Job Discussion Forums

[chinatimes]

This is my first year teaching at a college. So, I am looking for any advice from the more experienced teachers out there. I am happy to see that the high school antics aren't happening (at least not yet, I know it's just the first week).

I have had a couple classes where they were quiet and worked like team players. I have also had a couple classes where students were talking in the beginning and I went ahead and just taught a few in the front who were willing to participate. Eventually, the rest got quiet and I felt relieved to see more interaction on their part.

Despite the good feeling, I also have some students that gave me the stare that they seemed completely dissatisfied with the class. One student who has a very good command of the language said I seemed too serious, but with other students I got a completely different feeling. They were laughing and we all were joking at times.

Some of these classes are newspaper classes. I don't know why they have a native English speaker teaching a newspaper class, because the textbook is almost all in Chinese. It has chapters and sections on abbreviations for words like "impro"/"improv" instead of "improvisation". There are articles in Chinese with translations in English. I don't know how to make these "fun" besides just taking it like medicine. Personally, I enjoy translating news articles, and to me it is fun, but to some of these students they could care less it seems.

They are also seniors (4th year students), so a lot of them are fairly good at listening. They understand when I give them answers to my questions. However, they cannot produce nearly as well.

Should I forget the book? Should I assign homework? Do colleges expect that sort of thing? I got my one pass teaching the way I wanted this week. We meet twice a week, so tomorrow and Friday I want to present a different style of class and let them choose what they want.

It's different than a conversation class because there is a ton of reading and vocabulary. If I have them read in class, it will go very slow and waste time. I am trying to find a way to make use of the book because I am assuming the school wants that. Their position is to "just give students tips on how to read a newspaper". The students on the other hand would prefer to listen and maybe they are in the passive mode expecting more of a presentation.

How much of your college classes are presentations with you lecturing? How much of it is interaction? I am trying to get them to talk and I have them break up into groups before speaking. I am quite comfortable doing this, and it seems to have positive effects. I am just not sure how it is being received by the students. Near the end of the classes, I have noticed that the students start talking more with background noise. Not English, but Chinese it seems like. When I taught at a high school, the same kind of thing happened, and I just tried to get one lesson completed before that time. Do you experience the same thing in college?

How do you discipline college students? Do you simply ignore disruptions whereas in high school you might kick them out of class?

[7969]

[Shroob]

You may not know this but the Chinese college system is different to the western model in at least one big way - the method by which students get their major. I don't know the exact details but I'm pretty sure I have a basic understanding of it. If I'm wrong please correct me.

In the west students select what they want to study. It's up to them. If they get the grades, they can study the at the university and course they want. If they don't get the grades they don't go. A few may opt for 'clearing' (what it's called in the U.K.) where courses with spaces are filled up.

In China the system is different. Students give their university preferrence and their major preferrence. Depending on how well they did on the Gaokao (university entrance exam) they may not get the choices they wanted. Say if they fall short, they would be offered a place at the university they wanted, but not the course they wanted. Or a different university with a different course. The pressure to go to university is so great that they will accept anything. I'd say at least 80% of my students didn't pick English as their major.

With this system it's no wonder students may seem uninterested. They probably didn't want to study English anyway. Additionally, the Chinese university educational system doesn't instill a fear of failure. Most foreign teachers have little control over who passes or fails, administrators will just change their grades (thankfully not where I am).

I've given quite a negative view here, don't be put off. Most students are a joy to teach, at least I've found.

[roadwalker]

Good advice so far in my opinion. One tip for a noisy talkative class is instead of adding more noise by yelling, begin speaking and then abruptly stop and wait for everyone to pay attention to you. Once the room quiets (and I'll wait as long as it takes in some cases) continue on as if nothing happened.

Decide what, if anything, in the book is useful to your lesson and use that. If you have a computer and projector in the room, make use of it by either having pre-determined web pages, or creating a powerpoint presentation, or both at your disposal. Sometimes the books have good materials, and often they don't. Discussion is good, and is something you can help improve. You also can get a better sense of the students by listening to them.

It sucks to be thrown into a situation without clear guidance, but that is teaching in China. You likely won't get any help from Chinese colleagues or department heads. Stay positive, try to include everyone, ask questions of the students and have a couple things prepared. Not all of the students will enjoy the class, but if you stay prepared and don't get discouraged, some or most of them will get something out of it.

[chinatimes]

Thanks for the comments so far.

I have lesson plans, but they are more for beginners. This newspaper class is just 8 weeks. I have 2 classes like this and they meet twice a week. One class is 45 minutes, 5 minute break, and then 45 more minutes. So, 3 hours per week. I am lucky if I get one lesson plan prepared. There is a lot of researching online just to present 15 minutes worth of material. The students go into passive mode and don't ask questions. So, if I only do that, I will run out of material.

I am having them practice speaking also because I feel I can help them in this area. Unfortunately, the more we do it, the more it eats up class time. 3 hours is a lot, but when they are reluctant to speak it takes a while.

There is a repeated pattern of the good students always reading aloud or the same group of volunteers will read. In this case, I would call on someone else in the class, but what do you do with the other students who can already speak well enough and have volunteered? Are they just the "advanced" students and don't have to participate as much?

This happened in my high school classes also. After 2 months, the good students would simply sit reading other material. If I called on them, they were able to adequately reply even though they may not have been as detailed as if they had actually read a passage and took notes. I can't blame them for doing something else, but at the same time I don't want to come off as ignoring the good students.

The second question has to do with computer use. If I regularly show them online articles every class, is that ok? What else could I share to spice it up? I am trying to get some audio files too.

Has anyone played videos in their classroom. For a 45 minute class, how much time do you allow them to see a video or is this strictly prohibited? In my high school job, the school didn't mind. So, we watched parts of movies and discussed a little bit about the movies before and after viewing. The downside is that the bad students couldn't give a crap about learning English, they just saw it as a chance to snooze or goof off.

Perhaps I should ask my class this since they are seniors. They can tell me what they did previous years.

[roadwalker]

[MisterButtkins]

I also get told by some students that I am 'too serious'. I will tell you that, in general, I think 90% of the students prefer a more serious teacher. Last year I taught a group of students the first semester and the second semester they got a different teacher who played games every day. The students often complained to me about how they didn't learn anything from that teacher and would prefer someone more serious.

The Chinese students do not respect a teacher who is weak or who tries to make everyone happy. They expect and want you to keep the class in order. If you do this, 90% of the students will like you MORE. The other 10% will sit in the back and sleep or stop coming to class, but that's their problem.

Another thing to consider is that, in Chinglish, the word 'too' often just means 'very'. For example, "Her eyes are too big" can actually just mean "Her eyes are very big", which would be considered a good thing. The Chinese word that they learn translates to 'too', 太, is used like this quite often in Chinese. So you get things like 他太高了 = He's too tall or 她太白了 = She's too white. Both of these would generally be considered good and even complimentary. So you can think of them saying you are 'too serious' as just meaning 'very serious', which isn't necessarily bad.

[Miajiayou]

[MisterButtkins]

Right. That's why my student evaluations are all better than the fun teacher's.

[7969]

Mister Buttkins is right. Students use another descriptor synonymously with "too serious" - "responsible." If you're a teacher who shows up with a plan that you don't have to deviate from every week, if you appear organized and are actually teaching them what they want to learn, then the students will see you as taking your job seriously ("too serious") and being responsible. In contrast teachers who who show up with no plan, who focus too much on games, singalongs, movies, and story-telling, (treating uni students like children) aren't seen as taking the job seriously or being responsible. Students notice things. Anyone in doubt of the above should ask their FAO to show them the student evaluations of their work at the end of each term. At this school, when compared with the "fun teachers" the "too serious" teachers usually rate higher. Seriously.

I don't see any flagrant lauding where I am either. If I had to guess why it's because I'm seen as too serious and "cool" (everyone knows what they mean here). But that's only in the beginning, by mid term we know each other better and the mood of the class is much lighter, and by year's end the students genuinely thank me for the work I've done. Others likely have similar experiences.

Here's another piece of advice: Your students pay good money for their education. If you provide value for their money they'll respect you. If you don't, they won't.

[Silent Shadow]

I agree with MisterButtkins and 7969. University students generally appreciate foreign teachers who try their best to run a well managed, organized class with structure, and attempt to teach them something worthwhile.

Fun v serious teachers? It doesn't have to be one or the other, you can inject humor and interesting, engaging activities into lessons, while doing the above.

chinatimes, you need a class management plan as well as a lesson plan. I always give out a course handout to every student in the first week of the semester which includes the rules and requirements. I also tell them verbally and give them reminders, when necessary, as the term progresses.

If you don't want them to chat while you're teaching, speak Chinese, or anything else, tell them verbally and in writing as soon as possible! It works and they will respect you for it, if you are consistent.