Job Discussion Forums

[AndrewNZ]

Hi

I was teaching English in China , I may go back someday. I got this email from a friend in China who is a Chinese English Teacher. She is teaching College age students about 17-21 or 22 years old. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas to make her lessons more interesting. thanks

Andrew


How�s going?I need you help me.You know I want to use new way to make learning English more interesting in class.Hope the students don�t feel boring when they study English.Now I teach the freshmen..Most of them are not interested in English.But they have to take English course in China,and pass the English level test.How can I do for them?I thought a lot about my teaching.Now I must let them feel happy in learning English.As a teacher,I should do this!I should turn I let them learn English into they want to learn.It�s quite improtant in English learning.



This term I let the students do more speaking practice,finding more way to make my teaching interesting.Of course,it�s important to remember the English words,as well.Try my best to enlarge their vocabulary.For example, when we learn �goal�,we should think about �aim�,�purpose�,and so on.. We also can use �aim� to make sentences.In the text,we try to use English to explain English.Well,I also let the students give a speech in English,about 3 minutes.However,some feel it�s so difficult to speak.They are afraid of speaking English.And some are lazy.They don�t study English in their spare time,only want to learn a little in the class.They think that�s enough.



When we meet something we have to do.We must face it,cannot escape away.Do you think so?So I must study English with my students.To be brave!Never give up until we get the success.



Now,I have a plan that find some friends and make video.For example,you make 1or 2 minutes video,encouraging them to learn English.They need confidence.Then I will play my friends� video to my students.Let them feel there are so many people ready to help them.I don�t know wether it works or not.But I think if I don�t do it,there is no chance.If I do,there is 1 percent chance at least.



It only takes you several minutes to encourage them,but it can help more than 100 studnets.Do you want to help them and me?!Please!!Please!!



Have a good day!

[7969]

like most people here, i've had my fair share of students ask me "how can i improve my oral english" only for me to tell them and then watch them never do what i suggested. or only to have them ask me the same question again a few weeks later. i've also given some chinese english teachers ideas on how to make their classes a bit more lively or active (and i'm no teaching genius but it isnt that hard). most of them take the handouts or the ideas but never bothered to employ them as far as i know.

why not direct your friend to the idea and games section of this website? they're not all useful or applicable but there are a few ideas and games there for everyone. just point her in the right direction, but dont do the work for her. let her figure that out on her own.

7969

[Steppenwolf]

Change the fossilised concept of the teacher's role as a source of knowledge and have the students learn on their own!
Really, I don't see the teacher as the decision maker who "knows" which words a student or a class of students must memorise! In my experience, all classes in China focus on "learning" rather than acquiring language. Students learn new words before they actually need them. Why are we surprised they forget mostof them?

Yesterday I had a tremendous success with a class of adult "business English" learners. Their English was average and I suspect "business English" just had that persuasive power a good TV commercial has; they weren't interested in English per se.

I paired them up and decided one of them must be the "messenger", the other the "secretary".
I then put a pile of notes on my desk. Each note had a clause or another meaningful part of a sentence - a subject, a predicate, an adverbial of place or time, an object, etc. - and I asked the "writers" to leave their seats and nip over to memorise one of those bits of English and then to dictate them to their "writer" colleague.
This form of transmission usually produces a number of mistakes that need polishing - very good for students to learn to think critically about their own reproductions of English.
Finally, they had to arrange those parts into whole sentences; since they were business English learners, the sentences contained economy-related topics. The lesson was supposed to revolve around the notion of "partnerships", sothe sentences I had constructed for them were of the type as follows:
"Siemens of Germany/and a Chinese partner/have set up a? joint venture that produces cellphones in China/."

Mid-way through my lesson, one guy loudly proclaimed this to be his "most interesting lesson".

And it obviously was a success. The lesson combined knowledge already present in their minds with new items. It also made them think and work together. They had to communicate with each other in English as translation would not have served any purpose.
At the end, they had toread their statements aloud; those who successfully had matched up the sentence parts felt proud of their achievement.

This exercise can be done at most levels and varied to suit most needs.

[2 over lee]

[tw]

Andrew, what your friend wishes to do and what she can actually do are two different things. How many students are there in her classes? Do students sit at desks that can be moved around, or do they have those bolted down benches? How much free space are there in the classrooms? Your friend has to take these into considerations. Also, your friend must realize that there are going to be students whose English proficiency is much higher than some of their peers.

I've been getting my students to do group work, and it frustrates me greatly because either the students have difficulty sitting in groups of 4 or 5 due to tight spacing, or they waste 5 - 10 minutes re-arranging desks to swit in rows instead of packed sardines (which also makes it difficult for me to move around monitoring and assisting them with their activities). Furthermore, because of evening English Club meetings three nights a week and writing assignments to mark, I have no time to type up, print, and go to the photocopy shop to make HUNDREDS of copies for the next lesson (and only to have students throwing them away after class). These are the main reasons why I find most EFL/ESL games and activities I've come across on various web sites not feasible nor suitable for my students.