Job Discussion Forums

Lobster · Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2006 12:37 pm Post subject:

I totally understand your point about students not getting the idea and teachers getting frustrated. But, as hard as it may be, if we choose this job we have to just keep on plugging away and look at the times we have succeeded. We have to try to be creative and experiment with new approaches, especially when many strategies have proven to be ineffective. Did my suggestions for EC have no merit?

Now, if students keep coming up with the same old, tired questions, how about short-circuiting them at the outset? Make a short speech that addresses many of those questions?

Hi! My name's Lobster and I'm from Nova Scotia, Canada! I'm 28 years old. I've been in China for 18 months and I just love China and Chinese food! I can't use chopsticks or speak Chinese very well, and I've only been to Suzhou so far. Chinese people are great! Now, if you have any other questions, don't be afraid to ask!

Maybe they'd all leave after that. Sad

RED

Teababy · Joined: 19 Apr 2006 Posts: 514 Location: Wuhan

EC is a transient little place. Newcomers wander in and ask the same questions because they missed the speech. Also, listening comp is not a strong suit of many students. I have given such speeches. "I'm from Australia bla bla. Any questions?"

"Where are you come from?"

It makes you want to kill! Shocked

no_exit · Joined: 12 Oct 2004 Posts: 565 Location: Kunming

I was just about to say what Teababy said. You'll say all those things, and then they'll ask the same questions anyway. Or someone will ask you, you'll answer, and then the next guy will ask the same exact question (this kind of thing happens in class all the time. You'll assign homework, for example, explain it in detail, ask if there are any questions, and move on. Five minutes later someone asks teacher, what's the homework?)

Choose a topic and don't deviate from it. Tell them you won't answer any questions that don't pertain to the topic, and stick to it. Give them a few minutes in the beginning to jot down their thoughts on the subject, and ask a few to speak. This is a sneaky way of getting them to engage in conversation. After they express their opinion, ask follow up questions, especially "why." I used to teach a class which was very discussion based, and I never let them make statements without asking them why. Don't let them get off easy with yes or no questions, make them express opinions. Call on specific students to speak (if you don't know their names, just point), because if you rely on volunteers you'll either have no one speaking but you, or the same one or two students answering everything. If you have a board available to you, make sure you write down any new words that might come up in conversation. When you say a word you suspect might be new for them, ask them who knows the word and for the definition (or translation if they can't handle defining the word using simple English).

English corners sure can be torture, but for lots of teachers they're a requirement. If you can't get out of them, you can at least try make them useful for the students and avoid answering the same 5 questions 20 times.