Job Discussion Forums

[Voldermort]

Hello all,

First I hope you are all enjoying your new year in your new schools, and a welcome to all the newbies here in China.

This year my school is offering an advanced learning program to all those students wishing to further their education abroad. The curriculum of this program includes learning advanced vocabulary for subjects such as Maths, Chemistry, Biology and Physics. The problem is, I'm at a loss as to how to teach in this manner. We are not required to teach the subject but to only teach the related vocabulary.

With my normal ESL lessons, I plan around a general theme and hold regular competitions. Teaching in this manner holds no problems since the students can engage in a normal everyday conversation, express opinions and have a good laugh.

How is this possible when teaching Chemistry? The worste part of all this is, even I don't know a lot of the advanced grammer related to these subjects, and I'm sure I'm not alone. To teach subjects like this isn't it neccassary to have a good understanding about what you are teachng?

Any help, advice, opinions, links or tuition would be very greatly appreciated.

[Roger]

I am not too clear on your challenging situation. First of all, with special subjects comes no special grammar; the grammar your students should have covered so far should be the same as for regular English classes.

Are you teaching at a middle school?

Personally, I feel Chinese have a problematic approach to learning a language - any new word must be taught by a teacher; why can't they learn how to learn on their own?

Maybe you can work in tandem with the relevant subject teachers? Perhaps they teach them in English?
Borrow their textbooks and check what kind of words they need to understand; put these words in typical contexts.

[kev7161]

I'm doing something similar, yet at a much younger level. My advice (especially in the Science and Physics areas) is to first teach the spelling, pronunciation, and usage of technical terms and phrases. Then, to reinforce their knowledge, see if your kids can do some simple experiments/projects using the lesson topics. These don't have to be complex, research-heavy experiments, just simple tasks using few "props". For example, if you were studying the water cycle, they could draw posters or diagrams illustrating the cycle and label it with the terms they've learned. Afterwards they can talk and/or write about the project, again using the terms they've learned. Stress using the English terms correctly.

Having "hands on" activities should really reinforce their knowledge, especially if you have them write summaries afterwards. Also,quizzing often using multiple choice, fill in the blanks, matching, and short answer questions couldn't hurt either.

PS: Ever thought about holding a Science fair later in the term? The students can show off a favorite project and have a short speech prepared to demonstrate it.

[Midlothian Mapleheart]

Edited to remove offensive content.

Middy

[Voldermort]

[latefordinner]

My first thought: how can you teach the vocab independently of the subject? How can you teach any part of the language without at some point using it? Even if it means reteaching elementary school science and math, that's what you eventually end up doing to teach the vocab. Lots of room for problems here, but also room for experimentation and discovery(no pun intended, honestly).

I can understand the management's thinking; you teach the language, and the CTs teach the hard science. Unfortunately they're wrong.

My second thought was the same as Roger's. The vocab and concepts get pretty specialised, but grammar doesn't change. If (and in China this is a very big if) the students already have a good feel for the language, then this should be the least of your worries. This being China, it's probably the greatest. That's not because the target language is so specialised, but because high expectations are being set for people who've had the misfortune to have been instructed by Chinese language teachers.

Chances are that you won't be teaching a specialised language class so much as a remedial class with a bit of specialised vocab thrown in for good measure. ICBW, and I hope I am, but there you have it. Well your lessons will have to be pretty inventive.

[Babala]

I am quite surprised that your school asked you to teach these subjects to senior level students. Don't schools usually get FT's with degrees in these subjects to teach them? When I taught private school, this is what was done. The FT's were also paid more money than the teachers who strictly taught oral English. I would be making the school add to my salary.

[Voldermort]

I totally agree. It would be a lot better if there were no CT's involved and the students were taught the subject in a totally english environment.

Personally i will not be teaching these students, our school is still looking for a suitable FT. Not the schools fault, but the teacher who was chosen to take the position backed out at the very last minute. At the moment I am covering the classes, as well as teaching my own students.

Since many of our students will be heading to Canada for further study, it has become evident that the students need this type of class. At the moment this is somewhat of an expirimental phase. We have the text books but we don't know how to teach the material. I have pointed out all of these problems to the school. It has now been decided that I will perform some experimental classes and see how the students respond.

[kev7161]

By the way, if you don't know about it yet, check out:

http://school.discovery.com/

This site has a TON of Science and Math lessons, projects, experiments, worksheets, etc. . . . . for FREE!