The Art of Assigning Homework
In my experience I have found it very difficult to get my students to really do any homework assignments I give out. I think there are a number of reason why this might happen. Firstly, your ESL class probably doesn’t count towards their overall grade. This really kills motivation to do homework. Even if the course does count, homework from other classes usually takes precedent and your assigned work doesn’t get done or is only partially done.
Something I’ve found moderate success doing is in letting students assign their own homework. I know it sounds a bit strange but sometimes it works. Here is what I do…
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Communicate Better With Your Chinese Students
Teaching ESL in China is not like teaching as a certified teacher in your home country. In general you’ll find things are more relaxed, disorganized, and unprofessional. You’re not really held accountable as much and the quality of your classes is not monitored as much. Of course I’m speaking generally. What is heavily measured in my experience is the teacher’s relationship with the students. Since teaching methods are different from China to many western countries Chinese schools don’t have a whole lot to gauge a teacher’s class besides what the students are saying. Most administrators also can’t speak English. For these reasons, what your students say about your class can really have a difference on how the school or training center measures your abilities. So how do you give the students a better feeling about your class and get them saying nice things about you as a teacher? Let me give you a few tips.
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Celebrating Holidays In China
I know how much the Chinese love holidays, but when I see the chaos that ensues over Spring Festival it amazes me every time.
The Chinese people make any excuse to celebrate and be happy. This is seen through their gracious celebrations of other countries’ holidays. If there’s a holiday, the Chinese are sure to set aside some time to forget work and be merry. When it comes to their own holidays they pull out all the stops.
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How Do I Encourage My Students?
This is always a concern of every teacher. It can be frustrating when your students seem to be loosing interest or motivation in your classes. Below are five suggestions for how to foster student motivation and help them find a drive to learn English.
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Make Your Own Vocabulary Test (classroom activity, 30-40 mins)
Put students in two teams and assign a leader to each team. Have them choose team names and write them on the board
In the activity each team will make a vocabulary test for the other team. All words must come from vocabulary they have been given in the past. Round up all the words and put them in one big list. If you have enough words, split the list in two and give each team one list. This will give the tests more variety.
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Teach Positive And Negative Vocabulary
Teaching vocabulary traditionally was not a focus when teaching a second language. It has now become one of the staple categories of any language curriculum. With so many methods of teaching vocabulary available it may sometimes be hard to choose the one that best fits your needs. Of course it depends on what stage your learners are when you start teaching them. They might already be advanced speakers in which case you’ll need different tactics that if they are beginners.
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Obama’s Inauguration Speech Censored in China
So what is the Chinese government afraid of? It’s quit easy to see what exactly they’re afraid of by what they censor in media coming into China from the outside.
President Obama’s recent inauguration speech is a great example of the Chinese government’s fears being seen.
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Teaching Advanced English to Beginners?
If you have been teaching ESL in China for a while then at some point I’m willing to guess that you’ve been asked, or even required to teach material to students that was way over their heads. If you’re in this kind of position I have a useful tip for you.
Maybe you’re preparing students to take the TOEFL test way before they’re ready or maybe your teaching at a training center that has made some outrageous guarantees about students’ English proficiency at the end of their program. In either case, my suggestion is to concentrate on teaching the students vocabulary. Besides being a key factor in getting a higher score on the TOEFL, I believe vocabulary is one of the most important aspects of learning to speak a language.
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Teachinginchina.net (a good pre-departure resource)
www.teachinginchina.net is a great resource for any teacher thinking of taking the long journey to China in hopes of teaching English. This site focuses on providing useful information to teachers who have never taught ESL in China and/or have never traveled to China before. They operate under the slogan “What you should know before you teach in China.”
The most useful pre-departure information is under the “Precautions” and “What To Ask” sections. These pages give a list of important considerations that foreigners going to China to teach for the first time might not otherwise not think of. All the detailed questions under the “What to Ask” section are quite important and very comprehensive. These are all important things to ask.
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ESL Employment Online Job Fair
ESL Employment
“The ESL/EFL Job and Employment Resource Site” is an excellent source of information for ESL teachers. The site not only provides all the latest news and updates for teachers to stay informed, but also a vast and comprehensive inventory of ESL job listings from around the world. Their China job listings are among their more comprehensive. The other great thing about the site is their email service. Anytime there is a job opening matching your preferences they will send you an email reminder. That way you can stay current and snipe good jobs as they appear.
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