Job Discussion Forums

[Guerciotti]

I noticed a Chinese joint venture university ad seeking teachers for "foundation" classes.
Does anyone have any experience at a JV uni with a foundation program? Was the experience good bad or a combination of both?
What subjects, besides oral English, do the "foundation" FTs teach?
Obviously I'm interested. I appreciate any feedback on this.

G

[dean_a_jones]

I work for what I suppose would be called a JV programme (people here call it a 2+2). Students at our school study for two years here, and then finish their degrees in their partner country/partner university. At our school students study in the UK, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and France (we are divided into a French and English programme).

Obviously things will vary at each school, but here is an idea of what I think are the pros and cons of this kind of programme, at least in my experience.

The Pros:

The students are generally quite motivated. They know they are going abroad, so learning English is a practical necessity for them. Obviously this is not the case for all the students (see cons) but it is for most. Depending on the size of the school, you might also get some classes more than once (for example I taught one group of students for three out of four semesters in their two years at the school).

The class sizes can be pretty small. This could vary, but the programme as set up in our school is quite nice. Classes are anything from 22-40 students (they stay together in class as they are separated by programme/where they are going to be studying abroad). As the English teachers teach primarily spoken courses, a lot of our taught classes are divided to enhance student talk time and one-to-one interaction. That means you might have classes with only 10 or 20 students, and you really get to work closely with them.

The courses are a little more varied. Again, this may not be the case for you, but I imagine it might be. FTs at our school teach the following first year courses: Oral English, Academic Study Skills, Public Speaking, IELTS/TOEFL Speaking; second year courses include: Business English and History and Culture (of their destination country). Although these are primary spoken courses, they do involve elements of reading, listening and writing. The students are required to obtain a specific IELTS/TOEFL score in order to pass into their second year and then go abroad. We are focused on making sure they are prepared for the speaking part of the test in the first year. In the second year, the interest shifts to a more academic subject and useful background and practical information about where they are heading. This does create a nice balance, as teachers usually teach at least two different courses a semester.

Those are the pros. The cons:

The school basically works as a private institution connected to a public institution. As such, it is not the cheapest of places to attend and some of the students are here because they did not perform as well on the gao kao but this gives them a chance to get a degree abroad (as their parents can afford it). Although this does mean that some are not so motivated and need a good kicking (or simply don't bother) this is a small minority in my experience.

Although the courses are varied, where I am there is not a chance to teach anything too academic. While the students generally appreciate your classes, especially the chance to interact closely, I get the impression they see some of their more academic classes as more important.

You have to accept, like anywhere, you are part of a system. It can be difficult to affect change, especially change you see as necessary when you sit and ponder how difficult it will be for the students once they get abroad. That coupled with the fact that these institutions tend to be money spinners for both the China and Foreign partner schools tends to mean that if the pros I have listed are not to be found, I could see such a programme being a pretty depressing place to teach in.

Outside of all that, I want to add a bit of info which is really school specific, but also quite important. Where I am, the academic administration really makes it a great place to work. The administration staff work closely with us on developing the courses as our programme expands. I have been head teacher here for two years, and have helped developed (in conjunction with the other teachers) the curriculum so people have materials and course outlines to work with in a more structured way (In contrast, when I arrived, this was not the case and you often just got an inadequate textbook and were told to work together with anyone else teaching the course. Some like this, some felt really lost). We also work well and socialise with some of the full time Chinese teachers, many of whom are younger and open to sharing ideas and talking about their courses/hearing about ours.

This makes a massive difference in terms of job satisfaction, and helps to offset the feeling many seem to get (in China) that they are just dumped into a room with students and nothing really matters in terms of what they do. Collaboration and evaluation are done in a way that is meant to encourage all teachers to share ideas to develop course plans, finals etc. together and share feedback and materials used in class.

I kept this out of the pros as it is really school specific, and deals with the actual structure of the programme, the longevity of the teachers in it, how many are new in China etc. The school is now keeping more teachers, doing a better job of recruiting local FTs and having a more structured and supportive programme for those here. At the same time the school is expanding its partnerships. I think for these kinds of programmes the level of organisation really counts for a lot.

Try to speak to someone at the school if you are looking for a job. I would normally do an interview on Skype for any prospective teacher at our school, or sit in on a demo class if the teacher is in country. Finding and communicating with the person in my role, if there is one (i.e. if the programme is big enough and well organised) would be useful. If it is not as big a programme as this, then it might just be a developing programme partnered with one university, as part of a larger Chinese university (that is how our programme started out as well, but I was not here then).

I hope that gives you some ideas about what I think is the kind of programme you are considering. If you have any more specific questions, either PM me or post them here.

[SahanRiddhi]

I don't know what they mean in this case by foundation classes. In some cases there is a JV program with a bunch of foreigners who have master's degrees teaching various subjects, frequently business-related. They make good money. And connected to the program is an ESL/EFL program to get the students prepared for the subject classes. These teachers will be typical EFLers with a B.A. degree, and won't make as much money. It is not necessarily bad, but might be kind of a bummer living in the shadow of the subject teachers.

[Guerciotti]

Thanks for the replies.
To Dean A. Jones:
The pros sound good. I like the variety of classes. The perceived lower status of the classes doesn't bother me.
True, every system is a ... system. I'm not inclined to demand systemic change.
It's great to have structure and maybe I can find that somewhere. So far I do everything myself.
I might find a program in need of a writing teacher, but that may require an English degree and I can live without grading papers every week. I don't know what's out there. I recently started looking.

To SahanRiddhi:
I have a business background and degrees so it's possible I could be one of the business related subject teachers. I would greatly enjoy teaching business classes. I work many hours on my university classes. I'm trying to find a way to get paid for it.

Thanks

[Non Sequitur]

My experience was called a 'cooperation programme' and our partner colleges were Canadian and a mysterious Australian college that no one could identify.
The kids were in these mainly because they failed to enter via the public entrance exam. Few intended to complete the foreign component for cost reasons.
Clearly part of the con was exposure to a native speaker and I had one possibly two classes PER DAY with one of the groups. Too much for just 20 students. By the end of Wednesday they were heartily sick of me. Not to mention 5 to 7 lesson plans each week, for the one class.
Like everything in Chinese education it pays to scrape off the surface gloss and look at the real gloss underneath.

[kona]

[SahanRiddhi]

There are quite a few JV programs. I have known people who taought at one particular program. And what I have heard about others roughly corresponds. In general, in order to teach a given subject course, you need a master's in that specific area or one closely related. This is for accreditation reasons, or at least so they can say they're following the same standards as in their home country. For example, to teach marketing, you should have an MA in marketing or an MBA. Some of the programs have classes like academic writing or introduction to literature, and the MA TESOL might work there. I'd expect a salary in the RMB 10,000 to RMB 20,000 range per month, with apartment provided.