Help! How to deal with an uppity ESL class?

kushal_p_pathak · Post by **kushal_p_pathak** » Wed May 06, 2009 11:24 pm

Hi
I am an ESL teacher teaching in a public school in China.I am having difficulties with my grade 2(11-13 years old) ESL class. The students in this school come from affluent families.They think that the Spoken English class is just for playing games & watching movies.Any other activity that I try with them is instantaneously rejected which means no participation from them.They are also a little overweening in front of the students of other classes which only adds to the trouble

.Talking to their (Chinese) English teacher about this works for a while & then everything goes back to where it started. They are an intelligent class & get very good grades in the exams(including the English written tests).So I guess the only problem is with their attitude. To be honest I am not so experienced in tackling problems like these

, so I am asking for help.
I need guidance from the experienced ESL teachers & forum members as to how I can cope with this situation & help the students so that they continue improving their Oral English skills. Any help in this case is highly appreciated as I am running short of ideas.

Sheila Collins · Post by **Sheila Collins** » Thu May 07, 2009 10:36 am

If all they want to do is to play games and watch movies, why not just play games and watch movies? Choose your games and movies carefully, so they work like a unit. After you have won their trust and respect, slip in new concepts (like reading them sections of the Harry Potter books after watching the movie, so you can discuss it). Students of this age often have very strong opinions, so discussing concepts like cultural differences or racism can often open their mouths with little effort.

It will be difficult to "fix the attitude" at this point, so you may as well try to make the attitude work for you.

kushal_p_pathak · Post by **kushal_p_pathak** » Thu Jun 04, 2009 9:47 am

"After you have won their trust and respect"

Could you please throw some light on this aspect, because as an ESL teacher I feel that we are hired only to meet a terribly resented national educational requirement,& so I don't expect anything like this to happen. Even the students know that their actions in my class are not going to have any outcomes at all, so they expect me to monkey around in the class & entertain them all the time.And the school as well their teachers don't seem to be interested or even at least worried about this at all.
Although I am trying hard to change their perception & as u said try & make things work for me,I would really appreciate some guidance on finding a reason for them to pay attention in the class, as now even the novelty of games & movies seems to be wearing out. I am at the at the end of my rope now.