It is true to  my  opinion  that    teaching    young adults  aged between 14-18   years   of   age,    is delightful. My experience  at LiXian Vocational  and Technical   Institute  was and still is  a memorable one.  In  the  beginning  I  was worried,  especially my first day. I was confronted in  the morning by my first class of over  fifty  students’ faces quietly  watching my  every  move.  What they may have understood   was   near  to nothing,  I realised that  very quickly, but they were well behaved  and that made me  confident  to approach  my  teaching  with enthusiasm. My second experience in the  afternoon  was  very  different;  a  class  of  very  naughty  younger students  who were  badly   behaved  and  who  were  to  become  my  main class, and a class of students I was to grow to love deeply.

I  remember  the  fear  that  I felt during the  afternoon  in  class 371,  so  strong  was  it that I  considered  walking  out  almost  running,  from where I  stood  at  the front of the class  I was near to the door and all  I had to do was move toward it  and out and leave the terror  behind.

Very few students  in  the class seemed  to  even notice  I  was there, other then for curiosity they didn’t seem to care.  I think for them,  I  was a novelty and a  reason  to misbehave. I can’t remember all  of  the details except I felt very uncomfortable and felt I had lost control ,  it had been so  easy in  the  morning a  class of  older students 343  second  graders who clearly had  respect ,  but this class 371 did not.

I was faced with many difficulties; for instance,  how do  I get to know fifty students names  and  personalities  and how can I  get  them  to hear me  understand  me and  to respect me? And what support did I  have to  accomplish this  impossible task?

As the first foreign teacher  to  teach  at  this school from England,  how could I teach these students the language  of English?   Many questions and  no  answers make  for  much worry and work.

My  first  instinct  was  to  find  out  what  support  I  had by reporting  my  difficulties  to  my foreign affairs officer Cindy. She  quickly  acted and spoke  to the class about  their  behaviour  and  day  two they  were better  behaved, which gave me time  to  find  solutions for  the  problems.  I  began  by eliciting  rules  of  the  school  and  in  the  second lesson introducing  question form  words  to see  if  they could construct a simple sentence. It was ok, but I needed to get to know them and to have them trust me.

It is  strange  to  think  that  students  who  have studied English for about six years could not speak the language, but that is indeed  the position  of  the  average  Chinese student at  this school, students who had failed  to get a  place  in  middle school 1 because perhaps their parents could not  afford to pay the fees, students who through no fault of their own had been unfortunate.  As  I  was  to find out later  many had come from  broken  homes  (divorced parents) and others had been treated unfairly by a system that doesn’t  recognise individuality and the possibility  of  other  teaching  methods from the traditional.

The  traditional method of  teaching in  a Chinese school  is  one  of  fear  and  discipline a  method much used  in   western   countries   like   England   up   unto the 1970s. Methods began to change when  I was  at  school during  this  era  to  a  much friendlier and humanistic approach,  but  it  had and still has some way to go to become truly humanistic,   which  in  turn helps children  to  want and enjoy learning in  the majority  of cases. And it is without doubt the majority that as teachers we want to influence.  It is also through  this  experience  of  teaching at Lixian Vocational that I was to become aware of how to change some of  the minority  to  become  good  and  interested students too.

One of  the most difficult tasks as a  foreign teacher is to get  attention  from  the  students  and  for  the  reasons pointed  out  earlier  it  is  an  awesome task.   First the students need to be able to respect the  foreign  teacher and to achieve this, the teacher  needs  to get  the  trust of  the students.  This was done at  Lixian by  getting  to  know   students  on  a  personal level,  by  first  knowing  them  intimately  by  name.   Each  student  needs to be an individual and  to  trust the  teacher and  not  fear  the teacher.  In  many  cases students whom  I  go to  know  very  well,   became good students enjoying  their lessons and  constantly  telling  me  that  they  loved  me,  this  I shrugged off as a fond liking, but as for love I  considered that is  a  thing  that  only  family  can  do,   I was wrong and the students were right  a  teacher  can  and  should  love   the students with the love comes caring and that is good for both student and the teacher,  for  it encourages trust  and  respect and  that  is what is  needed  for  both  parties  to  learn  about each other  and  the subject. It is called  the  humanistic  approach because  it  takes  into  consideration that the students and teacher are individuals and people rather then a cold distant oppressive method of old.

One of the mistakes I made before I learned otherwise, in the early period of teaching at  the school was to become  angry  at  the  student  who  misbehaved  by  not  paying  attention  or  talking to other students in class and  other bad  behaviours,  I soon  learned  that  students  do  not respond  well  to  anger, they  just get  frightened and this represses them.  A  better method I found was to threaten them with a much more loving thing … loving itself. Many, if  not  all  students and especially Chinese students are terrified of closeness from an elder, so I soon discovered that   a   threat   of   a   hug   made   them  behave for  it embarrassed them to their peers.  Within  a  term  I  had control of almost all students  in  this  once  mischievous class and I had fallen in love with them all and them with me.

It matters of course on the support system that a school offers and  I was lucky to have  a   great team helping me through almost all the time from the Master of the class to the Principal headmaster of the school and I would like to extend my thanks to all  the  teachers whom  were all so helpful to me and listened to my suggestions and applied them when they could.   One  suggestion  that  was  very helpful  to  me  as  a  foreign  teacher  was  that Chinese English teachers use as much English as possible in their lessons  and  less  Chinese  and  force students to  listen more to English, this made a huge difference to the speed and   usage   that   eventually  the  students were able to improve and helped the teachers to I don’t doubt.

Kind thanks to Cindy my FAO and to Vice-Principal’s Mr.Wu, Mr.Peng, Mr.Zhu, Mr.Zhang and Mr.Ren and especially to the Headmaster Mr. Lu (Louis)

Mr David Schendel , Diploma TEFL/ TESOL
schendel.co.uk/dave