Job Discussion Forums

[Roger]

My opinion is: a teacher teaches, and an examiner examines, full stop! The two perform irreconcilably different jobs; you should never mix oil with water, yet this is constantly being done in China!

Last week I had a hectic week owing to the poor communications and organisational skills of my superiors, and so had thousands of other FTs.

I had thought I could put my English patients through the torture chamber in January, just before the spring festival; in the week that ended on 17 December I found out that all my sutdents were going to have various exams scheduled erratically with no regard for other commitments on the part of the students themselves. Some students intimated they would be going to do "experiments" or work in labs in other campuses, so could I hold those blasted English tests earlier?

But it has to be noted that not every student was so forthcoming as to give me some advance warning! Many were biding their time, hoping to get a free ride and a pass grade for no pain at all!

So I shifted into top gear! The second last week of December saw oral tests, and the final week was devoted to written exams.

Yes, not everyone would put their students through two tests; then again, not every student in the world gets let off the hook as easily as Chinese students - by being examined by their very own teachers!

But shame and blame on my university! Not only did they overenroll students for my classes so that some dropped out due to conflicts with their timetables; they also informed me during the very last weeks of December that some students really couldn't come to those exams I was holding...because they had to take supposedly more important subjects!

And of course, I was totally alone with my students in my classroom; no invigilator! NEver had one, anyway.
So, to ensure my students couldn't cheat, I designed a test paper that I hand-modified (by deleting certain words) that differed greatly from one student to the next; not any two test papers were identical...

One of the hurdles I had to negotiate was: where to photocopy close to 300 test-papers! There is a rickety copier in the FAO's office, but after churning out ten or so copies, it usually breaks down... Sometimes half a page is smeared in black!
I accidentally dropped into the Director's Printing ROom! There was one underworked lady busy browsing through a tabloid; outside her cubicle stood a row of copiers. One of them simultaneously copied on both sides of the sheets, and that's what I needed! She made copies - and when I returned for a pile of extras she informed me that the DIrector's Office demanded a signed request for such a job, but alas, she was doing it for me as a favour...

Anyway, every test-paper I received from students I put in an estimated 5 to 8 minutes of hand-modifying, reading, correcting. Multiply by almost 300...

The good news was that I had a whole class of tremendously enthusiastic and dedicated students, all majoring in English. Doing my classes and tests with them was a real piece of cake; it is the rest of them that compounded my dissatisfaction with this examination approach: they were in it only for the extra marks that they suspected would be easy to obtain! Unfortunately, some of those guys clearly were unprepared for those tests even though I had given them precise instructions on how to do it. I asked them, among other things, to memorise a stanza from a pop song. My instruction was to practise with a partner so that they can hear each other's voice and pronuncation...
During the exam I pointedly asked each and everyone who had been their respective partner; some pretended not to understand my question, and their reciting was of poor quality too. They could make up by answering the questions in the test paper.

In several classes, some student(s) showed up late for the exam; in one case, a girl arrived 20 minutes before the end...
Three guys barged into a class sitting their examination although they didn't belong there; they had missed their exam the previous day and wanted to make it up... I had no room for them; they showed up again a few days later...I relented.
Sad to report that I had a hard time maintaining a straight face and good manners! So much indiscipline and disrespect leaves one with a sour taste under one's tongue! Some students got a pretty vocal tongue-lashing from me!

Was it worth the strain and stress? I think I was under the most stress! And no, I don't think it's worth the trouble! You are the only one who gives a hoot about their English performance! They observed at the end of their second test that "you are very strict, Mr S." Strict? Is that a criticism?
Yes, I was being strict! Of all those guys, 2 scored 100 points out of 100! Isn't that proof that I was not being too strict?
Most made between 70 and 90; a certain number of underachievers just managed 60, and in almost every class I had one to 3 failures!
That was in the written test-paper; the oral test was difficult to "fail"; everyone somehow stuttered their verses albeit with more or less quality!

WHy don't the Chinese test our students?

[tofuman]

Rog,

Let me tell you how one FT handles "tests."

First, He insists that he be paid his usual hourly rate for correcting them. That is a non-negotiable point. Figure an average of 5 minutes/test for 250 students is about 20 hours @ 100/hour.

Second, He flatly tells his administrators he is not making a test with varying percentages of differently weighted questions. He will design a test to his own liking to reasonably reflect what the students should have learned during the class. If they want another type of test, they can write it.

Third, He will not participate in the administration of the test.

He administered and corrected no tests this term.

[NorbertRadd]

I taught English conversation this term and gave the exams during class time. The exams were a simple 1-on-1 interview with me. I graded as I gave them.

[friedrich nietzsche]

Although you justifiably complain, why do I get the feeling that none of this really surprises you? Here is what I want to know: have you ever raised these matters with any leaders or officials,and, if so, what did they say?

[shenyanggerry]

[NorbertRadd]

Why not do Q&A or a dialog so their listening comprehension is used and tested?

[shenyanggerry]

NorbertRadd, I don't use a conversation for a couple of reasons. Firstly, It's easy to get into the trap of asking either the same questions or repeating a few. Students, having consulted with previous testees, arrive with planned answers. Also, I want to see a sustained production of English. I also have to test as many as 35 in a two hour period.

[NorbertRadd]

I conferred with my dean last week and at present am writing up 20 lessons--fill in the blank song lyrics, dialog, slideshow, "show & tell" w/ each student required to do one for part of final grade, and a classroom survey w/ students interviewing each other. The final will be half the grade and I'm going to make it another oral exam where it is another interview from the above. For the final there will be no visual aids so the students must start to learn to listen. This is just my little project. My dean is happy that there has been a minor improvement. I'd like to see 100%.

[Roger]

Yeah, why not Q & A exercises?

I have done that in the past, and I have done many different things besides; in the end I decided my students, that is, my non-English major students, don't really care and won't need oral practice so much but a lot of remedial action!
I taught at 2 different normal schools and became aware of a huge gap between the contents of an English major's curriculum and a non-major's. The aspiring English teachers (graduates of normal schools) learn, among other things, how to use the International Phonetic Transcription method, and they do very well at it! Thus, you can actually give them an idea of what's wrong with their pronuncaition - but what about the vast majority who don't go to normal schools? You have to undo the bad pronuncation inculcated in them by their own teachers, and how can you do that with classes that number more than 40?

And it's not just about pronunciation! They have zero comprehension of grammar rules! They seem to think they are free to use the present tense when they feel like using it! Using a past tense won't occur of their free and educated decision! It will happen only if they have been trained at doing so - which hardly anyone has! There are myriad problem areas that need addressing: tell me why they all acquire such funny phrases as "I means that..." (yes, I and you followed by the verb 'mean" with a third-person marker!). These mistakes are so fossilised that I do not want to encourage them to speak more without first eliminating those ingrained bad speaking habits!

And it is also true as said by another poster that Q & A sessions will lead to a lot of rote-learning based on what the first few students were asked, who then report to their peers!

I really feel these kids don't need to speak spontaneously; they ought to memorise poems and songs and excel at that! That's one of many ways to help them; it certainly takes care of their accents, grammar, intonation; what more could you hope for from them? Not much really - nor do they want more! They are in your class, as I pointed out, merely for the extra credits!

As I said, there are other avenues you can go down in your purusuit of speaking English exercises, but a vital ingredient should be: how much do your students care for it themselves?
And since my majors do really care, I do many other things with them, including holding presentations or short speeches (rigoprously defined in terms of contents, number of words or length of speech), and what's also important is that the rest of the class LISTEN!

Wherever the rest of the class take liberties in not paying attention to what's going on - because they are not directly asked to speak! - I feel it's wasting everyone's time! Speaking without others listening is not speaking - it's making noises!

[Brian Caulfield]

U guys have it all wrong. Where ever U work it is based on the same system . It is based on the complaint system . If there R no complaints you R a good teacher. Pass them . You R not certifying rocket scientist or brain surgains . My policy for the past fifty years is that if they make contact and they know nothing I give them one percent lower than the bottom. Look at the books they give you to work with . They R peppered with mistakes . Every page has more mistakes than my postings and I am the worst teacher ever to teach Englishy. Relax and help them use English to communicate.

[Mydnight]

I don't really post here that often, but maybe I should do so more often in the future. I've seen some really swell ideas here so far about exams.

My exams...


Ok, here's what I wanted to do:

I have the same class back to back. That means, if I have International Business class the first period of 45 minutes, I usually have them for the second period as well. Why I am teaching business majors when the UNI didn't even supply a book for them, I have no idea. Anyway, this is a sorta remedial trade UNI that the worst students go to. I had to make something that wasn't too hard and something that wasn't too easy...but about the level of freshmen in High School English wise.

The exam was to have two parts. I had firstly wanted to give them like 10-15 vocab words to write some sentences with and then ask them to write a short passage about some of the topics we went over in class. The second part was going to be a group presentation about a topic they picked out a box.

The first two classes performed so abysmally, I realized I would have to change up my idea. I was also tired of marking papers that looked like the scrawlings of a bunch of freaking Middle School kids. I mean, jesus...how hard is it to write a sentence with a word like "appetite".

What I did after the first two classes:

Got them to pair up. Kept the same topics in the box. They picked a topic and had one minute or so to prepare and then had to conversate about it for 3 minutes. Their mark was given based on their fluency, the use of vocab and not using Chinglish, if they were able to keep it up for 3 minutes or not.

Easy, right? Most people were able to pass........most people? I am not bottle feeding these spoiled brats, sorry. Now, I'm called a good teacher by all the classes except for those that failed. Why did they fail? I kept attendence....some people missed more than 50 percent of the classes. The lowest mark I gave for the term was 10.

I really think Brian Caulfield has the better idea.

[Brian Caulfield]

U got the right idea . I'm out of this gig . Schools like failures. It is money
in the bank for them . They must take the class again . I JUST DON'T LIKE PASSING IT ON TO SOMEONE ELSE. Sorry my caps locked . I had to test many students this term who had good English and failed because the last teacher failed them for not being there . Western schools don't take attendance . They base grades on knowledge not on subservience .

[Pericles77]

Roger- how long have you been teaching English in China?

[Mydnight]

[tofuman]

Don't let people who are dumber than you are tell you how to test your students. That's a fairly simple policy and a good one. How many adhere to it?