Job Discussion Forums

[Non Sequitur]

A couple of recent posts mention English Majors.
I've taught them alongside classes or other majors eg vocational-type subjects.
My question is what others do that is special for the E Majors?
Do you have special topics ie literature or do you give them the same stuff as the others but just up the intensity to match their extra ability.
In my experience you are not told what your E Major students are studying with the CTs.
The first time I encountered E Majors I didn't know they were doing (sophomores) The Merchant of Venice until one fronted at my apartment one Saturday morning to ask what I knew about Shylock.

[roadwalker]

[cormac]

My workload in my University is primarily with the English majors. I have two classes with international business & foreign trade students but thats mostly the University taking advantage of my major and primary experience.

TBH my classes are generally the same with a focus on the oral element. Time is a major issue so I tend to focus on fluency, hoping that they can fix the accuracy issues (I don't immediately notice) on their own.

With English majors I encourage them to experiment more with words they learn in other classes or through dictionary use (I will allocate time from classes to disuss new words, their meanings, and possible usages beyond that of what the dictionary tells them). I also focus perhaps on more "practical" english. i.e. the english in use on a common day basis as opposed to the more formal & somewhat technical english they learn from their chinese teachers. I still hold the view that English majors need this practical aspect more than other majors since they're more likely to come into contact with foreigners or have foreign friends.

I just wish I could get them to think beyond having dream jobs as a translator or english teacher. They can't seem to understand that the job market is saturated and they need to consider other qualifications or study to be marketable. Oh well.

[Miles Smiles]

Usually, English majors will produce a senior thesis during their senior year. Prepare them for that. The concept of thesis seems to be foreign to Chinese students.

If your major is English and you hold an MA in English, you may be assigned content courses such as argumentation. If their curriculum doesn't include argumentation and you have been given no real goals for your class work, you might want to teach them a little deductive logic and fallacious arguments. (Look them up. There are some fallacious arguments which lend themselves to interesting discussion). You can assign several fallacies to use in paragraphs (and how to avoid using them), very short fictional anecdotes, and arguments. If you pursue argumentation, teach them about thesis, argument support (evidence), addressing possible objections, and closing argument.

These are very good things for them to learn should they go on to graduate school. I think that giving them a smidgen of deductive logic via exposure to fallacies is a good thing because none of the students I've ever taught have ever been exposed to deductive logic. (Skip the Venn diagrams. They get that in math.)If you're creative, you can present funny examples of fallacious arguments.

Something which I proposed in another thread to assign situational dialogs to class members but with a twist: give them only a few minutes (in class) to prepare a presentation. This will make them accustomed to thinking on their feet. In time, the good English majors will enjoy the challenge. Just get them talking. Don't grade too harshly (if at all). The idea is to get the students to forget that they're in class and to make them place themselves in the situation.

I'd stay away from trying to reinforce their literature classes except to show an occasional movie depicting an entire Shakespearean play or novel in MODERN English. I suggest this because in some universities, the students are exposed to only a synopsis of the play or novel and then a few famous sonnets or excerpts from the play. They don't really struggle with the subplots or the minor characters. One problem with getting involved in western literature is that (in my experience) their teachers take a Marxist approach to interpretation and criticism. This is fine and dandy, but Marxist criticism isn't the only form of criticism. ("Grapes of Wrath" lends itself to Marxist literary criticism, but what about "Huckleberry Finn"? I've seen it done, and it was strained, at best). You may find yourself red-faced when you are confronted by their literature teacher.

In interesting things to do in class is to conduct job interviews in front of the class. In this situation the class writes comments about the students' performance. In the job interview, I usually make suggestions regarding effective answers. Once, a guy played the interviewee. I asked him how much he expected to make if he were hired. He said that he would work for free. I showed him the error of his ways and how to handle that question by asking the interviewer (me) how much he was offering. As each student came up for an interview, he came more prepared to answer questions and to answer questions in an intelligent and mature fashion. The first student to be interviewed was given a second chance. I usually didn't spend an entire class period on this. I'd do this when I thought that the students were getting burned out by their other classes and needed something to make them think and enjoy themselves.

In one class, a male student volunteered to be interviewed after I told the class that the interview would be very difficult.

--- Good morning Mr. Wang. We have reviewed your resume and the results of your personality test and Megacorporation International is happy to inform you that you qualify for the position of chief breaker.

"Breaker? What do you mean by 'breaker'?"

--- You will be working as a manual laborer breaking rocks with a very large hammer. We will offer you the sum of two yuan per hour. What do you think?

The kid was horrified and felt ambushed by my proposal. I was surprised by how well he could muster his vocabulary and poise to tell me that there was some sort of mistake. he then began telling me his qualifications for the job that he wanted.

You might want to assign some short, famous poems for them to memorize. The English majors that i have known want to know everything about the English language. Everything. You'll be surprised by how much of what you teach them sticks.

I remember making a statement in one class that language was one of the prime transmitters of culture. Two years later, I sat in on a student's senior thesis presentation only to hear him make that same statement. I asked him later where he got that statement. He remembered that i said it in my class. Their exposure to linguistics as undergrads is usually scant to nonexistent, so the more interesting facts that you can present, the better. They will remember things that you tell them if it they help them to see The Big Picture.

One thing that you can present in class are idioms, sayings and proverbs classified by subject matter. English majors seem to enjoy the food idioms and sayings the most. These can be found on the internet. Class activities can include asking the class to fill in the blank and then explain the meaning of the saying or idiom as you give a verbal prompt such as " Who moved my______?" (For those of you who aren't up on workplace sayings, the answer is cheese).

I think we must remember something. Learning is the responsibility of the student. The less you do in class and the more the student does the better. Design activities for THEM, unless you intend to lecture. Even then, keep the lectures short and require them to take notes. (English majors are usually copious note-takers).

It's irritating when you are given NO direction for your class, especially when you are given NO textbook or you are given a wholly inappropriate text book. You must be creative. Sometimes it just doesn't come to you, so you must continually think of new activities to use. Humor seems to work best.

Keep copies of all of your handouts and exercises. If you stay in China for awhile, a lot of your past work will help you in the present.

[Miles Smiles]

[MisterButtkins]

[cormac]