Job Discussion Forums

[KevinT123]

I have gotten used to teaching English to science majors so my expectation has never been that high. Recently, I have been given three classes of Grade Three English Major undergraduates to teach. I expected their general English level to be much higher as this is what can be described as a second tier Chinese university.

The first thing that struck me was their level of vocabulary and the way they use what vocabulary they have. They are fine at using technical vocabulary and jargon connected with English language teaching but cannot follow what I would consider to be simple, run of the mill vocabulary.

I ran an experiment using cards I have made to teach non English majors. I have written five packs of fifty vocabulary cards each to do with a particular topic or category. One of the categories is related to food commodities and ingredients. I divided the blackboard into three columns, one being fish and seafood, one being meat and meat products and the last being fruit and vegetables. All the students had to do was write the food product in the correct column. I told the English majors that this would be very easy for students of their level. How wrong could I be?

One card had the word 'lettuce'. To my astonishment, only one student in three classes of English majors knew what a 'lettuce' is. To see a class full of undergraduate English majors all grabbing an electronic dictionary to look up the word 'lettuce' made my heart sink to my knees. To be frank, some of the words were a little more unusual like 'courgette' and 'asparagus' but every food item listed is something I have seen commonly eaten in China and I know how to say every one of them in Chinese after one week's practice. Not one single student in three classes knew what 'pork spare ribs' are despite it being such a typical Chinese dish. More frightening than that, most students couldn't fathom out from the name of this dish whether it is categorised as fish, meat or fruit and vegetables!

Hastily, I have rewritten my teaching plan as I can now see there is a need for some serious vocabulary building that I was not expecting. As well as some technical aspects of writing, I have decided to mix in some of the activities I thought were only the domain of my non major students, at least for the duration of the first semester and then reassess the situation thereafter.

I repeated the activity using cards to do with modes of transport. Is there anything more quintessentially Chinese than a rickshaw? They are still very common in Chinese society but I could not find one English major student who had ever come across the word 'rickshaw'. To hear the gasps of exasperation when they found out what it was after a quick check on their plastic life saver!

Now, despite the fact that they clearly don't know 98%+ of these basic vocabulary items, they complain that I shouldn't teach this way because it is too middle schoolish and they may lose face. So, aside from one group of particularly diligent students in each class, they sleep or do not bother attending.

Almost all of them aspire to be translators or post graduates after graduating in 2009. I explained to one girl the seriousness I can see developing from this lack of basic vocabulary. I asked her to imagine the scenario of being a professional translator at a banquet attended by foreign business people and not being able to understand a common sentence like "Does this dish contain courgette?" or "I had a pleasant ride around Beijing in a rickshaw before dinner". Imagine the loss of face related to using an electronic dictionary to fathom out the meaning of what the foreign VIP is telling or asking you!

Again, I suppose it is all down to the system of teaching used in China as the students can only learn what they are taught.

Is it typical of English majors generally in China or are these just a bad bunch?

[lostinasia]

This is the standard!!

And, is it just me, or does the original message seem to very poorly written? You can't complain about the students until the teacher can exceed them.

[kev7161]

I don't even know what a courgette is! And I've never seen a rickshaw in China in my 4+ years here. Sure, 3-wheeled bicycles and such, but those old pulled-by-human thingies you see in the chop-socky Chinese movies of yore? Never. But, I feel your pain. Why should someone have to teach college English majors basic vocabulary and grammar? It's sad state of affairs.

[KevinT123]

[Shan-Shan]

[Lorean]

A lot of Chinese University students study vocabulary like this: a few weeks before a major exam they will grind 100 words PER DAY. Naturally, they forget everything after writing their exam.

To make matters worse, they often study words in isolation, by translation.

If you really wanna drill this vocab into them, I suggest a cumulative vocabulary quiz at the beginning of every class.

[KevinT123]

Lorean, thank you! I quite agree. The reason that I wrote the original posting was not to insult my students but to find out what sort of standard I should expect from university English majors. I had the impression that the distinguishing factor that majors would have over non majors is depth of vocabulary and use of grammar. After teaching majors for only a few weeks, my opinion is changing. I want to know if I am being to harsh and some suggestions of how to rectify the situation. I am a scientist by training with a business background. I have had this situation forced on me as I only feel qualified to teach basic English to non majors (in addition to my own subjects).

[Anda]

I think it all comes back to what words our Chinese students use when speaking between themselves on a day to day basis, if and when they employ English. If it is obvious that they are not using / requiring such words as lettuce, then why teach them.

I stick with basic words plus a vocabulary that one would expect to hear if one was listening to a Western Soap on TV as I find this is the type of everyday family life subject matter that they themselves converse on in the main.

Getting my students to construct English sentences that read easily is where I spend most of time, not on trying to increase their vocabulary intentionally.

[sheeba]

I did the Paul Nation vocabulary levels test on my 3rd year majors and also my non-majors. The major class came out with a higher average than the non-majors. The majors started to show weaknesses at the 5000 level word test. They averaged 9.3 out of 18 which implies that they have trouble at the boundary of high and low-frquency words. Of course the test was done by reading so it was not a pronunciation test.

Nation suggests that students need training in guessing words from context if they have problems at this level. He also suggests wide reading-novels,newspapers,university texts,etc. For my majors I suggest binning their electronic dictionaries if they are simply billingual transaltions. Use a proper Ennglish dictionary with descriptions of words.

Personally I wouldn't spend too much time in class teaching vocabulary. The only way to learn vocabulary is if the students do this on their own and in my opinion reading(as |Nation suggests) where students incidently learn vocab is the most efficient way.

I think strategies for learning words are useful but convincing your learners that a certain strategy is worthy is hard. I'm trying at the moment to work on effective strategies. If a student in your class effectively learns some words and you can prove that then this evidence may be all you need to encourage a strategy.

But I personally wouldn't get too intense teaching vocab in class.

[KevinT123]

I stick with basic words plus a vocabulary that one would expect to hear if one was listening to a Western Soap on TV as I find this is the type of everyday family life subject matter that they themselves converse on in the main.

So the words that they are apt to learn like interrogative pronoun and adjectival predicate are picked up off Western soap operas and will be more useful than common food items when the are conducting their day to day business as a translator in the future!

[johnchina]

Whenever I do IELTS testing and a candidate announces with pride that he/she is an English major, I say "Oh God!" to myself - and I'm nearly always right. A lot of the second-tier students are forced into majoring in English because they get poor uni entrance test scores and because there is less competition than for other majors.

[lostinasia]

And I am an M.D. teaching medicine and, in my off-hours, English. I also teach technical [scientific] writing. In addition, there is a huge difference in what is clearly a typographical error (the missing "be") in my sentence compared to the poorly written paragraphs in your original posting. If you would like to turn this into a personal issue then, please, by all means.

My point was clear -- "the pot calling the kettle black" sort of thing. Your post was filled with a number of grammatical errors including run-on sentences, and the like. You seem to have no grasp of the level of education and English ability of students in this country. Are you American? Many of the words you use and your examples of in-class vocabulary are hardly standard, everyday American English. Yet, you're complaining about the inadequacies of your students.

I'm not making this a personal issue - I pointed out [asked] if I was the only reader who seemed to have issues with reading your post. I actually had to read sentences more than once to grasp the thought process; as many sentences were run-ons, incoherent, and contained more than just a few ideas. It was not simple to read.

[KevinT123]

[lostinasia]

[kev7161]

Can someone just tell me what the hell a courgette is!!!!????!!!!!