Job Discussion Forums

Bluecat23 · Joined: 05 May 2005 Posts: 12

Help, Ive been assigned eight 2 hour classes of sophmore american and british history in a chinese university and have less than a week to prepare. I did not ask for this or misrepresent myself. I have a ba in english and was expecting a load of oral english classes. All I have to go on is a text book, a black board a piece of chalk and the instructins to design my own course and "make it fun" No syllabus, no co-teacher, no audio visual aids other than my laptop mp3/dvd player.
Any ideas? I'm not a perfectionist and neither is the university. Simple projects or activities to help get through a 2 hour class are what i need.

Steppenwolf · Joined: 30 Jul 2006 Posts: 1769

I have no doubt your subject has been mislabelled; your "history" class most likely is an ORAL ENGLISH class.

Don't worry - just follow the book, steer clear of controversies and just hammer those factoids deep enough into the memories of your learners!

They probably will be lost in how the English translation comes to them. They are learning "English", not "History".

MITCH · Joined: 18 Aug 2006 Posts: 58 Location: China

Hi Bluecat,

I'd love to help you out, being a former university lecturer.

I think i can get you about 100 hours worth of interesting teaching material on American history, and some neat ideas on how to deliver it.

But what is it worth to you?

I don't want money, but what can you offer in return?

You know a kind of barter deal.

Information that's what i want, that we can exchange via the net.

I want something worth it's weight.

I'd like Corporate Training materials, Hotel English, EF Curriculum, even childrens courses, etc.

Maybe someone else can chip in, and we can share all the info together.

I await your reply.

MITCH.

danielb · Joined: 08 Aug 2003 Posts: 490

Are the students English Majors? If so (and possibly if not), the class will be a survey class. Some of the national tests, in particular TEM 8, require knowledge of a fair amount of cultural and historical information. If it were me I would see what test the students have to sit and then find out the type of material they need to know for the test.

dragon777 · Joined: 05 Oct 2005 Posts: 163 Location: Christmas Island

I gave an English oral lesson in history last year. Caused a real stir...they even sent their top two CCP officials to review my lesson the second time. It was on the 1937 Nanking masacre.

Bluecat23 · Joined: 05 May 2005 Posts: 12

Thanks for the helpful replies.

Mitch, the teaching matrls around here are all hard copy paper but i'll keep an eye out for you.

My students are non-english majors that i'm told will be struggling with the middle-school level text book. If any veteran esl teachers would like to share specific activities for such a class your karma rating will take leaps forward!