Job Discussion Forums

[Nimah]

Hi everyone,

Just a quick note to say that I've done the interview and all 'seemed' to go well. I know I really appreciated reading others posts on NET interview/test questions so I thought I'd add my bit.

I did a PNET interview and they really wanted me to stress how my prior experience related directed to teaching literacy to young learners. I guess that sounds like a no-brainer, but just be prepared to give specific examples.

They also asked the common questions about why teach in HK, how to use shared reading, things you personally use in your class to facilitate learning and most specifically, how do you teach reading to a child with absolutely NO English knowledge.

Also my test question went along the lines of: Moving to and teaching in Hong Kong is a big change and you will encounter all kinds of difficulties in the process. What sort of difficulties do you imagine there to be and how would you cope with them?

Best of luck everyone!

[hkteach]

quote="Nimah"]

They also asked the common questions about ....things you personally use in your class to facilitate learning .......how do you teach reading to a child with absolutely NO English knowledge. ![/quote]

Whooo ! loaded question!!

For "how do you teach reading to a child with absolutely NO English knowledge" there are a few optional answers. The more of these things you incorporated into your answer, the more they would've warmed to yuo....

a. in all English lessons, speak in Canto the whole time then the child's lack of English won't matter at all.

b. try actually reading the English story in Canto - a difficult feat to maintain rhythm and intonation but keep practising!

c. use a microphone to yell from the textbook....... the kids have to be able to hear, so the louder you yell, the better they learn.

d. have them "listen and repeat" each sentence from The Bible /..... errrrr..... sorry... I mean The Textbook. It may sound boring buy it's very necessary so they can use those parrot-type responses that we've all experienced ("How old are you?" "I am fine fank you.")

e. don't waste valuable class time correcting the child's pronunciation (unless you can find evidence of marks being deducted on any territory-wide assessment.
N.B. For that matter don't waste time on speaking - this doesn't count for many marks in ANY exam here in Hong Kong so we must forget anything we've heard and learnt about good oral language being the basis for success in reading.

f. focus on writing as the major part of every lesson (after the good mornings have been dispensed with) . This may be best achieved by giving endless dictation exercises - even primary 1 kids can rote learn an entire sentence pattern and reproduce it on demand if you push them hard enough for long enough (well at least until you start a new topic, then the process begins again).
*** When testing, remember to deduct at least 2 marks for every error, including missing full stops. Yes it IS possible for kids to get all the words right but if they forget the capital letter and full stop, they can actually get minus for that sentence.

g. make sure the books for independent reading are well beyond the kids' reading ability level. If it's too easy they learn nothing. Besides, parents love it when their kid brings home a 'reader' with bigger words than the neighbour's kid has in his 'reader'.

h. don't teach phonics too soon .......... have all the kids rote learn their ABC's.... so much more useful for spelling competitions and spelling bees if kids can just call out the letter name.

i. when you DO introduce phonics, there are many options for purchase - one of the ones that repeats would be good ..... la la leg! and ru ru rabbit. ooo ooo oombrella.

j Hong Kong kids have a problem with pronouncing vowels - to ensure success in readng. just avoid teaching them.

k. remind the child frequently how lazy he is. This will spur him on to make a bigger effort. If he flags and falters, give him more homework - keep him in at recess and lunchtime till he 'gets it'.

If you ended with something like "There are many other effective ways of teaching reading that could be done, but I think I've covered the main ones." then you did well.

[Miss Helen]

Hi Nimah,

Thank you so much for sharing! I'm having my interview on the 31st and i've been pretty stressed out about it. Did you have it done in HK? And I have couple more questions if you don't mind answering them...

1) Was the interview stressful or nerve breaking?
2) Were the people nice there?
3) How many peope were interviewing you?
4) How long did the whole interview take?
5) What did you think of the overall experience?

Honestly i'm not sure quite what i should expect from the interview. Please enlighten me if you could!


Thanks again!

[Nimah]

No worries. Honestly I suppose because I don't have all of my plans riding on the NET program I wasn't too nervous (just a bit!)

For the most part I thought it was a fairly stress free experience. Mine was in Toronto, not HK. There were two gentlemen that interviewed me, one from HK and one Canadian who works in HK. The only intimidating part was the fact that the interview was in this big boardroom and we were separated by a huge table.

Otherwise they seemed nice (quite difficult to read though). They each asked me about four questions and then I had the opportunity to ask a few of my own. The interview itself lasted about 20-25 minutes. After that I left and they seemed to have a chat to each other....

Afterwards you write the test and I did so right in the waiting room with the other NET candidates. No separate room which I was expecting. Luckily everybody seemed so stressed so nobody was talking. Actually one thing I would recommend would be to write your test in the time allotted (20 min). Quite a few people went over their time and kept asking for 'just another minute, just let me finish this last line,' and then would write another two paragraphs. The HK admin person administering the tests seemed too nice to put his foot down, but I found it irritating that people were blatantly trying to abuse that.

Ok, well I think I've answered everything. Good luck on the 31st!