Job Discussion Forums

[7969]

over the past term and a little bit, i've not been given great guidance as to what i should be doing with my senior middle school students. here's the scenario:

i have 13 classes of approx. 55 students each that i see once a week for 40 minutes. the chinese teacher for each class sees the same students but 6 times a week for 40 minutes. in the beginning, i was advised to cover as much of the warmup, listening and speaking parts of the text (senior english for china book 1A and this term 1B) as i could in 40 minutes. the chinese teachers told me they had enough to do with the reading and grammar parts of the book.

so last term, i spent a good deal of time using the tapes, doing listening work and as much speaking as i could with so many students in so little time.

yesterday i was advised to only concentrate on the speaking portion of the book as i was told i was falling behind and had to keep up with the chinese teachers (cover one unit in the book a week). hard not to fall behind when you're given 3-4 pages of text/activities to cover in 40 minutes. as a result, as of this week, i'm only doing the two sections of each unit that allow students to practice speaking. this usually entails making a dialogue of whatever the relevant topic for that unit is. for instance, this week its healthy eating. one section asks students to pair up and make a dialogue pertaining to someone who ate too much junk food and they need to see a doctor (patient/doctor dialogue). the other part entails ordering different foods in a restaurant. not bad topics i think.

here's the problem tho. i barely have enough time to cover a few new pieces of vocabulary before outlining the exercise and asking students to pair up, choose a situation and make a short dialogue. i walk around and monitor their work as best i can, stopping at a few desks and listening to the dialogue making sure they've got the idea right. after 10-15 minutes, i move on to the second speaking part of the unit and repeat the same drill. thus, i never get to hear all the students and can only give very brief instructions and review afterwards. not to mention that once students have recited the dialogue a few times they're bored waiting while i listen to other students. further, on occasion i like to play a game or show a five minute portion of a travel dvd just to give them a break in their otherwise dull/hectic school life. lots of the students are bored with the book, and they hate making dialogues. but with so many students of different abilities in one class, and given that i think i need to follow the instructions i was given by the head teacher, i'm not sure what else to do.

my question is: is there a better and more interesting way to carry out this activity and still keep it relevant to the main focal point of the unit we're working on, while making it a little more fun? or am i stuck doing what i'm doing and everyonei just have to live with it? any advice welcome please.

[kev7161]

It seems like you are doing the best you can with such severe limitations in time and resources.

For one thing - - 13 classes? around 55 students in each? I don't think there is a way to do much of ANYTHING in only 40 minutes. I hate to sound so bitter, but your class really doesn't mean anything. This seems to be standard in most every Chinese school. IF the school system really wanted their students to learn how to speak English, then there would be "spoken English" classes anywhere from 3 to 6X a week. The classes would be smaller so all students had a chance to speak and one department the size of yours wouldn't have only one foreign teacher.

If they can only make time in their busy schedules to have you teach each class a mere once a week, then the least they could do is hire one more FT and have him/her in the class with you so you could co-teach this class. You could break the classes up into smaller groups or help each other monitor the students' progress. As so many have said before, you are a face the school can peddle to parents. "Come to our school, please. We have a FOREIGN language expert!"

I wish you luck and I wish I had more advice to give you. I hope you enjoy your school and your pay/benefits are more than adequate. It sounds like a frustrating job.

PS: I asked my students if they were happy with the grade they received last semester. Most students didn't even know what their grade was! My class is THAT important!

[7969]

i have to agree with you. out of all my classes, there are probably 15 students who i can say are genuinely interested in the class and who make an effort 100% of the time. doing what i'm doing now, after explaining what we're doing in our "speaking" class, and having the students engage in some kind of discussion/dialogue making exercise, i only have time to actually monitor 5-6 pairs of students for each exercise. two exercises per class means i've listened in somewhat attentively to what 20-24 students are saying. even then only a minute to 90 seconds for each pair. it really is ridiculous.

they really do have it backwards. 6 X a week with a chinese english teacher doing reading and whatever other passive activities it is they do. 1 X a week with me.

i'm possibly going to give teaching in china one more shot this fall for one term. no middle school students tho, since i've learned that they really are a boring lot overall. i read your other post kev, and none of my students did anything over the holidays either. its becoming harder and harder for me to find any topic of conversation with these kids. they never do anything. at least anything that they're willing to talk about in class. i really think they're beginning to hate my classes a lot, and i'm hating being there almost as much.

on another note, i recently took a part time job with an adult class in town. only 10-12 students per class and they are a great deal more fun to be with.

[Roger]

This is not a condemnation of you as a teacher, but it is an opinion, my opinion, on your job and your school's idea of what they want you to do. In one word: it's a waste of time.

Of course, your students are bored. They are bored to do things that other people have demonstrated to them how to do, and since these activities are mere talking activities they don't feel stimulated enough. I never pair students up! There is a misunderstanding here that the more those kids talk the more fluent they become at English. Why does speaking require an opposite number? They might achieve the same results talking to themselves and repeating after a tape.

Here is a suggestion: ask them to volunteer to talk in front of the class. Ask them to speak more naturally and spontaenously about a topic you are confident they have acquired the vocabulary for. Ask them to speak a few words at a time and see how well this is understood by their peers.
Encourage them to do this by grading their performance; grades are their goal after all. Tell them these grades matter more than the grade they will receive in their final exam.
Conversely speaking, use penalty points to encourage speaking. Those who fail to speak on a given topic will get an 'F' until this can be erased and replaced by an 'A' or 'B'.
Force them to do homework and grade their homework as well. Have them do their textbook-based dialogues in their notebooks and concentrate on those dialogues in the classroom.

[Corzani Rex]