What Am I Doing Wrong?

Work Teaching English in Taiwan
1

I’ve been teaching ESL in Asia for nearly 3 years. 6 Months ago I started working at this buxiban. It is partly foriegn owned partly Taiwanese, though the forigner owners have gone back wither they came from. Out of the schools I’ve taught in, It has impressed me most. The students’ outgoing attitudes and even their English level was initially quite surprising. However after 6 months there, I have realised that there is really a big problem, a realisation shared by the only other concerned teacher (of 6). In her words, she reports getting the students at the highest level of our buxiban who are to start preparing for a big test (hah: ignorance! Is it the ‘GEP’?), after YEARS spent studying at our school, they apparently know NOTHING about English. For example the difference between past and present, or are at least unable to demonstrate that knowledge in practice. I believe this is because they do not possess the knowledge because they have not learnt it. Not an unreasonable assumption, I guess.

My question at our staff meeting was: what can we do about it? No one (even the concerned Taiwanese teacher - who really works hard) seemed interested in trying to do anything! Considering how significant they feel the turning off of lights, the arrangement of the desks in the classrooms, the filling in of forms, one would have thought that the effectiveness of the product we were being payed to provide, would figure pretty high on that list. The boss had nothing to say, though she seemed sursingly concerned (or was that embarrassed?) - but that’s ok she isn’t a teacher. The others were silent. From conversations following with the decent teacher, who said, ‘everyone has their own teaching style,’ in other words ‘some people don’t care,’ it seems as though its up to individual teachers to do what they can.

___Too many times we come to the end of a unit (mb 5 weeks of study) and the kids still seem to have no idea what the hell we are doing or why. They might have got the content but the grammar has got by unnoticed. Taking responsibility for this, I ask what can I do to improve the situation?

2

I don’t really know anything about your curriculum but it sounds like the students there are comfortable speaking and are passively learning grammar but can’t make heads or tails of it come test time. This is very common in certain many buxibans in Taiwan where a fun learning environment with pretty classrooms, books and accessories is the priority. Students learn to communicate at a reasonable level in broken English and are not afraid to make mistakes. The problem is: they will make lots of mistakes and when tested on tests such as the GEPT will be shocked at how little they know. They’ve been exposed to lots and lots of grammar after a few years but still haven’t really learned it.

So, how do you deal with it? They will have to go back and reverse engineer their English and learn it “properly”. By that I mean be able to use grammar accurately. It would be a challenge to make this fun and kids levels would likely have to be reassessed. A lot of what they learned will likely have to be retaught. Some schools offer course specifically for the GEPT.

3

Do you allow your students, or any other staff member, to address you, or any other teacher, as “Teacher”?

Do you reward kids to give you answers that contain the right information, presented using poor English?

Do you accept one-word answers, or sentences that begin with “because”?

Do you notice that when you ask a question in the past tense, the students will repeat it back minus the grammar (“When I go there?”) and do nothing about it?

Do you allow students to stop speaking while they try and remember the piece of vocabulary they think they need?

If so, then you’re probably one of the people who has trained my high school students to use English as if it is Chinese. Thank you. This creates a thriving market of people who need me to teach them that, amazingly, this is a different language and to communicate effectively you need to speak English like foreigners do instead of like Chinese people do.

Or do you insist that your students use correct western-style forms of address?
Do you continue asking the question until the student replies in a complete sentence containing a subject, a verb, and something else?
Do you repeatedly tell them that sentences should be short, precise, and have proper punctuation, not just a series of disconnected statements linked with commas?
Do you ask “where’s the verb in that sentence?” if they say “Teacher, don’t angry”?
Do you explain the correct usage of because and require your students to make the necessary changes to their thinking?
Do you actively discourage people from getting the tense wrong, at least for basic stuff?
Do you teach them that this stuff is important?
And when they don’t know a word, do you say “finish the sentence and I’ll tell you the word”?

Just a few pointers, based on what I come across in high schools. I have absolutely no idea what you actually do in your school, what anyone else does, or even what you should be doing. I know nothing about real language teaching. I only know that as teens and young adults, it seems that they have no idea what English actually is. I usually start by just telling them.

You might try printing out the following pages and posting them on the wall at your school as a reminder of the ultimate goal:
cambridgeesol.org/teach/ielt … ssment.htm
cambridgeesol.org/teach/ielt … ssment.htm

Then they’ll argue that the students are too young (ie, we should let them think it’s OK to make mistakes), so then you give them these:
cambridgeesol.org/teach/pet/ … ssment.htm
cambridgeesol.org/teach/pet/ … ssment.htm

The key factor, stressed at all levels in international tests, is that what you say should hang together. They use words like structure and coherence a lot. This stuff is not taught in Taiwan. It’s OK to just chuck the ideas out there in any old order as long as you use big words. The result is ungrammatical garbage.

If you actually take the time to explain to people that the English language (most western languages?) work differently then you have a fighting chance of teaching them how to use the language. Until then, you’re just a clown and the kids are just writing the answers in the book to make you happy. They don’t care what it means because you never told them it was important.

4

They bought into the whole ‘early is better’ marketing scam and are now reaping what they sowed?

Training and supervision to ensure a consistent and appropriate approach to error correction and a complete curriculum overhaul. You need a qualified DOS to oversee things, which I’m guessing isn’t going to happen. Teachers meetings are a waste of time. Chain of command! Someone needs to deal with stuff.

They are unprepared to do anything because initially, the students will ‘fail’ which will demonstrate that the product is not working, whereas now, the product is working, to all intents and purposes.

There’s not a huge amount you can do other than gradually raise the bar in terms of expectations of the students’ output. If I were in your situation, I would gradually introduce more overt ‘grammar stuff’ and test tasks so they are better equipped to deal with the tests they are expected to do. A softly softly approach to not freak the parents out.

Good luck.

5

Woah. I thought we weren’t going to tell anyone about that?

6

Woah. I thought we weren’t going to tell anyone about that?[/quote]

EEEEEEVVVVeryone knows about that…

7

Lorretta, Buttercup, thankyou.

I aggree, the softly-softly, insistantly approach has to work. Not forgetting consistantly. Nor explicitly. Also, repeadedly.

I have gradualy started to do more of this stuff and luckily it seems like the students are approaching it almost as if it is another aspect of the game ‘get it right.’ Evidently they think their own English is ability is quite good. And pride themselves in the attainment thereof.

For the most part it is as Lorretta was insightful/experienced enough to describe, above. Not being afaind to mistkes is defintely a good thing, to a degree, but not even trying to make sense of this language as another langauage is just foolish. The students are beging to call each other out when they hear mistakes. So many remain, however. It will probably be difficult to get them all (esp the ones reluctant even to play games) to take on the responsibility of learning how to speak and think English not how to just translate Chinese or unthinkingly repeat phrases they’ve learnt.

8

At my school I see virtually no concern for the big tests (e.g., Basic Competency/High School Entrance, IELTS, TOEIC). The oldest kids here are junior-high students, and they’re in the minority.

The school used to make a fairly big deal out of the Elementary Level GEPT, but that changed when we got the rule barring children under twelve.

My role here is minor.

Chinese and English are from two different language families, and the negative transference (interference) from Chinese is strong. This includes phonological transference. Standard Mandarin has only three final consonants that I know of, but among some speakers here, Mandarin seems to have as few as one final consonant, n. There is a strong tendency here to reject final consonants.

Then there are affective considerations with regard to children, and prudential considerations with regard to parents, who are also customers.

I guess I sound quite negative, but my post is not meant to discourage the OP or to discourage Loretta from offering advice. Also, I understand that regardless of the issues at the younger end, the challenges at the older end (IELTS, Basic Competency, TOEIC) are probably not going to go away or change. So this thread has given me some things to think about.

Thanks, Loretta, and thanks for bringing up the topic, trubadour. And trubadour, I hope you won’t be discouraged by anything I’ve written. I’m an old fart and tend to be too negative.

9

Me too.

Closing down all buxibans for under 10s would help.

10

Charlie Jack: Your post is not negative. As far as I am concerned, you are spot on about our affective and prudential concerns. Also about the final consanant thing. I do study Chinese but I’ve not noticed an absense of the final consanant; though I am obvously aware of the fact that it gets dropped all the time, when the students speak English. These kind of transference errors are interesting.

Sharing these experiences is really helpful for me, for one, as I am unable to comprehend by myself all of the factors involved, in and outside of the classroom, what with all the many infulences and issues and challenges.

So, thanks.

The more of this stuff I know about the better able I am to help my students. That, in the end, is my overwhelming motive when I’m in the classroom.

11

You’re welcome, and thanks again for bringing up the topic.

Same here. So I’m glad that people discuss these kinds of things on the board.

12

[quote=“trubadour”]Lorretta, Buttercup, thankyou.

I aggree, the softly-softly, insistantly approach has to work. Not forgetting consistantly. Nor explicitly. Also, repeadedly.

I have gradualy started to do more of this stuff and luckily it seems like the students are approaching it almost as if it is another aspect of the game ‘get it right.’ Evidently they think their own English is ability is quite good. And pride themselves in the attainment thereof.

For the most part it is as Lorretta was insightful/experienced enough to describe, above. Not being afaind to mistkes is defintely a good thing, to a degree, but not even trying to make sense of this language as another langauage is just foolish. The students are beging to call each other out when they hear mistakes. So many remain, however. It will probably be difficult to get them all (esp the ones reluctant even to play games) to take on the responsibility of learning how to speak and think English not how to just translate Chinese or unthinkingly repeat phrases they’ve learnt.[/quote]

I agree too. There is a balance to be reached between “not being afraid to make mistakes” and “paying attention to accuracy.” With my young learners (starting about 3rd or 4th grade usually) I like to start them off on the latter, developing good habits of thought along the way, and then gradually work up to the former.