My paper aims to describe the experiences of this year’s students on Sunderland’s Graduate Abroad Scheme. It is based on the feedback of the student-teachers – the good, the bad and the ugly. It aims to serve as guidance for future student-teachers in ways of dealing with large classes and low resources, and hopes to help all EAP lecturers with a better understanding of their Chinese students here in Britain
With the Olympic Games in 2008 and the entry into the WTO, the need for EFL has increased. Several provinces are taking special measures, e.g. Guangdong says that everyone should be able to talk English, and HK wants all teachers equipped to speak English by 2004, so that English and Mandarin can be the medium of instruction in secondary schools.
This is from primary to university level and in private schools and evening classes. In universities, they want English native speakers but they have no money to pay a lecturer or even a part-timer. Many universities receive state funds for foreign teachers; having a high number of foreign teachers brings prestige and status. Of course, not all foreign English teachers are British: some universities have Russians and Germans teaching. They advertise and get young people with absolutely no idea about language or methodology. Sunderland’s solution is the Graduate Abroad Scheme.
Sunderland graduates take a year out between end of degree and starting in first FT job. Nine went this year (two returned for personal reasons) from schools across the university to a variety of Chinese universities (mostly state). The package includes one week 30-hour intensive EFL training (paid for by the University of Sunderland) –
In addition, they get
Although all the university’s students were invited to join the scheme, during the course of the EFL training week, the Centre for International Education told them about the reality of teaching and living in China, with the aim of ensuring that only graduates with a certain humbleness and tolerance in the face of another country’s culture would take part.
As you know, the British, American and Australian universities all in China, looking for contracts and students. Unfortunately, a lot of universities are getting a bad reputation amongst the Chinese, who see them as only interested in recruitment and money. Sunderland’s philosophy to take but also give and be seen as contributing to China’s development is much valued. The Graduate Abroad Scheme expands the horizons of graduates and increases their employability. Of course, they also act as ambassadors for the University, showing good will and a generally positive image (we prohibit them from canvassing and recruiting on campus).
This is a description of a case study, a summary of findings from unstructured totally open questionnaire – it’s ethnographic. The student-teachers were asked to email me and say
I then organised their feedback under these same headings; what features here is quotes.
This is strictly speaking a list of transcriptions of the graduates’ feelings, quoted. It is their impressions – how they saw it.
- China in general
“I have come to realise that China is very modern, but traditional country, hot and sunny but dull and hazy in places from pollution, a rich nation but very poor in some respects.”
- Accommodation
“Visitors to the foreign teacher’s block would express their surprise at the quality of the rooms (and the size). At present there are plans to put IP telephones (capable of making international phone calls by using a card) and Internet access into the rooms.”
- Foreign teacher attitude
“In common with the Chinese, the British attitude was ‘so what if the shower leaks. So what if there’s more than 25 pupils in a class?’ There was an excellent working relationship between the Chinese staff and the British. … the British were seen as ‘humorous’ friends with everyone from the cleaning staff to the top people.”
- Pay and expenses
“A foreign teacher with an MSc and a teaching qualification can expect to receive in the region of 4500 Yuan (£400) per month inclusive of food allowance. … all meals are provided free within the school cafeterias. Wages are paid one month in arrears and are quite sufficient to live on comfortably. Electricity is free of charge in the accommodation block, as are containers of water”
- Schools
“The lessons went well but there were other factors I had to contend with in these classes, including extreme temperatures, motorbikes and general noise outside as well as a bonfire being lit a few hundred yards from the building which filled the room with smoke. They shut the windows, the ones which would close, but this just added to the temperature in the classroom”
“I … stood up in front of 30 students in a classroom that can only be described as a bare room with four walls, two doors, basic desks and chairs, and windows that have bars on – however not much glass in many frames.”
- Timetable
“Lessons usually start about 6.30am and, depending on the age of the student/child, may finish as late as 9.30pm when the school is locked and all lights are switched off. Foreign teachers do not start work until 8.35am at the earliest and, usually, a working day consists of 3-4 40-minute periods. Five at the outmost. There is no teaching for foreign teachers after 5pm.”
“I was given a copy of my timetable at very short notice, the day before I was expected to start, so with only one night to prepare, I began to arrange my first lesson plan. I had been given my first slot for a lesson 8am on Monday morning, lasting for eighty minutes, with a ten minute break in the middle, then another class straight after for another eighty minutes, think that’s what is known as straight in at the deep end.”
- Contracts
“The only thing to query is that if you work extra hours for the school you will be paid. If you don’t want the extra hours, tell them.”
- Learning style
“It was soon found that the huge majority of any class could recite the alphabet off by rote. To a lot of the pupils up to grade 4 (perhaps 5) it was all quite meaningless. The alphabet had simply been learned parrot-fashion.”
- Co-teachers
“The foreign staff here are all assigned a colleague to work with them. … By having a co-teacher though they tend to ask her in Chinese anything that they do not understand as opposed to ask me in English. Trying to implement the rule that the co-teacher is not allowed to respond to any questions that are asked in Chinese.”
“All English classes have a home teacher with them. The home teacher is a qualified teacher who is responsible for shepherding the younger pupils from one classroom to another. They also will help maintain discipline and, dependent on their English speaking ability, will maintain the link between English teacher and the class. In some classes the home teacher will take notes to help them learn English … They are also an asset that can be used within the classroom environment and are keen to become involved”
- English corners
“Part of the scheduled teaching may consist of ‘English Corners’. For example, there may be 33 teaching periods plus 5 English Corners. The idea behind these English corners is that the top 6 English speakers out of each class are given an extra period to further develop their speaking skills. The pupils concerned can be changed at any time, and the school is notified. English corners are usually arranged during the midday break and, in my case, were held in my room.”
- Assessment
“If a Chinese pupil gets low marks it is the fault of the teachers. Not the pupil. … At some stage the foreign teachers will be asked to set Oral English exams or award examination marks. … 70% is the minimum mark any pupil will get”
Remember again, that these are non-English major graduates with a one-week training course. Many of the discipline problems are those of all novice teachers; pupils play up the trainee. In addition, the fact that the graduates were foreigners, and not their usual Chinese teachers might have had something to do with the pupils behaviour. Note too, that the graduates were given classes outside the usual curriculum; they were classes for training speaking but not ones leading directly to exams. This explains the lack of preparation and control from the school, and the lack of commitment of the pupils.
- Limited materials
“some of the text books for spoken English are quite dated in terms of teaching methods and the elementary side of the school has a desperate shortage of all books.”
“I sometimes get very frustrated with the lack of resources. The students have very poor textbooks, the classrooms have no facilities … I have to rely on printing out pictures from the Internet to show them to illustrate what I am talking about in Culture lessons.”
“The school rather expects you to go into the classroom and start teaching with very little support. ... I am left more or less to my own devices although the Chinese English teacher often asks me what I’m teaching.”
“I am free to do what ever I like in my classes. There has been no guidance given on what I should or should not teach.”
- Large class size
“Class sizes varied from 25-38 pupils, according to their grade (age)”
“A group of 90 students.”
“I have six classes, with just less than 40 in each class, 230 students in total.”
- Limited speaking skills
“Whilst the older pupils could be somewhat cocky, complaining that their English books were ‘too easy’, the truth is that they have an … unjustified opinion of their own English speaking abilities. These pupils could read and write well, but they still couldn’t speak English.”
“Like the younger pupils (grade 4) some of the grade 7s and 8s would not speak, no matter what. Trying to persuade some individuals to speak would result in tears”
“The children … have no or little conversational skills.”
- Poor discipline
“The purchase of a computer is a pre-requisite for anyone attending this school. Particularly with the 13-14 age group this can be problematic for the new teacher. No matter what, one or two individuals will always try and play games during class time. In large classes this means constantly walking about on the prowl.”
“many of the pupils were excitable and loud. It isn’t uncommon for them to get up and rush around the room, fall asleep or get into fights. Or all three at the same time.”
“The children who are show-offs and often exhibit uncontrollable behaviour (e.g. kung fu moves across the classroom) show the most initiative and adaptability with the English language”
“Discipline in my classes is also becoming a bigger issue. The children often don’t understand if I’m cross or not and it’s impossible to reason with them because they don’t have a good enough grasp of English.”
“One of my biggest problems is the discipline and motivation of my students … the problems are that many do not turn up, if they are do they are very late (up to 45 minutes in some instances). Many then just go to sleep or listen to walkmen. Though appear to have stopped doing the later as I confiscate them”
- First lesson
“I spent the lesson “getting to know the students and finding out their ability in speaking. I decided that the best way to do this and to break the ice was to ask the students to write their name on a small piece of paper, then pass it to me. I then placed all of the names in a bag and asked them to pick out a piece of paper one at a time and introduce the person’s whose name they had got out of the bag to myself and the whole class, things such as hobbies etc. … then they had an opportunity to ask me a question about myself, the UK or anything else they wished.”
- Improve discipline
“To overcome this I am trying to vary lessons as much as possible, doing different things each day to try and gain and maintain their interest. I have started imposing penalties on those that are very late, such as singing and English song”
“Developing a routine of ‘if you talk you’ll get the chalk’ was quite effective. This simply meant that any rowdy behaviour or talking whilst the teacher or another pupil was talking would result in the perpetrators getting the chalk to write a monsterously huge and difficult sentences on the blackboard which they then had to read aloud to the class. … Initially, discipline was a little bit of a problem and had necessitated the actual physical picking up and removal of one hyperactive 10 year old who constantly disrupted and tried to shout everyone down. After spending two forty minute periods standing outside in the corridor being glared at and growled at by Chinese teachers, he soon got the message. The moral of the story is to lay your stall out before you start.”
“Let them see the class list containing your comments about them. Tell them that the school will also see your comments and that it will be used as the basis for an examination or report.”
- Read and repeat
“with the older pupils, it was found that by giving one of them a paragraph to read aloud to the class and another to write it on the blackboard before reading it aloud, highlighted the shortcomings in the spoken English. It also places the emphasis for speaking onto their shoulders – where it belongs.”
“To explain tasks I often use one student at the front of the class to do the task and then get everyone else to do it.”
“I find lots of short tasks repeating the same vocabulary keeps their attention and gets the words stuck in their heads.”
- Groupwork
“… I taught the students about UK politics. I divided the class into four groups, one group for each of the major political parties, and one group for the voters. They were given help sheets with information about policies regarding health, education etc. The voters prepared questions about the issues then after preparation we had a question session from the voters to each of the parties, and then at the end a vote to see which party should win. The students all enjoyed it”
- Songs
“One thing I realised very quickly is that students all like to sing at any opportunity. We had songs from a few students in each class, which were very impressive. The students seem to learn most of their vocabulary from English songs, computer games and general everyday life.”
“I have found chants to be useful time fillers at the end of a lesson. They are easy to learn and the kids really enjoy them.”
- Computer work
“With 13-14 year olds the opportunity was taken to show them how to build a basic web site on an old computer I obtained”
- General advice
“My advice to anyone coming out to do this next year would be to bring plenty of topics for discussion, and plenty of games to play to break lessons up and too encourage the students to talk more during the lessons. Also to be well prepared and have a rough idea of what you are going to teach because there is no guidance this end”
You can see the conditions and teaching traditions that your students are coming from.