that the foreign teacher should attend English corner regularly. I've never been in the last year and I don't think anyone else here goes either. We've been invited in the past, gone once or twice, and not returned. We all have regular office hours with set times, though, which are not bad and can generate much needed intellectual stimulation after going through the ropes in class. The kids that really want to practice come to these. The English corner seems like a club, and for the foreign teacher a class in and of itself.
My advice to J9 is not to go once or twice, maybe make up the usual line that we all need to get outta the banquets or other undesirable thing, and then maybe by breaking the habit you'll be free.

2 over lee · Posted: Mon Oct 11, 2004 7:52 pm Post subject:

laodeng wrote
:

2 over lee · Posted: Mon Oct 11, 2004 8:00 pm Post subject:

Ah Roger!

About two years ago a friend and I were in Kunming staying at the caihua hostel when my friend met a pretty girl who convinced him to come down and talk to some students in exchange for food and beer.

The food and beer never materialised but he was simply led into a classroom with expectant students. It seemed that the boss of this, �school�, sent pretty girls out to lure the neverending supply of backpackers in Kunming down to give free English lessons. Young guys easily fell for the babes and beer routine. His students naturally paid for this unique course, in which they had the benefit of being taught by a different teacher everyday.

Hah!