Job Discussion Forums

[ls650]

I find I like the variety of teaching different ages. I currently teach a mix ranging in ages from 5 to 50, and I think that variety keeps me on my toes.

[shmooj]

To those who are coming new to this field, I'd like to point out that, IMHO, although there are differences between teaching adults and kids for sure, there aren't that many.

With a bit of thought, a great deal of what works with adults can be made to work with kids and vice versa. This means that you shouldn't worry if you have experience of only one or the other. Take what you know of either and pare it down to the basic concepts and then create some activities based on that. From my experience, you will find it works pretty well with any age group.

What most teachers struggle with is the paring it down. Most activities in a teacher's repertoire have been inherited and not created from scratch and so generally teachers are not adept at starting with the basic concepts and building up from there. To be successful and resourceful with both adults and kids I'd say you have to be successful and working from the basics of language learning upwards as opposed to just a great gimmick and technique teacher.

Anyone else out there find this tallies with them? Or am I just nuts

[mjed9]

I would agree that the differences between lower level adults and children are easily bridgeable but once you start teaching higher level adults I think they would lose interest in boardslaps and menu messenger games.

[scot47]

It depends. Many adults are reluctant to induklge in activities which they see as childish. Sometimes it pays to ask your adult students how they think they learn best.

Equally with teenagers if they feel that something is "for kids" they will rebel against it.

[Guest]

As a newbie with no experience, no degree and no qualifications, I though I would prefer to teach older children (say 12 - 16) but now I am not so sure.

I have been at this School for almost 4 months and in the beginning they gave me Grades 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (Aged 7 - 12) and I could not handle the smaller Grades 1 & 2 so they agreed to take them away from me and give me 3 classes of Junior 3 (around 16).

Well, even though the little ones are very hard to handle - as in they will not sit still and keep quiet for someone they really do not understand - the teenagers are no picnic either as they simply clam up and do not wish to speak English. They are afraid of being laughed at. So, it seems to me that most of the classes have some difficulties.

Anyway, the School, in its wisdom, has now given me back Grades 1 and 2 and when I protested that I could not handle them - they just said "but you love children" (they know I go to the Orphanage) and I said "correction, I love babies - and why do I love babies? because they cannot talk or get off their chairs and Grades 1 and 2 can do both of those things". They just laughed at me and promised that I could have a Chinese teacher in the room with me. So far, it has not been too bad I suppose but I do wonder if I am actually teaching them anything.

[Roger]

Maybe you need to learn a few ropes, Rhonda, and your job gets enjoyable, more so with those grade 1 and grade 2 pupils than with older ones.
First thing: It's a bad idea for Chinese to think all their kids need to do is to listen to a teacher and repeat after her. They don't like to have to parrot what someone else has thought up. YOu can't teach them anything this way - they would need "translation", and that's just what you need to avoid.

It gets a lot easier if you become more ACTIVE. Do things with them rather than teaching them inane vocabulary. Teach them to control their body functions. "Sit down!" "Stand up!"
"walk!" "Run!" "Boys come here, girls go there!"
Actually, they should only be taught by a bilingual teacher with a solid foundation of English; that's probably not the case. So your job is to motivate them. Do what they like to do. They will love DRAWING. Teach them how to write words correctly, check on their spelling and give them "scores". One mistake: 100 minus one; two mistakes 100 minus two points. It works wonderfully!