Job Discussion Forums

[Ger]

At a university in the New Territories, when I signed up for Second Language Acquisition, the name of a Welsh professor was listed as the lecturer. On the first night of the course, he showed up saying that he had secured research funding and wouldn't be teaching the course. He introduced F as the lecturer of the course.

F is communicatively competent but not grammatically so. F tried to cancel one of our lectures "because you are so busy". I raised a question about reimbursement of tuition fees or a make-up lesson in lieu of a cancelled lecture. It conveniently fell on deaf ears. F decided the lecture would be cancelled.

I emailed F and the Head of Dept with my question. F sent a mass email to the cohort to the effect that, {lecture no be cancelled, someone complain.} Then the cohort sent mass hate mail to the one who complained (everyone got the hate mail). I wrote F that I had not complained, that I had simply asked a question about my entitlement. She said that I had complained. The hate mail continued about "how shock classmate are that complainer no raise objection during lesson". I stayed quiet.

I submitted my first assignment for F to grade. One grade (B) in type-written text, with a pen-written plus added. I wrote for clarification of my grade because I had worked really hard on the assignment. The correspondence between F and I is outlined below (you're welcome to read it).

I have asked whether I could have an objective second expert in SLA to check my work and grade it, but it was advised to me that a meeting with F to discuss the problem instead of emails would be better.

Further, the department of English seems to be having difficulty finding qualified staff to teach courses for the MA AEL The department is trying to find part-timers to teach electives in the first term 2008.

The difficulty in finding qualified staff is probably how F got the job, given her obvious Chinglish, failure to give me specifications or grading criteria when assignments were set and before assignments were due. I had to get assignment specifications from a classmate who had completed the psycholinguistics course in the previous term! Below is our correspondence. F is acting as judge and jury in her own case here.

Dear Ger

Your work has been fairly and objectively marked as "B". As I mentioned
in the comments, I appreciated your hard work and marked a "B+" to
encourage you to work also seriously for the second one. And as also
suggested, please write within the range of words limit, and not to
cover what isn't needed.
Regarding your doubt about bias, I'm glad you asked. I would like to
clarify here I have no interest in copying your way of treating others.
I have my own set of teaching principles which include being fair and
respecting my students. Enjoy writing your second assignment!
Best,
F

> Dear F
>
> In the absence of a response from you as to my questions about the areas in
> which (criteria), and the number of marks that, my first assignment lost for
> each criterion, could you assure me that my work has been fairly and
> objectively marked, without bias or subjective retaliation for my having
> previously asked a question about my entitlement for reimbursement or a make up
> lesson for a lecture proposed to be cancelled by you.
>
> Yours sincerely
>
> Ger
>
>
> Dear F
>
> Thank you for your answer.
>
> Please could you let me know for what I lost marks on my first assignment?
>
> Could you tell me how many marks I lost for each criterion?
>
> Yours sincerely
>
>Ger
>
> 引用 F Wong <[email protected]>:
>
>
>> B+
>>
>>
>>> Dear F
>>>
>>> Could you confirm what grade you gave me?
>>>
>>> Yours sincerely
>>>
>>> Ger
>>>
>>> 引用 Fwong <[email protected]>:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> Dear All,
>>>>
>>>> I've finished grading the first assignment (sorry it took me longer that
>>>> expected). You could pick it up from the pigeon hole named "MA (AEL)
>>>> student" outside the general office. I think the building closes at 10pm at night. Could Venom correct me if it is
>>>> not? Thanks.
>>>>
>>>> Regarding the second assignment, it's sensible to remind you here the
>>>> length is between 2000 and 3000. It's a reasonable big range and I
>>>> expect you write within this range. Could you please mark down the
>>>> number of words at the end of your article (before the reference as
>>>> reference is not counted)?
>>>>
>>>> Enjoy working on the second one!
>>>>
>>>> F

[puiwaihin]

I think any teacher would feel annoyed that a student questioned the integrity of the grade they gave. Some grading is going to be subjective, and as long as it is not grossly unfair, students would do best to not directly or indirectly accuse an instructor of being biased.

A single B+ when you think you should have gotten an A? Not really something worth taking it up with the administration. If everyone else got A's, and always do, and you are getting C's, then you might have something.

Perhaps F. is grading on a curve.

Honestly, I would think you should apologize to her (whether she is being snotty or not) and then explain that your behavior was because you are accustomed to having a rubric. You could ask for one on future assignments, saying, "it would help me if...", but I wouldn't push that.

Keep going like this and most likely you will just make a bad situation worse. Instead, keep your head down and don't make an enemy of your instructor.

[Serious_Fun]

[ChrisRose]

Trust me in this particular situation........ eat shit.

I have had grades miscalculated / reported. The process to have them reconciled is both tremendous and arduous.

Remember the old saying, "You'll catch more flies with jam than salt."

[prufrockwakes]

difficult to cal without being there and hearing tone,,,, but it sounds like the teacher is being lazy/arrogant. Are youteh *Venom* referred to? THAT is bizarre, if so. Hang in there.