|
 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 |
