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somnambulist · Joined: 25 Jul 2007 Posts: 30

It occurs to me that the practice of my current employer (soon to be upgraded to university status FGS) of using commercial software as an integral part of the syllabus is an out and out rip-off. Not that I mind kicking back for the last half-hour of a lesson while the students parrot their way through some speech-practice on Tell Me More. It's just amazing how gullible they are with anything computerised. Just now, a student got really frustrated with the voice-analysis facility on TMM which kept showing him his pronounciation was terrible. Even after I told him the function was totally unreliable, and demonstrated by speaking into the microphone myself and getting a very critical response, (perhaps due to an American program not appreciating my dulcet North Yorkshire tones?), the student in question just ploughed doggedly on trying to please the program. I suppose they feel its just got to work, if they paid all that money for it. Anybody else got any examples of pedagogical rip-offs like this?

justme · Joined: 18 May 2004 Posts: 1944 Location: Istanbul

Oof, I used to teach for a school that used some crap computer teaching system for 4 skills, plus textbooks (pirated and cheap) with blatant mistakes (like a picture of trousers labelled as 'apples'). The computer software was also pirated and didn't work properly. The first lesson I plugged in the students and kicked back and it was all right. After that, the computer hardware started to fail piece by piece, so some students didn't have monitors, others didn't have earphones, others didn't have hard drives, while others didn't have microphones, thus making the whole thing useless. By the 3rd meeting with this group, there were 2 computers out of about 20 that had all the necessary parts working, for a class of 16. So I quit with the computer component, used the book as little as possible, and made my own materials. Then one day the idiot manager told me I had to use the computer component because that's what the students were paying for. I explained to him for the 3rd or 4th time why this wasn't possible unless he got the machines fixed, and he yelled at me that he didn't care about all that, and that I needed to use the system.

Not that it mattered, since their exam was multiple-choice, full of nonsense sentences with so many errors I didn't even know where to begin. But the students maintained their faith in the school and the computer component even after I spent a lesson explaining to them why they might want to find another course to dump their money in...

thrifty · Joined: 25 Apr 2006 Posts: 1665 Location: chip van

It reminds me a bit of a language school that I worked at in the nineties that advertised a slide (slayt) as it if were like CALL lessons. The slides consisted of pictures of Arthur and his friends. The Turkish teacher were obliged to teach it and would stand and shout at the students things like:

What is his name? The only response allowed was His name is Arturrrrrr (nobody could ever pronounce Arthur) It always amazed me how the students took it seriously because if the native teachers did a so called communicative like speaking lesson there would be complaınts.

Golightly · Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2007 7:00 pm Post subject:

That wouldn't be Antik Taksim or Akademi by any chance, would it? Laughing

thrifty · Joined: 25 Apr 2006 Posts: 1665 Location: chip van

No but I did work at Akademi. What do you know about Akademi?

Golightly · Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 8:25 am Post subject:

I think we've discussed this before, Thrifty - you worked with Guy and Big Pete Mitchell there, didn't you?

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

thrifty · Joined: 25 Apr 2006 Posts: 1665 Location: chip van

thrifty · Joined: 25 Apr 2006 Posts: 1665 Location: chip van

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

thrifty · Joined: 25 Apr 2006 Posts: 1665 Location: chip van

Yeah-sadly the "do" is my first day back at work after the Ramadan hols. I was even thinking of popping by some day and thanking TG for my dip-I can honestly say I use o% in my job.

Honestly though it sounds like a good idea-lıbrary cafe bookshop etc. but actually teaching students sounds a bit desperate-money problems???

somnambulist · Joined: 25 Jul 2007 Posts: 30

Criticising CELTA, DELTA and MATEFL wasnt exactly what I had in mind when I mentioned pedagogical rip-offs (did I spell that rite?). Call me naive but I think these certificates are worthwhile, provided you study with an accredited awarding body and dont fall for some TEFL Cert. Mill. I was thinking more of the ethics of using commercial software but touting it as exclusive to the institute, and charging the students half as much again for something they could order over the net themselves, or get for nothing as a P2P crack. Wink

thrifty · Joined: 25 Apr 2006 Posts: 1665 Location: chip van

I cannot say I have ever come across ethics in TEFL. Has anyone else?

FGT · Joined: 14 Sep 2003 Posts: 762 Location: Turkey

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397