I have been teaching 3 large (160 students in each lecture) classes once a week at an agricultural university in China for master's degree students, most of whom are majoring in an agricultually-related field. (now into my 5th week) The graduate dept. asked me to present a "listening lecture" via powerpoint presentations based on a California Agriculture magazine that presents current research projects in agriculture. (I have a science background/worked for a local agriculture dept in Calif.) As you can imagine, there is a wide range of listening/speaking skills represented in each class. This is my first ESL teaching assignment. It is not possible to organize the classes according to english proficiency. Any advice on how best to address the wide range of skills and how best to test, both weekly and for finals would be much appreciated. Currently, I present a science/key word vocabulary list at the start of the class, followed by discussion questions relative to the lecture material, and then present the lecture. The class has about 15 min to then discuss the questions in small permanent groups of 4-6 people and then we answer them together as a class. I was assured I do not need to assign homework for such large classes (500 students total! each week) , so I don't. I do have a class mailbox set up that allows students to preview the vocab. and a summary statement of the next week's topic and they really seem to appreciate having that. But it's becoming increasingly clear to me the disparity between those who understand much/most of what is presented and those who can understand very little.
Thank you for your considerations here - any thoughts/ideas are welcomed! John Loux Taian, China
