Job Discussion Forums

[geaaronson]

I am in my second year of teaching at a private university here in southern Mexico and have noted an incredible difference in the quality of students from last year to this year`s current crop of seniors.
It is my job to teach the seniors. This is a position that is reserved for native speakers, the only one in the department and I am the sole extrajenero at the school with the exception of a few Belizean students.
I was a bit disappointed last year in that crop of students. Of 14 seniors only two ever made an effort to hold a conversation with me, and another two after all classes were finished. These are students who are language trainees who will hopefully go on to teach both French and English.

The statistics between the two classes are likewise disappointing. Of the 14 2011 graduates only one get his PET certification in his junior year, and a second, at the end of his senior year.

Of the 23 2012 current group, 5 have already gotten their PET certificates in their junior year and a 6th got his TKT!!

Even when we administered the same PET-a-like exam to both groups last May, the juniors outperformed the seniors on an average of one point.

Many, if not all of my present seniors, (class of 2012) are conversant. The last year students were not.

When it came to French, their testing was similar. Only 5 of the 2011 graduates received certificates from a French national program, whereas 9 of the juniors did.

This is a considerable diffence in abilities. Has anyone else out there experienced such a wide difference in comparable groups?

[naturegirl321]

I've seen it. I don't know why it happens. It happened to me personally. The class I was supposed to graduate was incredibily smart and people had been accepted to top unis around the US. The class I actually graduated had a super high dropout rate, lots of pregnancies and most people were going to get an AA degree if that.

[LongShiKong]

Find out who taught them. Believe it or not, teachers do make a difference.

[GMark]

This is a phenomenon which is not confined to English students; I've seen it in industry and government as well. An entire cohort can be afflicted with attitude problems, underachieving, and general chaos throughout their daily lives.

'tis the work of the Devil...

[geaaronson]

and the next question is why does this occur? I sense the correct answer is that the group dynamics are not good. Perhaps the class or group leader has a negative attitude that infects the group as a whole, or he/she is not able to motivate his peers, nor adjudicate differences of opinion or resolve personality clashes.
I have seen great group dynamics and those that were poor at best. and yes, some groups just are too troublesome. But then it is the responsibility of the teacher to isolate these negativities. Sometimes it is possible, other times it is a hopeless cause for any teacher.

[fladude]

It happens for a lot of reasons. Some people are not as smart as other people. Some people are naturally better at foreign languages (I am not unfortunately). Some people, and this is probably the most important, have home lives where their parents prioritize education and teach them to read and write at an early age. Evidence shows that the years 2-5 can have a huge impact on a child's development. Children who are taught to read at that age have a huge advantage over children who are not, regardless of "who teaches them" later in life. It is almost impossible to catch up someone who is far behind by the time they reach middle school.