Teaching in China

Before class you will need to prepare 10-15 sentences utilizing whatever grammar and/or vocabulary you have been studying in class. Some of the sentences will need to be correct and some incorrect. Don’t make any errors that are drastically obvious. My advice is to write 3 sentences with common grammatical mistakes (e.g. wrong tense usage), write 3 with very minor mistakes (e.g. slight misspelling of one word), and write 8-10 sentences that are correct. If you have access to a projector put the sentences on a ppt. If not you will have to write them on the board, which will add about 5-10 minutes to the class. Read the rest of this entry »

Teaching & Education News

Enjoy English – An introduction of a new weekly publication for ESL teachers in China.

Want to be a great ESL teacher? Become a great trainer first.

Universities in the west have been accepting record numbers of Chinese students every year. Are all of these students really qualified? Some Chinese students in the UK got the boot!
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Today I sat down with a long time director of international programs at a local Beijing school – lets call her Ms. Wang. The school has been employing foreign teachers for the past 7 years. In that time Ms. Wang has seen foreigners come and go and has worked closely with all of them. I asked her to give me an honest general impression she has of foreign teachers in Beijing. She did me one better and wrote down all her thoughts. Read the rest of this entry »

This question could very well arise given a number of different situations. Maybe you want to quit your job or maybe you got a yearlong visa in the middle of the semester. Either way, you need to transfer your visa to whatever school hires you next. You simply can’t just start working at a new school with a visa issued by your old school. For starters, the old school likely already cancelled your visa. If something bad happens to you or you break the law the school that issued your visa could potentially get in trouble, especially if you are not currently working there.

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Teaching

Not satisfied with your classes and how students are acting? Getting board with teaching them? This teacher certainly is.

Get some good advice on what to do when teaching English in China stops being fun.

Have you ever experienced carrying heavy English books from your home country back to China? This teacher has some advice on how to order English books while in China.

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If you haven’t gotten this very general question already you certainly will at some point in your ESL teaching career.

This question can be quite difficult to answer. The shortest answer to this question is simply, Read the rest of this entry »

Give your class structure – it helps!

In China foreign ESL teachers often find themselves in a situation where a school or training center sends them down the river with no paddle. More specifically, they find themselves with a schedule full of classes for which they have no book, no curriculum, no resources and no help. Read the rest of this entry »

Teaching
My advice is to never spark a political conversation in your class. This especially goes for issues regarding Tibet and Taiwan. It almost always results in some seriously negative feelings and can lead to unwanted arguments in the classroom.
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In every ESL classroom there needs to be some kind of grammar instruction and demonstration. In general, this is the boring stuff students don’t enjoy doing as much. As you probably already know it really helps to find fun ways of explaining, demonstrating, and practicing grammar rules. In my experience, playing games is the best way of doing this. Read the rest of this entry »

More Chinese students are studying abroad than ever before.

How does this affect us ESL teachers in China?

It gives us a golden opportunity for taking part in something great. Read the rest of this entry »