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SnoopBot · Joined: 21 Jun 2007 Posts: 740 Location: USA

Large classes are typical for Chinese schools , some of the primary reasons for this:

1. Private schools can the drop tuition fee to attract more students or increase students for higher profits.

2, Universities can save money and expenses on the need to hire more FT's so they overload classes.

3. Chinese education system is based on memorization and repetitive response. So a 100 student class size is ok because in the Chinese system you listen and repeat to the instructor's lecture. No real 2-way exchange involved.

Often this becomes a complete failure when tasked with ORAL English instruction or conversation instruction (which will be your major role);
Or when a western style approach is used that is based on 2-way Communicative Approach Methods.

You cannot have the patience/time to allow everyone the time needed to practice their English. However, this is often the situation you will be tasked with.

If grades K-12 this becomes a nightmare in classroom management and often requires a Maoist-era-Gulag Chinese teacher to assist you with punishments to keep the children in line. Not fun at all

If teaching at the university level or adults you will need to rely on those in the class with better ability to be paired with others of lower ability and do group work styled instruction. You will find yourself in the coach role encouraging them to use the language even if their attempts are flawed. The amount of correction or syntax usuage explanations is limited in these large classes.

Expect to stay after your normal teaching hours to answer questions and do corrections. I went one step further and had a 24 hour policy to help those in need and had an open door system. I also taught at least 3 hours a week in extra study sessions (I was not paid for this, I did it on my own) to reach students that needed extra work. Every night I went into the study hall rooms when students were studying to answer questions and offer help.

I also invited students to resteraunt, barbecue, shopping and other casual activities on my off time so they could get additional language training.

As you can see the simple job can turn into a major job depending on how much you want to put into it to benefit the students.

Above, were some ideas I used to insure those students who were serious about learning English got additional chances to use the languages.

I would seriously look at keeping the ratio around >20 per teacher. You might need to discuss this with your Chinese admin staff. This is the best method.

Miracles do happen, they might hire in additional help or arrange the classes better.

Your CELTA and my MEd in TESOL and Education BOTH did not prepare us to teach Conversation flavored English to classes above 50.

So expect to do lots of experimentation and new methods to meet your goals.

At first it might seem impossible, but as you progress and start seeing results , things will go smoothly for you.

Best of luck.