Job Discussion Forums

[Gizamaluke]

Hey, first time posting here and i'm looking for some advice!

After a brief teaching period in China I realised I have absolutely no idea how to plan a curriculum for my students. Here is a little background information about the placement:

I had classes of 40-50 students, between the ages of 11-18 and was told to focus entirely on Speaking and Listening as they were taught writing and reading in English lessons with other teachers. I was given no other instruction than "Teach them speaking, drilling" and was provided with no sort of curriculum to follow. The older classes were almost absolute beginners, whereas the lower grades were slightly better but not by much.

I left that placement for various reasons, but now i'm getting myself ready to head back out to China. Before I go, i'd like some advice on the following:

1. Is it likely that I will end up with another school like this? Where I am to teach specifically speaking?
2. If so, what advice can you give me on creating a 6 month - 1 year curriculum focussed entirely on Speaking and Listening?

I had one private student in the evenings, a 40 year old who had already studied English for 4 years in college but had never practiced speaking. I found that teaching him was so much more structured and productive because he'd told me what he wanted to learn English for; to survive an English interview for a new job. Im hoping I can find some sort of "incentive" to base my lessons on with my new students.

Sorry for the rant, typing this on very little sleep!

TL;DR - Need help with planning a 6 month curriculum based almost entirely on Speaking and Listening for Chinese students aged 8-14

[scot47]

If you are doing TENOR (Teaching English for No Obvious Reason) there can be no curriculum !

[Gizamaluke]

How would you suggest I go about teaching them for the 6 months then? I found that to be my biggest struggle, not knowing what to even aim to accomplish within the time I had there.

I was thinking If i did it this time i'd focus more on the phonetic alphabet as boring as it is for the class.

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

[Kent F. Kruhoeffer]

Ni hao & welcome to the forum!

I taught public school kids in China for four years.

To answer your first question; yes, it is very likely that you will be asked to focus on speaking and listening when you go back to China. Kids in China typically learn vocabulary and grammar from their Chinese English teachers through a process of rote learning and parroting. In other words, the kids just memorize and repeat whatever their Chinese teacher says. When you walk into the classroom for 40 minutes each week, the headmaster wants the kids to open up a little and A) practice speaking B) improve their not-so-good pronunciation and C) have some fun trying to communicate with a foreigner.

Regarding your second question; you were probably teaching in a public school if you had 40 to 50 kids in the classroom. If so, my best advice is as follows: on day one of your classes, have a little 'getting to know you chat' with the Chinese English teacher(s) in each and every one of your classes. Hopefully you'll have an assistant Chinese teacher with you in the classroom who can help with a translation. If not, you can manage this chat in English. What you need to do on day one is A) establish a good rapport with the Chinese teaching staff and B) find out exactly what textbook they are using and get a copy of it to take home with you. Ask for it politely, buy it, steal it or photocopy it, but be sure that you have a textbook for each grade that you will be teaching. This allows you to see what the kids have been learning day in and day out, and using the textbook as a 'guide', you can then plan lessons that focus more on speaking & listening. Also be aware that although the Chinese teachers rarely offer you these English textbooks, ALL of the kids at ALL of the schools I taught at, had such books.

So, let's assume you now have these textbooks and you're teaching Grade 3. You look at the Grade 3 textbook, Chapter 1, entitled "On the Train" and you see that the focus is on 'can' vs. 'can't' and 'a' vs. 'some'. On page one of the textbook, Lee Ming is on the train. He looks out the window and says, 'I can see some birds. I can see some trees. I can see some cars.' etc. Well, that's great but they've already read this, so for you to have them open up their books and read it again would be boring. Instead, you pick one of the kids up, literally, if you're strong enough, and take him/her over to the nearest window, hold him/her up so s/he can see out the window and say '(insert name) What can you see?' The kid laughs like hell (which is good) and says, 'I can see some tree. I can see some car.' etc. Now you're rolling! Gently correct 'some tree' to 'some trees' and 'some car' to 'some cars' and repeat this with three or four other kids. Next, have one kid stand up and ask him/her, 'What can you see in the classroom?' The kid laughs again (which is good) and says, 'I can see some pen. I can see some chair. I can see some boy.' etc. Again, gently correct the mistakes, 'some pens, some chairs, some boys' etc. and get three or four more kids to stand up and do the same thing.

Once the kids figure out what it is that you want them to do, they will be eager to participate, and after 20 or 30 minutes of doing this, you'll discover that the kids are speaking in short, but complete sentences, having fun and learning the difference between 'a' and 'some' and how to form plurals - which was the real target of Chapter 1 in the first place. For the last 10 or 15 minutes of class, throw in an easy game or group activity of some kind that reinforces what you just taught them; the kids will love you and you're good to go.

The textbook gives you the 'seeds' for your lesson plan. No need to develop a curriculum; they already have it. Just be sure to get a copy of their textbook on the first day, and then use it to design lesson plans that encourage the kids to speak, preferably with their books closed. Add some new vocab, be creative, use funny photos, etc. whatever you can, to spice it all up a bit.

One more tip; it's a good idea to always stay one chapter behind the Chinese teacher, so the kids will already be familiar with the target language. For example, if the Chinese English teacher is doing Chapter 3, your lesson should cover what's in Chapter 2. To find out what chapter the kids are on, just ask one of the kids (or their Chinese teacher) what page they're on, or have your assistant teacher do it for you at the beginning of class. If you get ahead of the Chinese teacher, you may find yourself struggling a little, especially with the lower grades. After a few weeks of doing this, you'll know instinctively what chapter they're on, and be well prepared to get down to the business of teaching and having fun. In my humble opinion, the successful ESL teacher combines both.

Hope that helps!

PS: I noticed that GambateBingBangBOOM popped in before I hit the submit button and offered the same general advice. Sorry to be repetitive, but if two people say more or less the same thing, it's probably good advice!

[Sashadroogie]

Clearly DoS responsibilities. Contact your DoS.

[Shroob]

[Gizamaluke]

Thank you so much guys, all your advice will be invaluable!

About the text books, I asked them daily to ask what the students were working from.

For the Highschool kids I taught I was told they didnt have a book, but was given a large book full of dialogues and told to run through those (I didnt just run through them but planned lessons around the theme involved). For my Grades 6 and 7 I was given a fully completed English Text book by a Grade 5 student, that was the best I could get my hands on haha.

I didn't have an assistant teacher in any lessons except my kindergarten classes, but often had 4-5 of the chinese teachers sat at the back of my lesson taking notes who looked at me in horror when I involved them in games.

But thank you very much for all this, i'll have a much better plan of attack next time

Also, what is a DoS and FAO? I made the mistake of doing an online TEFL course with i-to-i an dlater a 6 month internship with them (my partner felt it would be nice to have someone hold our hand for our first teaching expedition) and feel really unprepared.

[Ariadne]

Kent, good advice.

One of my 'rules' is that anyone may come to my classes but they must be prepared to participate. So yes, get those Chinese English teachers in the back talking too!

Expect participation... from all students... and you'll get it, even if you have to wait for a bit every now and then.

.

[johntpartee]

[johnslat]

Dear johntpartee,

Nice one -

Regards,
John

[Shroob]

[Shroob]

[coledavis]

My take on this would be think about a content-based curriculum. Find different topics to talk about, then having done that, looking for materials becomes a whole lot easier. (Sources for topics: go to a search engine and type in something like 'ESL conversation topics'. You might even invest in one or two books. Jill Hadfield's books on communication games come to mind, as they deal with those most difficult levels, Beginners and Elementaries.

[johnslat]

Content and performance-based. Set benchmarks for what the students will be able to do.
If you have a six-month session, have performance benchmarks for every two month period.
Regards,
John