Job Discussion Forums

ghost · Joined: 30 Jan 2003 Posts: 1693 Location: Saudi Arabia

In general, most of the students and people I interact with in China do not like reading books, which they find 'boring' in general.

You go into most Chinese homes, and in the living room, pride of place is taken up by a giant plasma T.V. with nary a book, magazine or newspaper in sight.

Fortunately, in the West, there is talk of books and print in general making a revival, since people are becoming aware of the nefarious effects of too much 'screen time' which is taking over these days, including reduced attention spans, inability or unwillingness to socialize with others - or reduction of those, and - very importantly - the fact (proven) that screen time from a young age is a serious contributor to myopia and the unfortunate effects of becoming short sighted at a young age.

I have some students, just 11 years old who already suffer from heavy myopia - around minus 5 diopters! Directly related to spending their free time peering at screens a few inches from their nose 12 hours a day...in many cases...sad. Get out and look into the distance, is the advice of many eye specialists.

Ghost in China

wildgrace · Joined: 17 Nov 2010 Posts: 55

I like the idea of peer marking although you will have teach them what that is. From teaching oral English they drop plurals and articles often as they do not exist in Chinese.

I once tried to have my students do the oral version of the 5 paragraph essay - an oral report. What I learned from this. They do not seem to know what that is or how to do it. So you would need to start from scratch.

I like the focus of one paragraph because there is no point in writing a paper if you cannot write a paragraph. In essence a paragraph is a mini essay with introduction, body, and conclusion - so getting that concept down in a paragraph will prepare them for the whole paper.

I speak two languages, English and French. My second language is French, and my grammar and writing ability in French is not good. I remember being overwhelmed with the red ink on my French papers when I attended a French writing class.

My suggestion is to teach them how to correct one error a week. So first week plurals, second week articles and plurals, third week subject verb agreement, articles and plurals. Basically slowly teach them how to edit their papers or a practice paper (or peer reviewed papers), and add to it each week.

In addition you will be slowly teaching how to write an essay - brainstorm topics, outline topic, write introduction paragraph, write 1st body paragraph, write 2nd body paragraph, and so on - and by the end of the semester, hopefully the small and progressive steps have helped them to learn to write.

Finally, I would have them read something of their choosing in English in class for about 5 - 10 minutes. I think it would be helpful for them to see how native English writers put words together on the page.