Teaching elementary students in China
Moderators: Dimitris, maneki neko2, Lorikeet, Enrico Palazzo, superpeach, cecil2, Mr. Kalgukshi2
Teaching elementary students in China
Planning to go to China to teach English to either children, youth or adults. My first preference is teaching children because I have a background in elementary education (was a former teacher). This is all new to me as a Canadian teacher. What are some things I can do to prepare myself to teach abroad?
I have taught adults, college students, primary pupils and preschoolers in China, and in my experience, the younger the learners the more enthusiasm you can provoke.
Kindergartens now are recruiting native English teachers although they do not always know how to make the best use of you. The teaching in China in general is very regimented. It is a spoon-feeding process from the teacher to his students. There is no dialogue. Reading aloud of dialogues is done as a rehearsal by everone reading both characters. It often is mindless and highly demotivating for students.
But I have had a lot of good vibes because I have done things my way, not budging if my superiors or parents complained. Children need action, they love drawing, which easily develops into writing. They also like PE, stories and games.
Once your students have been put through several grades by Chinese English teachers, their minds are set and they merely function as robots.
as an expat, you will most likely have to teach oral English. I do not think of this as a very productive way of raising children's English proficiency, but if you can arrange role-plays (kids shopping for household goods, for instance), there might be more benefits than normally are achieved.
Anyway, you need to prepare yourself for BIG classes - say, 40, 50, 60 in cramped rooms! You also need to be mentally fit to maintain discipline and order with so many kids in your classroom!
And, you need to be highly flexible as your Chinese colleagues may not always do things in your accustomed way! You certainly won't know from them what they had taught your class before your arrival. Teachers here design most of the contents of their subjects by themselves, plus they also do exams, which is somewhat ethically dubious (you have to be 'friends' with your learners because THEY NEVER FAIL under foreign English teachers!).
Kindergartens now are recruiting native English teachers although they do not always know how to make the best use of you. The teaching in China in general is very regimented. It is a spoon-feeding process from the teacher to his students. There is no dialogue. Reading aloud of dialogues is done as a rehearsal by everone reading both characters. It often is mindless and highly demotivating for students.
But I have had a lot of good vibes because I have done things my way, not budging if my superiors or parents complained. Children need action, they love drawing, which easily develops into writing. They also like PE, stories and games.
Once your students have been put through several grades by Chinese English teachers, their minds are set and they merely function as robots.
as an expat, you will most likely have to teach oral English. I do not think of this as a very productive way of raising children's English proficiency, but if you can arrange role-plays (kids shopping for household goods, for instance), there might be more benefits than normally are achieved.
Anyway, you need to prepare yourself for BIG classes - say, 40, 50, 60 in cramped rooms! You also need to be mentally fit to maintain discipline and order with so many kids in your classroom!
And, you need to be highly flexible as your Chinese colleagues may not always do things in your accustomed way! You certainly won't know from them what they had taught your class before your arrival. Teachers here design most of the contents of their subjects by themselves, plus they also do exams, which is somewhat ethically dubious (you have to be 'friends' with your learners because THEY NEVER FAIL under foreign English teachers!).