Job Discussion Forums

[englishgibson]

Would you teach'em?

Would you refuse'em?

Would you take a midnight run?

Would you be creative?

Cheers and beers to all hard working laowais in China

[Shan-Shan]

Personally, I prefer not being given "a plan" or course materials. Schools here are guided by brains without a single cell of TEFL awareness; thus their attempts to create materials and a curriculum for English programs only interfere in the success of such programs.

Better to rely on my own experience, training and ability to develop materials myself. Mr. Wang or Professor Lee are only capable of obstruction and reduction of quality.

[DistantRelative]

Truthfully, if you've been in China for a couple years, by now you should have enough material put away to teach a month or 2 without stressing about it.

Zhuhao,

Shawn

[mandu]

i think being given a plan is a good idea,it gives you a base to start from then you can add your own ideas into the lesson

[7969]

i've yet to have a school give me a plan. just as well, i prefer to do it on my own anyway.

[7969]

i've yet to have a school give me a plan. just as well, i prefer to do it on my own anyway.

[PattyFlipper]

[Anda]

If I get a plan I use it for five minutes at the start of the class and then get on with teaching material that at least has some interest in it for students. This way I keep management happy plus the students. So is life!

[Kootvela]

Having one group would be a paradise for creativity. Having seven plus working on Saturdays is just what seems right for a plan with little deviation.

[englishgibson]

one small group, i'd say..hate working weekends though

Anda, i miss your fine avatar...i agree with you on that getting students interested in our lessons, however i must say that whatever one does has got to be academically useful

plans for such courses could be a real headache, since employers often think of money only..they don't tell you much with respect to ages, the length of courses, or the students' level at times..creating a plan under those circumstances may not be as easy

then, there're some rather peculiar academic materials your employers may provide you with..often the employers do not think of any supplementaries to the course books too..run, reason or take it are options, but you've got to realize you'll be the one standing in front of those 25 or so young learners having their own expectations of you

given the circumstances that we're the experienced "experts", i'd agree with posters that say their own material is easiest to work with, but still i'd be worried who i'd give it to and what they'd want from me with repsect to students

by the way, some ch-employers have previously "COPIED" my academic material before, so if you want to keep it to yourselves and your students, do consider how you use your office computers, printers and the chinese ever high quality copy machines

cheers and beers to our winter courses, but no cheers or beers to this wintery weather that keeps my turtles and me so very cold we are drinking WARM BEER

[Anda]

I try to teach my students how to construct their own sentences from the words they already usually have instead of having them remember standardwhole sentence answers. Chinese teachers for the most part teach vocabulary and word meanings but not usage.

I am usually employed as an oral or conversation teacher so if my students can't string a sentence together without having to think for five minutes then I see little point in teaching an extended vocabulary.


All my teaching centers on sentence and paragraph construction the rest I leave to the Chinese teachers.

[englishgibson]

Good point with that "constructing their own sentences" with words they already know. I agree that foreign language students should learn how to use what they've learnt and that goes especially for this country 'cause students often learn so much in classrooms and then they lack the practical knowledge of it.

However, keeping the practical use of the language mostly to the foreign teachers of the language seems to have created problems. Then, leaving the theoretical part of it with all the new words, their explanation, the grammar etc, have created yet another problem. Students learn the language from their Chinese teachers incorrectly, and "unteaching" is more difficult than teaching, in my opinion. It's like with bad habits that a kid learns and once it learns something then that's it and it's hard to get it out of the kid's head.

The education of English language should've allowed foreign teachers a greater roll in China and today, we wouldn't have such problems as we do and neither would the ministry of education where some big shot 30 year-old Chinese with a great knowledge of English language thanks to having been to a great school with a great foreign expert leading him onto the graduation all the way. Instead, we have some lovely officials that allow Ch-english academic materials and exams, poor English teachers as well as their academic leaders, and little creativity in classrooms.

Our students are getting two ways of learning English from their teachers, one is from their Chinese teachers and one from the foreign teachers. Language learning is not like one country with two systems, in my opinion.

I believe that there're many people that've wanted to learn English and 'cause of these kinds of confusions in the system and teaching techniques many have given up. I mean, how would you feel in a classroom with an Arabic teacher for example, when you've already gotten the basics from teacher George somewhere in Texas.

Winter Courses or Summer Courses, they all have their roles and so do we. Hopefully, we can motivate those suckers into it rather than scare'em and one day, again hopefully, they'll thank us for it.

Cheers and beers to our meaningful English courses as well as cheers and beers to the ones that've no clue to what to do..just have a cold one