Job Discussion Forums

[struelle]

As the new semester is now under way, I had an interesting, albeit frustrating, experience in the first class. Last semester at the high school I would half a class of 48 while my colleague would teach the others.

Today, it was different. About 5 minutes into the class, my supervisor entered and apologized for interrupting. She told me that the other half of the class was sitting around doing nothing because they didn't have a teacher. To make a long story short, I had to teach the entire 48 students.

It looks like this will keep up for at least a few weeks.

My supervisor is having a hard time finding a replacement foreign teacher as my colleague left last semester. I tried to help out last semester by recommending friends, but none of the applicants met her standards. While perusing thats.shanghai recently, I found an ad she placed. My supervisor has been interviewing several FTs, but again, they don't meet her standards.

If a new FT isn't found, Plan B will be to have local Chinese teachers take over the other half of class. This will solve the big class problem, but I'll be too lonely in a big office. So I'll just move into the Chinese office.

Related to this, my teaching plan for oral classes was changed from a discussion we had last semester. It looks like I'll follow the texts of the students instead of doing a program on Western Culture. Since I prepared such a program, however, I'd like to offer that as an elective class. Hopefully that will pan out.

Last minute changes and cancellations have become the norm at this place. I've gotten used to it, although I still don't like it. Having a 2nd part-time job becomes a matter of necessity, not convenience, in order to get a regular supply of money coming in.

Steve

[Ruth]

I've been pondering for days how to broach this subject. Thanks for the opening. My husband and I teach in a senior middle school (akin to high school grades 10-12 in the States). The school has 2600+ students and 20 Chinese English teachers. We are the only foreign language teachers and have been assigned to the top 6 classes - 3 each. We teach each of our 3 classes 2 45-minute lessons a week. This is supposed to improve their spoken and listening English skills.

There are 64-66 kids in each class. They sit elbow to elbow (literally). We are new at this (arrived in Nov.) and the class size and crowded conditions are beyond frustrating. We can lecture to improve their listening skills, but any attempt at providing opportunities for them to speak is thwarted by the class size and their timidity to even try. Last night was my first class since the festival break. I shared what I had done on my holiday and asked for volunteers to share what they had done. They hide (really) behind books, or look down and refuse to make eye contact in case I call on them. So much for spoken practice. I've tried going around the room, person-by-person, but to get through the whole class in a period they only get to talk for 30 seconds each. We have managed to figure out how to play some team games (they really like the competition) but any group work is very difficult because of the cramped quarters.

Is anyone else in a similar situation? Does anyone have any ideas on how to maximize the potential?

On another note: The 2200+ students we don't teach learn spoken and listening English from the Chinese teachers and tape recorders. Four of our 20 co-workers speak passable English but with many mispronunciations. The others are barely understandable. They speak more Chinese in English class than English. Rationale is that the students won't understand what they are teaching if they do it in English AAAAGH!!! Our predecessor was the first foreign teacher here and his mantra has become ours - only speak English in English class. But they don't listen.

We have determined that our greatest impact here will be encouraging our co-workers to improve their English. We each share an office with 10 others and our down time is spent in conversation with them. Most are now over their shyness of speaking English with us.

We would like to spend more time with the students who really do want to practice speaking, but they are in class from 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Only meal times are free time. We've asked for and will hopefully be given space and permission to have lunch time chat sessions for the truly committed.

This wasn't meant to be a rant. I am very concerned about the situation and would welcome any advice or ideas.

[lagerlout2006]

There were a couple of good threads on large classes on the teacher side of this board but I think that no longer exists..From lack of use I guess. I have been lucky so far in China. Both of my jobs here I have had class sizes of 15--30. I consider 25 to be too many students and cannot even imagine 60 students at once. I don;t think I could do anything with that.

Anyway on good suggestion on that forum was to give dictations and have some students read it back..(And try not to laugh---you will see how bad their listening skills are.) I have more or less given up ont the oral English idea and have made my classes mostly writing. Students complain but the school hasn;t. A small writing task which I collect and correct. It creates a bit more work of course. But some of my classes were a farce and this way I think they at least do something useful.

[Brooks]

it would seem that dictation would be useful.
With big classes, a teacher would have a lot to correct.
So it would be good for students to correct each other.
You could photocopy your dictation and give it to them so they can correct their own or another student`s dictation.

If you can get a hold of it, I like the book by Rinvolucri called Dictation. It is published by Cambridge.
In it is a Chinese riddle which is used as a dictation. The students have to figure out how the police officer found the thief. Which means that they will read the dication for clues which means they get sustained silent reading.

Sometimes, I like to dictate Japanese stories (from kabuki) or folk tales. It gets my students interested, since it is a story from their culture. Then I ask questions about the story and the students have to write the answers. The students get to practice skimming and scanning that way.
And students get listening, reading, and writing practice.

[struelle]

[Roger]

Hello, Ruth,
rest assured, all of us fare more or less the same, unless we teach adults in private training centres. Public schools actually never have fewer than 40 students to one classroom; my first classes had 60 each, and I was then teaching English Literature, not speaking English.
Some of my oral and listening classes had over 70 heads; one swelled to 96 in two weeks from 72.

I found lagerlout's suggestion the most workable: do dictations. Not words or phrases, do dictations of some comprehensive text in simplified English. I used a humorous story book published in Hunan; the vocabulary consists of no more than perhaps 2000 words. I would read a story aloud and wait for their responses (laughing), but usually they don't catch the joke because they are too busy translating word by word - an approach which we don't want to encourage them to take.
Then I ask them to retell the story passage by passage (each story has no more than 30 lines), and some extremely incredible misunderstandings invariably manifest themselves.
That's when I decide to have them write it.
I have never had to get the story to be translated after that; when they see the sentences before their eyes all the relevant meaningful pieces fall int their place.
Not content with giving them a joke with a punchline, I ask one of them to write on the blackboard while the class labour for themselves. After each sentence I ask the class to proofread the "secretary's" writing; sometimes that student is far ahead of his classmates, so nobody can pick out his or her mistakes, but as I choose a different one each time the weaker ones have to submit to this kind of control.
At the end of such an exercise you can practise some tricky pronunciations with them.
It never fails to improve their comprehension. In my view, that's the biggest problem our Chinese students have - understanding a spoken sentence (not just single words).

And, I agree with you, that their own teachers need to change their attitude. Personally, I feel we sould be here to teach their teachers, not primary school kids!

[woza17]

I will be starting a new job next week at a junior high school teaching classes of 50 and we are expected to talk to each student for one minute each, I am not taking this seriously and I will go my own merry way. I have taught classes of around 70-80 in Hubei. and I must agree with Steve the only thing I could really teach them was confidence and just play around, have a laugh and get them used to foreigners, roam around the class forcing them to speak, grabbing them by the shirtfront and not letting go till they have answered my questions is very effective or standing really close to them and not leaving them alone is a little gentler.
I will be teaching each class once a week, 28 classes all in all. The upside is I will have my own classroom. I plan to work a lot on their pronunciation and if I make any headway with that I will be truly pleased.
March on comrades
Cheers carol

[Ruth]

Thank you all for the excellent suggestions. I had determined that dictation was the way to go and it is good to know others are using this method with success. So far we've been given free reign on content. They want us to teach on American culture. Used Thanksgiving and Christmas and are planning several lessons on music. We had a great time with 'Rudolph', 'Frosty' and 'Santa Claus is coming to town.'

Our dean asked us to create a pre-test/post-test (so they can judge whether we are worth their money???). We dictated a short passage for the students to copy, followed by a few comprehension questions. We'll do the same passage in June and compare results. Some of the attempts at writing what they heard were very creative, to say the least. Now we have to teach to the test so the students show improvement and thereby reaffirm how wonderful the foreign teachers are. What was encouraging is that the 2 classes who had a year with the previous foreign teacher scored 10% higher (on average) than the 2 classes who have not had a foreign teacher. Makes me think there is hope.

I like the idea of a 'secretary' writing on the board as the others write in their notebooks. Saves me doing it when it is time to correct.

Walking the aisles gets a little tricky, but I will try to do more of it. We only have 2 narrow aisles in the room (2 students against the wall, small aisle, 4 students in the middle, another small aisle, 2 students against the windows - just like a big airplane). Often our co-workers sit in on our classes, and the only place for them is in the aisles on little stools. Makes passage difficult.

It's very encouraging to know others have struggled through similar situations. Thanks.

[kev7161]

Well, I'm a little spoiled I guess. I have six different classes (I had seven, but two of them merged this term . . . . ???). My smallest one has 19 students and my largest class has 40. I was (am) frustrated by this merged class of 40 students. Just as others have stated, getting them to speak at all is difficult. The more students you have, the less chance each of them get to speak. This term I am also being assigned two new classes of around 35 each.

Example: This past week we made Valentine's. I instructed each student to write a poem about something or someone they love. The idea was to teach them rhyming (sound alike words). Some got it, some didn't - - oh well. In my smaller classes, I had time to let ALL kids read their poems. In my mid-sized classes, some got to read. In my three very large classes, none got to read and I can't carry this over into yet another class time next week or that will put those classes behind the others.

What I do try to give all students an equal chance at the opportunity to speak is to ask a question then pick out a name from a cup. I have each name written on a popsicle stick. It's fun (and maybe a little scary) for the student to wonder if their name will be called next and all have to mentally prepare an answer. Some classes we will have a "question of the day" that I write on the blackboard. (What did you do during your Spring Festival holiday? for example - - - it's amazing that most just do homework, play on the computer, and watch TV - - their friends are too far away to hang out with. So different than kids in the US, quite lonely sounding too) They get a chance to read it, think about, and I even encourage them to write down some notes, in case they get called.

The biggest problem with my larger classes is the background "chatting" in Chinese. I try not to yell at me kids, but sometimes . . . .!! I tell them to be "good listeners", but I think they get bored with the students who are struggling with trying to speak English. I teach Senior high, by the way.

[Ruth]

Popsicle sticks!! What a great idea. Now, if I just knew where to buy some. Failing that, I'll use paper. I love the idea and will probably go one further by keeping the names out until all have been drawn (might take several classes), thereby ensuring everyone has equal opportunity.

I, too, have much chatter in the background when another student is sharing. Staring at the offender used to work, but no longer seems effective. Sometimes I have to yell to bring attention back, and I tell them I cannot hear the person speaking. Maybe I'll get a bell

[Ruth]

Oops - yell sounds bad. I don't really holler or shout. I raise my voice saying, 'Excuse me, excuse me.'

This week we were playing a version of hangman (for team points, not a dead stick figure) and one student guessed what I thought was a wrong letter, but I couldn't really hear him. By the time I shushed the class and had him repeat it, he had changed his answer after guidance from his teammates. I knew it was a different answer, but I allowed it. That caused a furor from the other 3 teams. Once they quieted again, I told them that I didn't hear the first answer (truth) because of their talking and they needed to keep quiet when someone else is giving an answer, so that didn't happen again.

[Brooks]

my girlfriend used a whistle when she taught teenagers.

In the past I used to show yellow or red cards to students that acted up.

I used to teach 42 in a class so I know how it is. My biggest class now has only 34 students.

I think the idea of using a secretary is good. My former boss in Morocco said so, because as teachers, we already know how to spell, but our students need practice.

I am sure Chinese learners would need a lot of pronunciation practice, especially with minimal pairs.

If you get a chance, look for the Cambridge book Teaching Large Multilevel Class by Natalie Hess.

[kev7161]

If you have a store nearby that sells ice cream, have your kids on an "outing" and go buy ice cream on sticks. Have a plastic bag handy so they can deposit their sticks in it, wash them later, let them dry . . . and there you go!

By the way, I do set aside the sticks (instead of putting them back in the cup) until all the sticks have been used. If they don't get a chance to speak today, then definitely they will by next class.

[arioch36]

I think one thing that needs to happen is for foreign teachers to say no. And ask specifically before signing a contract...how big are the orel english classes.

In America, I took one semester of Chinese. We met five times a week. twice a week all 110 students met. What a waste of time. I tell the schools...no more then 32 students. I will accept up to 36, though. Most of my college classes and high school classes were 32 or less (half the full class) The one time I taught 46-48 students, I divided the class in half, and sent half to another empty classroom next door when it was time for them to talk in groups or pairs. I also did more songs. Songs are great for larger classes. Next semester they divided the classes so there were onle 35 in each class.

I wonder for those who accept teaching 70 or more teachers. Is this one class? Or are they really having you teach two classes at the same time?

Bottom line, tell them the class is too large. Let them know that is why you won't teach there, or why you won't renew. We, as foreign teachers, need to have some principles (not many, but some)

[struelle]