Job Discussion Forums

Kurochan · Joined: 01 Mar 2003 Posts: 944 Location: China

OK, at my school there are some students from Tibet. They're all INCREDIBLY shy, and don't speak English well. One problem is they all sit WAY back in the back of the room, so they can't hear me, and I can't hear them. If I want to call on them, either I have to walk to the back of the room, or ask them "Can you say that again? I can't hear you. What?" which embarrasses them even more.

Today there were four sitting in the back, and I said, "There are some people sitting way in the back. There are plenty of seats up in front, so please move forward." (And, to give you a better picture, this is a big, long room that accommodates like 80 people.) Some of the Han guys who were in the back moved forward, but the four Tibetan girls just got up and left! We're still in the class selection period, and I think they're going to try to go to another class where the teacher will just ignore the people in the back of the room.

Well, what's the best way to deal with this problem? I felt really bad last year, because it seemed like no matter what I did or said, the Tibetan girls in my class were horribly embarrassed. I tried to break the ice by directly inviting one of the girls to talk to me at office hours, but, stupidly, I overslept and missed them!

What do you think I should do?

Crippler · Joined: 03 Jan 2004 Posts: 141 Location: Dongguan

Sounds like you need dans services Evil or Very Mad

Actually, I have come to the realization that they have to start taking responsibility for their own learning. I teach Senior Middle school and have basically told my 3rd year students that next year they will be in college and if they don''t make learnign important they will flunk out of college. My last speach went 45 minutes and since then the heads have been up for many more and some have even arrived for extra lessons. Problem is that sometimes the students are in your class because parents have guanxi and demand the school to put them in with the foreign teacher even if the kid is not interested in English at all.

Roger · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 9138

maybe you should remove all the superfluous chairs in the rear...
And put a tape across that section of the classroom!