Job Discussion Forums

[Steppenwolf]

[vikdk]

[no_exit]

As a side note, you might be interested in hearing that some of the most successful English training centers in town are the ones that employ only Chinese teachers. Why? Chinese teachers are cheaper and they're good at marketing themselves. My school, which has only FTs, often gets calls asking if we have any teachers who have passed the CET6, or returned from studying abroad. Chinese teachers are familiar and comfortable and most likely will stick to a format that students understand. They work within the system.

For many Chinese students, the above is enough. The vast majority don't really need to learn how to *use* English, they need to learn how to pass an exam, graduate from high school, or get a certificate that looks good on a CV. How many of your students will ever come into contact with a foreigner other than yourself? Maybe between 1-5%? However, 100% of them have strictly defined "English language" goals that weren't decided by their teachers, but have to be met regardless. So in some ways, it is unfair to be too harsh on Chinese teachers. They work within a system that they did not create, but simply help to perpetuate. Within that system, many are quite effective, and it is only when the outside world comes into play that their weaknesses are really revealed.

[Leon Purvis]

I have no idea what my Chinese counterparts are doing at my college. I have met only two Chinese people who identified themselves as teachers. They were catty little men who asked my name, identified themselves by the same name as a guy who works in the FAO (a very conscientious, hard-working guy), made snide comments about my presumed salary and my supposed inferior education, and then disappeared.

I met someone while I was waiting for the FL liaison to appear in his office. The woman asked me some personal questions, and when I asked her who the hell she was, she identified herself as "a representative of the college." I later learned that she was the head of the FL department. Go figure.

I have observed some math teachers who have kept their students' rapt attention for long periods of time. I've seen some teachers --of god-knows-what --- whose students--all sixty of them-- had their heads in their hands trying to stay awake.

I've seen students leave the class room as I entered at the end of the period, then follow their teacher into another room to listen to him resume his lecture DURING THE TWO HOUR LUNCH BREAK.

But what are my Chinese counterparts doing? All I know is that my students don't speak English in their classes. I asked my students and that's what they told me.

[no_exit]

[China.Pete]

"(T)o picture how English is commonly taught here - think of the trad ways we were taught the dead languages of Latin and Classical Greek." - Vikdk

Not surprising, since they probably learned their pedagogy from the 19th-Century missionaries who used to teach same. I reckon the Chinese have taken to it so completely because of its similarities to the Confucian-influenced learning approaches they'd already been using for centuries.

"Chinese teachers are familiar and comfortable, and most likely will stick to a format that students understand. They work within the system." - No Exit

I've taught at language schools outside China. I've set up evening language courses - open to anyone who pays - within the universities I've taught at in China. So I was feeling pretty confident when I did some fill-in work at a higher-end language school in China during the term break. Big mistake! I quickly discovered that, at least among this demographic (young, educated professionals), my learned skills as a language teacher could actually be detrimental for success at language schools in China. So I really have to agree with No Exit here.

[No Moss]

[vikdk]

[China.Pete]

Some of my experiences with CTs at two private universities may have been a little different than other posters' on this thread. They've been mostly young, to be sure. And, while they may have been less "active" than your Western ideal, they have mainly conducted classes in English and tried to get their students to speak it in class. I think their problems have had as much to do with things beyond their control - larger class sizes and the need to teach to the exam or text - as they have with an inordinate committment to an antiquated pedagogy.

I've made myself open to helping any of them with explanations of cultural references in their textbooks or other difficult English questions. They, in turn, have helped me with needed information related to our teaching duties. Administrators have passed on the usual "some of the students are complaining" when my teaching approaches have been too, shall we say, "modern" for the little tykes, but more or less in the context of I should help them (the administration) to explain to the students why I'm doing it - something I try to do anyway.

Now, I'm not saying there aren't some major gaps in understanding between the CTs and me (read a few of my other posts!), just that we as FTs enjoy a certain amount of latitute they don't have and should try to make the most of it.

[Steppenwolf]

[TravellingAround]

[quote="Steppenwolf"]

[mondrian]