Job Discussion Forums

[Mister Al]

If you were advising an inexperienced university teacher about teaching Chinese students (English or subjects), what traits would you highlight? And what do you think are the underlying reasons for the traits you mention?

[7969]

Probably the most common trait: reluctance to speak. Underlying causes: Little emphasis on speaking second languages in Chinese schools (focus is on everything else) and little chance to practice English outside the classroom (large parts of China have few if any expat communities), resulting in a lack of confidence when the time comes to speak up.

[GeminiTiger]

[5h09un]

reluctance to speak is important, but you can usually beat a sensible answer out of them with enough follow-up questions. "why?" is a great one. i've also found that my students stop using circular logic ("i like because i like") if i embarrass them by continuing to interrogate them until they come up with a reasonable answer to the question i asked.

sometimes students will also be afraid of speaking at all, telling you what they really think and so on because they're afraid of losing face. perhaps they're self-conscious about their speaking skills or they're afraid of saying something that contradicts what most of their classmates think about a certain issue. there's not much you can do about this if you're in a speaking class and you shouldn't keep pushing if you can sense that a student is beginning to get really uncomfortable.

if you're in a writing class, though, you may find that your students are quite opinionated and many of them actually have good critical thinking skills. many have these urges lurking inside of them but have never really given into them before because their education system and their society frowns upon it. that's why i always put a lower limit but not an upper limit on the number of words i expected on every assignment. most students would only write about 250 words because that's all i expected of them, but i had a handful of students in each class who would write three or four pages every week just because i let them.

[chinatimes]

People like to attribute things to mystical or political motives that are usually seen as inferior to their home country:

1. Chinese must be behaving in some old Confucian style of learning that we have no understanding of.

2. The Chinese government must be censoring its people, human rights violations!!! blah blah blah

I don't agree here. These are just normal people speaking their native language just like you did in your home country. Did you go around town speaking Spanish or French with others? Were you really that active in your language classes?

Do you write or speak your answers in math classes?
Do you write or speak your answers in science classes?

The normal learning process worldwide is to passively learn and hand in written homework. I don't see it as any surprise that students in China don't want to speak English. Only active members in a Spanish community tried to speak English with me and they were doing so because that was the language spoken on the streets.

[Miles Smiles]

One thing that I find common among all of my classes is a reluctance to write in English. Though they may speak well, their confidence in writing is almost nil. I have had to institute some draconian measures to make them produce intelligible written discourse. By the end of the term, they all performed beautifully. One helpful piece of advice that I give is for them to write as they speak. (I give the same advice to students when I teach in the U.S.).

My advice to anyone who comes to China to teach is for him to remember that mission #1 is to instill self-confidence in the student. Most Chinese students have never been informed of their self-worth (especially the girls). In classes where there are different levels of ability, tell them that it doesn't matter at which level they begin. What matters where they end up.This is particularly important where there is no English major. I tell my students that if they speak NO English at the beginning of the term, if they can engage in simple conversation by the end, they will pass. I tell them that class work and formal tests are just some of the criteria I use to grade them. This is particularly helpful in schools where your classes are given low-priority by the powers that be.

Many students want to just give up because they've never been encouraged or complimented. Show compassion, even to the kid who seems to be a total j*rk-off. He's behaving that way for a reason. At some point, you may need to sit down and talk with him with the aid of another student who can translate. There will come a point at which you will have to stop cutting him slack. Tell him that.

Some students feel completely lost. Commiserate if you can. I tell my students who have difficulties that I understand what it is like to be clueless. Some people have a very low ability for learning a foreign language. I tell them that I have never legitimately passed a mathematics class. (It's true). All I could do was my best (which usually wasn't very good). I tell them that I made sure that my teacher knew that I was trying. I confide in them that I took foundational college math five times before I finally passed. (It's true).

Most students crave positive attention. Give it to them, even to the poor students. Depending upon the school and their majors, many of the students will never speak English once they graduate. The goof-offs who are disruptive want attention. Give it to them in the context of the lesson. I use a LOT of situational dialogues in which students are given a situation for which they are required to create a dialogue. Once you gain their trust, the poor students will perform to best of their abilities, and they will try to buy their way out of the situation with humor. Encourage that. If humor is their forte, give them permission to use it.

If the new teacher finds himself constrained by a highly-structured curriculum, find out why it is so structured. (If the class is a bona fide IELTS class and not just an English class that uses an IELTS book, the reason will be obvious, but even then, there may be room to make the course interesting as well as educational). Many times, the new FT is faced with a situation in which he must use a thoroughly useless book and given insanely vague objectives, or insanely narrow objectives. He should try to speak with someone in the department that oversees him to find out exactly what the school wants him to accomplish. Sometimes, the department will tell you to just get the students to talk.

Some students are terrified of speaking in class. make it abundantly clear that if they see you on campus and if they have time to talk, they will be given points for that. One term, I had about seven kids in one class who became nearly catatonic in class when it became time for them to talk. They became my weekend helpers when I needed help getting around town. I got to know their boyfriends and girlfriends. Oddly enough, after a few weeks, these kids loosened up and became pretty good performers.

The teacher can overcome a LOT of challenges in class by praising, showing a sense of humor, and encouraging the students to speak, even if the student's ability is low.

[teachingld2004]

I am starting my first job in a university in China September 1. I had worked for 11 years in Korea. I would assume (?) that the classes will be some what the same. Not that I am the greatest teacher in the world, but I
have not had many problems teaching in Korea. I choose to teach in the Foreign Language Department because I USUALLY can get the students to speak. I fully understand that they are trained to be either perfect, or nothing. In Korea I have them teach me a new word, and then test me on it. I fully understand that Chinese is no where near as easy as Korean, but I can give this my best shot. I try to make the classroom "friendly" I hang up pictures and sentences, and ask them to do the same. I give each student a piece of paper and have them write one sentence. THen the paper gets passed to the left (or right) and the next person has to add something. THe first time they do this it is usually something like:

I like the color green
I like the color blue.
I like to swim.
I like to run.
I like pizza.

After a few times I try and get:
I like green.
Green is the color of grass.
Grass rows.
People grow.
People talk.
People read.
I love to read.
What kind of books do you like?
Etc.

I try and make them feel good. I tell them that if they try they win. I tell them that we will have no tests.

THere are so many thngss s to do, but the main things are to make them feel good, and to get them to try. English is a aglobal language, and they do realize that they need it. (well, some of them.)

[GeminiTiger]

[GeminiTiger]

[Denim-Maniac]

Im not so sure there are traits typical to these students, but rather traits that are typical of this educational setting. Its not the fact they are university age students, but the fact they are learning in a university setting.

I dont teach at university, but I have often taught students of university age in a training school environment. Yes, most of my students are adults, but I have had many university age students that have enrolled into my classes. Confidence is rarely a real issue, and the need to instill confidence is rarely a high priority. I think its a real falsehood that the main role of an FT here is to instill confidence.

Ditto for encouraging them to speak. Its not difficult, and most of the teachers I have worked with find that they can, more often than not, just let the students run with the material and discussion and let them take it where they want to go. I tend to be more structured in my teaching, and I find I have to reign in my students most of the time.

There are some challenges of course. Pair work is often difficult, this isnt unique to Chinese students of course as lots of students want more teacher>student interaction. Task and text based analysis can also offer problems as they are more used to the teacher led approach.

I would suggest that the problem isnt with the students at all, but rather in the environment that you are working in. I would find it very hard to accept any work in a Chinese university as I dont believe they are a good working environment for me, or my students. If you take them from large classes of mixed ability students (typical uni setting) and place them in small classes streamed by ability (typical training centre setting) I firmly believe most of the negative traits discussed in previous posts will disappear. So in answer to the OP, the underlying traits in my opinion are the fault of the actual uni setting, and not really the students themselves.

I ran two teaching training courses this year, and one of the biggest problems with my trainees was that they had this pre-conceived idea that Chinese students are normally reluctant speakers, and because of this, it was very hard to get my trainees to error correct during their teaching practice. They were so worried that the students wouldnt speak again, that error correction was difficult for them in observed lessons. I have never really found Chinese students to be reluctant speakers as long as they are armed with the actual language skills to communicate. We shouldnt confuse ability to speak with a willingness to speak.

[Mr. Kalgukshi]

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[Miles Smiles]

[Non Sequitur]

I start every new class with a statement that:
'This class is about success. It's not about failure. I want to know what you can do - not what you can't do'.
That sets the tone. Often the students applaud or cheer. I don't know what that tells me about their other FTs or CTs.
As far as speaking is concerned I divide that into talking to me in English and talking to each other in English.
Set up scenarios where pairs or trios do a playlet on a subject or theme.
Allow them to use notes the first time and gradually wean them off these.
Good for assessment too as you can get through the class in half the time (or less) than it takes for individual testing.

[MisterButtkins]

Maybe it's just my teaching style or where I work but I don't really feel like my students have a problem with shyness and not talking. Yeah there are a few in each class but I feel that's normal.

[wonderingjoesmith]