Job Discussion Forums

[denise]

[struelle]

[Roger]

Well, Steve, "students don't want to be there..." (in high schools or universities), so you prefer "private language schools" because you feel these students want to study English?

In my experience, nothing could be further from the truth.
If they pay by themselves, I would tend to agree with you although it has come to my attention that lots of "students" actually join out of boredom. They don't study seriously, they just go there so as to experience the inside of society's womb. They are often very critical of what's acceptable to them. Please, no serious teaching, just "free talk" (or whatever it may be called). And, please, we don't want to talk to each other - we are talking to YOU, YOU MUT LISTEN TO US. Even if you can't understand their English...

And then, lots of students get freebies, companies paying for their enrolment. That's not a good idea. They don't have to pass any exam and meet any criteria set by professionals.

I know you countered my claims a while ago by saying in your experience, adults make for fine students. It may be true in your case, or in the case of your school (wonderful once-in-alifetime incident). But I can only say, based on my experience and compared with that of some fellow expats, that at least half of our adult "students" just don't belong in our classes. The other half - well, pity them for being thrown together with comatose and childish fellow students.

[FGT]

With all due respect to Roger.....
In my experience (in Turkey) language school students are preferable because they do make the choice to be there. Even if their company is paying for the course, or particularly so, they want to learn. We often have a situation whereby the company pays only if the student gets (eg) more than 65% in the monthly exam. Sometimes you have a student who tries really hard but isn't a natural language learner and they may not get enough points for the company to continue to pay (although they pass the exam), they often then put their hands in their own pockets because they are keen to prove themselves. I hasten to add that we do not allow students who fail to continue regardless, though we do provide an opportunity to repeat (at a reduced rate) and try again.

[Roger]

FGT,
thanks for the little extra information: your students have to pass an exam. That's never the case in this part of the world. I even suggested it to a company that hired me to do in-house training. I got my rquest approved, and we did a kind of exam. This enabled me to sort the "students" into three levels. The two lower levels were lovely to work with as their needs were clearly identified. The top level was, however, made up of a bunch of arrogant young university graduates with in a number of cases excellent English skills. There were, of course, others whose English was less brilliant though I rusted them to be able to catch up over time.
This class was a waste of resources because those chaps there would drop in when they felt like, and leave early if they so desired. Mobile phones would go off (and I would angrily point to the door in my back to make them aware of where they could talk to their girl friends). They had to pay a token 5 kuai per lesson, and this would be returned to them after completing the course, with everybody attending all lessons. Of course, all attended the lessons (or had acceptable excuses they had to communicate to the office before the lesson began), but no staff from that company monitored how many came half an hour late, or left a full hour early.
And my stipulation that they also pass a final exam ws mysteriously forgotten, then rescheduled upon my reminding them. How many did come to that exam?
One third fewer than on day 1.
What did that exam matter then? It was a mere show.

[struelle]