Job Discussion Forums

[7969]

tonite, in my adult class (at a private school) i had the students discussing the environment for a short period of time. group work, formulate your ideas on the environmental damage caused by blah blah blah, when a couple of students announced they were bored with the subject. in a way, i agreed, maybe i belaboured that part of the text a bit too long. another student in the same group (a student at my regular middle school job) told me that most of the students in her middle school class thought my classes were boring as well. i told her that i only saw them for 40 minutes a week, and i thought the classes werent too bad, i only try to get them to discuss whatever the weekly textbook topic for that week is, and let her know that their school "leaders" expect me to cover what's in the book. minimal coverage as it is in 40 minutes a week. this student told me to not listen to the leaders....

so at any rate, on occasion i manage to get the students interested in something (what would you do with 24 hours to live, if you could create your own holiday what would it be called and why would you have it etc etc). but overall it seems students think my classes are boring.

the first thing i do when i come to a new class is ask the students what they're interested in. the usual suspects" basketball, computer, shopping blah blah blah. overall, i dont think the students have helped me out here with too many workable ideas, not as much as they could have. other than a few items, they cant tell me what they want to talk about, they dont like whats in the book, and they only seem to feign interest when it suits them. i know i'm not the most exciting teacher in the world, but learning english isnt all fun and games (is it?)

if anyone can give me any ideas to make my last few months of esl teaching (i really want to quit this line of work) more bearable, i'm willing to try anything.

[The Great Wall of Whiner]

If only you were teaching kids, I'd be able to help you so much easier.

Do you have a white board or a black board?

I had some older kids (14-16) and although my little students love my classes, my older kids get bored very easily.

I decided to play RISK(tm) using coloured markers (red, blue, green, yellow, brown, orange, black, blue, grey, purple, pink and "white").

We had soliders, tanks, planes, and ships to carry the armies.

The class was divided into "countries" with Presidents, advisers, and the "rock sissors paper person", and we used rock sissors paper to fight it and resolve conflicts on the battlefield (two hands used if you're a tank or plane).

I modified the game a bit so there was money, land, resources (need oil and metal for tanks, food for soldiers, etc.) and the kids just loved it!

There was lots of diplomacy (only in English ) which was funny. "I give you 20 dollar and you hit Korea with your tanks" or "I will give you 100 dollars if you please not hit me for three turns".

Lots of backstabbing, etc. as well. It turned out the boys ganged up on the girls so the next game I had mixed teams where there were both girls and boys on all the teams.

They loved it; my boss however did not.

[Norman Bethune]

Why does the opinion of your students matter?

So they think the class is boring.

Guess what?

They are students. They are teenagers. They get bored easily.

And sometimes, they really don't have a clue what the word Bored truly means in English.

Some students equate being bored with having to actually drag themselves away from the TV set for a few hours and try something a bit more taxing.

I once had a student say in Class that she thought that "rape is boring."

We were in a lesson about the use of stative verbs and I was using the vocabulary for food, different fruits in particular. I had the students try to imagine what it would be like to be an apple, orange, grapes, etc. and say what it was like being that fruit.

When I asked the girl what a grape might say about its state of being she produced a sentence from hello when she mispronounced the word.

"Rape is Boring."

It was clear she didn't understand the word "Boring" and how to use it in context.

Maybe the same is true of your students.

[ChinaMovieMagic]

"Boring..." Yeah...that can hurt. Almost feel like saying..."Me? What about you!!!" But...we teachers are expected to be more rational/mature...

Question: Can you get access to a DVD player? Use ofshort movie scenes can work magic in China. BELOW are from 'Promoting Change in China's..." thread...also on this China-Job page.
Over the years, L2 teachers have developed a wide range of communicative techniques based upon the creative use of movie segments, such as:

VIEWING COMPREHENSION (with sound off)
DIALOGUE BUILDING (with sound off)
AURAL ONLY PREDICTION (with sound only)
PREDICTIVE VIEWING--What will happen?
REVERSE PREDICTION--What happened before the sequence seen?
JIGSAW VIEWING (Only half the viewers see the sequence, and they relate it to those who haven't. Replay it to compare.)

Such approaches can create an enhanced learning environment, in harmony with Krashen's principles:
*A RICH VARIETY OF COMPREHENSIBLE INPUT
*A LOW-ANXIETY SITUATION
*REAL MESSAGES OF REAL INTEREST
========================================
Also...kids (all ages) respond well to Role Play. Do Google on "Total Physical Response Story"

You can transform your role from that of a teacher--begging their participation--to that of a Director--dynamic/charismatic/in-charge etc.

Just a brief movie scene is enough. Action-based, rather than wordy. Mulan works well for that age group. The classic How Green Was My Valley is wonderful.

Good Luck!

[hesterprynne]

First of all, how ungrateful and rude they are! Second, you must decide how much you want to cater to them at the risk of them not learning the material. Finally, some ideas you could use. For learning to read new vocabulary, I have adapted an improvisational theater game called "This is a watch." Have each student write a word you choose from the textbook on a piece of full-size notebook paper. Then have each student give you the word he has written. Finally, you have the stack of papers. Perhaps the first paper says carbon monoxide. YOU: This is (carbon monoxide). 1ST STUDENT: What? YOU:Carbon monoxide. 1ST STUDENT:Oh! Carbon monoxide! Now the 1st student repeats the process with the second student. Wait until about the fifth student until you pass along the next term. Make sure you have this conversation model printed on the board. Make sure they don't cheat and just pass the paper. Best way to do this is to have your best student take your place after you have about 15 papers in motion. ( It is the rare class that gets all the papers in motion.) That way you can walk around the class and monitor pronunciation and participation. It is fun to see them trying to talk to two people at once. This is challenging and fast-paced even for native speakers. It has educational value for Chinese students, because we all know that they approach words by memorization rather than by phonetically sounding them out. Review the pronunciation of the words before and after with the whole class. You should see great progress.
BREAK AND END-OF-CLASS BUYOUTS: Before they leave the class, if I can, I try to make the students do something to earn leaving. Or, if there are too many students, 10 or so may leave early if they answer my question. 1st I ask all students to raise their hands. Then I choose a task, such as saying or spelling a word, or composing a sentence with a particular sentence structure, or defining a word using a definition in English. I am ruthless. If they are not 100% correct, no cookie- so to speak.
Another great game I stole from somewhere. Make an oversized tic-tac-toe board----that is noughts and crosses for Brits----by writing question words down the side and forms of to do and to be across the top. SIDE: who what when where why how TOP: is are was were do does did------students must raise hands to make a question for their team using one from the side and one from the top. "Who is your mother?" "Why were you late to class?" I absolutely insist on correct intonation of the question. I explain to the class that questions in English are like the second tone in Chinese. I say several questions, with my voice rising more and more as I get to the last word. I use my fingers in the air as if they are walking up stairs to heaven as a non-verbal reminder to use this intonation. I also write on the board "do+verb" and "are+verb-ing". Once they make this connection, it will eliminate many of their Chinglish problems. They will learn why to say "Do you come from America?" instead of "Are you come from America?" and why to say "When was she playing basketball?" instead of "When was she play basketball?" SO- If their question is grammatically correct, the box in the grid gets an 'X' or 'O'. Three 'X's or 'O's in any direction gets a point for their team. The other rule you will find important is ----- you need two new X's or O's to make a line of three. My students are usually very excited and frustrated by this game. It makes them concentrate on tenses and subject-verb agreement. If their question is incorrect, I will write it on the board and explain why. I HOPE THAT THESE ARE HELPFUL TO YOU AND I HAVE MORE IF YOU WRITE TO ME. If you find my explanations unclear, I will direct you to the original link if you request. Good luck!

[hesterprynne]

You can find songs that they like to sing at www.letssingit.com. You can ask them to bring CD's of English music that they like. You bring a copy of the lyrics for everyone and go through the pronunciation and meaning for them. If you can find the excellent series of books "Best Songs for English Learning", with the small logo "Music Heaven" in the lower left-hand corner, they have translation in Chinese including translation of the idioms. The book and the CD together cost 20 kuai. It is the best series of this type I have found.
I was fortunate for my middle-school work in that the middle school was high-tech. I downloaded music videos off kazaa on my home computer and played them on the school's computer, which is connected to a large screen.

[Susie]

Have they told you what they would find interesting?

Anyway, it is probably not the content necessarily that they find boring, it may be that the mental work isn't challenging enough.

You should try to get texts that develop their think processes - English for academic purposes that teach them how to develop their study skills, writing skills, reading skills, discussion skills, note-taking skills.

At a boarding school, some of my mainland Chinese used to complain about being bored, largely because they just talked to each other in Chinese during lessons, and they then obviously found each other boring!

I got them videos to watch and they just turned on the TV and watched Chinese channels while my film was showing! I turned off the TV and they took turns to turn it back on again. I got another foreigner's Chinese wife to come talk to them about what difficulties they were experiencing during my English lessons and she told me that they ...

Not one of them had anything to say (nevermind anything interesting to say) in answer to my questions about what happened in the film.

I guess they were just going through that teenage rebellious stage of life!!!!! I didn't react too much but I did try numerous different approaches to teaching them.

That particular class of teenagers was being punished by the school, such as, they were last to do their morning physical exercises when the sun was hotter, then they were last in to the breakfast halls for food, so most of the tasty food had been eaten by the rest of the school students, and had left the place in a mess, the same treatment in the evenings, with the shower water (only cold water left!). The class monitors had written to the principal to ask for reprieve, but to no avail. The kids were crazy and they couldn't get their act together enough to lift themselves out of the mess they'd got themselves into!

[kev7161]

[7969]

thanks for the replies. as i only see my middle school students for 40 minutes a week, i certianly dont ask alot. in fact, after being here six months, only in the past 2 weeks have i got some of the very quiet students to begin speaking, representing their group if a group discussion took place and the findings had to be revealed. so in that area, i've succeeded. on the other hand, the students are bored. in fact, i asked them today, and different classes tell me they're not bored, but bored overall with tests and homework (neither of which i give them).

interestingly enough, the middle school student who attended my adult class last night, when she told me her middle school classmates were bored in my day class, i didnt recognize her. i asked her name and she told me ..... so and so from class X at the middle school. the fact that i had no idea who she was is an indication of how much work she's done in my middle school english class. too bad, because at the adult class last night, she showed me she's capable of speaking decent english. why not do it in middle school? as far as i'm concerned, she could really help me out, but she doesnt feel capable of it. of course she reminded me what chinese students ARE good at, reciting, memorizing and so on. ok, lets break out of that mold...... !!! this situation boggles my mind. i tell all my students that when i was in university i studied russian for five years, and i can understand the difficulties they have. but when i was studying russian, we practised pronunciation, we read short texts, in 3rd and 4th year we translated news articles and literature, we held discussions.... we didnt play games and watch DVDs. those are good tools but in my opinion they're not a staple of esl teaching.....

i can bring my laptop into the class and connect to the projector, and i find that if there's a carrot (5-10 minutes of dvd) at the end of the class they of course try a bit harder. i tried it again today.... and it works. i just need to find something thats entertaining, and has a bit of education value at the same time.

i dont mind the fact that students tell me the class is boring, if they're willing to do something about it. make useful suggestions for instance. if they say nothing, and dont participate much in group work, i think i have to assume they havent grasped anything. and i hate beating a dead horse with repetition if it isnt necessary.

after venting a little bit here i feel better. thanks for the ideas listed here. i'll try to use some of them in class.

[Roger]

You need to show them who is in chrarge of their class. You risk being led by the herd of cows of students when you are supposed to be their cowboy. (That's an analogy one of my former superiors used).

First thing: oral classes are an occasion to recycle their English rather than to introduce new vocabulary! Get them to use what they are supposed to have learnt so far.
Don't rely on them to tell YOU what "is interesting"/. There is no objective criterion of "interesting". In fact, every 3 students will have 4 differing opinions on it!
Their Chinese teachers offers them no flank to attack him or her; they (students) have to obey him or her! Your class is different in that you are made to obey little emperors and empresses: try to turn the table!

We are currently discussing a similar case in another thread; please, refer to the thread about "what can I do with my students?" (or something like this).