Job Discussion Forums

[SimonM]

Ever since I came to China I've been doing what I consider adult education. I work with people who are mostly in their early twenties (I am myself 27), I organize a class that largely pushes self-motivation and is generally less formally structured than is usual in the Chinese university system. (First thing I did was get rid of the desks in my speaking room and the stools in the classroom will usually end up being reorganized more than once during a class to accomodate different activities and levels of group conversation.

However when the university term ended the adults all went home and... well... wai guo ren need to earn a living for two months.

So I collaborated with a well-connected Chinese ESL teacher to do a childrens class this summer.

That class is over after tomorow and I must say this: I have a new respect for people who teach children I think I'd go insane if I had to do it all the time.

First of all I will admit that I had a terrible curriculum. The teacher I was working with plugged our course as a Ying Biao course. He openly admitted it was boring.

Well I don't know about my students but I certainly learned how to use the international phonetic symbols. I had to in order to teach them to a bunch of kids who can barely even read english letters.

Some of the students actually have demonstrated considerable improvement in their English abilities and not just the few who started with above-average English abilities.

Some of them seem no better. Sometimes the cause of this is clear. One girl was accompanied by her elder sister. The girl would slack off all class or chat with her friends every time my back was turned and her sister would dutifully copy my work off the blackboard. Some mothers stayed behind to do the same for their little boys during the first of my two classes. This doesn't help ambient noise letters in class because most of them either would talk over me to their son or daughter or would talk with other parents at the back of the room. The kids all shout whenever I take my attention off the class as a whole to focus on any given student and half the boys seem to be either fighting with the other half or bullying the girls who they outnumber. I seem to spend more time breaking up fights and trying to figure out why I have three girls and one boy in tears than I do actually teaching English.

With the fact that the kids all speak almost no english (many upgraded from speaking NONE before starting my class) and all of them like to get involved in the finger pointing if it looks like trouble. So I often have to sort out what ten or twelve people are shouting in putonghua.

Ayah!

It hasn't all been bad. My putonghua has improved in leaps and bounds since I started doing this course. My colleague keeps commenting on how my mandarin has improved this last week.

And some of the children are absolutely darlings for all their noise. There are a few who I will remember well for their unique manner and wonderful personalities... for instance a young lad who has picked up the nickname among his classmates of "Song Jiang" (his family name being Song) he is young, generally serious, of small stature and has better english than most of his classmates. And, yet, much like the literary figure with whom he has been associated he remains popular among his peers somehow. In Canada he is exactly the sort of kid who would have been stuck in an awful gifted class.

[kev7161]

One thing I've discovered with teaching kids is that, in many cases, you can't just start teaching them "English". What I mean is, they have to learn the sounds of letters first, then move into long and short vowels, then onto blends and digraphs. Pronunciation and enunciation is very important. For a six week summer course, it's seemingly assumed that most participants come in with prior knowledge and that's usually not true. They may either have NO English background, a poorly learned English background, and/or very little exposure to a foreign teacher.

If you can find phonic books that introduces one letter for each lesson, you may just see some progress. I use a text from the US and every day has a two-page lesson. The kids see the letter (take "b" for example), learn how to write the uppercase and lowercase, then listen for the sound of "b" at the beginning of words. They have pictures to color. If the picture starts with "b" (bat, ball, etc.), then they color the picture. If not, they put an X through it. So, get this - - they are hearing the "b" sound. They are saying the "b" sound. They are hearing and repeating "b" words (and later, they'll see and say and hear those same words when learning the ENDING sounds and the vowel sounds!) and getting a visual image of what each word means. They get to color during a lesson (which most kids enjoy) and, as a teacher, you can come up with any extra activity that ties in with the lesson of the day for them to play or do! Before you know it, that 40-45 minute lesson is over - - get ready for "f" tomorrow kids! These kids are building their vocabulary every day with easily more than a dozen words and they don't even realize it.

So, you want the kids to SPEAK English, do you? Well, KISS (Keep It Simple . . . uh, Simon )- - - Hold up a picture of a ball. "What's this?" you ask. Teach them how to respond, "It's a ball!" In a short summer course, that may be the extent of their English-speaking capabilities (if they are very young . . . 7 to 8 years old, perhaps). In a long-term school year, you will find that eventually you will get these kids to expand their speaking skills and will also be able to read simple stories (with words repeated time and again from their phonics lessons).

PS: In China - I still recommend the "New Parade" series. Plenty of songs and chants and art activities and role-playing and so on and so on to keep most kids happy for hours. Start with the introductory text for those that have little to no English or pick a level (up to level 6) depending on your students' abilities.

[nolefan]

that is exactly how felt the first time I entered a classroom filled with little brat..hum I mean angels. I spent two months teaching them at Shane English out in Hefei and those were two of the hardest months i've had to endure in China.
Everyday I'd get home all worn out and just collapse on the couch after spending 6 hours dealing with screaming, kickin, biting and what not.

To be honest, I did enjoy it during the class itself because it is such a contrast to dealing with teenagers/adults at the university level.

[SimonM]

[no_exit]

[kev7161]

Yeah, I've stated that before - - I don't teach phonetics, I'll leave that up to their Chinese English teacher. I'm not saying learning phonetics is not valid, I'm just not so sure I can teach it! Maybe later with another degree under my belt.

For any "newbie" out there, phonics and phonetics are two different things. One is more listening and recognizing the sounds (and learning how to say them properly) and the other is . . . hmm, phonetics? Can someone clarify that for me and others? I know of the phonetic symbols, of course, but don't know how to explain them.

[HunanForeignGuy]

I love teaching children in China.

I have a great deal of patience with the little ones.

I laugh with them, dance with them, sing with them, and we learn so much.

I prefer teaching children 10,000 over to teaching adults. I relax with the children and they relax. They are very sensitive to teacher moods and can probably see through a teacher quicker than an adult.

I must say though that I have been Montessori trained. I have children privately and I have taught primary school and Junior 1 / 2. Those were the better days of my life in China.

First -- pay particular attention to the attention span of a child. No activity should go beyond 8-9 minutes -- at that point, the children's minds start to wander. Engage the children. Begin and close the class with a moderate amount of active TPR. Phonetics / pronounciation -- the little ones are quite good at this and this is an excellent level at which to introduce corrective phonology / morphology. Build the activities over several lessons. Start simple and build. Pay attention to the retention span of a child and do not be afraid to repeat things in another lesson.

Plan your lesson for children carefully. Anyone who tries to "wing it" with the little ones will soon find that they have a very surly audience on their hands.

Introduce simple dialogues, line-by-line over a period of ten days.

Whatever you do with the little ones, the activities should definitely be active and not passive in nature and they should involve at least the medium-level motor skills.

Next, pay attention to the moods of the little ones. My greatest joy was my class of little ones who didnot want to be in the class but were there because mama and papa forced them and then at the end of two weeks, they were so happy to be there that they never wanted to go home.

Remember -- under the right circumstances a little one will learn quicker and more accurately and with more interest than an adult.

I find teaching adults very, very trying. It is an exercise in patience for me.

And there are no cell phone problems with the little ones, no smoking in class problems. etc., etc.

I just do not understand teachers who do not enjoy teaching children.

[SimonM]

The codification of the structure of sounds is I think a good definition.

[Outsida]

Rich kids are generally terrible. Poor kids are great.

Mixed classes are usually no good. All-girl classes are excellent. All-boy classes are nightmares.

I've had my fair share of kiddy experiences. Here's what I've learned.

1. Under no circumstances should parents be allowed anywhere near the classroom, let alone inside. If they're standing at the window looking in, that's almost as bad. They are the single worst distraction for kids.

2. Kids love to draw, compete and be rewarded. Cater for this. Do a countdown for when they're mucking around. "Sit down please... 3... 2... 1, ok!" They usually follow it.

3. Do games like musical chairs, whisper relays, races, even use a two-person skipping rope to get them chanting in time while jumping. When teaching letters, make a rhyme for each letter. "A... A... apple, apple, on the tree. B... B... banana, banana, 1, 2, 3" and so on.

[orangiey]

I am teaching kids and last year introduced phonics in the form of 'phonic monsters'. I printed the sheets from bogglesworld and basically a word is in 3 parts eg. 'sh..i..p....'and printed on a monster with 'sh' a the head, 'i, in the middle and 'p' at the tail. Have all the phonics like this with different 'monsters' cut into the three sections, put into 3 piles, the kids take a head, middle and tail, try to say the word, if correct 1 point and if a real word another. They loved it as the 'monsters' had mixed up body parts and I had no end of hands up wanting ago we suck the monters on the board-I spilt them into teams to get the most points..I will add in this year middles with double vowels ie 'oa' such as 'b...oa....t' look forward to it!
Hope this helps

[BlakeS]

[vikdk]

[BlakeS]

[NathanRahl]

Use lots of body language, use your hands all the time. Don't take your eyes off of them, let your assistant, if you have one, domost of the writing on the blackboard. Keeping their attention is key really. As long as you keep them involved somehow, visually, mentally, your good, just keep momentum going. That, and have a good lesson plan. I have a text book lesson plan to go by, but I just use it as a guide. I've taught kids before coming here though, and the one thing you need to do is, keep going. Adults have patience, kid's don't. Body language, humor on ocassion, and just kep going, it's simple, and it works. If they are younger, games that are not games, but you call them games, also work well. Just keep them involved, often having the whole class participate as you go along. It's not hard, unless you make it hard, just remember, keep it simple stupid