Job Discussion Forums

[LeiFeng]

I am interested in what approaches have worked for people here for teaching Chinese students. Have you noticed differences between Chinese students and other ELLs in the ways that they approach learning a foreign language? In particular, have you been successful in stimulating natural conversation/discussion in the classroom? How?

I taught for several years in China recently and did some trial-and-error learning of my own as a teacher, but I would be interested in fresh perspectives and ideas.

[rioux]

They like talking about their boyfriends/girlfriends.

[Deats]

Tell them Taiwan and Tibet are independent/part of China and this usually stirs up a good debate. I usually go for the latter unless a class has really pissed me off...

[Non Sequitur]

My first rule is never talk to the students if you can get them talking to each other.
I use sets of 60 cocktail party questions and students ask and answer the questions on them.
Needs a space so they can circulate and it needs to be isolated from other classes as there is a fair bit of noise generated.
Fave question for uni students is 'What makes a good boy/girlfriend?' (rioux has mentioned this)
When teaching younger students I use a set which omits personal relationship questions. This is because in the setting I was in, like as not there would be parents in attendance.
I also had Tourism major students so I have a set aimed at them.
Uses standard airport signs and other tourism-related stuff.
For really young students who thrive on activity I have a couple of pairing games. Suits bolted down class settings as kids just have to stand or sit in their places.

[ghost]

Teaching mainly education majors, 99% of whom are female. They like group work, where they discuss topics in English. At the end of each group work discussion period (usually about 10 minutes) one person from each group 'presents' to the class what they talked about.

They come to the front of the class. My rationale for that is that they wish to become teachers, so the earlier they do this, the better. Also, in my classes, unless the student teachers are talking to the class directly, with my help, the other students would not pay attention and continue chatting among themselves.

The males in the classes I teach are generally much more reticent to speak, and are not forced to do so.

Ghost in China

[Non Sequitur]

[zacharybilton]

Have you taken a language teaching course? IETLS, TOFL, Cambridge, etc.?

You taught Chinese students before but not sure how to teach them now?

[ghost]

[Non Sequitur]

Thanks ghost in China
I call that approach 'the rich get rich and the poor get poorer'.
In my view every student must cover the same speaking tasks. Otherwise, how to you award an equitable mark?

[Deats]

This thing of every student is equal just doesn't work.

I have spent 10 minutes trying to coax students to speak to 'give everyone a turn'. These are the same students who never do their homework. Often don't turn up to lessons. Copy in exams. Plagiarism is the only way they contemplate doing work. And this 10 minutes is at the expense of those who do want to learn.

Screw that.

Time is very limited and you have way too many students per class to waste your time on those that don't want to talk.

Now, if a student DOES do written work and does try but is just very nervous, then I have all the time in the world for them. It's the assholes described above that I give up trying to make speak.

You can either waste your time on the students who genuinely don't care as they know their parents will pay the bribe for a pass mark, or help the other guys who want to learn because a) they are good students, b) can't afford the bribe or c) another reason.

[ghost]

There is a speaking test at the end of the semester in which each student gets to speak to the teacher for a mark. In addition, continuous assessment takes place during the course. In China it is easy to see who the serious students are, because the less serious ones will be sleeping in class, or chatting to their friends, or simply looking at their smart phones.

The caveat at this institution is that no mark less than 60 should be awarded, so this means that students who did precious little in class during the whole semester, and were also absent many times, will pass the class. I am no longer into fighting systems which are beyond my control, because I have gone there and done that in the past, to my detriment and development, and even loss of jobs at times.

One has to be sensitive to the culture here, even though one thinks that some things need to be worked on. Fortunately, most of my students are keen on English and it is not too difficult to engage them, especially keeping in mind that I only see each class for 90 minutes each week. If I were teaching them every day for 4 hours, like I did in Saudi, for periods of 8 weeks to 16 weeks, it might be a different matter, because I find that the boredom threshold in China is quite low.

Ghost in China

[Non Sequitur]

I never ask a student to produce independent speech until they have had a few weeks doing supported speeches i.e. performing the dialogues in the text - or ones I've devised if the book doesn't have anything suitable.
Then about mid-semester, they move to performing their own dialogues from themes I provide. They can read from their own scripts, but I make it clear that the final will be their own dialogue with no notes. The final is performed for me alone, so even after 18 weeks, I avoid any humiliation.
I try to provide multiple opportunities for the burned off/out to restart their involvement. Songs are good for this.
Some of the most hilarious moments I've had have been otherwise disengaged kids performing a sharp send up of the college bosses using the general theme: 'How are you settling into university life?'

[LeiFeng]

Thanks for ideas/responses so far. Non Sequitur, I like the idea of taking pressure off of students by having them perform monologues/dialogues for the instructor only. I am hoping my next job this Fall will have small enough classes for more individual/small group work with direct teacher involvement.

As for conversation material, I've definitely used the dating/relationships topic for all it's worth (I haven't been brave enough to bring up Tibet/Taiwan independence…) I've also gotten a lot of mileage out of food, dining/drinking etiquette, superstitions/taboos (lucky numbers etc)., foreign vs. Chinese brands and products, Chinese inventions in world history, etc. I still have yet to hit upon any topics, though, that set off a discussion with a life of its own. When I taught Saudi students, I sometimes got groups talking seriously over multiple class hours, with myself as little more than active listener (on Djinn, for instance, or the Arab Spring, or regional differences in etiquette). I have never gotten a Chinese class to do this. Chalk it up to cultural differences and lower my expectations?

Non Sequitur, that makes sense to avoid talking to students if you can get them talking, but I haven't always succeeded at this. How do you present your sets of 60 questions? I have had some frustration when I have handed out lists of questions (I tried questions adapted from the Compelling Conversations text a number of times) and students just played with their phones, talked in Chinese, or (worse yet), dutifully re-wrote questions in their notebooks.

[LeiFeng]

Ghost in China, I've also done some small group discussion tasks followed by a presentation, but have had some trouble keeping students on-task (I've never taught education majors, though). To keep more advanced students from dominating, I have tried differentiating the group by having students group themselves into A, B and C groups based on their level, then forming groups of three (one from each level-based group) and assigning different level-appropriate presentation tasks to each member (for example, A might introduce the members and topic briefly, C would present in detail, and B answer a few follow-up questions).

I'm still interested in what topics/exercises/approaches have worked for everyone. I'm trying to get a curriculum and materials ready well in advance this year, and all of your ideas and suggestions are interesting.

[Non Sequitur]

Non Sequitur, that makes sense to avoid talking to students if you can get them talking, but I haven't always succeeded at this. How do you present your sets of 60 questions? I have had some frustration when I have handed out lists of questions (I tried questions adapted from the Compelling Conversations text a number of times) and students just played with their phones, talked in Chinese, or (worse yet), dutifully re-wrote questions in their notebooks.

These are tertiary students?
I see your problem.
Anyway I'm not sure how Dave feels about advertising on his site so I'll PM you the link where you can download the 60 question sets. The senior and junior sets are US2.99 each and the Tourism set US0.99.
Because I used the senior set multiple times I laminated them. Didn't cost much and I could then grab and go to class without too much thought. That is other than from time to time checking that the more popular questions hadn't been souvenired. Being the GF and GF questions