Job Discussion Forums

[angstreview]

Hi,

New teacher to esl, looking at teaching oral english to college students who are not english majors (I guess these are mandatory classes) and there maybe up-to 60 students in a class. any tips, common issues/pluses? Do college students in china have previous english experience. I believe that I have read that somewhere.

thanks all

[Non Sequitur]

I've made a bit of a study of oral English for larger classes and have developed some downloadable resources. I'll PM you the link to these.
How good college freshmen's oral English is depends on personal motivation as the Gao Kao has no oral component.
This link will give you a background to the problem:
https://issuu.com/apnedmedia/docs/edr-nz-teacher-2016
Pages 29/30 on the ereader version and 27/28 on the print version.

[donkeydonkey]

Hi op,
Here is a long winded and overly self important response to your call for tips. I hope that it is in some way helpful.

Big college classes are kind there own adventure. Personally, I love these classes. I love the energy that can be generated by 50 or 60 people in a room.The energy is really addictive. I love the strange dynamics that are generated by such large numbers. I love the adventure of getting to know such a large group of people and of them getting to know me. I often teach large classes of non-English majors. The students skills will vary greatly. You will have some students who are near fluent. You will have other students who seem to have barely any English language skills at all. Put enough in each lesson plan for each group or you will have a problem group on your hands. Teachers who have a large personality that can command the attention of 50-60 people certainly seem to fair better than those who are meek. If you have this kind of personality, then don't be scared to show it. A booming voice, a smile, or a joke can do wonders. No one respects a clown though, so do not overly pander to your students, or to anyone else for that matter. People with Energy, humor, and movement are far easier to pay attention to than those who shrink behind a podium. Some will suggest that you wave the white flag in the inevitable battle over cell phones, students doing other homework, and other distractions. I would greatly advise against this, especially in your first semester. Once students know that paying attention in your class is not necessary, then you will be amazed at how little attention is paid to you. Demand attention and do not settle for anything less. Also, take roll and make it known that you expect 100% attendance. if students think that you do not care if they show up then you will be stunned as 40 of your 50 or 60 students are absent. If more than 10 of my students are absent. I write on the board that they will not pass if they do not show up. I then tell the monitors and other students to take a picture of my message and to show it to the other students. If you draw the line at 10 students then the problem does not seem to go beyond that. Hold the students accountable. Not only will you get better results, but you will be more respected if you do this. Get to know your students. You can teach to the interests of the students and the students having a connection to you will help when you need to hold them accountable. I care about my students. I show this and they know it. When I tell them that I am disappointed in them it has an effect. When I tell them I am proud it has an effect. These comments are always with good intentions and the students know it.This comes from having a connection and a relationship with them that is real. build those connections and relationships. These classes offer rewards that smaller classes just cannot offer for me. When I teach a class that only has 20 students in it I often feel disappointed. They just cannot match the intensity, energy, and charisma that 60 people screaming hello professor offers. These classes allow for students who were shy wall flowers the first semester to shine in the second semester. All of a sudden a student who could do nothing but giggle in shyness will break out in full English sentences. And then another will do the same. And then another and another and another. Watching their confidence grow, watching their English skills grow, and watching them feed off of the energy is really a special thing. It will make you so proud of what you do. Good luck op.

[Non Sequitur]

2nd that.

[angstreview]

Thank you for your advice.

I tend to be a bit of a small-class person, but I better develop a large voice!

[Non Sequitur]

I think the loud and active teacher thing is to get the class off to a good start and of course be heard.
But good oral English teaching practise calls for a minimum of TTT (Teacher Talk Time).
Try for student activities that have their own internal momentum.
Cocktail party, word race, or twinning activities generally run themselves once the initial demo is over.
All of these involve the students both asking and answering the question and are vastly better than teacher ask and student answer oral exercises.
At the same time, you need some formal speaking as that's how you track progress and award class and final marks.

[OhBudPowellWhereArtThou]

dd,

I admire your enthusiasm for the huge classes. If one is teaching oral English to a class of 42+ students, it comes close to a waste of time to both the student and the teacher. This has been discussed recently, and many have suggested ways to manage huge classes. Many of them are effective.

I wonder just how long you have been teaching 60 students per class. That's a brain burner for me. I couldn't manage five classes that size per day. Grading and attendance taking and end-of-term paperwork would be incredibly arduous.

I've given lectures to large classes, and I've been Mr. Bojangles for auditoriums full of thirteen year-olds. Certainly, it is more gratifying to get a rise out of a large group than a small group.

But to manage a class of 60 + students on a daily basis? No can do.

[nomad soul]

What's the average size (or range) of oral English classes in Chinese universities? In the Mid East, my uni student numbers ranged from 12-18; one term I had a whopping 30 students. However, all four language skills are generally taught. But grading student essays regularly for a class of 60 would be worse than a root canal without anesthesia.

I'm curious... Why are language classes in China allowed to get so large? Is there a shortage of teachers? Does this occur in both public and private universities?

[rioux]

[Non Sequitur]

Could be money in another way.
In my first year I had 4 streamed first year Oral English classes.
The A stream class was over 60 but the D stream was less than 20.
I assume students paid a bit more to be A streamed even though they got a lot less in educational value

[OhBudPowellWhereArtThou]

[D. Amokachi]

Try putting them into groups. Say ten groups of six. Every time you give them a task or discussion topic they have to do it in their groups. Make sure they sit with their groups every class. Appoint one member of each group (the one who seems the most obedient/has the best English) to be the group leader. Make them responsible for ensuring that the other members of the group are on task.

[Curtinca]

In my second year at a university in Guangdong I got stuck with a class for business majors which was supposed to combine oral and written "Business English", one class per week, three hours. There was a workbook of some kind -- can't remember the name now -- which had some good exercises suitable for people doing self-study, not working in groups. It was a good thing too, because the class size was well over 100, meeting in a lecture amphitheatre.

Taking attendance by calling the roll would have wasted a lot of time, so I had the students do a short, simple exercise in class, to be handed in at the end of the period. I would mark them, more as a means of seeing who was there -- no exercise, no credit for attendance. The majority of the students seemed to like the mini-tests.

Keeping order was sometimes a problem, given that I could hardly see the kids at the back of the hall, but things only got out of hand one week when, for some reasons, the students just wouldn't settle down at the start of class. After two warnings I just walked out. I only got about 50 feet outside the door before the class monitor caught up with me and begged me to come back.

The final exam was objective-style, something like 60 multiple choice questions, marked by computer. I had to write three variants of the exam, two to discourage cheating and the third for those who missed the exam and had to do a make-up. It was a good test, I thought, and the results about what they should have been.

My point: Teaching a large class is not impossible, but the size of the class means you have to see them as a group, not as individuals.

Footnote: I had one student -- only one -- who showed up for the first time for the very last meeting and asked what he had to do to pass. I resisted the temptation to give him a brown envelope to stuff with RMB, telling him that he didn't have a prayer. "Tough luck, kid."

[Non Sequitur]

[nomad soul]