Job Discussion Forums

zeke0606 · Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 6:43 pm Post subject: what?

This is typical of English teachers in general. Pick at each other until someone bleeds! I am ashamed of teachers with this attitude.

rusmeister -

You are way off my topic. Another typical English teacher ploy on these forums.
Are you on a search and destroy mission. I did those in Vietnam in 1969 and 1970 --- the war is over for me! You win, you are the winner! I cede everything to you.

Zeke

wildchild · Joined: 14 Nov 2005 Posts: 519 Location: Puebla 2009 - 2010

Hypocritus has arrived.

TheLongWayHome · Joined: 07 Jun 2006 Posts: 1016 Location: San Luis Piojosi

jwbhomer · Joined: 14 Dec 2003 Posts: 876 Location: CANADA

One criterion, two or more criteria.

fluffyhamster · Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 11:56 pm Post subject:

eslstudies · Joined: 17 Dec 2006 Posts: 1061 Location: East of Aden

My experience with East Asian students is that spelling [i.e, memorising words in this case] is a major strength. When a teacher is consistently in error, the loss of face for that teacher is permanent. This is the case even more so in ESL/EFL classes than with native speakers, who are happy to concede that no-one is perfect.

Some people say that they just teach spoken English, so spelling isn't an issue. Fair enough, if you're catering for the end of the market that wants to talk to their foreign friends about how the Dodgers are doing [doin', right?], but more serious students need more serious teaching. If that's boring, and doesn't put enough bums on seats to satisfy the DOS, that's tough.

Hire popular entertainers by all means, but don't confuse them with proper teachers.

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

Hear, hear!

wildchild · Joined: 14 Nov 2005 Posts: 519 Location: Puebla 2009 - 2010

Hear ye, that is. "Here, here" is a deviant form of the original. I'm so proper, my mother tongue is Proto World. Shocked

jwbhomer · Joined: 14 Dec 2003 Posts: 876 Location: CANADA

Amen.

gaijinalways · Joined: 29 Nov 2005 Posts: 2279

rusmeister · Joined: 15 Jun 2006 Posts: 867 Location: Russia

soapdodger · Joined: 19 Apr 2007 Posts: 203

If you can't do it - teach it. Simple really.

zeke0606 · Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 9:53 am Post subject: what?

It seems really odd to me that my OP has been lost somewhere and this deatribe has taken over. Why is that? It seems that only wildchild and TheLongWayHome read my OP......

Thank you rusmeister --- you have always been as sharp as a tack and a great flint for me - weather or not I posted a reply. Sometimes I just argue with you in front of my computer screen rereading your posts.

You have spelled out what I was saying. After all the years in front of a class and behind a desk facing teachers, I have found that each class at each meeting has a different psychological personality and therefore needs to be addressed in a different manner. And I have found that as students are allowed to just talk - mistakes and all - they will naturally improve. They tend to start 'hearing' the correct usage and structure and everything else. Not every student of course, but many.

If, and only IF the students continue to practice the verbal language they have studied, then the grammar sticks too.

I read one poster's line at the bottom of his post and it went something like this -- I don't need to spell check anything, you will do it for me -- that is a poor paraphrase, but close. Oh so true!

Zeke

jwbhomer · Joined: 14 Dec 2003 Posts: 876 Location: CANADA

fluffyhamster · Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 5:54 pm Post subject:

I'm really not sure what the OP's point is (or even was). It is surely at the very least contradictory to observe that adverts and posts are often badly written (whilst making similar errors yourself), and doubly so to then go on to say that attention to detail is ultimately not important.

The people placing adverts here and doing the hiring (and firing) are often not native speakers, so can be excused some errors (which are hopefully not indicative of the way their entire outfit is run); and the people posting discussion on Dave's are often in hurry, drunk, stupid, trolling or just plain crazy (so again, most respondents don't bother picking up on errors and hope that such posters present themselves better when formally teaching - and let's not forget that teaching is usually considered a formal responsibility); then, we all make errors sometimes, and some people can apparently always be motivating, interesting teachers despite their flaws (especially if they are ensuring that the students gain a good command of spoken English, without continual recourse to the printed text, IPA etc). I very much doubt however that the majority of those teachers with good spelling and grammar are so obssessed with detail that they are neglecting classroom dynamics etc (if anything, they will pay as much if not greater attention to these less formal details because it is in their nature already to do so, and also because they have mastered the formal aspects to a greater extent and will thus not need to worry about or be "distracted" by whatever "problems" as and when they arise).