Job Discussion Forums

[Roger]

In most countries the world over local teachers do, and can, teach foreign languages. In Kenya it is Africans that teach the kids English, in Sweden it is Swedes that teach the kids English, and in Spain it is Spanish that teach the kids French or German. There seems to be one big exception - the Far East, Japan, KOrea and most notably China!
In these countries, local teachers are not properly wired to their subject, the English subject. Their own interest and curiosity are low, as are the curiosity and interest in English of their students. Much of this blase attitude has to do with parochialism and chauvinism, but no exclusively so! Another contributing factor may be the COnfucian social background with its strict hierarchy and set role models. Thinking is strictly in the box. Students cannot relate to anything from outside of their national cultures.
What's more, teachers do not learn the finer points of the art of teaching. It is a 'I-tell-you-what-you-must-learn' attitude readily accepted by meek students. There is no personal responsability for success nor for failure, another hindrance to acquiring English properly.
In CHinese schools students have to memorise even such inane stupidities as "I love my teacher!" (they used to memorise "I love the great Chairman .@%&" - which must be a truly mind-boggling experience turning facts and feelings upside down. How can such a brain-washed student learn anything of value?

So long as Chinese teachers do not change their teaching style they are not going to succeed. The lousy performance of most graduate students eloquently makes this point.

Why do Filippinos or Indians succeed much better? Why can Africans teach Portuguese, Arabic, French and English? There are several answers, yes, but you can't deny:
- In all these countries the teaching know-how is more sophisticated and less rote-centred;
- in all these countries, knowing a second language has practical uses that decide whether someone should get a better-paying job or not;
- in all these countries, chauvinism hardly influences the teaching of a foreign tongue (it seemed to do just that in the Philippines last year, but let's be realistic: unlike the Chinese, the Filippinos admit to having certain problems whereas Chinese don't even allow expats to prevail in any judgment).

China will always need to turn to its own resources, including human resources, but it should face the fact that the only people who can judge objectively in this matter are native English speakers, not Chinese English teachers!
Expazts should be widely enlisted to pass on Western teaching skills to Chinese teachers who then use these newly-acquired skills to properly train their own primary and secondary students!

Using expats for oral English is mere window dressing and a total waste of resources!

[chastenosferatu]

Roger you have a concise insight that I couldn't agree with more and I am but a neophyte. So I will digress and pass on what my Chinese students turned in for their homework last week. They are middle school students at a private middle school that I teach on the weekends and their assignment was "How would you improve the Chinese education system?"
Am I a *^&$ stirrer or what?
1. Teach skills not answers.
2. Use tests to assess a student's strengths and weaknesses not to rank them.
3. Improve the education of the teachers.
4. More student centered learning.
5. Do not take the poorer students and make them teachers, the teachers must come from at least the 50th percentile on the college entrance test.
6. Improve the quality of the homework assignments and decrease the quantity.
7. Teachers need to accept that they are not always right.
8. Students should be organized into classes based on their skills and ability.
9. Hire and promote teachers based on their skills, achievement and demonstrated ability, not on their guanxi.

They give me hope.

[J.D.]

I have no idea what happened. Sorry!

[chastenosferatu]

JD please tell me how your last post relates to the topic at hand... I will freely admit to being dense if you would be so gracious as to expound a little so I can connect the dots.
Brian

[randyj]

We should also not lose sight of the students' needs. What do the students need? They most often want to just pass examinations, whether the GaoKao, Band 4, Band 6, even Band 8. Chinese teachers understand their students and their students' needs better than the native English teacher. We should not criticize the Chinese English teachers too harshly for not being able to carry on a conversation with a native speaker. They often perform quite capably in their role as English teacher.

[chastenosferatu]

No one was criticising them for being unable to carry on a conversation with a native speaker. I, and my students, their students, are ripping them for their incomptence as a teacher of a subject and they can't get right themselves. Students who after six years or more of english still do not use adverbs and adjectives correctly (I speak English good.), students who don't use articles (Monkey is animal.), students who leave out verbs from their sentences (I in house.), students who use "very" to modify verbs (I very like football.), students who do not capitalize the first letter of a sentence, students who do not capitalize proper nouns, students who do not put punctuation at the end of a sentence, etc. etc. etc. ad nauseum.
These are the very basics, the fundamentals, if your students cannot perform these correctly after two or three years let alone six you are an incompetent teacher, end of story.

[J.D.]

And then they matriculate to uni where we are supposed to transform these students into speakers of English.

Your assignment is contained on the self-destruct tape, (if you are caught we dissown you, we never knew you), and when you finish listening the tape will self-destruct, just like you will if you are stupid enough to take this "mission impossible."

Good luck with your assignment and may we never see nor hear from you again, lost somewhere in the "hinterland" (quoted from the late great MW) of China.

And as a post script, be careful out there, it is dangerous out there. There are communists everywhere. I know so because Hubei Canuck says so.
And the enemy knows that you are coming, after all they invited you and you were silly enough to accept their invitation. They know full well that you are really a company person, CIA all the way. So be ready at all times. Ready for what you may ask. Well, that is a question we are all still asking.

Please bring back NOYB, Dragon and MW, please.