Teacher Discussion Forums

to all beloved teachers,

i am having troubles in teaching english to foreign students
i am teaching in singapore as a sec school english teacher
i realised that they are doing good in other subjects
but not in english
they are very attentive and diiligent in completing the assignments given
compare to those local students
but i don't understand why they can't do well in eng
they often ask me how to improve their english..
i really don't know
what's the effective way to improve their eng
please help ..
and tell me the way
or there is any good eng web-site suitable for them

Hi Wiwi,

Honestly, I believe that it's at least partially a cultural problem. You teach in Singapore...are your foreign students mainland Chinese? Indonesian?

You may find that the foreign students have a totally different learning style to the one employed in Singapore. Also, it's not uncommon for students to perform well in written work, but poorly in oral skills. The learning strategies that they use may be reinforcing this.

Also remember that Singaporeans are exposed to English (or Singlish) all their lives, but mainland Chinese, for example, are not.

In short, there's no easy solution to your problem, but I'm sure that the solution does involve changing the way that they learn and maybe even changing the way that you teach.

As for websites, there's no magic solution either. Try mine: www.roadtogrammar.com . You might want to look in the 'downloads' section for some ideas.

Good luck with your foreign students, Wiwi.

Its partly cultural I'm sure, but when you say English I think you first need to understand their exact problems...

Here's what I'd try and evaluate:

1. Can they follow English instructions spoken and written.
If you are not sure write the instructions on the board to test. (In English language teaching we use Concept Checking Questions CCQs)

If they can't then you'll have to teach them basic English...

2. Do they do well in grammar exercises/reading comprehension/listening comprehension?

They may have been taught basic English, but have difficulties with productive skills. (Writing and speaking)

3. Are they afraid to give an opinion? Can they communicate verbally?

They may have been taught in a system where there is always a right answer and so therefore want to learn answers by rote rather than express their own opinion.

Depending on their level, I'd suggest you try and come up with some kind of placement test (you can use the ELT search engine on my site to try and find something suitable.)

Useful resources:

1. Guided writing
They can follow instructions, so it doesn't intimidate as much as free-writing

2. Argumentative writing
Requires them to think on their own.

3. Mindmaps
Can they think creatively?

There are plenty of other resources, once you've diagnosed the problem, you can start at my Website: http://www.jamesabela.co.uk/ which is conveniently divided into levels.

James

thanks for the guiding

i had tried what eslweb has suggested

thanks a lot..emile and eslweb

are both of you teacher..?

both of my students come from indonesia and china respectively

i think i will conduct english remedial for them

and as long as they have the desire to improve their english

with my help,i do believe they can make it

thanks all

I am a teacher and I teach English as a second language in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)

It does help to know which education systems they've come from. Certainly Chinese students are not encouraged to have an opinion and mostly learn via memorisation, which weakens their creative abilities. Generally they're better at grammar tests, spelling and reading comprehension.

I've taught quite a few Indonesian students and again it depends, which type of school they come from. The Chinese schools teach in a similar way to China Chinese schools, but many Indonesians simply don't get good quality English tuition. (And some lucky Indonesians get English from native speakers, but that's in the very expensive private schools)

James

P.S. You can send me a Private Message if you're coming up here....

I'm also based in Kuala Lumpur, believe it or not. I'm currently in Penang with a group of 20 Indonesian teachers, and it's true, they are below the level necessary for a tertiary programme.