Maybe this should be in Cars and Motorcycles, dunno. Its a grey area.
Short of time to produce a Midterm Test, I used some of the “canned” questions that came with the textbook.
(Mea Culpa, these are usually utter shite, and American Headway 3 is, IMO, a spectacularly bloody awful textbook, but that’s by the way)
One of the questions was a gap fill:
“People who drive ____________________________ should not be allowed on the road.”
You see where this is going?
The expected selected response in the “English Speaking World” (and certainly the one expected by the brain-dead authors of this garbage) is “carelessly”, BUT “carefully” was an option. I THINK most of the students know what these words mean.
Over 70% of students selected “carefully”
But is that wrong, IN TAIWAN?
And am I imposing a narrow, Anglo-saxon cultural reference frame in marking it wrong?
What a gem. That belongs in the “whack things in Taiwan” thread.
You should interrogate every single one of them and find out why they wrote that. Might answer one of the deep mysteries of the foreigner-in-Taiwan universe.
They just didn’t finish reading the sentence and think that carefully is obviously going to be the right selection as nice Taiwanese students would try to do. Care vice careless.
I have actually been told a few times (by apparently respectable, sane Taiwanese) that my habit of NOT driving on the wrong side of the road on blind corners is inconsiderate and irritating because it wastes everyone’s time.
That could perhaps be summarised as “People who drive carefully should not be allowed on the road.”?
If this is “recieved opinion” it might explain the student response?
[quote=“TaiwanVisitor12321”]I’ve had students tell me American traffic is boring because people follow the rules and you can’t weave in and out of traffic there.
An educator’s job is not just to stuff certain facts into the empty space between his students’ ears, but also to prepare them for life in general. In times gone by, a ‘teacher’ was not someone who assisted with book-learning but simply an older, wiser person helping the younger ones to grow up into smart, competent people.
In the specific case of an English teacher, surely his job is to teach how the language is used, in the context of the culture(s) that use it? That will inevitably involve explaining that there are some countries in the world where driving is not a form of entertainment (hey man, I nearly got mangled by a taxi today AND I nearly wiped out an a-ma driving the wrong way down the road - what a laugh!). So no - it’s not culturally insensitive to mark them wrong. It’s part of a teacher’s job to gently prise the student’s head from his ass, and show him that there’s a big wide world outside the confines of his own colon.
An educator’s job is not just to stuff certain facts into the empty space between his students’ ears, but also to prepare them for life in general. In times gone by, a ‘teacher’ was not someone who assisted with book-learning but simply an older, wiser person helping the younger ones to grow up into smart, competent people.
In the specific case of an English teacher, surely his job is to teach how the language is used, in the context of the culture(s) that use it? That will inevitably involve explaining that there are some countries in the world where driving is not a form of entertainment (hey man, I nearly got mangled by a taxi today AND I nearly wiped out an a-ma driving the wrong way down the road - what a laugh!). So no - it’s not culturally insensitive to mark them wrong. It’s part of a teacher’s job to gently prise the student’s head from his ass, and show him that there’s a big wide world outside the confines of his own colon.[/quote]
That, plus it used to be a case of, “My test. My answers. Shut up or it’s six of the best.” The latter will probably be more efficient and make more sense to them.
[quote=“Ducked”]
The expected selected response in the “English Speaking World” (and certainly the one expected by the brain-dead authors of this garbage) is “carelessly”, BUT “carefully” was an option. I THINK most of the students know what these words mean.
Over 70% of students selected “carefully”[/quote]
It’s quite possible, all cultural overthinking aside, that the students fell victim to the oldest ploy in the multiple choice chronicles: The Bait of Awry. Especially when students are trained not to review their responses before submission.
They don’t teach kids to look over their answers here? That explains a lot!
As an English teacher you’re not just teaching English, you’re teaching the context and culture in which it’s used. Why do we call Wednesday Wednesday? What are the months named after? What’s the meaning of the word ‘Hallowe’en’? These are all things I teach in my classes.
The students don’t always remember the facts (or they only remember the Chinese for the facts!) but they find this kind of trivia interesting, and it gives them an overall appreciation for the language. Or more of one, anyway.
Why don’t you download some of the driver’s ed info booklets and summarize them into simple English fact sheets? Then you can show your students and have a less on driving in the West and driving in Taiwan. I’ll bet it’d be an interesting lesson.
Why don’t you download some of the driver’s ed info booklets and summarize them into simple English fact sheets? Then you can show your students and have a less on driving in the West and driving in Taiwan. I’ll bet it’d be an interesting lesson.[/quote]
I tried that a few years ago. It was interesting watching the suspension of disbelief. To really hammer it home, I should have played a few reels of those bloody horror movies that we had to watch in driver’s ed in senior high.
Mark it wrong and give them an opportunity to convince you that they are correct in class. And bash the fucking hell out of their arguments. Hopefully they got it wrong because they were careless though. Or maybe they don’t really understand what careful is. maybe they think careful is going 40km/hr in 60+ km/hr traffic and stopping hard for stoplights.
My first car – the special late-edition non-exploding model. At least it wasn’t a Gremlin…
My first car – the special late-edition non-exploding model. At least it wasn’t a Gremlin…[/quote]
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