Job Discussion Forums

[chryanvii]

This is my first semester teaching University. So far, my impression is that the Chinese students like teachers that are good storytellers, can tell good jokes, and make them laugh. If you are not overwhelmingly engaging and give them what they want, then they will do other things like talk to each other in chinese or do homework for other classes.

In fact, I had one student come up to me when she saw me walking outside of class who had the nerve to tell me I was boring! Only in China, I guess. I would never say this to a teacher in America. They do seem to toss that word around a whole lot here.

That is the problem. I might learn over time how to get them to have fun with each other, but I myself have been told that I'm a very serious guy. I have an objective to give them useful information during the class that is practical: in fact, this is what most teachers in America do.

I only remember having one teacher in America that was overwhelmingly "funny". That would go off the top to get students to laugh and enjoy his class. But the majority of the teachers I had were, well, just teachers.

So my question is: do you have to be a good storyteller/comedian/entertainer in order to work in China? Shouldn't they just change all the job descriptions to this? I have heard stories about teachers who just bring in their guitars to entertain the students, or just sing songs with them. My problem with this is that you don't learn very much from this kind of thing.

I have started to bribe them to speak with candy, which they seem to like. But man, talk about giving a dog a treat to do a trick for you.

How about when you catch students doing other things in your classes? How do you "lay down the law" with them? Is it okay to tell them that it is unacceptable to do this, and if you catch them doing it, you will give them a participation grade of 0? Or should I just learn to drop my guard and not care about what they do?

Thanks for you constructive advice.

[slareth]

Depends on the school, but from what I have experienced, it pays to find a middle ground.

Some schools only want English speaking chimps to entertain the little emperors. Some want real teachers. However, being only a strict teacher will likely fail here as well.

I don't have a clear answer for you, there are too many variables. Age, current level of English for your students, class size, employer expectations, student expectations, you ability to find employment elsewhere, etc.....

Furthermore, they may actually learn from singing songs (not as the only tool though). I do not use this in any of my classes but I believe it may help children learn to speak with a rhythm and stress syllables. Also, it may help some come out of their shell and actually speak in the first place.

Need more information to help you.

[vikeologist]

I'm also serious about actually teaching in the class, though it certainly helps to be funny. Every now and then a class isn't achieving what I want it to, so I can just bring the funny. Still a bad class, but the students leave happy.

For sure, the students' perceptions of classes may be 'was it fun?' while I'm assessing it against 'what behaviour did they acquire'? The two objectives are not incompatible though.

It's always easy reading short forum posts to jump to conclusions, so forgive me if I'm about to be unfair here. It rather sounds as though you're focussed on what you're teaching, but it doesn't sound as though your students are 'learning'. Perhaps you think that's their fault. I disagree.

Games are a good way of reinforcing vocabulary. People acquire language more when they're relaxed and not stressed. How exactly would 'laying down the law' help them to learn? That doesn't mean getting your guitar out and singing 'No Woman No Cry'. Be serious; just be serious about being fun and effective.

[wiganer]

Coming across as funny or being a funny person can be an important asset for a teacher. Only certain people can pull it off and then they can do it without effort. It helps in regards keeping the attention of a class because they are going to listen to what you are saying if you can make them laugh than if you can't. What I want to know is - why can't you be a good comedian/storyteller/entertainer and teach as well?

I have had students give me 'advice' on how to teach better and tell me my classes were 'boring' because I wasn't showing enough films! This seems to be part of teaching university students here in China - they think it is their right to criticise and I am happy to discuss teaching methodology with fellow professionals, but with students who want to watch more 'prison break' Oh please!

As for keeping discipline, I find it very easy here. You have to crack the whip and show them who is the boss from time to time. Sometimes it doesn't work, the worst class I ever was an all girls class at a private university. You can't win them all.

[choudoufu]

[dakelei]

This is your first time teaching university but are you totally new to China? I taught in China for about 5 years at various levels before moving to a university job and can honestly say I was quite disappointed in some ways. (But quite happy in others.) My expectations were simply too high. If you are teaching writing you can be at least somewhat "serious." If you are teaching "English Conversation" or "Spoken English" or whatever the heck your particular institution calls it, well, it's a bit trickier. You can be "serious" of course but you will definitely be labelled as "boring" and if that bothers you, well, too bad. Grow thicker skin. One truth about teaching in general is somewhat universal and I was a teacher at home so I can say this: You are not going to please everyone. There are students who want, need, desire etc. a serious teacher. There are others who don't. One of the biggest disappointments I have personally experienced as a university teacher here is just how YOUNG many of the the students behave. My first year English major students are mostly 20, 21 years old and still often behave like giggly little girls. (95% of my students are female.) At the beginning of the term I was very blunt that I'm sick of the "giggly, shy little Chinese girl" stuff and they're simply too old to behave that way and it mostly, but not completely, hit home. You, like me and many other FT's before you, have ideas in your head that university is a serious place where girls and boys transition into serious young men and women and, sadly, that is often not the case here. There are other realities at play here as well. I'm going to estimate that close to half my students didn't choose to be English majors completely of their own volition and therefore lack the passion of one who is studying what they really WANT to study. I've no idea if that's true where you are but you may want to ask your students about this. If the students aren't quite serious themselves about English they'll just get annoyed if you are. For many uni students their weekly class with an FT is some of the sadly limited real "fun" they have. Yes, that's pathetic but it's often true. Ask the students about their lives and you'll be close to suicidal about how utterly boring and joyless they are. I know I am.

[creztor]

chryanvii, get used to it. I don't know if you've taught elsewhere, but it seems to be common in China and definitely in other places. In all fairness, when I was a student I liked professors who at least tried to appear "human". A good laugh now and then is fine, as long as the students know they are there to learn. This is where the problem lies. Some students don't give a damn and class is nothing but a joke to them. They expect a 24/7 clown and aren't interested in learning. Of course it will depend on the type of institution you work in. Low-tier universities will be worse than well respected ones. However, the truth is most EFL teachers work in places that are nothing more than cash cows, and this is obvious by looking at the quality of their students. I am sure I'll get flamed for saying that My suggestion? Lighten up and enjoy your classes more. Perhaps try the approach that if you can get the students interested with a little humour, then they will become more interested and will work harder. Give them what they want, a little laugh, and then slip in what they need, some knowledge. Those who don't care will slide by and be happy they took your class. The few are really motivated, and by providing some fun I think you will help some students become interested and wanting to learn, will enjoy your classes and work harder because you are "human". My 2 cents anyway.

[mat chen]

Teaching English in China is too serious to be taken seriously.

[flyingscotsman]

I USED to be a serious teacher. Now I lost control of my students and the administration cares not. part of the problem is so many teachers quit and the current replacement teacher who teaches class a ( after I refused to teach the combined classes) gives them no work at all. He lets them go to the computer lab and "do research" by watching tv , QQ, and play games for 2 periods. And when they are not doing that he takes them for nature walks outside.

My class sees this and they don't want to do any work at all now.

So now, my class started at 13 students, mushroomed to 45, down to 26 now, and there is no control at all.

I am supposed to teach them marketing but it doesn't seem to work. Too much noise, I'm tired of yelling at them, the fao cow yells at them but they openly laugh at her ( as do we all ).

So. I have become the Dancing Monkey! ( or Frank Zappa wrote a song called DANCING FOOL).

[Riviello]

I agree. Teaching in China for most people is for the birds. Quite frankly, I do not believe most of what I read on this site about homework etc...

I could get married to a local lady and care/pay for her 10 year old child's upbringing though. I asked her - Where is the real father? Why doesn't he pay for this stuff?

She just smiled and said MC. I said - MC? What do you mean? My name is not MC Hammer. She smiled again and chuckled.

[nickpellatt]

I think I am serious and fun at the same time. The two characteristics arent mutually exclusive. EFL is an interactive and communicative teaching experience after all. Some of this 'may' be down to experience.

I am going to class soon. Today I am teaching second conditional statements. Yep, a lesson with a grammar point. How fun is that? (Im guessing readers are saying 'probably not fun', but its how you teach it that matters. I am not the finished article as a teacher BTW, but this is how this lesson works, and I hope I can show (with a quick walkthrough, that even teaching grammar is fun).

First a game of hangman to elicit the name 'Beyonce'.

Quick brainstorm on who she is, with students shouting at words I write on the board.

CD time. They get to listen to Beyonce sing 'If I were a boy'.

Gap fill time, song titles and some phrasal verbs and other words are missing. (play once, twice, three times for students to be sure).

Feedback to highlight missing words, clarify phrasal verbs.

Go back to the title. Students confirm what type of grammatical structure it is 'If I were a boy, I'd roll out of bed in the morning' is 2nd conditional.

2 min refresher on how we make 2nd conditional, when we use it. This is student led.

Dictacte statements such as 'meet lady gaga', 'win the lotto', teach this class', 'to be blind'.

Students work in small groups to turn the statement into correct second conditional statements. Students then discuss what they would do if they met lady gaga, if they won the lotto etc.

Feedback, and then there is normally time to sing the song to finish the class.

This lesson objective is 'students confirm second conditional structures and practise the use of said structure'. Second objective is students practise listening and speaking skills.

Serious objective, completed in a fun way, using a song. I think this is a serious lesson, and I have been doing this one for about 18 months. Generally, it normally goes down as being a fun lesson too. You can do both.

Theres loads of fun ways to present serious lessons. Songs are great as long as they are used for a reason. Mr Bean video clips are great for introducing certain topics and elliciting vocabulary too.

[CJD]

I just do whatever I like and the students like. Doing fun and easy stuff makes your job really easy and the students like it too.

You can tell that the students (my university students) don't really care that much when they've been studying English for 8 years and still can't hold a decent conversation.

But if you're teaching English majors or people who really want to improve their English and are willing to study for hours every day, it's probably best to be fairly serious and teach them a lot of useful things that they don't already know.

[kazpat]

[the_otter]

[nickpellatt]

@otter

I use this with intermediate Germans teens, or adult Chinese (again Int or higher). Its only a quick walk through, but try it/change it as you need for your class/student ability/lesson time.

I ALWAYS leave the song title as a gap fill. In this song, its the first clause she sings. This goes on the board as do the rest of the missing words. When this is completed, I wipe the board clean of everything but the title, the first missing gapfill, 'If I were a boy'. To this I add the third line from the song, 'I would roll out of bed in the morning' whilst asking the students what kind of grammar is that?

Without fail they will identify it, some may say 'if clause', some may say 'conditional sentence'. They WILL know it for sure.

I ask them to help me and tell me how we make it, point to it and ask what part of speech each part is. And write it on the board...it should look something like this;

If I were a boy, I would roll out of bed
if + subject + past participle ....., subject + would + bare infinitive .....

I normally ask them to tell me which conditional it is? first, second or third. Again, they will know it 99% of the time. I also ask them to tell me when its used, what its for. They normally know.

**if you dont know....
first conditional is like this 'if you heat water, it boils' in simple terms, its a regular, surefire thing.
third conditional is 'if I had fallen in love, I would have got married'. Are you married? No. Have you fallen in love? No...this refers to past actions, cannot be changed, and so are totally impossible.
second is as per example....an unlikely or improbable situation in the future. Students do know all this. if you look the grammar and tense is slightly different, the construction changes for each conditional.

I dont labour over this. I ask them to tell me. For some its easy, for others it refreshes what they know but have forgotten. I leave this on the board so they have the form to copy.

I then dictate the sentences. Meet Lady gaga, win the lotto etc. (I always use the bare inf form of the verb when dictating. 'meet', 'win' etc.

The students then use the form which is still on the board as a guide or model to make the correct conditional statement when discussing in groups.

'If I met Lady GaGa, I would steal her meat dress and eat it'

'If I win the Lotto, I would buy a car'

Students are given a bit of free reign then to chat about each thing they would do, but I keep listening to make sure the grammar form is correct. I then ask students within the group....

'Student A, what did student B say about meeting Lady GaGa?'

Student A - 'Student B said, if she was meeting Lady GaGa, she would punch her'

I can then point back to the board, showing the grammar form, and get them to self correct.

Student A - 'Aaaaaah, If she met Lady GaGa, .......'

Works quite well...but may take a bit of fine tuning to get it right for your classes. Their responses are often fun, hell, you gear them towards giving fun, silly responses too. Plus they get to listen to a song, plus they may get to sing it. Serious lesson material, serious learning outcome, but fun lesson.

I dont have many lessons like this, but I am always trying to develop news ones, find new ones, or steal new lessons and have them work like this. Its not easy, but there is no reason why you cant teach grammar lessons or target language and package them up in fun lessons that both you and the students like. Songs are good for this...and earlier in this thread teachers who bring guitars to class were knocked. Im trying to get a teaching portfolio of several of these music lessons...all with target language or grammar points, lots of speaking activities for students, and hopefully fun lessons too. Songs etc are GREAT, if you can find a way to use them correctly. [/u]