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[Lanza-Armonia]

Hey guys

just a quick question. I have recently been given a mild bollox-ing from my line manager. Read on ......

[woza17]

I have insisted on having a teacher in my classroom and the school has complied quite happily. My children are older which does make it easier but I think your situation is impossible if you don't have one. Stick to your guns. As for using the computers to teach, why do they have them there n the first place?
Good luck

[Susie]

You don't happen to work at an English School attached to a University do you?

From my knowledge, the foreign teachers who worked in the primary school section of the English School had a Chinese teacher in the class with them while they were teaching. As far as I know the foreign teachers didn't want the Chinese teachers there because the foreign teachers felt that the Chinese teachers were not supportive, and the Chinese teachers felt unappreciated and would rather be elsewhere taking a break or preparing lessons.

Anyway, the foreign teachers in the primary section still had the lack of discipline problems that you outlined. In fact, the foreign teachers became more and more furious with the school administration and Chinese teachers because the school admin & Chinese teachers made the argument that "If you foreign teachers could arouse the interests of the pupils in learning English, then the pupils would behave and be disciplined". In other words the school accused the EFL teachers for being boring and blamed that factor for causing disruptive pupils. It is a sophisticated argument, but the children need to learn and the foreign teachers, school administration and Chinese teachers should try to work together to achieve that goal.

In my view, from the above example, it is not helpful for one party (school administration/Chinese teachers) to antagonise the other (EFL teachers) and vice versa. The goal is clear but the disagreement is over the means to that end, as you have said "the method". I think you could have been more diplomatic in your response to the administration's request. Perhaps you could try to win them over as friends to your cause (which is also their cause), maybe you could give them a demonstration lesson of the computer work that you do with the children. Could you try to get the administration's support for your use of the computers for the time being and get the administration to buy you some educational videos and English books. Then, try to agree with the administation that when such materials arrive you will have another meeting to discuss your method of teaching towards your shared goal.

I think that open confrontation with the Chinese often backfires. Try not to let the experience destroy you, be aware of how the difficulties are affecting you as a person, and how you interact and react towards others. First manage yourself, be in control of yourself and then manage the pupils. It may be that there will often be a certain amount of chaos in the classroom. After all, many Chinese children are only-child kids and it is natural for them to talk in Chinese and want to play with their classmates.

[Roger]

Discipline is a sore point in Chinese schools, aggravated when non-Chinese conduct classes.
I have never really had supportive Chinese teachers around me; some of them misunderstand their mission as being to interpret, which I neither need nor would want them to do.
This points up another dimension of this issue: why do the kids misbehave in our classes, when they cannot misbehave in the same way under Chinese teachers?

The answer might be:
We come in for an entirely different type of class, one the CHinese never accept to do, when in fact it should be one of their prime considerations: the use of the target language in classroom settings.

You no doubt are expected to chorus good pronunciation, which a CHinese teacher feels is the best or only way of acquiring a second language. It never occurs to them that language production has something to do with the individual learner's brain.

So, classes with 7-year olds are a joke. They can only work (and they do work if done differently) if the Chinese side accepts changes to teaching in general.
Kids must not be seen as a herd of remote-controllable robots.

By the way: I would NEVER teach "oral English" at this level!

They need to learn to be disciplined, quiet, work independently. They need to become contemplative. At beginner's level, they should learn to write, then read.
Can they write the ABC yet???

[august03]

I teach only Grade one oral English and I love it. Their Chinese teachers teach them to write the alphabet and I teach them to speak. In the beginning they (kids) did not respect me at all but I bribe them with stickers and stamps to be quiet and sit up straight. I mainly play games too; I try to have as much fun as possible. If they misbehave I scrap the games and do boring exercises. This works well because their other subjects are so tedious and so much hard work. English is their favorite subject, and it's because they have fun. If they don't quiet down I don't teach them. I once went a whole class just standing waiting for them to be quiet.

They also learn quickly and I don't need an interpreter because I want the kids to think in English.

Try to enforce some discipline into the class and play games to raise their interest and perhaps use stickers or lollies instead of computer games.

Good luck

[NumberOneSon]

[woza17]

As No1 son said bad habits are hard to break.Yesterday, in my last class , the teacher didn't show again. I sensed trouble, so after asking the class not to talk when I talked and one student kept talking, I threw him out of the class and told him to report to his teacher. After that you couldn't hear a pin drop. It was fantastic, it was like I had a breakthrough at last.
I teach 28 clases and I am not going to strain my voice by trying to keep discipline. I have found if I have a well behaved class I don't feel half as tired in fact I feel energised.
Students can behave well if they are made to and if you can't get what you want, look for another job. I will never again put up with a noisy, unruly class.
Goodluck