(More) Differing Views on Teaching in China

Two month ago we ran a story on Teaching in China, as we hear from many teachers wanting information about teaching in China. Our story and information generated a huge response, positive and negative.

Here is more Feedback:

Interesting article on teaching in China.  My husband and I have had similar experiences...he walked out of one class in which the students were so rowdy, stating, "I've not come all this way to not be respected."  We choose to work primarily with adults.  For instance, I'm about to go and teach 15 Chinese staff members of a Chinese language school for 7 weeks.  They are eagerly anticipating my coming and will put in great effort to improve their English speaking skills.  Yes, even adults will say they don't want grammar--"we've had that for years in school"--but I weave it into the conversations, letting them know that English grammar is part of all conversation! 
 
As always, enjoy your newsletter,
 
J D

Hi.  I just read the article and have some comments.  To be fair, I think the situation described could be an ESL class in many different countries around the world.  I have been teaching ESL for more than 11 years in Canada and in Asia.  Teachers will also find students who are not motivated and who will do the bare minimum to pass.  (e.g. me in French class in Canada!).  I think it is important to provide a balanced view of ESL/EFL teaching and students.
 
Thanks for listening
 
P P
A Canadian in Hong Kong

It is true. Some people just have a real knack for teaching young learners. Possibly they already have children of their own or else they are blessed with an affinity for youngsters and endless patience! Regardless of your own attitude to teaching this age group (I'm speaking about 4-14 year olds here, rather than teenagers or kindergarten age learners) you will probably find yourself in front of a young class at some stage in your career. Difficult and challenging they may be but get it right and they can be the most enthusiastic and rewarding of students. Here Louisa Walsh gives provides some pointers.

Keep it fun, lively and simple. You could take a project based approach so one theme is exploited in lots of different ways over a series of lessons. (See an example below or a project based set of lessons.)In this way the vocabulary is reinforced and repeated in a variety of different tasks so they do not get bored.

Variety is the key and with the very young, lots of short, simple, activities are best suited to their attention span. Keep your learning aims very simple and build in plenty of child-friendly practice tasks to allow them to practice your target language again and again.

For the practice tasks, think of the things children like doing anyway and incorporate theses activities into lessons. These could be singing, coloring, or working in small groups to produce a poster, for example. Use children's love of rhyming and chanting to teach such things as numbers and the alphabet. The great thing about really young ones (say 4-12 years old) is that they are generally less inhibited about using another language and so you can get them to speak quite early on.

Full Article on our site

Louisa Walsh of Global English offers some guidance

Website for ESL Students

LEWL is pleased to announce a new website which offers ESL Students a complete English course adapted with full audio from our popular ESL Curriculum.

Module 1 (Beginners) has been adapted and is now available (30-day free trial) for everyone to try out.

Learning English

Welcome to our new ESL JOBS section which has proved to be very popular with our subscribers. Below are jobs posted on July 31/06. For updates every day, please visit our website for daily updates.

• Preschool English Teacher -- Dominican Republic
  posted on September 08, 2006 10:13:04 am
  Center Educativo PUNTACANA is looking for a devoted, enthusiastic preschool teacher, ready to start teaching immediately.
• 
  posted on September 08, 2006 10:13:03 am
  British Council is the United Kingdom’s international organization for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are looking to recruit experienced and enthusiastic individuals to join our team in Singapore at the Professional Development Center in providing a range of corporate training courses in business writing, soft skills and management development.
• 
  posted on September 08, 2006 10:13:03 am
  I'm just sending you a quick note to let you know that IACC just won the bid for the public school contracts for Taipei county (17 positions) and for Ping Dong City (13 positions)...
• TEFL Teacher in Poland
  posted on September 08, 2006 10:13:03 am
  We are looking for the Teachers of English as a Foreign Language who will teach classes of not more than 12 students at all levels and all ages.
• Mandarin and English Instructors Needed in Hong Kong
  posted on September 08, 2006 10:13:03 am
  Abacus Consulting Services need Mandarin and English instructors in Hong Kong.
• Teacher of English -- Craighouse in Chile
  posted on September 08, 2006 10:13:02 am
  Craighouse is located in La Dehesa, a safe and up-market suburb of Santiago. The school is a co-educational day school of approximately 1650 pupils aged 4-18 and this year celebrates its 47th anniversary.
• Government-funded School Seeks Dedicated Teacher
  posted on September 08, 2006 10:13:02 am
  This is a school and not an institute. It is a continuing education school and is government funded. The school is very well run, clean and the teachers are treated like gold.
• Kindergarten and Primary Teachers -- Cambodia
  posted on September 08, 2006 10:13:02 am
  ZAMAN International School is seeking experienced teachers for Kindergarten & Primary.
• Teaching English in Government Schools in Eastern Thailand
  posted on September 08, 2006 10:13:02 am
  We are a language school located in Chachoengsao which is in the east of Thailand near to Bangkok (about 1.30 hr far). We organize English programs that provide students an opportunity to learn the English language with foreign teachers for government schools around eastern area provinces.
• English EFL Instructors -- Aichi, Japan
  posted on September 08, 2006 10:13:01 am
  Nova Group is currently offering exciting job openings for English EFL Instructors in Aichi and throughout Japan.
• English Language Assistant -- Germany
  posted on September 07, 2006 01:01:55 pm
  When: October 06 - July 07. Where: Hermann Lietz School Schloss Bieberstein, Germany (private boarding school). Work: 15 lessons a week, teacher support, free board and lodging.
• 
  posted on September 07, 2006 01:22:36 pm
  Teaching general and business English to adults mainly in school but some in-company classes, especially business skills courses. 24 contact hours per week + occasional cover.
• Native ESL Teachers Needed in Heilongjiang Province
  posted on September 07, 2006 01:01:54 pm
  Airfare reimbursement/travel allowance given upon completion of contract. Requirements: Native English speakers who are from USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand or Britain only with TESOL/ESL experience.
• 
  posted on September 07, 2006 01:20:33 pm
  On this program, with the help of Nepali teacher trainer, experienced overseas volunteer teacher trainer supports the Nepali teachers who has no previous teaching training or who has very limited teaching knowledge.
• Native Speakers Needed -- Poland
  posted on September 07, 2006 01:01:54 pm
  Profi-Lingua is the fastest-growing and one of the biggest and most successful language schools in Poland. The school concentrates on the teaching of languages with a heavy emphasis on speaking and conversational ability. It also prepares students for internationally recognized language exams.
• 
  posted on September 07, 2006 01:01:54 pm
  Berlitz Israel offers new instructors pay-per-lesson contracts. Most of the classes are in the morning or evening hours. Under such conditions, the working hours are flexible and may change from week to week.
• ESL Internships Announcement -- Africa
  posted on September 07, 2006 01:01:53 pm
  We are looking for an international ESL Intern for our program in Congo Brazzaville for a period of 3 months starting from 15 September – 30 November 2006. We have 3 ESL teaching sites with a growing number of students.
• 
  posted on September 07, 2006 01:01:54 pm
  With over 70 branch schools throughout Japan, Amity is the leading English conversation educator for children. We offer exciting opportunities for enthusiastic professional, native English speakers who enjoy working with children.

ON SALE!
Every month we have a new special -- games, ESL Mysteries and more!
http://www.efl-esl.com/specials/index.htm


ESL Curriculum
Tested in the classroom!
http://efl-esl.com/esl-curriculum/index.html

ESL GAMES
Looking for something different for your students? Try ESL Games!
http://www.esl-games.net

This Newsletter is brought to you by Learning English with Laughter Ltd.!
http://www.efl-esl.com The author can be contacted at:
brian@efl-esl.com or by visiting:http://www.efl-esl.com/contact.htm
No part of this document may be reproduced without the permission
of the author. (C) Learning English with Laughter Ltd.  2006 All rights reserved.