Job Discussion Forums

[Capergirl]

Q: How do you deal with cheating and/or plagiarism in the ESL/EFL classroom?

Although I haven't had any students try to cheat on a test or exam (yet), my students are bad for cheating on CALL exercises...no matter how closely I watch them. It is a minor problem when compared to plagiarism, however. This past week, my students (intermediate-level young adults) handed in writing assignments that were obviously plagiarized from the internet. I read some of the sentences from the essays and asked my budding authors to explain them to me. Needless to say, they hadn't a clue what half the words meant, nor have they ever composed anything nearly as eloquent in class. I talked with them about plagiarism and let them know that not only do teachers frown upon it, but it is also illegal in Canada. They reminded me that I had said it was okay to get information from the internet for their essays. I said, "Yes, but you have to put it in your own words. You cannot copy someone else's work and then attach your name to it." They said, "Oh".

Have any of you had experiences with cheating/plagiarism your classes and if so, how did you handle it?

[aaronschwartz]

"Do Chinese Students Cheat?" on the China Job Related Forum hashed this one out ad nauseum. This is one of those historical MW posts with Dragon.

[aaronschwartz]

Another classic MW/Dragon thread in that forum is "What about Plagiarism in Chinese Schools?" It got so hot it got locked!

[Wolf]

I say from day one that I won't accept it. i go through what plagarism is. I give out 0s on assignments until they get the picture (I give out little assignments every week in my writing classes, and big assingments are mentioned in weekly venom - filled antiplagarism speeches.)

I belive that I had pretty good sucess (not perfect but not bad for the PRC either.) "Zero" tolerance from day one.

I got stuff copied from the net as well. I once got a movie review instead of a book report (zero), and when you load an English webpage in China sometimes there are ramdom Chinese characters on the screen - I've got assignments with them as well (zero.) I once got six copies of the same assignment - four word for word, one partial, and one with a few words changed (but same mistakes). A bit of math for you: 6*0=0.

I made it clear to my uni that that's what I'll do. They can just go over my head and change marks, but that's out of my hands, I did my part in trying to stamp out this unwholsome practice (how are Chinese academics to compete with the world if they never learn not to plagarize?)

Yeah, we talk about this in the China forum a lot. I'm one of the lucky ones - check out the exam proctoring stories (I don't give in class exams. There's no point - I just give a final research paper to write.)

[dmb]

cheating is a way of life in the Gulf, it's called helping my friend.
I recently came across cheating in the 21st century. My students were taking photograhs of their papers with their mobile phones and sending them to their friends.

[Lucy Snow]

I once knew a professor in the US who called plagarism the "national sport of Japan."

I had a friend who was teaching at a university here in Hungary, and she said that the problem is partly cultural. Students feel it would be presumptuous to change the wording of someone who is older or an expert in their field, so they just copy everything down word for word. Her students never really understood why she found plagarism unacceptable.


As for cheating during exams, I tried to always reserve the largest classroom I could get and seat the students as far away from each other as possible. During the exam I never took my eyes off of them.

I think Wolf has the best solution--make it clear you won't tolerate it, fail the students who do it anyway, and if the administration changes the grades, well, you did your best.

[aaronschwartz]

[Stephen Jones]

Yea, this helping my friend is actually one of the more endearing aspects of Saudi society.

Makes life hell for the teacher/examiner though. I prefered the Egyptian and Pakistani primary kids I had in Riyadh, who got annoyed about being copied from until I told them the trick. Put down all the wrong answers, wait till the other bugger's copied them, and then tell me after both papers have been handed in so you get a new one.


At JIC we ban mobile phones in exams. If they bring one to the exam room they get a zero.

[aaronschwartz]

[dmb]

Stephen, how do you ban mobiles at JIC? The only way I can think of is to give a body search on entry to the exam room

[Capergirl]

Banning cell phones shouldn't be that hard, unless you have a very large group and it is difficult to monitor them at all times during testing. My students are well-aware of my "no cell phone" policy in class (test or not) and they turn off their phones and put them in their backpacks before class commences. These students, who are from the Gulf area, have also told me that cheating by cell phone is very popular in their native country, something that wouldn't have even occurred to me had they not told me.

@Wolf...I like your zero tolerance policy. (6*0=0...you're too funny, bud ) This is actually the first time I've encountered blatent plagiarism in my class so I tried not to go into a tizzy about it. I defined plagiarism for the students and informed them that plagiarized work would not be accepted. They are currently re-writing their papers. They are probably a bit more concerned about my disapproval than students normally would be because I am required to hand over a progress report to the Coast Guard about their classroom performance. Their future career is on the line, so there can be no messing around. However, from now on, plagiarism will be discussed with all new students at the onset of their ESL program and I will institute a similar "zero" tolerance policy.

[Stephen Jones]

If they are seen to have a mobile phone after they have come in the room, then they are asked to hand in their paper and leave.

This time I wasn't proctoring but last semester two students managed to pick up their phones when I was standing right next to them, so they both got zeros.

Anybody with a ghutra is looked on with extreme suspicion ever since we caught somebody with an earphone inside a year or two ago.

[guty]

Use this experience positively, sometimes the only way to get certain classes to do groupwork is give a test, then leave the room. Students who would never do pairwork suddenly flourish

[bnix]

One of my favorite examples in Saudi was during a multiple question exam.Each question had four possible answers.The brightest student decided to "telegraph" the answers to his buddies by stamping his foot once for "a"...twice for "b",etc.Unfortunately, he did not have a good explanation as to why he kept stamping his foot'Oh my teacher...my foot..."
Plagiarism?Once in The Czech Republic,a university student proudly presented me with a copy of O.Henry's "Gift of the Magi". trying to palm it off as her own short story.What,teacher?You mean you have read this one.Oh......sorry!!

[Capergirl]

@bnix...Hey, he stole that stomping thing from Mr. Ed! Actually, your story reminded me of the big controversy in England not too long ago when one of the contestants of the game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire almost got away with a big cheating conspiracy. The cheating was accomplished by someone coughing when the contestant said the correct answer during his deliberation. Hmmm....I don't think it's A....don't think it's B...*cough*....you know, I think I'm gonna go with B. I watched a special on it...pretty blatant cheating.

My Arabic students have actually admitted to cheating and also to helping their buddies cheat on some of their tests in high school. They call it "teamwork".