Job Discussion Forums

[Songbird]

Have been given grade 2 Culture of Major Western countries for this term at my new uni job.

Never taught this before, having panic attack...and start tomorrow (was givent he timetable about 2 hours ago...TIC)

What do I do? I come from Australia and probably not that much to discuss. Haven't been given a textbook.

What do I do for assessment?

Any help or ideas would be GREATLY received

[jeffinflorida]

Ok teach what I learned in High School...

There is the United States and a some other countries in the world.

That's about it...

[danielb]

I reckon it will be a �Survey of Major English Speaking Countries� course and you�ll be expected to cover the USA, Canada, UK & Northern Ireland, Australia and the Kiwis. From the start, work out how many weeks you have and try to work out how many weeks you will have for each country, it won�t be many. If you look at it that way you�ll realise that you can�t really go into too much depth. If the students are studying for an exam such as TEM8 then you�ll note the type of information they need to know for that exam and this will give you an idea. Teaching for exams isn�t much fun but if you make it clear to the students that your course will help them pass you are probably likely to get their attention from the beginning.

Some suggestions:

Follow some sort of a logical order. For example, start from the Brits, talk about different peoples that arrived in Britain such as the Iberians, Celts, Vikings and Danes, Angles, Saxons and Jutes, then the Frogs in 1066. Then go on to talk about the Middle Ages, arrival of the plague and how this led to the peasant uprising, enclosure movement, fall of feudal system, English Revolution, the British Empire, etc. Fill in the gaps such as the great charter, beginnings of democracy, industrialisation, the world wars, etc.

With the US you can start with the first four colonies, where they were located and the very different reasons they came to be. Work into this stuff like thanksgiving, etc. Go on to the War of Independence, Civil War, Civil Rights, and then more modern stuff.

For Canada you can mention the cultural mosaic versus the cultural melting pot of the US. Mention the French and Indian Wars, the different indigenous groups protected by the constitution, etc.

For Australia, you can talk about XXXX beer, Bundy Rum, Midnight Oil (I�m actually serious with this one, talk about how an activist rocker became the Environmental Minister � they�ll be amazed if you show them a video clip of Peter Garrett dancing on stage then giving a speech in parliament), cricket, BBQs and Rugby Union. That would just about cover everything important. Don�t worry about the Kiwis too much. Joking, I love my trans-Tasman brethren, just not during the Trinations.

Some suggestions for fillers if you have time at the end of classes or get sick of talking etc are to play different national anthems and discuss the meanings of the lyrics, talk about the different parts that make up the Royal Union Flag and how it became to be one flag, compare speeches by Malcolm X and Martin Luther King JR., etc.

Honestly, I reckon you will find that you know more about what to cover than you realise and the course can be quire rewarding for both you and your students. If you want any more ideas send me a PM and I�ll try to help.

[Anda]

Um, nothing to panic about provided you have a printer and printing roon where you work.


http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&newwindow=1&q=Teaching+Western+Culture+China&btnG=Search


http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Aspects+of+Western+Caulture&btnG=Google+Search


http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&newwindow=1&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=Teaching+Western+Culture&spell=1


http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&newwindow=1&q=Western+Culture+China&btnG=Search


http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&newwindow=1&q=Western+Culture+English+teaching&btnG=Search


http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&newwindow=1&q=Western+Culture+Modern+&btnG=Search


http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&newwindow=1&q=Western+Culture+Chinese+University&start=10&sa=N

[sheeba]

Songbird.

I would relax. Don't worry about it. Culture can mean so much. Just being there you are teaching culture.

If I were in that situation again I would initially teach more about where I am from. Don't worry about other countries. I would teach students about me, my country and then get students to begin to do the same for the cities they live in. Australia has a lot of places I'm sure of interest and so has China. I would aim at 60 percent teacher talk time for the first 6 weeks and then slowly change that so by the end classes are 80 percent students talking.

Assess how they use language and not so much what they say. Opinions are simply opinions. Try not to be biased.

Rough guide could be

Introductions from you and then the students. Try to get them speaking with each other about the cultures in the cities that they live in. Chances are they have never spoken to each other in English about this. Supply them with language structures on the board. You'll be starting with present tense for truths- My city is big, The population is... blah blah.
Give them a big list of truths about where you live. Play a game where they have to guess if you are lying. You can start this with personal info- I am married?True or false, I am 29 years old Tor F and so on. They can play this game with each other.

This is just the first lesson. In that lesson you can get ideas as to errors students are making. Go around listening to them using English and make a list of errors. You could write these on the board( I often get one student in a group to write down errors and at the end of the exercise all of these are written on the board buyt this will come later in the term normally)

You need to begin to make a profile of your students and the problems they have. You could get them to keep diaries where they write down problems in lessons at the end of each lesson.

When you have more understanding of these problems then focus on these in future classes. At about week 3 when you have a big list of these you can then start to make a criteria list for assessment. Tell the students exactly what they need to be doing to pass your exam. You'll probably base this list on pronunciation,grammar,vocabulary and fluency issues.

You can design lessons that involve all of these areas. In a typical lesson I tend to start with drilling of pronunciation issues and then move onto a grammar issue by using target sentences. Vocab will always be available in material(make it authentic) and fluency I think should be assessed at the latter stages of the course.

Students will need things like comparatives,superlatives and certain phrases/markers to express opinion but I would give them time before you start teaching this. Otherwise the overly eager students will start to dominate your classes and the shy students will hide(literally in the corners).

I'd probably start comparatives at around week 3 and I would also begin to sort out problims with infinitives versus gerunds. I'd use the phonemic alphabet and make sure they knew the main symbols that you'll use. The sheep versus ship symbols will be needed but I wouldn't go overboard with this. Get them to do this for homework(pronunciation training). Most won't but I have had a few students that have really trained their pronunciation and in 6 months are sounding almost native like(only one or two though). Show them how to use one of those tape players where you can record your voice and compare pronunciation. Do it in Chinese if you speak it so they can see how you learn by drilling on your own. this will encourage them to use authentic material to copy rather than waking at 6 in the morning to talk to a tree in error ridden English(This is known as crazy English and yes completely barmy AND limited in use)

I think the main thing is that they respect you as a teacher and want to improve for you. Work with the different levels and talk to the ones that have problems.

If you want any lesson plans PM me.

Oh and also try and make it colourful. I would buy a world map, magazines with landmarks from all over the world and so on to distribute and generate interest. Play with accents by giving them different recorded accents in class. Make sure they understand that there is no 'neutral' English that dominates but they may find it useful to work with a model such as RP or Standard American to begin with. I'd go with RP but I'm a British imperialist.

[Anda]

Songbird I would go first off with stuff that shows and talks about the difference between the West and China for current times. Keep to what your students feel comfortable talking about. Stright history will probally bore them. Also if you have a decent TV sets in the classrooms that you teach in consider getting some Movies on DVDs that show the caulture for different periods in the West.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&newwindow=1&q=Western+Culture+Chinese+University&start=10&sa=N

[Songbird]

Anda, thanks for those links, some of them are quite good .

BTW, there are no tv's whatsoever, this is a small town uni, classic chalk and blackboard do.

Sheeba, some good ideas there, but what about content? I don't know whether I should be lecturing, would they understand a thing? How do I assess them? How did you do this?

[ymmv]

If they're English majors for a bachelor (4 year) degree, the course is required and parts of it tested on the TEM 8 as danielb noted. SO if those are your students, danielb nailed it and I'd go with his plan and teach it as a content course. Since they're Grade 2 (which is when the course ususally is taught) and the TEM 8 isn't given until their senior year, remind the students to take good notes, keep them, and review them in 2 years when they're preparing for the TEM 8.

If they're any other students, including 2 or 3 year English majors (certificate and diploma students respectively), they'll only be taking the CET 4 and possibly CET 6, those tests aren't concerned with the content of the Survey course so feel free to treat it as a communicative course where the content supplies topics, in which case sheeba's plan looks good.

Anda's links provide good resource material for both approaches.

[Songbird]

Ymmv, yes, they're 4 year students. Danielb's idea is great, however, how do I teach all that? Lecture for 2 hours? Almost all of this will go straight over their heads- this ain't Beijing, or even Xian. This is backwater territory and they won't relate to any of this.

How do I assess this? Just get them to write a paper on what they think on a particular issue?

[sheeba]

Songbird

Don't lecture. I've seen that horrible trend in teachers with no formal ESL training and it is horrible for everyone. You'll end up with a sore throat, the curtains closed, desks with students asleep on and so on.

Go to the British council website(teaching part) if you start on the UK culture. Anda -can you foind that on google for us. There is a lot of useful info and content is good for lessons on culture.

I only say talk about yourself because IME I find that Chinese ss love anecdotes especially about YOU and your life. They want to know about you. Of course talk about other countries too but always give your students a chance to talk about something they are interested in and they will need to talk to each other.

If you ever do any training you will become familiar with TTT. This means teacher talking time and at Diploma level with Cambridge or Trinity they will generally tell you you should be working at something like 20 percent TTT compared to 80 percent where students are talking.

To do this you will need to be good at setting up activities. this means you have to be able to clearly explain how tasks in class should be done. I find demonstration the best way. Anecdotes clearly give frames that you can use.

setting up group activities DOES NOT mean you can get your students talking about anything they want to or does it mean you can chill out whilst your students talk. You need to be fully aware of mistakes your students are making so you need to circulate and find these out. That is your job. You need to set up tasks where students have clear aims and targets and your aims need to be clear.

Make your aims EASY. All you need is a simple aim for one class. Don't for example say 'today we will learn the future tense'. You need to pick up on functions of language and use context to describe these. One function in a lesson is fine - for example 'students at the end of this lesson will be able to describe their home town using present simple'

[sheeba]

Assesment-

Don't sweat about this.

Afetr week 3 you should know what problems the class have. Keep us posted on the board and we can give you continuing advice and set up a criteria list for your class(If you like).

You simply then go in and give the students that criteria list. Give them a timetable which explains how you will all meet the criteria. They then can prepare for lesson beforehand. You could give them topics for each lesson.

[danielb]

I�d give them an exam at the end, include some multiple-choice (as TEM 8 will be), short answer and possibly a short essay or group presentation mid-term. I tried not to make grading too subjective. I taught this course at a backwater for two years and it can be done. It is not an English language course so don�t be afraid to let them use translators, and let them discuss certain points in Chinese (many won�t agree with this), especially if you speak Chinese yourself. A lot of the events they would have heard of but only know the Chinese for. It is handy to have a text book to supplement the class, there are a couple available.

[danielb]

Sheeba, I know what you are trying to say, but this is not an English Language course. It is a course required to be undertaken by four-year English majors and there is specific content that should be covered that appears on the TEM8 exam. In my opinion, there is no way to cover the material without a reasonable amount of lecturing.

[sheeba]

Oh so this is a preparation course then?m So you just need to teach them how to pass an exam? That sucks.Well surely then you don't need to assess them do you?

[danielb]

It does suck, I never said it didn�t. However, this is really the only chance they will get for someone who might know something about what they are talking about to teach them the content in a form that they may understand and actually remember after the exam. Why wouldn�t you assess them? They are required to be assessed on this course to get their degree. Teaching them �just� to pass an exam is, in my opinion, an unnecessarily pessimistic approach.

When I studied at undergraduate level I had some great content courses that were lecture based.