So students seem to ask a bunch of questions, some students don’t seem capable of telling you their name.
How do you deal with students who ask you a bunch of questions all the time? Should they just sort it out for themselves, are you enabling weak learning strategies?
What do you do?
If it ever happened I’d answer them.
BUT it never does.
You can learn from them asking you questions. Questions mean they are listening and engaged.
I force my students to ask questions. Break one of my rules for classroom etiquette, and they have to roll a dice to see how many questions they must ask.
They hate it, but at the end of the year, it comes naturally to them.
[quote=“superking”]So students seem to ask a bunch of questions, some students don’t seem capable of telling you their name.
How do you deal with students who ask you a bunch of questions all the time? Should they just sort it out for themselves, are you enabling weak learning strategies?
What do you do?[/quote]
When is asking questions a weak learning strategy? Not sure I get your question.
Yes, I am also confused. Asking questions of a personal nature maybe. I wish my students would ask more questions, both to their partner or me. Taiwanese students tend to have problems forming questions grammatically … “teacher, how to say?” … "teacher, why you come to Taiwan? or they tend to give short responses to questions in class … S1: How was your weekend? S2: Sleep.
Don’t ask don’t tell
If someone is asking too many questions, encourage the other students to call him stupid. That will solve the problem.
I’ve discovered (and am struggling to figure out how to deal with) the fact that students here HATE it when other students speak.
I have a student who I love and think is one of my best students. Apparently I’m losing students left and right because this student has a good attitude and participates in class a lot.
They view a student that asks questions as being a student that wastes the teacher’s time. I think this is a completely ridiculous idea, but it’s what they really think.
I’ve also had the situation where I have a student that just rapid-fire asks me as many questions as possible and will not leave me alone so I can get back to the topic. This kind of student simply doesn’t give a fuck about you or your class. They’re going to get as much as they possibly can out of you as long as you’ll give it to them. Stop answering them. I still don’t really know a good way to go about this without looking like an asshole, because if I shut them down, it’s not like anyone else will talk. Suggesting that they ask me questions after class doesn’t work because as I’ve already established, they don’t give a fuck about what I’m talking about. They are the top priority. I’d have to pretty forcefully tell them to cut it out, and then with the fickle students I have, I bet half of them would think I was too mean and stop attending my class.
I teach in an adult school, and had a young boy attend my classes for a while. He either slept, kicked his feet and made noises, or otherwise just paid absolutely no attention. I suggested after several weeks of this that if he didn’t want to be part of my class, he could go outside and play with the computers, since I honestly think he’d get more out of wasting time online than not paying attention to me. All the adult students were REALLY pissed off at me for being too serious and rude, his parents push him to go to the class, it’s not his fault, etc… etc…
They ask me to control the class, which I agree with, but they freak out whenever I tell someone what to do, or outright laugh and say they’re older than me and they’re the customer, and they don’t need to listen. Complete lack of respect, pretty much. If it were my own school, or I knew my boss would support me I’d send them out the door, but that would just get me fired here.
So yeah, don’t let that person ask so many questions, but if anyone has some advice on how to go about doing that without stirring up a lot of problems, I’d be all ears.
TaiwanVisitor: Ultimately, any advice anyone gave you here (other than finding another job) would be irrelevant because the general atmosphere at your work is ridiculous.
Well, the OP’s question is just about classroom management. You have some talkative students and many quiet students afraid to even tell you their name. I get this a lot, and had this a lot at other schools that were organized better than my current school is.
The main problem is that students aren’t placed into the proper levels very well (or at all, they just go to the hardest class expecting to listen a few extra times and magically move to that level). The other problem is that they never give feedback about a class.
I generally just pay more attention to the people that are willing to talk to me, but it seems that other students resent those talkative students, so some management tips would help.
I feel bad telling a talkative student to be quiet that’s willing to speak up in class just so I can ask someone else a question when I know they won’t even answer (or maybe even understand my question), but this seems to be a mistake.
Oh yes, classroom dynamics, and the way the teacher manages the students … It can make or break a class. That’s what makes teaching Taiwanese adults so interesting or frustrating. The first couple of lessons are so important. It can be a real mixed bag at times.
I get it now. Misunderstood at first. I thought he just didn’t want students asking questions. 
One thing that might also help is this:
odu.edu/educ/roverbau/Bloom/ … xonomy.htm
The ones who talk all the time might be ready for different types of questions to challenge them. The ones who are quiet might really just need to rely on remembering details to stuff and answering questions about that.
I noticed sometimes (that’s a key word) students might not speak out not because they don’t know the language, but because the type of question isn’t a skill they’re actually able to answer yet. It’s sad to say, but a lot of what they do at school IS built on lower level thinking…memorizing something and answering questions about what they just read.
Well, I’m sort of confused then. It lists “define” as being a very base level skill, which I would agree with.
I had a public school teacher in my classes who told me that my “vocabulary questions” were much too difficult for most people, and that’s why they never talk to me.
Questions like “Do you know another way to say X?” “What does X mean?”. Most people refuse to answer these. If they don’t answer I give them clues and hints and eventually boil it down to a yes or no question, which they still won’t answer, then I get really frustrated with everyone.
I have a pretty large number of vocabulary words to teach in each class, so I’m not sure how to teach vocabulary in an interesting way without talking to them, I have a big list to go down, and if I miss ONE, they’ll give me hell. If I want to explain #3, then #5 because they’re related, it just causes trouble because OH MY GOD WE MISSED #4!!!
So I’m a bit unsure how to teach a large number of vocabulary words without asking questions about them. I’m sure they’ve seen plenty of these words before.
Talkative students think it’s beneath them sometimes (or alternatively, they answer EVERY question before anyone else has a chance to speak up, and if I say it’s time for someone else to answer, nobody else will, so while that’s totally unbalanced, it’s usually the only way to get any sort of response), shy students are shy students. End result? Nobody answers me.
I think I could assign them questions and give them a couple minutes to think about it, but then we wouldn’t get through the day’s material.
Another question I struggle with is “How are you?”, and “What did you/will you do this weekend?”. I get the impression that they know, but they don’t feel like answering.
So what’s an appropriate question then? If it’s too easy it’s beneath them, if it’s difficult at all, they just won’t answer. I understand that chart, but not the way it applies to students in Taiwan I guess.
crap, quote =/= edit.
One thing I’ve done recently with the “What did you do?” questions: they have to lie to me.
I got soooo sick of hearing that they played computer games, slept, or anything stupid like that. Now, if I believe their answer, it’s not what I want. At least until they are used to talking with me and answering my questions.
Know it’s a headache, but waiting for other students to reply is all I can do sometimes. Even if it’s uncomfortable.
[quote=“TaiwanVisitor12321”]Well, I’m sort of confused then. It lists “define” as being a very base level skill, which I would agree with.
I had a public school teacher in my classes who told me that my “vocabulary questions” were much too difficult for most people, and that’s why they never talk to me.
Questions like “Do you know another way to say X?” “What does X mean?”. Most people refuse to answer these. If they don’t answer I give them clues and hints and eventually boil it down to a yes or no question, which they still won’t answer, then I get really frustrated with everyone.
I have a pretty large number of vocabulary words to teach in each class, so I’m not sure how to teach vocabulary in an interesting way without talking to them, I have a big list to go down, and if I miss ONE, they’ll give me hell. If I want to explain #3, then #5 because they’re related, it just causes trouble because OH MY GOD WE MISSED #4!!!
So I’m a bit unsure how to teach a large number of vocabulary words without asking questions about them. I’m sure they’ve seen plenty of these words before.
Talkative students think it’s beneath them sometimes (or alternatively, they answer EVERY question before anyone else has a chance to speak up, and if I say it’s time for someone else to answer, nobody else will, so while that’s totally unbalanced, it’s usually the only way to get any sort of response), shy students are shy students. End result? Nobody answers me.
I think I could assign them questions and give them a couple minutes to think about it, but then we wouldn’t get through the day’s material.
Another question I struggle with is “How are you?”, and “What did you/will you do this weekend?”. I get the impression that they know, but they don’t feel like answering.
So what’s an appropriate question then? If it’s too easy it’s beneath them, if it’s difficult at all, they just won’t answer. I understand that chart, but not the way it applies to students in Taiwan I guess.[/quote]
Vocab blocks can easily be dealt with by chunking them up. If you have say 20 words, and 10 students, you pair them up and give them 2 words each. They then have to look in the ENGLISH dictionary to find out the meaning of the word, and a sentence to use it in, plus any synonyms. Then each pair has to present to the rest of the class, in English, what these words mean. They can provide a Taiwanese translation if they like, and at a push might be allowed to make some explanation in Taiwanese. Then when you have all the words explained (See how your role in this was FUCK ALL! 
) you do a nice little pron exercise, highlighting the syllables and stresses etc. Then you can ask simple questions like: Does ‘JUMP,’ mean to do this? (Show the wrong action?) Does it mean to do this? (Show the right action, or get them to show you the action depending on their ages, adults won’t like that). Then you put a series of sentences around the room on bits of coloured card, each sentence has a target word missing. They move round the room in pairs, reading the sentences together and deciding which word from your list of 20 is missing. They can either write the full sentence, or you give them a bit of paper and they write down a= grenade, b= melee c= murder death kill (vocab dependent of course). Then when they have all 20 solved sit them down and each student can read out a sentence: Winny, please read out sentence A. Alfredo, please read out sentence B etc and NEVER REPEAT BACK THEIR SENTENCES. I guarantee ALL of you do this, go to work tomorrow and have a think about it. Kid says, “Me rika burnarna,” and you cover with, “Oh you like bananas? I LIKE BANANAS too!” You need to let them say stuff nobody can understand, and encourage them to ask each other to repeat back what they said. Students then learn the value of an accent etc.
I could go on, but a basic CELTA would teach you all of this stuff and much much much much much much much much much much much much more. Bottom line, any class, from 0 to adults, where they don’t move out of their seats (and they don’t do some of the teaching back to the group them self as adults) is gonna kill you and them.