Job Discussion Forums

[Timer]

I'm interested in a job that will involve teaching Maths English and Business English to High School students who want to enter a university overseas.

Now I've been told I'm not actually teaching maths; the students know it they just don't know it in English (if that makes sense). I am terrible at maths but I'm willing to give it a shot. I know very little about business as well but English is English, right? I'll be following a set curriculum but I want to get an idea of what to expect.

Has anyone taught Maths English (again, not actual maths!) and/or Business English to high schoolers? What is it like? How much depth did you go into on each subject? What were your lesson plans like? Am I going to be sent to jail because I don't know my times tables?

I appreciate any feedback.

[wangdaning]

You will need to teach the basic vocab for maths. Starting with +-x/. Going from there you will want to go into basic algebra. There is so much vocab involved that it is hard to really push the students.

Business English, well you really want to get them familiar with business structure and some basic laws (Keyes was an idiot but he is what is taught in Western business) and concepts. Structure of a company, economic policy...but this all requires again so much vocab that it gets insane.

I have not ever taught either (besides teaching a few weeks of students that failed business), but I have reviewed the material of both. It is rather vocab intensive because they have either learned or you cannot go into the grounds.

[Timer]

MOD EDIT

The guy who interviewed me said the students know the maths, they just don't know the English vocab that goes with it. The job was advertised as an ESL position and my resume clearly states I have no qualifications to teach maths. They seem to think I can do the job, so I am willing to try.

Also I never said anything about the students having little knowledge of English. Apparently their English is adequate.

[TexasHighway]

I don't know why you would consider teaching subjects which you admitedly know little or nothing about. It doesn't seem quite fair to your students or yourself. They must be paying you really well as to me, it sounds like the teaching job from hell. Otherwise, there are a lot of decent esl jobs in China you should feel more comfortable and qualified teaching.

[Timer]

[Insubordination]

I've done both, but I taught Chinese Pre-Foundation year students in Australia. I found that I wound up enjoying both subjects.

I'm also bad at maths and had forgotten a lot of the concepts. Fortunately, I didn't have to select the materials. The course had already been designed. I just taught them the terminology and pronunciation, and they did the exercises in groups. Answers were provided. I made a weekly vocab/spelling test.

I made sure I was thoroughly familiar with everything beforehand (square roots and so on), so I knew what I was talking about. This required a bit of thinking and I had to call my Dad, who is a maths teacher, to remind me of a few concepts. However, I was perfectly frank with them that I was not a maths teacher.

Business English is easy. I recommend the 'Intelligent Business' series at every level. The 'activities' book is great too and makes classes quite interactive. Business Vocab in use (also at several levels) is a nice back up.

[waxwing]

[wangdaning]

I think the point is teaching the vocab, not the actual maths. Ask a Chinese person with good English and maths skills what the square root of 16 is. Sure they would know if you said it in Chinese, but that isn't the point. I would really enjoy having a teacher to teach me maths and business terminology in Chinese (even if they weren't great in either subject).