Job Discussion Forums

[MeiYu]

so, anyone else have the experience of being thrust into classes with no books, no advice, no notebooks, no homework, no grades.....

and expected to teach and have kids listen and obey and be involved?

does this work? does this happen elsewhere??

we (husband and i) are dealing with it the best i can, but we are going to prepare a case and take it to the principal, and request books, grading, homework....all of it. make it into a real class, not a...well, i don't even know what to call it.

this is a very expensive private primary school! why don't they seem to care more? i know that we are just the 'oral' english class, but without purpose, something to focus their attention on, and consequences, i don't think they have any reason to listen or learn!

is this an idealistic pipe-dream, this 'attempt' to change the system?

i just know that the kids will not take us seriously unless we have some clout, some authority, some dominion over their souls.

should we do this? or just grin and continue to perform like dancing monkeys for the spoilt emperors of our school?

[Bayden]

Good luck with that.
I doubt they'll change anything at your suggestion. That would mean admitting they were doing it wrong in the first place and that would mean they would lose face.
And they hate that.

[tw]

[MeiYu]

darn it all to heck

[2 over lee]

Yep--many people have been through what you are going through MeiYu--you should view the smallest change you introduce as the biggest of temporary triumphs.

Do not balme yourself for not being able to make them change!

[China.Pete]

What you are contemplating is the exception rather than the rule in China. I have always had textbooks (some imported), assigned homework, and given grades (whether they "counted" or not is another matter). But this is due more to my expectations (I learned my trade in a country where this was the norm for FTs), a polite stubborness in dealing with the administration, and a willingness to go elsewhere when these "concessions" were threatened.

I think you'll find that the administrators are loath to spend any of that expensive private tuition money for books, when other FTs are willing to do without. It really boils down to how well you address the things that actually matter to them: they get two of you for the effort of one, you happen to have degrees they can flash in front of the parents, the kiddies/parents take a liking to your approach, etc. Otherwise, they've got resumes from twenty other "teachers" who say they can do your job.

[MeiYu]

you're right, it wouldn't be easy to try to bring change...

we may be just to idealistic. i just don't want to be one of those FTs who don't give a flying f@$k about what they are teaching, how they are teaching...

well,

we can TRY to do something. we already asked for notebooks to be given to the students, and they were supplied fairly hassle-free.

perhaps textbooks are a bit too grand an idea....

just gotta find a way to control/manage/scare the crap out of these kids and bring them into submission....

or just get them to sit in their chairs for 35 minutes and participate in activities and learning games instead of hitting each other, whipping their wangs out in class, and the general chaos of the classroom.

maybe we'll just start with a semblance of a grading scale...and their names on the wall with stars.

[kev7161]

I'm at one of those expensive private schools and I can tell you it CAN happen. But first, devil's advocate - - Are you going to be there for the long haul? Maybe 5 years or more? If not, the textbooks and tapes and other teaching materials you suggest they buy will probably reflect your native English tongue. For example, if you're British, perhaps you'd like to teach British English, especially if that's more comfortable for you. If you leave in January or next June or whatever and the next teacher to come along is American, is he going to be equally comfortable teaching from British textbooks? Maybe the next teacher doesn't even WANT to use textbooks, his teaching methods are his own. Now, most textbooks within China are fairly inexpensive, but once you have tapes, CDs, DVDs, posters, picture cards, tape players, DVD players, CD players . . . you get the idea.

WE all know that an established curriculum with the proper tools to teach is important, but I'm guessing your average Chinese schools see FTs come and go with the wind and that's one reason they don't invest more heavily in teaching materials.

Saying all that, my school already had a predetermined idea on their new international program and the students' tuition fees reflected the committment to buying real, honest-to-god textbooks from America via my suggestion. They've instilled across the campus the New Parade text series and the New Interchange text series via my suggestion. My new classroom this year didn't have a DVD player - - not crucial, but handy when needed - - I now have a shiny new one sitting under the TV, ready for Saturday morning's classes. I've urged them to stick with one English text series for several years as the students can more easily grow by following a system and not a hodgepodge of different texts every year. They seem to be listening but who can know after I'm gone. I do know they have stacks and stacks of books and tapes in the book supply room ready for future terms.

So, it can happen, but I'd be ready with a list of MUST-HAVES and a list of expendable items as well as a good spiel about the importance and necessity of what you are requesting. Good luck!

[Leon Purvis]

I'm at a public college. Some of my classes have no books. I was given some books for other classes but I trashed them because they were either poorly-written or contained bad information.

The best way to change the system is to set an example for other teachers and students, to be the best teacher you can be, and to leave a positive impression on the students. With luck, some of the students will become teachers some day and remember your enthusiasm and methods.

[China.Pete]

Caveats aside, you should at least try to figure out where your administration is coming from. I've had some pretty progressive ones who were willing to listen to my suggestions about textbooks and other resources. Kevin makes some good points about whether these will be taken up by other teachers. I've had mixed experiences in that area myself.

[englishgibson]

Mei Yu, you've brought up an issue of many FTs in China. How long have you been teaching in China?

Cheers and beers

[grwit]

You could try to get the text books provided by the school by going blue in the face until they produce them or maybe you could just go to the local book store and buy some and produce the receipt to your FAO. If all that fails try to contact the nearest Cambridge Young Learners school and ask to buy one of their text books.

[no_exit]

You're teaching 1st and 2nd grade, am I right?

As far as textbooks and a proper curriculum are concerned, you have two options I can think of.

First of all, you could convince them to invest in a low cost textbook series designed for kids. I, like kev, use New Parade for Primary school English. The books are made by a foreign publisher, but printed locally, so they are inexpensive. The first book/workbook set runs just at 20RMB cover price. Add in the tapes/CDs (you can even suggest to the school that they can make a bit of extra money if they buy one master set of tapes and sell copies to the students) and you have the whole set for about 50RMB. This won't be a big expense for parents at a wealthy private school. The case could be made to the administration that you need the children to have material to review at home with, and that the parents want to see what the children are learning specifically in the FTs classes (which is true enough). The books will also provide activities which will help you to structure your class -- songs and chants are included, coloring and drawing activities, word searches, fill in the blanks, listening activities, etc. You can tell the administration that the students cannot pay attention to an hour of oral English because they don't understand English yet, and they need a mix of activities which they can easily follow, especially if there is no Chinese assistant. Using New Parade or a similar series would lend itself towards having an actual curriculum with tests and homework and such, like you envision. If you can convince the school to buy a series, you'll find that the curriculum is fairly well laid out, and you'll only need to design some activities to act as filler when you want to get out of the book, and figure out how to go about teaching the material which is provided.

Your second option would be to forgo textbooks and hold a simple, fun class where you teach them some songs, do vocabulary with flashcards, play games, and basically just keep them happy and make sure they're learning at least something. There are loads of simple games which can be played with kids this age. You should also be able to hand out paper to them and get them drawing (when you have them draw something, be sure to display their work afterwards) with simple instructions. If you have access to a printer you can print out some worksheets for them to do in class or take home as homework. Discovery Schools has a great website where you can make your own puzzles and such here: http://puzzlemaker.school.discovery.com/ At this age you can teach them without a textbook curriculum, it will just mean doing more preparation and investing a lot of out of class time in preparing grades and activities for them, whereas with a textbook a lot of these things are there for you. They are older, they're learning how to read and write, so even if the class is supposedly "oral English," you can easily make a case for incorporating a bit of reading and writing in order to back up their oral knowlege (for example, you have them draw their house and label the rooms, then you have them say what they've drawn, or use their pictures to ask and answer about each others' houses in pairs). In any case, if your school doesn't care enough to ask the parents to buy textbooks (it would certainly be the parents buying the books, not the kids, so the school has no real investment in it either way. If they don't want to then it would either be stubborness about not wanting the FT to give suggestions or sheer laziness), then you don't really have a choice.

Like others have said, this is a fairly common problem that you'll deal with again and again. You can make suggestions, but don't hold your breath. Also realize that there are ways of making your suggestions which will make your bosses much more likely to accept them. You can't go at them with a list of demands, or let them think that the way they're doing things is wrong or stupid. Let them see that your ideas will benefit everyone (if you want textbooks, for example, and your school is motivated by profit, then point out to them that they could make money off of selling textbooks to students. Most textbook suppliers will give discounts to schools, and the schools can sell the textbooks at the full cover price. This is the price the parents would pay if they bought the book in the bookstore anyhow, so they won't have issues with buying it from the school instead), and be sure to praise the school and the students. You'll get farther if you give them a bit of face, and make them feel like you're on their side. I know, from experience, that you can get the Chinese administration to make some changes, but you have to prove it to them that you're not just whining or insulting the school. From what you've written here it sounds like you've got a tough case with this school, but what you do have in your favor is that this is a private school so the parents have the money to spend on extras if needed. The school should also want to impress the parents who are spending so much money there, so they may be willing to dress up their FT classes a bit, especially if you can get results, and the parents notice a difference in their kids' English ability. I guess you have to decide if you really want to invest the effort into building something at this school, whether it is worth it to you or not. If you're going to stay a semester or two and then move on, then it probably isn't. In any case, good luck with whatever you do. You have good intentions, and a lot of FTs have been in your shoes before, and some do manage to make some changes at their schools. Hopefully, if you want to, you'll be able to do the same.

[Steppenwolf]

Many an FT learns that they are not taken seriously enough here because they get hitched to the wagon on the wrong side. It is common for us to have to work with students that are woefully underprepared for communicative situations in which their command of English is of vital importance; it is simple-mindedly assumed that Chinese English teachers do a hell of a good job giving their students an academic head start by drilling thousands of English words into their minds and ramming grammar rules down the students' throats.

But the truth is that hardly ten percent of college-age students have acquired the right sort of English to autonomously communicate with speakers of English who do not speak Chinese to them.
Ten percent - that's really a shamefully low achievement, yet our Chinese colleagues are so proud of the exam results of their learners...

That's where reality bites - the uselessness of Chinese-designed English exams that check on the retention rate of the students' memory...

The textbooks we are made to use are for the most part - hopeless! Virtually all of them are way too high and have been written by westerners living in a New World country where Chinese might emigrate to but will find themselves together with speakers of other mother tongues - see Interchange or Expressway.
Almost all these books come with VCDs or tapes - and I have very seldom been handed over CDs or tapes but nearly always been told "to follow the book" even if that meant skipping half of the text (because the text would explicitly refer to the VCDs' contents). Even if I was given a VCD I could assume there was no VCD machien available...

And my students often come to class with the wrong book - many carry a COLLEGE ENGLISH book thgat they study side by side with the one they are supposed to use in my class... I skip any textbook now and make them take notes and learn something they should have studied long, long before. For example this: how to introduce themselves in such a way that any foreigner not familiar with Chinese names understands what is their first name and their last name; although virtually every textbook "teaches" them how westerners introduce themselves to strangers almost none of college-age students know really how to do that. They still confuse "first name" with "last name"...

[Kurochan]

That happened to me in grad school in the US as well as in China. Sad but true.