Job Discussion Forums

[tw]

No, that is not a question from me. That was what my colleague's former colleague, an American with a Bachelor's degree in biology, asked him when they had both just started teaching at the same university in Shanxi. Obviously, the American was well "qualified" with his degree and foreign face, but he didn't know anything about teaching oral English. My colleague, on the other hand, is a non native speaker from one of those poorer Asian countries, licensed to teach at a government school in his country, and his oral English lessons are well planned and well organized.

From talking to my colleague during our weekend beer get-togethers and during lunch breaks, along with a conversation I had with a graduating student from my current college, it seems clear that many young and inexperienced FT's probably have this notion that teaching oral/conversation/spoken English is easy: just talk to the students. In the case of the student who I spoke to, he, along with his classmates, felt that they didn't really learn much from their first and second FT (an American and a Canadian) during the first two years of their university life. The words "word games" were what he kept telling me the FT's were doing in class. Also, while we were enjoying a few bottles of brewskies in a restaurant last night, one of my colleague's former students in Shanxi called him up to say hi. Later, my colleague told me that his former student and her peers are now having the exact same problem with their new FT as did the student in my college: the FT just plays word games and students don't get a chance to speak.

So, just out of curiosity, how do YOU teach oral/spoken/conversational English? Andm tell us what kind of students you have: middle school students, college students, or adults in a private language training centre. For the sake of those who are completely in the fog, do you set any objectives, or do you just throw a topic out for discussion? What do you get your students to do, and how do you go about doing that?

[fitzgud]

My situation is as follows; my job title is Oral English teacher. However, this is my third year at the school, the school has a middle school section and a high school section, I teach in both. Following my first year at the school I proposed that we must have textbooks as a basis for the course, fortunately this was excepted and I was able to chose the book, (In Detail books 1 and 2) the first task is of course to work on the listening skills the students have, but, in most cases don�t. Building listening skills alongside trying to instil confidence in the students, to attempt to speak and respond, is the most laborious task. By using a textbook based course I feel that the students feel they are getting benefit from the lessons, if they steal the lesson and take it in a different direction to the book, more the better. The students have progressed very well in listening, speaking, and most important the confidence to try, and be able to laugh at their mistakes. I tell them in the first lesson that I will never laugh at them, but I will take a great deal of pleasure laughing with them.

However, this year has seen a great change in the Chinese teaching personal, also different heads of year unfortunately not from the English department. We have two new young English teachers at the school with whom I regularly come into contact, they arrived bright-eyed, bushy-tail, full of enthusiasm, and raring to go. Within the space of one week, they were shot down, and all the enthusiasm and self-confidence destroyed. They were told by their head of year, (a mathematics teacher) their students were complaining they could not understand them; they should only use Chinese in the classroom. The more forthright one pointed out that the foreign teacher only used English, only to be told that does not matter, he is not a proper teacher, as you must strive to become.

Back to square one with the new intake.

[7969]

[Shan-Shan]

[Sonnet]

I don't think it's possible to teach just oral English.

To teach only speaking, without listening, reading, or writing? Regardless of forms, functions, a number of micro- and macroskills?

Now, aural-oral English, although a less-snappy title, is possible, although it'd require one darned skilled teacher, certianly not some fresh-out-of-college chemistry grad. And it's still arguable, even controvesial, as to whether learners participating in such a course would reap equal or greater benefits in comparison to students in a general English program.

Ja, I don't believe in "teaching oral English". It's a cop-out. I'm quite happy with my small classes of general & business English - students make genuine progress in the language, including their oral production. It works. But maybe it doesn't sound sexy or cure-all enough to work as a job title...

[Katja84]

I was one of those fresh-out-of-college (college here being of the 17-19 kind) teachers arriving in China with all the difficulties that entailed.

For every newbie that walks into a classroom and thinks he can just chat to the students, there is likely to be a newbie with the opposite problem: I was one of those. In my first term I tended to create overly complicated activities or role-plays that, in the first few months at least, tended to fall through. The difficulty of teaching oral English as a newbie, I would say, is not so much finding activities to be used in class (we've all had language lessons before and of course we have memories of how we were taught ourselves) but actually getting it right.

If you have a syllabus that you have to stick through you often have a starting point for planning your lessons (as well as something to blame if things go wrong), but with oral English classes you often do not. You have to figure out what level they're at, how to adapt your activities to their level, how to give good instructions (and why the TESOL mantra of 'eliciting' is likely to fall flat on its face in many classrooms in China), and most of all how to correct students.

How do you correct things when you can't bloody understand what they're saying? Do you interrupt that poor student that is answering a simple question in front of his 50 peers to have him repeat it endlessly until you understand? How do you pick up language errors and, then, how do you explain what is actually wrong with it rather than simply argue "it just doesn't sound right" (yep I've done that and I know what a lousy teaching technique it is).

I still think that for newbies, oral English is more difficult to teach than listening classes or intensive/extensive reading classes. You have a book and a syllabus that indicates the level of your students English, and all you have to do is perhaps come up with a pre-reading/listening activity, prepare explanations for the text (which can be done at home with the help of the internet) and perhaps a shorter topical activity at the end. It's surprisingly easy to avoid any form of spontaneous oral correction without it being too noticeable, and with enough to occupy your time anyway you can't go off and do something way too complex...

[Anda]

I had fairly good success this last year where I used conversation scripts that were popular with middle and high school students in Korea. But this year here I am using stories written by Western kids around 12 years of age and my 18 to 21 year old students are loving the stuff. Finding what interests your students is more than half the battle.


My classes are 55 a class so I get my students to read after to me and interact on the material as I am doing this. This is followed by doing a board conversation which is modeled off the material used in the first part of the lesson as this gives them ideas on how to answer script questions on the board. So I have students reading aloud for about 25 minutes a class each and every one of them. The material is handed out so home study is possible. My system works as marks go up in exams wherever I work and their conversation ability improves. Keep it simple!

[sheeba]

I keep a teaching journal/diary.

I tend to look for student mistakes in class.

They do the speaking. I find the errors.

I then prescribe activities to help.

It's not really that difficult.

Spontaneous error correcting in a professional manner comes with experience and from those that study English/linguisticsthemselves. Many FT's have never learnt a European language or understand syntax, discourse, phonetics, phonology, morphology and so on.. This is a problem. Also they haven't learnt Chinese. You need to at least know the basics. Many are here for a year holiday. Many just want to feel China and are not really English teachers. Unfortunate for the students but even the experienced can only do so much in a class of 40 Chinese students.

Learning a language does not come from formal training. I shouldn't worry too much about what you can do IN class.

[seperley]

I use a lot of role-play now. It seems to work better than any of the books with which I have been provided, plus the students enjoy the topics, many of which are suggested by themselves.

This is university level, mind you, and most of my students are fairly advanced English majors.

[vikuk]

[sheeba]

Good analysis Vik.

One thing I'll say about being a coach is that if students overcome difficulties under your guidance this breeds motivation to learn the language outside class.

I'd say that we'd do well to become presenters of theory
Not explicitly show how one learns but to use different methods in class and evaluate the usefulness of such approaches. How can students then use this outside class. Success with Audiolingualism in class may motivate one to practice drilling on their own. A PPP approach may show the student that they need to be presented language, they need to practice it and finally they need to do some freer practice. They can do this on their own. Students need to be shown methods and how they can use them. At the end of the lesson vocabulary exercises to discover meaning can influence a student to create good habits and you may influence their 'noticing' skills. A silent approach may show the students the benefits of discovery learning and so on.

[writpetition]

I have my own homegrown system of 'teaching' oral English.

Normally, I take the first couple of days to make a general assessment of my classes, asking them each to give a short self-introduction. That helps me see their level of English, pronunciation etc. Before that, I introduce myself, using humour to lighten up a tense first-day sizing-up class.

I, then, lay out my 'rules', the first being that I give no end-of-term examinations for my oral english classes. Each day is an examination, I tell them and I keep a notebook where I jot down names and notes of students who have participated in the class proceedings. 'No Chinese' in my classes, I warn them...I am the only one allowed to use Chinese! If anyone else does, he/she will be fined one yuan each time the transgression is made. Of course, I never collect the fines, but I do go through the motions of demanding...playacting, having some fun, in the process.

The classes are basically one or, sometimes, a small group of students talking on a subject of THEIR choice. After they have spoken on the subject (books, movies, places of interest, music, experience, worries, family, dreams, love...anything goes!) the other students start interacting with the speaker, asking questions, voicing opinions, making suggestions, arguing, whatever! All the time, my notebook is with me and I go around jotting down names of the active students and correcting mistakes in their pronunciation or syntax (not all the time).

It works like a miracle and I have had the honour of being voted 'best teacher' at my last place of employment. The method is really is quite simple and effective and I plan on using this again when I am in China.

Of course, this is not a patented system but if anyone tries this method, please do let me know how it went so I can improve on it some more.

[fitzgud]

Would I be presumptuous in assuming you were the only teacher employed at that time?

[Shan-Shan]

One teacher at my institution does this for every class:

1. pass out downloaded scripts from movies/tv

2. gets students to recite the scripts

3. gets students to perform from script in front of peers


Apparently his classes are well liked. You don't need a CELTA/DELTA or other qualifications to do this kind of class. A thumb and half-decent brain is about all.

ESL in China need not be a joke, but it is.

[tw]

Thanks for all the contributions so far. Hopefully, some time down the road from now, say, ten years, when some newbie who is ready to pull the hair out of his/her head comes in here, he/she will find this thread.

Unfortunately, some of the ideas are impractical for some teachers (me being one) due to such factors as huge class size, bolted-down furniture, classroom without a computer and projector, no teaching material, school making it a hassle to get photocopies done, etc.