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.
1. Make yourself human – In Chinese junior or senior middle school teachers must get through a certain curriculum and prepare students to take exams. For that reason there is very little time for anything else but cramming info in their heads. Chances are, your class has a bit more freedom than their normal classes. Use this opportunity to talk about real things in your life or their life. Be careful not to loose control of the class or you will lose students’ respect. Take a few minutes each class to talk about your home, family, your native life, or something else you think they might be interested in. It will go a long way in how much the students like you.
2. Make the class organized – I know this sounds very basic, but I have seen many ESL teachers in China winging class, more or less because then can, they don’t care about their future at the school, and don’t take pride in their work. Giving students an outline every day for what you will cover in class goes a long way in giving them the impression that you are an excellent teacher. Whether it’s true or not the outline helps.
In most cases, if the students say you are good then you are. If they say you are bad then you are. It seems a bit silly, but at the moment that’s how the cookie crumbles when it comes to teaching ESL in China.