Job Discussion Forums

[Harbin]

I tried to use the search function to see other people's opinions about English Corner, but that didn't work.

What is the point of English Corners? I currently work for a language training company and am required to do these as part of my job duties, but I can't see the point. I'm CELTA trained and have previous experience teaching English, but nothing has prepared me for mixed level classes of anywhere from 5 to 35 with no way of knowing how many students will attend. How on earth can you do something useful for a group of everything from absolute starters through C1 students?

I've observed my co-workers' English Corners and mostly see "teachers" talking about their personal life for one hour. Valid topics seem to include anything from how drunk they were last night to their relationship problems and imminent plans to flee China because of their nagging Chinese girlfriend. Does the goal of English Corners really match up with the author's hypothesis in A Critical Ethnography of �Westerners� Teaching English in China:
Shanghaied in Shanghai? That book basically says that ELT in China boils down to two things: reinforcing the idea of Chinese superiority and defining the idea of Chinese identity as not being the foreign "other."

I've tried everything from class discussions to debates to well established communicative activities. In general, the students are reluctant to talk about anything unless I give them a topic that is far removed from their daily life. For example, well designed lesson plans which involve journalist and subject interviews about alien abductions or celebrity affairs work very well, but good luck getting the students to discuss anything else. I really don't have time in my schedule to create proper and creative lesson plans for each of these English Corners.

What exactly is the purpose of English Corners? Most students don't want to actually speak English and prefer to remain in the passive learning mode. Is the purpose to gawk and laugh at the personal problems and moral failings of foreigners, as the book I linked to suggests? The students seem to prefer this to anything else, but well planned (read: time intensive) lesson plans do work well. However, this leaves us with a fundamental problem: how is an English Corner significantly different than a proper English class? It seems that conducting English Corner as a proper lesson is the only way to do anything productive with the hour.

[china505]

The point:

Its basically a free class for students that are enrolled in "real" classes at your school (at least this is at my school), by knowing they can get a free class each week, the parents are more likely to sign their kid up. Same deal as "help sessions", most students that show up for these dont need them, its just a free class to get parents to pay $$$....


How to conduct the class:

I dont have any that have the spread of the one you described but I can get anything from 7 to 12 year olds, I figure out what level they are and just play games for an hour, I base the questions for each student upon the level they are at but everybody plays the same game.

IT takes energy and it sucks, but thats how I approach it.

[Javelin of Radiance]

Looks like a popular topic.

http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=69604&highlight=corner
http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=93602&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=corner&start=0
http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=97784&highlight=corner
http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=64921&highlight=corner
http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=41023&highlight=corner
http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=35557&highlight=corner
http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=6368&highlight=corner

[johntpartee]

[rioux]

How many times per month and for what length of time does a teacher have to attend English Corner?
Where I am at it's weekly for two hours.

[maxand]

[Non Sequitur]

The widely varying attendance numbers are a big issue when trying to plan for an English Corner.
In semester 1 freshmen attend in big numbers, as it's a novelty. This rapidly falls off as winter approaches and there are other better things to do.
However, I hate any time I spend with students to be unproductive and have two activities ready - small group and large.
While I advise noobs not to get into the 'talk while an adoring group of females ask the usual inane questions' mode, when I observe these sessions, inevitably that is what happens.
Another issue fits with the dancing monkey approach and we are asked to hold ECs in the park area in front of the admin building. No doubt this is to allow the top brass to point us out from their windows to any visitors.
In winter we are asked to go to the main foyer of the library building - again to be on show as much as possible.
Students joining and leaving the group at random is also a problem and I find my cocktail party question game is ideal as it is almost totally expandable and contractible within say the 20 to 60 student range of attendees.
Depending on the number of FTs on staff the ECs should be rotated and it generally shouldn't be necessary to do an EC more than 3 times per semester.
Refusing to do these, just puts extra workload on your colleagues.
ECs don't go away because it is beneath your dignity to attend.
I may be a cr*p teacher in a cr*p system but it's not my students' fault.

[Denim-Maniac]

Our English corners are quite good .... we call them 'social nights', and I actually WANT to attend them. (Our contract does state we should attend or could face a salary deduction but Ive never seen that enforced and perhaps 75% of the teaching staff, Chinese and FT, attend for about 75% of the alloted time). Its once a week from 19.30 - 21.00 each Thursday.

The big difference is that I teach adults, the majority of whom are nothing like the oft-discussed stereotype of students who dont want to speak. The higher level students that I teach use social night as a chance to hang out and drink a beer or two with me and the other teachers. The lower level students use it as a chance to meet some of the teaching staff they see at school but never get to spend time in class with.

We do have mixed levels from Level 0 students to advanced ... but our Chinese teachers as well as FTs attend ... and the ratio is probably 1 teacher for every 8 students. That works quite well.

We have different activities ... sometimes they work, sometimes they dont. Sometimes they are just great fun (we did a version of the TV dating show, 'you are the one' recently) and sometimes they can be a bit of a dull free-talk affair. But to answer what the point is ... for us, it is for students to have the opportunity to use real language in a communicative manner in a safe, non-judgemental, non-threatening environment. The majority of our students and teachers understand that and more often than not the night is a productive one.

[Shroob]

Where I work ECs aren't part of the contract. I think I'm the only FT that goes to them. Yes they are boring, yes they are all the same, yes you get asked to sing/dance at them (I never do) BUT my reasoning is that if students have gone to the effort of organising one, the least I can do is show up if I haven't anything else planned.

The point of them? Different organisations have different reasons. At my uni it just seems to be a social activity/excuse to have a 'party'. They're once or twice a semester, if that.

[doogsville]

I thought the point of English corner was for the students to practice English. I take lots and lots of questions with me. Some on sheets of paper, for me to ask, and some on cards, for the students to ask. I have them ask each other the questions, If their really shy or don't understand I might demo the question, but then they have to do it. I find that the numbers drop off radically after the first one, when they realise it's not a 'lets go to the English corner/petting zoo and look at a foreigner' kind of thing. The ones that come back genuinely want to practice.

That being said, my first ever job in China we had to go to the local 'Peoples Park' on a Sunday morning for an hour. That was a zoo. You would be sitting, on a rock, talking to someone, and when you looked round there could be fifty plus people just standing in a semi circle watching you. Scary.

[Non Sequitur]

[GuestBob]

[Non Sequitur]

+1

[5h09un]

it depends on the school. i have to do english corners a few times a week where i work now. fortunately i know approximately how many students will be at each one, which certainly makes it easier to prepare. the classes are free and come as part of larger, more expensive packages and there isn't any set agenda, but i think everybody tries to make it an opportunity for everybody to practice their english.

under these conditions, i find english corner to be pretty productive. if i don't know how many students are going to show up and things like that, then i can't really prepare and it turns out to be a disaster. i really hate it when they run things this way.

i had to go to english corner once a week at my first job in china too. that was just the foreign teachers sitting down at tables in the cafeteria to be peppered with the same dumb questions by dozens of our students at once for two hours. it was okay at first but it got to be a real drag after a while. "discussions" were usually dominated by three or four students for the entire time, so i think it was a waste of time for almost everybody involved. no clear purpose, no organization.

at my second job we were required to do the same as above, but i had the good fortune of being responsible for teaching software engineering students at a technical institute run by the university that was just down the street. they didn't have the facilities for english corners, so what i did was gather a few students (usually around five or six) from each class a couple of times per week and go out to dinner with them. that was our english corner. they were always pretty enjoyable.

[roadwalker]

Our school used to hold the traditional English corners outdoors by the lake but must have gotten too many complaints about the mosquitoes. Now they have them in a sheltered part of a teaching building (still outdoors but with a ceiling, like an unfinished carpark at the base of the building. The walls it does have echos the crap sound system they insist on using to the effect that I can't hear anything anyway. The students organize these and spend all of the time playing some games or singing and dancing. Lately some outfit that calls itself Crazy English (not sure if it's the real one or a knock off) has been sponsoring. Luckily, we haven't had these too often and no one would dock my pay for missing them.

I used to actually like the "do you love China? -type questions. Much better than these song and dance routines where I can't understand what anyone with a microphone is saying. I've never minded the shy poor speakers who crowd around the foreigner and get up the nerve to be the 23rd person to ask if I could use chopsticks. I'm pretty patient with that. I don't like the inconsiderate attention hogs who interrupt those shy questioners like they weren't there and bulldoze their way into the group. Or worse, start talking to me from a few feet away from the group.

What's English corner for? Good question. Another one is What is English corner? Answer varies from one place to another and even at the same school. I prefer when it is a casual setting for people who can speak some English do so in a relaxed atmosphere and those who can't or lack confidence can build it up or at least get comfortable around foreigners.