Curriculum in Public Schools (or lack of...)

Work Teaching English in Taiwan
21

@SunWuKong, yes, there are English Villages in all the counties. Not to bring them up again, but I’m pretty sure it’s become the responsibility of the Fulbright ETA’s to run them now in most counties, though I just saw a posting for an English Village recruiting FETs for next year here on Forumosa. I also think Chayi (maybe???) has FETs at their “English Wonderland”. From what I’ve heard (Kinmen and Yilan), the ETAs are all tossed in the English Village during the last week of August for “experiential training” (aka, thrown to the sharks) by running a summer English camp. Remember Fulbright ETAs are recent college grads with absolutely no teaching experience or certifications, so they are coming in with nothing, getting two weeks of “training” on all things about Fulbright, life in Taiwan, and teaching English, and then expected to create workable lesson plans and create their own materials that they have to use in English Village. Sounds like hell, especially since they’re circumventing a very clear law about “co-teaching” by having the ETAs co-teach with one another, so in many cases, there isn’t even a Chinese speaker in the room when things (inevitably) get out of control, not to mention a teacher.

As someone who teaches junior high in a county with an English Village, I have had moments where I have wanted to leave class and scooter over there and burn the place down. To no one’s surprise, a lot of the content that they are supposed to have learned, they didn’t learn. Such as “how does it taste?” in the kitchen. They should have learned all the English vocabulary/ grammar surrounding that, but the only thing they remember is that they made popcorn and watched Disney movies. So much for “learning English in context”. A fun two day experience where they don’t have school? yes. A chance to learn any English at all? :laughing:

Yeah, I wish the English villages were on their way out. Taiwan gets these great ideas for insanely expensive experiences for students but doesn’t bother training the teachers to use their insanely expensive spaces to any degree of effectiveness. Were every school to have them, and use them daily to do a total deep dive into that content area using effectively implemented CLIL, it would be fantastic. But kids coming for two days once a year for two years? funny jokes. Stay away!

22

Your teacher collaboration is going to depend on the school and teacher. Some schools require co-teaching, some will just throw a random PE teacher in the classroom with you, and some will expect you to teach on your own.

I teach junior high (7-9th grade) and co-teach all my classes, which are 45 minutes long. All of my classes also have three classes/week with the local teacher using the world’s most worthless textbooks, published by 康軒. The content is supposed to be relevant to their lives, but it moves waaaaayyyy to fast for even the most motivated students, and the dialogues, grammar patterns, and vocabulary don’t really have any way of connecting to each other. They also use example sentences that make no sense and try way too hard to use specific grammar points.

I use Nat Geo’s “Our World” series, which is actually for elementary, but I think it works for their level too. It uses a lot of animals, but it breaks things down nicely (L1-2 for Grade 7, L3-4 for Grade 8, and L5-6 for Grade 9. PS: I never get through everything in there, but you can hop around a bit within each book). Even in the end of the L1 book there are readings that the students will really need to dig into their brains and try to understand, but they’re actually really simple if the students have learned even half of the content that you’ve been teaching that lesson.

I also bought “Time Zones” (also from National Geographic), but that expects too much from the students despite their L1 book being for A1. Taiwanese students learn to dissect grammar, not use it, so when you expect them understand things in context, you lose most of the class/they go immediately to translation and don’t get anything at all from reading English texts. That’s my experience though, plenty of other Forumosans say they don’t have this problem.

btw, you can get Oxford, Nat Geo, and other native English publisher texts from 敦煌書局. Stay away from anything published by Taiwanese (expect some of the magazines) because you will find yourself subjected to unnatural sounding speech on audio recordings and really odd examples of how to use grammar.

edit: by “L1” I mean “level 1”, not “first langauge”

2 Likes
23

I think I’m either misunderstanding you or you’re misunderstanding me. Let me ask it like this, in your experience, is English Village a system taught in public/private schools by foreign English teachers, throughout the year (not as a special activity kids are bused to on occasion).
I was sure some people had said they were teaching some variant of it in public schools. It sounded like a horrible experience, so I never considered public school teaching after that.

24

English Village is a set up inside a designated public school for area schools to bus their students in to attend English-only programs throughout the year.

Some of them, like the English Wonderland in Chayi, are sleep-over camps where the students come for three days/two nights, but I think most of them are day programs, with the students coming two or three days at a time.

I don’t think it’s so much a variant of public schools so much as they try to hire FETs (who are public school teachers) to be the teachers so that the county governments have bragging rights about having foreigners in their classrooms.

If you apply to be an FET and you don’t specify that you won’t work at an English Village, you could get stuck at one, but most FETs just work at regular public schools and not English Villages. Some counties, however, have “English on the Go”, which, as I understand it, is a traveling English classroom with a similar concept to EV. The difference is that the FETs who have run it these past few years seem to have had total control over their curriculum and can do whatever they think needs to be done to make things run smoothly. Though they have had some things to say about that too…

The public school I currently teach at has an “English Village”, but it’s really just two classrooms with a lot of “fancy” computer and other tech equipment that they spent a few million dollars on back in the early 2000’s and never used ever. (as you can imagine, the students’ phones are more engaging than anything in that room). Every once in a while, they ask me to create a curriculum for it, but when I ask them who the target students will be, they can’t give me an answer and they don’t bother asking me for another few months. In three years, I’ve never gone in there for any reason beyond curiosity.

If you’re fresh off the boat, they might try to get you to do English Village, but, as I said before, I think most counties make the Fulbright ETAs do it because enough FETs have pointed out the worthless waste of time that the whole concept is and have enough pull (a teaching license, for example) that they can get themselves into a better teaching situation.

tldr: traditional public schools are exactly what they sound like. English villages are located within some public schools featuring short “immersion camps” with themed classrooms where you teach the same thing every day to different groups of kids.

edit: I know Fulbright ETAs teach in traditional schools 4 days a week and English villages one day a week, so it’s possible that’s what FETs used to be expected to do but there was enough feedback that FETs no longer have said responsibility.

25

This is great thanks so much.
So all of this taken into consideration what does it actually look like in the class? I’m assuming you basically use this as a guideline to build your classes around. Can you basically just write lessons that hit on these topics but have the freedom to work the class as you see fit? Or do they want you to follow the textbooks pretty firmly (if provided)?
I’m assuming if you are co-teaching, the local teacher will be more inclined to stick with the book and not deviate too much.
I heard from someone that it is a lot of repeated dialogues which sounds mind numbing. I know every school is different but do you think they make you do this with the students or is it more of a suggestion/framework to help guide the lessons?

26

In most schools, FET classes are separate from the “actual” English classes (taught by the local Taiwanese teachers), so unless your co-teacher insists on borrowing class time to go over their homework and quizzes (don’t let them do it. Especially if you understand Chinese, you will want to crawl in a hole and die/feel horrible that your students are subjected to such nonsense), you will be teaching something other than the book.

But schools have double standards/ask for one thing and then something completely different as soon as you deliver on their first request. My school insisted on me creating two separate curriculums (one for a “listening” class and one for a “culture” class) that could not be related to each other or the official Taiwan-issued textbook. As soon as the semester started, they told me my classes should all be interconnected. So my first year I threw in a modified plan from the Nat Geo “Our World” textbook for the culture class and a modified plan from Nat Geo’s “Time Zones” for listening. Then I threw out both of those plans and just came up with activities that were somewhat related to but actually interesting compared to the nonsense they are expected to learn in their “proper” English classes.

The freedom once again depends on the school.

2 Likes
27

Well, unfortunately, as is the case almost everywhere, teachers (even experienced ones) don’t know or follow the guidelines intentionally. That being said, good teachers will fulfill the spirit and, often, the law of the curricular guidelines quite naturally.

You can trust @nz on this. FETs are there for building up students’ communicative and intercultural competences, while local teachers are there to “teach to the test.”

Enjoy the freedom this brings, trust your teaching skills and (when possible) try to be interdisciplinary, build up students critical thinking, autonomy, and general collaborative/interpersonal skills.

You asked about curricula. They exist, but few people other than academics pay attention to them. Or administrators, when applying for MOE grants :sweat_smile:

2 Likes
28

How much of a curriculum do you have to provide, by which I mean can you wing it each week or do you need to turn in a plan for the entire semester? Do you have to hand in a weekly/semester plan or are you just left to do as you think is best?

29

No computer or internet???

30

With over 20 years of ESL teaching experience I suggest theme based methodology supplemented with language arts such as songs, poems and films.

31

They always ask me for one at the end of each semester (for the following semester). They also don’t want the same one I used last year!!! :rage:, so I have to change it enough that it doesn’t look the same (sometimes I just move the lessons around on the sheet. I will never understand why they think teachers can’t use the same lesson plans twice. They really believe in reinventing the wheel here.)

I have gotten more serious the longer I’ve been here because teaching the same age and social background has given me a better idea of what does and doesn’t work at each grade level, regardless of what their textbook expects them to be able to do. So I have everything pretty nicely organized by grade and topic and how it connects to their textbook topics/grammar in a google spreadsheet with links to all the materials. But that’s for my sanity when I have a first period class on Monday morning and remember I spent Friday afternoon staring at the wall instead of planning for the following week. I just throw in dates on there and my school prints the google spreadsheet and hands it to the county bureau or whoever, who apparently then scans it and publishes it online somewhere, but at that point there’s no more links to my loverly materials, so the curriculum plan is more or less nonsense. Also, I align everything to ACTFL standards because the MOE stuff doesn’t make any sense if you want students to actually learn English.

32

It sort of seems so looking at the different textbooks they are using every year.
But with regards to the bilingual program, I am beginning to look at it as a farce.

33

Only now looking at it as a farce? Have you read the other posts about the joke that is “bilingual ed” in this country? I have high hopes for it, as soon as they hire anyone qualified for their jobs instead of the nephew of the principal’s best friend from elementary school and other totally unrelated “qualifications”.

Seriously, what can be done about the joke that we all know is this country’s English education (EFL and bilingual ed both). I feel like I post a rant to this echo chamber at least a few times a week, but I do that knowing I’m wasting my time.

Who do I (we) take these complaints to that will actually let something be done?

1 Like
34

Your guess is as good as mine.
Since I started my job at my local school
I never had any in-service training or any
sort of professional development, nor did
I get to have any panel discussion with my
foreign teacher collegues.

35

I assume you have to find a way to embarrass them. It’s seems like they only way they better themselves is when embarrassed.

36

I mean, I’ve been at my current school for three years now. Even the FET training in January was “not really necessary for you to go to” according to my school, though that interaction with other foreign teachers who are working their butts off too is probably one thing that has reminded me why I’m here.

Tbh, in-service and other trainings for Taiwanese teachers are designed to remind them that they are slaves of the government who conversely get paid quite generously. There’s absolutely nothing productive about any of their in-services. I’ve been to quite a few over the years. 8 hours later I walk out and ask people what the point was and they say “nothing, it doesn’t matter, you have a free extra day off that you can use later now”. Teacher training here serves the purpose of looking like you’re doing something and paying people generous stipends to come blabber on about nothing. I hear Chiayi has fantastic training for their FETs and local teachers though. They do a lot with TPRS, which I would love to understand better.

My problem is that my school refuses to acknowledge that their way of doing things doesn’t work. Our principal used to be an English teacher, but she can’t speak English for shit. Yet she really loves to berate me about how I’m not “challenging” the students enough or “they have 5 years of English immersion in elementary school, the stuff you’re teaching them is too easy.” There’s no respect for me as a qualified, licensed teacher who can see and hear quite clearly that our students aren’t that great at English and need a better foundation. But I’m drowned out by my school’s and other school principals who show photos of their white teachers as evidence of their students’ improvement in English, and videos of insanely over the top English Reader’s Theater videos and speeches and further evidence that “everyone” is really good at English.

The reality is, if I were left with the students and solely responsible for their English language education, I wouldn’t be so concerned. If I were listened to and my co-teachers were willing to change their grammar-translation (mostly just “English in translation”) ways, things could quickly make progress.

But that’s not what’s happening here. The schools bring in a few white people (or have a hissy fit about not having “real” foreign teachers when they’re not white people) and think that the students will learn English through osmosis. I wish I was exaggerating. I am not.

I do not speak with any disrespect to my co-teachers. I don’t always walk the “don’t let them lose face” line very well, but there sometimes comes a time when you need to pull your coteacher aside and tell her that not waiting for me to finish saying something in English before already translating it for the students to Chinese isn’t going to work for their English acquisition.

So who do I take this to? We ramble about the problems in education here, especially with respect to English, but that’s not going to listened to anyone of importance. Taiwanese know that their way of teaching English doesn’t work. They wouldn’t rely on daily cram schools if they thought their day schools were doing their job.

But how do I (we) collectively bring this to someone who will actually listen?

1 Like
37

I’ve given up working for other people in Taiwan. The office culture sucks and everyone is either zombies or out to make a buck. You are right to point out that having a white face comes with the expectation that our students will magically learn English. That helps me attract students to my own school.

The money is better, the hours are better and my lessons are mine and mine alone. It’s hard work but, as you know, teaching isn’t a cake walk. Better to be rewarded for your dedication and allowed to practice your passion as you would like.

Better for the students too IMHO.

1 Like
38

I think that getting people to listen would basically mean getting the parents on board. An idea I have had for this would be if a significant number of us FETs wrote and signed an open letter to the ministry of education / minster for education and published it in a newspaper detailing how much money is being wasted and how ineffective the program is and how the children could / would learn more English faster if there was any meaningful leadership behind this program.

Taiwanese people really care about their children’s education and they wouldn’t be happy to know that it’s being squandered…

39

I don’t think I have a single student whose parents care about their education. It’s day care to them, even though their children are at least 12 years old.

If I wrote one and posted it here, would you be willing to find every FET you know and help me get this going? I’m thinking this is the only thing that would at least draw attention to all the problems outlined above (and on every other post)

40

the only way to maybe draw attention is through media. ppl who are in power usually are afraid of media disclosure.