Job Discussion Forums

[Red_Guard]

Hi!

I�m currently in the process of completing my CELTA and am due to jet out to China three weeks today, to commence teaching at a Chinese University. I�ve got both a BA (Hons) and MA albeit these are in Business related disciplines.

In my first week out there, I�m of the understanding it�s pretty much just a meet and greet with the class but then after that I am to devise my own lesson plans. I�ve got most of the recommended textbooks from the CELTA course (Aitken, Harmer, Swan and Thornbury) but what I would really like is a few textbooks that I could base my lessons around. Can anyone point me in the right direction for a textbook or two that are at the right level for Chinese Undergraduates?

Any other hints, tips or suggestions that anyone can offer would be greatly appreciated too!

[Songbird]

Hey Red,

Depending on how much time you have between your arrival and first class, also depending on where exactly you are, have a browse through your local Foreign Language Bookstore. They have tons of textbooks used in English classes, also extra stuff like IELTS & TOEFL practice materials, maps etc. There's some excellent resources in there, almost to the point it's very hard to choose from! These are mainly found in the cities, not sure about regional areas.

Have fun, don't have too high expectations, lay down the rules from day one, gain their respect (both students & fellow teachers) so you're taken more seriously....last year I failed entire classes (their results were absolutely shocking)- it's now gone down as mythology at my old college, no one has ever had the guts to fail before !

[tw]

The students might have a textbook the university makes them buy for the course. Take a look and use that as a guide. From personal experience, college and university oral English textbooks are horrible.

[cj750]

As tw said...they may have a book they have to buy..some will want to use it so as not to waste the money and others will find it boring and not willin to work from it..use it as a guide to incl. some of the lessons in the class and then build on these lessons with more interesting stuff...

[TEAM_PAPUA]

'I CAN ENGLISH' - Prof. Billy 'Bruce Lee' Wong

also try

'I CAN ORAL LANGUAGE' - Mei ai Lei Lo

[TEAM_PAPUA]

'Activate Imaginations English' - Dr. Long Gong Hom

'Where are mine chopstick' - Prof. Lee Lee Lai Er

[ohseejane]

If the classes are "oral English" and not for English majors you can do anything that will get them talking. Simplify news articles and have class or group discussions. Most of my students just refused to speak in class. I tried everything from pleading to cursing to trying to reason with them. Still only 5% of the students dared speak out in front of the group, which is why I recommend giving them a list of questions to ask each other or a task to accomplish together or roles plays IN SMALL GROUPS. They liked when I would speak on a topic for 15 minutes or so about anything related to American life--school, university life, drugs, guns (they thought Americans all own one), dating and food. One day I taught them all the bad language and words for private parts I could think of, but in a very dry way, everything filled out on a chart according to how offensive each word was and how often it was used.
As for books, I really like a series Can You Believe It? which at level one would be good for non majors and level 3 would be good for majors. Students read and listen to a true, high-interest story, then retell it several times. The books emphasize phrasal verbs and common idioms. My students loved them.
Make homework voluntary and give few tests. The only thing I seriously tested my students on was pronunciation of TH and final L since they are important for understanding. A lot of them actually got better because they practiced and they practiced because they knew they would have a one-on-one test with me. As for grading, at the place I worked, I could have given them all (non majors) an easy exam and then given them all As and Bs and no one would have complained. I tried to fail a few people because they came to class only ONCE, and even then the admin encouraged me to pass them. Go out to lunch with the more enthusiastic students.

[blondie10]

Beware of the writing classes and plagiarism in China. My first writing assignment in class was an eye opening lesson. 148 students showed up and I gave an easy writing assignment due by the end of the class. I told the students to bring the finished assignment to me and then they were free to leave. I looked out and the students were fervently writing, I felt great. The earliest any student left was 5 minutes before class ended, most stayed until the end.

I took all 148 writing samples back to my apartment and started to read them, the first one was pretty good, I am still feeling great. I read the next one and it was the same as the first one. I'm thinking maybe they worked as a group. The next one was the same as the first two, maybe it was a group of three. With every paper I read I felt worse because all 148 papers were exactly the same!!! Lesson learned. I explained plagiarism to them and still received identical papers. So I took the 12 identical papers and put zeros on them and explained again. It took about 5 classes to get the concept across. Good luck.

By the way the textbook for the class was the same one that they had the semester before, and the previous teacher used it. I had to come up with all new ideas. Fortunately for me I had great internet service and got a lot of my ideas off of the net.

Have fun!

[danielb]

One of the problems I have had is that the text book that the university requires relies on having a lot of supplementary materials that should be supplied with it like audio and video. Unfortunately, I have rarely had the material and if I have had it I have not had anywhere to play it. Thus, what could have been reasonable class exercises are impossible. As someone else mentioned though, if they have spent money on the text book then it is probably best to use for a few classes.

I have found that ethical dilemmas can form the basis of class discussions but it is best not to make the groups too large.

These http://www.goodcharacter.com/dilemma/ can be altered a little to be more relevant to your students.