Job Discussion Forums

[naturegirl321]

Which do you perfer, obviously there are pros and cons of each.

Language schools,
The people pay for the education and some think that because you are a forieng teacher, you can open their heads and pour in the knowledge. There is a lot of pressure,
The students are willing to learn, because they are paying for it.
Some students show up late, I had one show up five mintues before class ended.
Sometimes don't spend enough money on good books.

Regular schools.
Students are on time.
BUt may not really care about learning.
Have to teach from books, that may be old and out of date.

[arioch36]

Nature Girl, you're in Canada? or is that caper girl, and you're here in China?

i think college students are more wiling to learn. the language students, many of them are there becuase their parents are paying for it. There are no tests, and the students don't do homework. They may or may not show up for class, and the language levels can be more drastic in a given class. IMHO

[Roger]

I can only speak for schools in China.
In public schools there is at least a token kind of a curriculum that has to be followed. It's a formal kind of classes with however vaguely defined goals.

In private tutorial centres, language institutes and such likes you come across:
- adults that pay for their own lessons;
- adults that enjoy free lessons at the expense of their employers;
- and you get sent to public schools to teach EXTRACURRICULAR
English lessons.

The latter are in increase, and those paying for these extracurricular lessons are parents. They are the worst partners to deal with - having Chinese adult ideas of what you should do with their kids. Their ideas are bewildering and border on the crazy, but they have the money and therefore can pull all the strings. Sad, but true - they force their toddlers to attend kindergarten English lessons ("Santa Claus", "virgin Mary" and the "Little lamb").

Adults whose company pays for their further English education are poorly motivated. They come because it is their privilege, and some envisage brighter careers owing to their "enhanced" English levels.
But they are often indisciplined, lazy and extremely exacting.

The best students are those you occasionally meet at public schools that meekly learn and study beceause it is their damned patriotic duty. Pity them - no one should be coerced into studying a foreign language.
But that's what is being done, and so few of our students are really keen on becoming proficient at English.

[Glenski]

[dmb]

I've worked in primary, secondary, tertiary, private, multinational and god knows what else and without adoubt the best was where learners were paying for there their own education. The worst?
teaching teachers

[Frater]

Yes, the damaging effects of the presence of teachers in a classroom can hardly be underestimated ...

At the moment, I'm teaching in a secondary school where the regular teachers take it in turns to be my classroom assistant - scolding, shushing, second guessing, intervening inappropriately in the lesson, translating, making grammatical mistakes - anything to ensure that the students don't learn anything.

[dmb]

Frater, Im confused. if the regular teachers are your classroom assistants , whats your job?

[Frater]

I'm a sort of SUPERTEACHER!!!!

I mean, I'm a native speaker and they're not ...

[denise]

In theory, I think I prefer 'regular' schools, because they are less likely to be of the edutainment persuasion.

d

[struelle]

[arioch36]

Teaching teachers...

Well, at one language school, a Chinese teacher sat in on every class, and would drive me crazy by repeating my intsruction, saying shushing them etc. I guess I was flattered though, that he incorporated many of my methods in his teaching.

At a high school where I taught the chinese teacher was supposed to sit in on my class, or the other foreign teacher's class. But i don't do much lecturing in my high school class, the students do the work. So she would do her homework.

Then I taught a teacher'sclass at night to the high school teachers. They were tired. They just wanted to go home. But the headmaster forced them to be there. Oh Joy!

[dmb]

@ denise. "Edutainment" Nice word. thats my word of the week next week.

[naturegirl321]

I taught chinese teachers, they would pick out obscure grammar that woule make my head spin. And come to me after class asking me to explain it. You try to tell them that it's not important, that they need to concentrate on speaking, somehow it just dones't get through.

Currently, I'm at a kindergarten, a private one. I love it, except for the lack of curicculum, Actually there is one, but it's so horrible. It's an English kindergarten , yet English is only spoken for an hour a day. It's driving me crazy, but I"ve gotten really attached to the little kids. I never thought that i would like teaching them!

And yes, i'm in China and Capergirl is in Canada.

[Glenski]

[guest of Japan]

Most of my students never bother to check-in. I'd much rather have them sleeping than fighting, throwing desks, talking on the phone, putting on make-up, curling their hair, or well you name it, they've done it. Oh, thank goodness winter vacation starts today.