Job Discussion Forums

[DirtGuy]

Starting a uni job soon and I don't have much in the way of instructions so far. Many (most?) ads talked about teaching "oral English"? What is meant by this?

I've been teaching academic English for the last 3 years and it was geared toward getting people ready for college or grad school in the US. Speaking, while important, was secondary to passing the TOEFL or IELTS, writing term papers with proper grammar, taking notes, etc.

I'm wondering if I'm supposed to be some sort of trained monkey that keeps the students laughing all the time or is there more to this that I'm missing. If anyone has had good luck with specific materials that keep the students and the bosses happy, I'm all ears.

The trained monkey, BTW, sounds OK.

Thanks.

DirtGuy

[mayteach]

Oral English for the most part means conversational English; however, it is a broad general category and a lot depends on the school. Some schools may have more of a definite idea of what they want than other schools.

The school I taught at last year had a textbook to use (Challenge to Speak) which was a good tool to have as it helped with lesson planning and assignments. The school I work at now, on the other hand, has no textbook and I can plan my lessons without using a set curriculum.

I hope that helps.

[GeminiTiger]

* The job is to get students motivated to speak.

How to do this:
* It depends on who your student's abilities and motivation.
* It depends on the teacher's personality and abilities.

* It probably will have a course book that most foreign teachers wouldn't use but a select few will, I used a course book my first year quite a bit. Every class will have a few students who prefer the book because either they are too (introverted?) or their ability/imagination is too low to do "off the wall" activities.

* Students get bored with doing the same thing in every class. A variety of lessons types and activities leads to a more interesting atmosphere for students. Interest can be turned to motivation, motivation into speaking or at least paying attention.

* I think foreign English teachers must be entertaining. Call it 'the dancing monkey' if you will but it's not really that. When it comes to social interaction Chinese students a quite numb therefore a boring FT will put their students into a coma.

* In my opinion a proper OE course is never just an English class. It is also a speech communication class, culture class, confidence builder, eye opener and imagination builder. If you build your lessons under this philosophy you will be more successful.

* For your first year, my advice would be to combine the course book along with lessons and activities you devise or research from the web under the topic of oral English lessons.

-GT

[IvanaShaanxi]

[DirtGuy]

Ivana,

I feel like I'm in the same boat as you. I've talked to the school and they have said, in essence, that I'm pretty much on my own. I'm sure I'll figure it all out (eventually) but I, also, would like some guidance.

DirtGuy

[IvanaShaanxi]

DirtGuy, great, so what do you plan to do? Surf the internet and make lesson plans from the stuff you find there?

I have a CELTA, but during the course we were supposed to make only a few lesson plans using all possible textbooks we could get. Here we have to do without anything.

[7969]

Your school likely has a selection of textbooks somewhere in their supply room, and if they don't you can suggest one and they may order it for the students to purchase. Failing that the internet and other teachers are your best resources.

[DirtGuy]

Ivana,

Without knowing anything about what I'm being thrown into, I'm making a backup plan. My experience with Chinese is that they know grammar rules better than I do and I plan to use that to my advantage. I'll use grammar games, starting with the present tense, to get them speaking the language. Lots of resources out there. With any type of exercise, I will put them into groups and let them do the work together. Answers can be done by someone designated in the group or the entire group can yell it out. I'll have them come to the board, when appropriate, and write the answers. Other groups will correct what one group wrote. Anything that gets them physically moving is good, AND it eats up class time.

As I get more familiar with the class(es), I'll get a better idea of what they want/need and adjust accordingly.

I did a lot of public speaking exercises at my last school and I will introduce this in China. Just buy an Idiot's guide or other simple instruction book for public speaking and you will get more than enough information. Plenty of videos on youtube that you can use for this. Public speaking is something they have probably never done yet it's useful for so many situations, AND it eats up class time. You can also devise a matrix for other students in the class to grade the speaker and that will help keep them engaged.

Thinking about doing debating although I know very little about it. Idiots time again. I'll avoid topics like should China retake Taiwan but subjects such as should the US stay in the Middle East or get out would work just fine. Perhaps dividing the class along gender lines and using something like should women stay barefoot and pregnant or go out and work ought to make for lively discussion:-)

I think building up a network of other English teachers to bounce ideas off of will be a lifesaver. That and learning what sites have useable materials will help. We can do this.

Where are you going to be working? I'm in the middle of nowhere in a place called AnYang in Henan Province.

DirtGuy

[kev7161]

If you have never taught an "oral English" class in China, you may be in for a rude awakening. From what I know, classes are divided into levels. A number one class may be filled with high level students who have a good range of spoken English. A number five class may well be exactly the opposite. What works in one class will, in all likelihood, not work in another. Also, if you are teaching 16-20 classes, they may not be all at the same grade level. So Year One students may need much easier lessons than Year Three students.

Textbooks are great as they can help you get organized and they are usually leveled as well. However, as another poster suggested, use a textbook as a guide and then expand from there with your own creative ideas. If you can't find a good series in your home country before you leave, most major cities have bookstores with several different titles. Which one is better than the other is in the eye of the beholder.

Most of your classes will quite possibly consist of 40, 50, or more students, depending on the school. You may see each group of students only one time a week or you may see fewer groups 2 or 3 times a week. Your class periods could range from 45 minutes to two hours. All of these things you may not find out until you actually arrive and are told your schedule the day before (or maybe even the day of!) you start working.

Oral English classes are probably the lowest on the totem pole for many schools. Your classes may be changed or canceled at the drop of the hat for something more important (such as testing) and you may or may not be told of this.

Public speaking? Debates? Good ideas for sure, but your classes will dictate if you can pull these out or not. Get them talking, have some fun games in your bag of tricks, play acting, doing dialogues, creating little skits, charades, watching Mr. Bean and having them create the dialogue . . . there are a ton of ideas out there, so be ready for the lowest of the low when it comes to English speaking skills all the way up to those with already an excellent grasp of the language . . . and everything in between. Good luck!

[Shroob]

[kev7161]

Right, that's why I used a lot of "may"s and "maybe"s and "perhap"s and "probably"s, etc. Every school is different and our OP won't know for sure about anything until he is at the school to assess the situation.

[DirtGuy]

You're right - I really have no idea what I'm getting into. All my plans may be for naught but better to try and prepare than to do nothing. I'm asking all my ESL teacher friends for input and I'll see there are any commonalities in their replies.

A couple of programs I will probably bring are "Whaddaya Say" for the advanced students. I've used it before and students have liked it since they can better understand American movies and I'll bring "Jazz Chants" and maybe "Grammar Chants". At least these will get people speaking which is what I guess the bosses really want.

As for being low on the totem pole, I'm OK with that. It's only for 10 months and I expect to move up the food chain down the road.

DirtGuy

[IvanaShaanxi]

Hi DirtGuy,
I have an offer for Jingdezhen, a town in the north of Jiangxi province.
I understand what you meant when you said "the middle of nowhere". Last semester I taught in a county, Lueyang county (not even a city) and it really was the middle of nowhere (it takes 24 hours to reach Beijing by train from there, no other convenient means of transport) oh yes, and I forgot the main thing. it didn't have a single KFC.

I see you have ideas but they are mostly sketches , they need elaboration (I can't do even that). having to think of 4 different lesson plans every day seems demanding

although I'm sure you'll be fine

(ps. what are these programs about?)

[GeminiTiger]

For a standard University contract that is 16 hours it will likely be teaching 8 different classes for two consecutive 45 minute periods separated by a 10 minute break. Unlike middle school or senior school classes, university classes are -not- divided by English skill and on the contrary you will be looking at the epitome of a mixed bag. Because of this I try start the lesson with simple examples and end the hour with advanced material.

So, if your teaching 8 classes, If they are all English majors that can mean only 1 lesson per week and about 16-18 lessons per term. To be honest even if I'm teaching Freshman and Sophmores I often only use 1 lesson but I plan out how to make it advanced for better classes or 2nd year students and I dumb it down as far as possible for "that one class".

If your teaching non majors your first year, all I can say is, no matter what you do as long as you give it your best effort do not sweat it. Use the book more and research lessons and ideas from the internet. These lessons need to be different from your English major lessons and need to be designed along the lines of a high school foreign language course if you took one while in high school, that is what you need to be doing.

It's a bit of a time investment preparing for each lesson but after a couple years teachers already got nearly everything done before the year even begins.

[IvanaShaanxi]

Thanks Gemini. And, in fact, you can also use some textbook you brought from your own country, right?