Hi. I am a newcomer to this kind of forum. I am teaching in a college in Baicheng, Jilin, China. The college is basically the last choice of all of the students in it. They didn't fair well on their entrance exams and were relegated to this place. Nonetheless, they are a great bunch of kids (age 18-23) and are all studying to be English teachers in the middle school system. But, as you probably have already guessed, they are all painfully shy when speaking English. There are about 600 students and 3 native speaking English teachers (as well as a large contingent of Chinese English teachers). Classes range in size from about 35 to about 45. We are here teaching 'spoken English'.
The problem: they will not speak unless forced to. Even then, they 'help' each other out and whisper the answers to each other. I have tried games, discussion (forget that), dialogue writing and reading, lecturing on various subjects, motivational talks, vocabulary, idioms, and all that stuff. I am never quite sure how much (if anything) they actually understand when I speak. Mostly, I would like to find a good way to get them to speak willingly. Classes are 2 hours long once a week.
I have searched games and such on this site but either they are for smaller classes or they seem go on the assumption that the students actually want to speak. Of course, some are helpful and I have used them but I am running out of ideas. Right now I am getting them to write a dialogue every other week and read/perform it in class the next week. This is fine, but they will get annoyed with the unchanging regularity of this method in due course, I am sure.
Any ideas? I just want some variety. We have very little in the way of resources here (thank god for the internet!!).
I much appreciate any comments.
Disinterested College Students
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Paul in China
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Sun Mar 23, 2003 8:50 am
- Location: Baicheng, Jilin, China
Hi!
Couldn't you give them *easy* group assignments, then each group has to present their results to the whole class?
I tried that with courses who were too shy to speak.
It worked well because they had time and could take notes and felt more secure than if i just fired questions at them.
Best wishes
Siân
Couldn't you give them *easy* group assignments, then each group has to present their results to the whole class?
I tried that with courses who were too shy to speak.
It worked well because they had time and could take notes and felt more secure than if i just fired questions at them.
Best wishes
Siân
One activity that I found worked well with my Korean high school students was story telling. I would tell (not read) them a simple fairy tale that they probably already knew. Then I told them to work in groups to modernize it, making sure that the protagonist was a high school student. I then had them present their versions of the stories to the calss with one student in each group acting as the narrator, and the others acting out the roles. This would allow the more advanced students to shine, and allow the painfully shy ones to begin participating at a level with which they fely comfortable.
Another activity that works well for big classes is a murder mystery game in which each group gets a few clues and has to try to be the first to solve the mystery. I also like to give logic puzzles with English clues for the students to try to work out in groups of ten. Each student gets one or two pieces of information and they share them with their group to try to be the first group to solve the puzzle. (Keep Talking by Friederike Klippel has a good example of this kind of puzzle, the activity is called Baker Street. This is the most useful book I have ever come across for activities that work with large groups of students.)
As to students whispering the answers to eachother, I tend to let that go a lot of the time. One way I try to encourage students to answer questions on their own is to award points for answering questions in class. If someone helps them, they get one point; if they can do it without help, then they get 3 points. I either use these points as bonus marks for their final grade (20 points = 1 percentage point higher at the end of term) or as party points for the whole class (when the class has collected 250 points we can have a party- with cookies and videos and soft drinks -woohoo!)
Another activity that works well for big classes is a murder mystery game in which each group gets a few clues and has to try to be the first to solve the mystery. I also like to give logic puzzles with English clues for the students to try to work out in groups of ten. Each student gets one or two pieces of information and they share them with their group to try to be the first group to solve the puzzle. (Keep Talking by Friederike Klippel has a good example of this kind of puzzle, the activity is called Baker Street. This is the most useful book I have ever come across for activities that work with large groups of students.)
As to students whispering the answers to eachother, I tend to let that go a lot of the time. One way I try to encourage students to answer questions on their own is to award points for answering questions in class. If someone helps them, they get one point; if they can do it without help, then they get 3 points. I either use these points as bonus marks for their final grade (20 points = 1 percentage point higher at the end of term) or as party points for the whole class (when the class has collected 250 points we can have a party- with cookies and videos and soft drinks -woohoo!)
Yours is a very common problem, and I guess it is going to stay because there are a number of erroneous premises.
FIrst thing, are your students really "shy"?
Their upbringing gears them not to be responsible, amibitious individuals but rather to be conformist, robotic communitarian class members. This means they have not learnt English (or most other subjects) in an imaginative, thought-provoking and analytical manner.
They can do things only in unison - most things. Note that this is even true of CHinese adults in their jobs!
Therefore, intellectually-stimulating activities are very dificult to organise. I know what I am talking about, having taught Chinese students for over eight years! I would call their thinking "box thinking", everything has to be provided to them, every answer!
Besides, their English is probably not functional. It has been acquired quantitatively rather than qualitatively. They can't normally analyse a sentence. They don't see a sentence as a meaning-carrying unit. They focus on every word. You will certainly have come across the student who could not understand you because there was one new, or apparently new, word in your sentence. And then, their grammar - do they see any difference between the past tenses and the present simple? Do they correct themselves when they confuse "he" with 'she"? Do their predicates agree with their subjects???
There are, of course, a variety of activities that may work, provided there is some enthusiasm left in them, which is not a given.
I personally favour a hard approach: Telling them stories is fine, but they must be able to understand the GIST of the story, not just the words (which they think they understand when they can render them into Chinese!). Even simplified English is usually way above their grasp.
So I dictate these stories after a first oral attempt. The dictated version will clearly show their gaps in English comprehension!
Other games that work: Let them copy a text individually. The text must be placed away from their desks, so that they have to get up and read the text, memorise parts of it, and reproduce it verbatim on their notepads.
See how this can stimulate them!
FIrst thing, are your students really "shy"?
Their upbringing gears them not to be responsible, amibitious individuals but rather to be conformist, robotic communitarian class members. This means they have not learnt English (or most other subjects) in an imaginative, thought-provoking and analytical manner.
They can do things only in unison - most things. Note that this is even true of CHinese adults in their jobs!
Therefore, intellectually-stimulating activities are very dificult to organise. I know what I am talking about, having taught Chinese students for over eight years! I would call their thinking "box thinking", everything has to be provided to them, every answer!
Besides, their English is probably not functional. It has been acquired quantitatively rather than qualitatively. They can't normally analyse a sentence. They don't see a sentence as a meaning-carrying unit. They focus on every word. You will certainly have come across the student who could not understand you because there was one new, or apparently new, word in your sentence. And then, their grammar - do they see any difference between the past tenses and the present simple? Do they correct themselves when they confuse "he" with 'she"? Do their predicates agree with their subjects???
There are, of course, a variety of activities that may work, provided there is some enthusiasm left in them, which is not a given.
I personally favour a hard approach: Telling them stories is fine, but they must be able to understand the GIST of the story, not just the words (which they think they understand when they can render them into Chinese!). Even simplified English is usually way above their grasp.
So I dictate these stories after a first oral attempt. The dictated version will clearly show their gaps in English comprehension!
Other games that work: Let them copy a text individually. The text must be placed away from their desks, so that they have to get up and read the text, memorise parts of it, and reproduce it verbatim on their notepads.
See how this can stimulate them!
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Bonnie Trenga
- Posts: 4
- Joined: Wed May 07, 2003 8:08 pm
fun new phrasal verbs book will get them interested
Hi, I'm the author of a new book called Off-the-Wall Skits with Phrasal Verbs (JAG Publications, www.jagpublications-esl.com). It is intermediate and above and is aimed at getting shy or reluctant students talking (grade 7 to adult education). Check out the publisher's Web site for a description/ordering information, or I'd be happy to answer any questions.
I had the same problem as you do when I taught in Tokyo. I just was a little silly with the class. My book carries on in this vein.
Hope the book will be fun for your class and will get them talking!
Bonnie Trenga ([email protected])
I had the same problem as you do when I taught in Tokyo. I just was a little silly with the class. My book carries on in this vein.
Hope the book will be fun for your class and will get them talking!
Bonnie Trenga ([email protected])
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Bonnie Trenga
- Posts: 4
- Joined: Wed May 07, 2003 8:08 pm
fun new phrasal verbs book will get them interested
Hi, I'm the author of a new book called Off-the-Wall Skits with Phrasal Verbs (JAG Publications, www.jagpublications-esl.com). It is intermediate and above and is aimed at getting shy or reluctant students talking (grade 7 to adult education). Check out the publisher's Web site for a description/ordering information, or I'd be happy to answer any questions.
I had the same problem as you do when I taught in Tokyo. I just was a little silly with the class. My book carries on in this vein.
Hope the book will be fun for your class and will get them talking!
Bonnie Trenga ([email protected])
I had the same problem as you do when I taught in Tokyo. I just was a little silly with the class. My book carries on in this vein.
Hope the book will be fun for your class and will get them talking!
Bonnie Trenga ([email protected])
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italianstallion39
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Sat Aug 21, 2004 11:00 pm
Hi all,
I gave a "No Korean" rule at my hogwon and made all the boys or all the girls do something (pushups or rasing their hands over their heads) whenever they had three check marks on the board. It may sound harsh, but it worked because the students started to regulate themselves and forced each other to speak only in English. I found that many of the students knew a lot more English than they gave themselves credit, and the rule helped everyone. When the boys had three check marks, all the marks were erased and the game started again. I don't know why, but it was always the boys who hit three marks first
I don't know if a variation of this will work for older students or not, but I'm about to find out. Also, you can offer a reward for classes without any L1. For example, a video or ice-cream the next class. The male-female split worked wonders in the Korean setting, but I can't speak to other situations.
I gave a "No Korean" rule at my hogwon and made all the boys or all the girls do something (pushups or rasing their hands over their heads) whenever they had three check marks on the board. It may sound harsh, but it worked because the students started to regulate themselves and forced each other to speak only in English. I found that many of the students knew a lot more English than they gave themselves credit, and the rule helped everyone. When the boys had three check marks, all the marks were erased and the game started again. I don't know why, but it was always the boys who hit three marks first
I don't know if a variation of this will work for older students or not, but I'm about to find out. Also, you can offer a reward for classes without any L1. For example, a video or ice-cream the next class. The male-female split worked wonders in the Korean setting, but I can't speak to other situations.