New teacher needs help. Badly.

[Tomtomtom]

Hi there.

I have just arrived in China to teach English. I was told I would be trained and would be an assistant before I was left on my own. This however is not what has happened. I have been given classes of 40 students aged between 20-23 and I have to teach them spoken English, on my own!

Could anyone please give me a few pointers.
My first week was not a total succsess. I seemed to do all the talking. They dont seem very enthusiastic about games, and they dont like the text book either.
Please help me someone. What tips do you have for such large classes?

Yeous greatfully, Tom

[coffeeandtea]

Hey,
Welcome to China. i've been here for about 6 months, and I was also told before coming that I would be observing for about a month, and that then I'd have a teacher in the classroom with me. Never happened- I was alone from day one. Because of the vast differences in communication style between China and the West, tings like this are always happening. THe good news is, you'll be given a lot of freedom in your classes to do as you please. However, it's not easy, despite what people say. I mean, if you want the students to really learn, its not easy.

Not exactly being a veteran teacher, I don't know how much help I can be. 40 students per class is actually small by Chinese standards. My smallest class has 38 students and it seems tiny in comparison to my normal classes of around 60 students.

Games can work well sometimes...adding competition into the mix works. This can hold the students' attention anyway. I have found that having debates works well, and sometimes group discussion works well, but in doing that it's important to walk around the class and be involved in the groups, and motivate the students. THen, have them present on what they talked about. If you hava cd player, another good thing is giving the students words to English songs and palying them. I'm still in the process of experiementing and my classes are hardly what you'd call fine-tuned...I need some experience under my belt. But its really hard to get the students talking, and you have to really engagte them in different ways...one things I;ve started doing is meeting students indivually to help them practise and to get to know them better, in hope that they will feel more comfortable speaking in class.

GOod luck- I'll post more as I think of it!

[Tessa Olive]

If the students have some English up their sleeve, you could start with activities about getting to know each other. Brainstorm ideas about what we say when we meet people for the first time. Print off questions from 'Conversation Questions for the ESL/EFL Classroom' http:/iteslj.org/questions/
There are millions of conv. questions for many situations. Have students read thru questions about Getting To Know Each Other. Ask them which ones they like/ don't like and why. Ask if it's appropriate to ask about money. (I believe it's acceptable in China to ask about someone's wage/personal wealth). Have them imagine they are at a party. Get them up and mingling, asking questions, making conversation. If they're reluctant to move around, have them form a discussion circle. Refer to www.cup.org/esl/letstalk/support/optional/13u01oa.htm for how this works. (This forces them to move around).

Ask students what they want to know and what they expect to get from the class. This way you have ideas about what interests them.

I read ages ago on a discussion posting about a teacher in China who had a huge class. He decided to divide the class up into sub-groups and have one student permanently head each group. He would often liaise with those heads and they would help him to co-ordinate tasks and I suppose draw to his attention any problems.

Do you have any text books that you can draw from? They can be a great guide for a budding teacher.

If you let me know their level and age, I may be able to help you more.
Good luck.

[Tomtomtom]

Thank you both for your help. It has been of some help.
I tought them the words to Imagine by john lennon today which they seemed to enjoy.
Putting them into groups seems to help also. Although this can sometimes be a task in itself. It can be like talking to a wall.
I just looked at the conversation questions, and they look very usefull.
Must keep on trukin'.

[moonbeamsan]

Hi TomTom
I have been here in China for the last ten months having spent the last five years teaching in Japan and a further two and a half years teaching in Spain.

The first thing you have to do with any class is to bring the barriers down between teacher and students. I usually do this with juggling, I have a large bag of small juggling balls which I use. Knowing I was coming to China and that my classes would around the sixty five children mark I made sure I had enough sets of three balls for 15 children.

Second is the introduction I always carry a set of twenty photographs of my family back home in the UK I have also updated this with folder with lots of photos and information about where I come from. The photos are laminated and stood the test of time well. A grat ice breaker here in China, the kids and more importantly the local teachers love this.

I was lucky in the fact that I had my own school in Japan and so was able to bring four large boxes packed with Text Books, software and tapes etc. It cost me an arm and a leg to get it here and luckily the school I came to saw the value and paid not only for my flight but the cost of the boxes.

The classroom I was given was the pits and as diplomatically as possible was not suitable. I carried on teaching but wrote a long report to the headmaster and got it translated and four weeks later I have a fully kitted multimedia Classroom I've spent the last nine months or so using my software which proved very popular at the same time I converted some of my text books into PowerPoint Presentations. A lot of work but it is now beginning to pay off.

One thing I did which I found very interesting was:- The first meeting I had with the headmaster, heads of departments and the majority of the local English teaching staff, was to stand up in front of them all and introduce myself, then to drop the bombshell that I don't teach English, the picture of their faces would have made a great Kodak Moment when the interpreter translated. I then proceeded to tell them that I taught communication, listening, speaking and thinking in English. This took me away from the grammer method of teaching and the rota system of learning. It also took the conflict away from the local teachers, it has not been easy but the young people have seen the benifits of my style of teaching and this has reflected on the way the local staff now view me.

I hope this helps you, I have gone on a bit but I know how frightening it isa to be thrown into a classroom with 65 kids and told to teach.

Stephen
The Romantic English Traveler/Teacher

[eena]

Try http://eslgames.com/edutainment/ they have links to free activities