English Last: True Accounts of Teaching in China: Teaching ESL, #2

By Greg Strandberg

When it comes to teaching in China, money’s first and English is last. Education takes a backseat to entertainment, and learning isn’t nearly as important as having fun. If you’re planning on teaching in China you need to know this. This book gives it to you straight.

I spent 5 years teaching English in China. If you want to know how to teach ESL classes, I’ll tell you what works and what doesn’t so you don’t waste a lot of time. If you want to know how to have popular classes that students love, I’ll give you the secret formula. And if you want to know which teaching jobs will make you the most money in China, I’ll fill you in on the details. It’s all in this spellbinding book!

If you’re already teaching in China this book is great for you. I’ll tell you how you can find a better job or make your current job easier. You’ll get all the dazzling tips and tricks to be the best at teaching ESL in China.

You’ll learn everything you need to know when it comes to teaching English in China when you buy this book. Public schools, English training centers, kindergartens, and private tutoring will all be discussed in detail. English First (EF) and the Center for Teaching and Learning in China (CTLC) are both profiled.

So what are you waiting for? No other book out there will give you the low-down on what it’s like to teach in China. English Last is your ticket to teaching success in China – buy your copy now!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Greg Strandberg
• Release date: Aug 8, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301277681

Greg Strandberg

Greg Strandberg was born and raised in Helena, Montana. He graduated from the University of Montana in 2008 with a BA in History.When the American economy began to collapse Greg quickly moved to China, where he became a slave for the English language industry. After five years of that nonsense he returned to Montana in June, 2013.When not writing his blogs, novels, or web content for others, Greg enjoys reading, hiking, biking, and spending time with his wife and young son.

Book preview

Introduction

Like the name implies, all of the following chapters are true accounts of living and teaching in China. I first moved to China in 2008 and worked in the public schools. I didn’t know what to expect when I got there, and I quickly found myself wholly unprepared.

It took me a good three months of struggling to finally find a system that worked. Once I had that I was alright, and I went on to teach another full year in the public schools. After that I switched over to a training center for three years before finally moving back to America in 2013.

The reason this book is called English Last is because that’s the priority I felt English education was given when I left China. Over my five years of teaching in China I found that money was often the most important thing when it came to teaching English, and the actual improvements among the students pretty much last.

I’ll discuss those and other aspects of English language learning in China as well as how you can teach ESL English. I’ll have many chapters talking about my experiences with the public schools, the programs that put you into them, and the way that multinational training centers operate.

We’ll also touch upon tutoring and kindergartens. Both are great options if you want to teach in China, and I’ll tell you about them in detail. And of course I’ll talk about life in China and what you can expect from the Middle Kingdom.

Mainly this book serves as a guide to what it’s like teaching in China. I hope that by reading it you’ll be better prepared for what living and teaching in China’s really like. I’m sure your time in the country will be much more pleasant as a result.

Part I – Welcome to Teaching in China!

So you want to get a taste of another culture? You want to experience what it’s like to stand in front of a classroom filled with eager students? You want to travel and wine and dine and experience life to its fullest?

Great! You can do all of those things in China, and no doubt all the recruitment sites and teach abroad sites you’ve visited online tell you exactly that. They’ll get you over there just fine, but they won’t always paint the fullest picture.

Through the following chapters I’ll explain what you’ll experience when you begin teaching in China. I’ll talk about the differences between the English you were taught in University and the ESL English you’ll be employing in the classroom.

I also want to tell you a bit how students in China are. They don’t always come up with original ideas, and often have no qualms about copying from others. And it’s not always about education when you’re teaching ESL, either. In fact, it’s much more like entertainment, and the sooner you realize that, the better off you’ll be.

1: Be a Great ESL Teacher

The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.

That quote’s by William Arthur Ward, a great writer, and one of the most quoted, of inspirational sayings. The reason I use it is that it makes sense from what I often see when teaching English in China.

Teaching ESL is difficult, let’s face it. Most of the time you’ve got young children running around screaming their heads off, children that just want to sit in a class for an hour without saying one single word, and students that know everything and won’t let anyone else get a word in. Sometimes you’ll have all three types in one class. My, oh my, being an ESL teacher can be difficult!

But there are a few things you can do to make your goings that much easier.

Know It

You’ve got your TEFL certificate, so don’t rely on your teacher’s book every time a student asks a question. In fact, get rid of your teacher’s book and get a student’s book.

The whole reason that you’re teaching English Second Language classes in China is because you’re a foreigner, or at least a really decent English speaking Chinese person, and your employer just assumes you know the basics. And you do. And you know it.

Do you really need to look in the book when you could just say the sentence out loud a few times, talk about it with your class, and come to a logical conclusion? I don’t think so.

Prepare It

When I work, the first thing I do at the beginning of the week to get ready for the busy work weekend ahead, is print out everything I need. I then cut up all the paper that needs to be in smaller pieces, and believe me, there’s a lot. That’s about 75% of the work.

I don’t need to plan my lessons because I’ve already done it months or years ago and saved them in a file or on the computer to print out. Most of the time I don’t even look at a lesson plans anyway; I know what I’m doing. If you’ve got plenty of extra materials planned and prepared, the class will go quickly and smoothly.

Do It

Don’t dilly-dally around when you’re teaching. Don’t’ waste time. Go from one activity to some bookwork to a game and then straight into another activity. If you keep moving and keep doing things, the ESL students won’t get bored, and that means they won’t misbehave. You want a class that’s fun, efficient, and enjoyable for all present, most importantly yourself.

Those are just three things that you can think about when you’re considering if it was a wise choice moving to the Middle Kingdom. I can’t say it’ll get better, but can it possibly get any worse? That’s probably not a good question, so I’ll leave you with another good quote from our friend William:

Four steps to achievement: Plan purposefully. Prepare prayerfully. Proceed positively. Pursue persistently.

2: Education or Entertainment...Edutainment!

When you teach children English in China it's not 100% about education. Parents send their kids to after-hours English classes to learn English, but that's not all. They send their kids there to be entertained as well.

When I teach classes of students I teach them for two hours. I cut that time up into smaller segments, dishing out education or entertainment as needed. But the best thing to do is to combine the two.

I have a system in class, every class, where we do a warm-up activity (warmer/icebreaker), an activity, and a game. This is in addition to the bookwork or any other handouts that my employer will usually want me to use.

My warm-up is always in the form of a game, or at least something that is mildly entertaining and that will elicit a few laughs here and there from the students.

The activity is usually something that’s done with a partner or in small groups. Perhaps it’ll be a running dictation, a dialogue, a story-writing exercise, or simply an old handout that worked well before and that I expect will do so again. The activity will almost always have something to do with the grammar/vocabulary that the book’s dealing with, but in a more entertaining way.

I always save the best for last in my classes, and that’s the game. I used to do the same game for each class I taught in a week. I thought it was easier, and perhaps in many ways it was, but boy did I get sick of the same thing after 7 to 15 times. Now each class, depending on what unit or chapter the students are on in their books, I'll have a game tailor-made for that particular class.

That's how I do my classes, and get an amalgam of education and entertainment...or edutainment. That makes the students happy, I can see it clearly on their faces most of the time, but it also makes the parents happy. They want their children to work hard, but they also want them to be children, which means having fun. Students in China have so much homework as it is, and many take evening and weekend classes in every subject they study at school. That's their day, everyday. When they come to my class I want them to learn, but I want them to have a rest from their rigorous schedules for two hours as well. 

3: To Copy or Create?

Students in China copy, it's as simple as that. They copy each others work inside and outside of class, they copy from the book when doing homework, and they copy any examples you give them, often right down to the letter.

Is this wrong? I don't think so. Is it bad? Well, for whom? The students copying? They get a good grade don't they? And after all, that's what China’s been telling its students for hundreds of years, maybe even thousands.

Anyone who has studied Chinese history knows that the civil service examinations held once a year were a make-or-break opportunity. If you passed you got bumped up in the social-economic structure. If you failed you got bumped down into the toiling masses, but with the assurance that you could always try again next year.

Things haven't changed much since then. Each June thousands of parents clamor at high school gates as their young son or daughter sits inside taking the exam of their life: the NCEE, or National College Entrance Examination.

The exam is tough, and a top score almost guarantees you a spot in one of China's top universities. Students study long and hard for this exam, often starting their preparations years in advance. Is it any wonder then that they’ll memorize and copy anything they think the exam graders will want to hear? To do anything other would be foolish, after all.

I often tell my students that in China they make all the iPhones, but in America we had the idea. China is really good at copying the iPhone and making cheap knockoffs, but I don't really see anyone trying to make something better. That would take creativity, not just the ability to copy.

It's for this reason that I try to get my students thinking as creatively as possible. Even writing out mundane sentences in the book, such as we often end up doing in class, can be creative.

One day we had the example of instead and we can.

It's a very easy formula, I told my students, a little math with your English today. All you've got to do is make sure you put ‘instead’ in front of whatever you were going to do, and ‘we can’ in front of whatever you want. Take a look at number three. 'The flower shop is closed so you can't buy your mom flowers for her birthday.' It's easy. Instead of buying flowers we can buy her candy, or cookies, or a dress, or new car, or a house!

The students all smiled, because they hadn't thought of it that way. Their imaginations just don't stretch that far. But when you tell them to try, to go to that place where anything can happen, most of them are happy to do so.

After the exercise we had some good sentences, sentences that were more creative than usual. Still, I was alarmed, although not too surprised, to see several students write ‘Instead of buying my mom flowers we can buy her a house.’

4: I’m a New Teacher, Help!

There's nothing worse than being a new teacher. You have no idea what you’re doing, all of the training you received is useless, and you're standing in front of a class of students, which, if you’re lucky, is screaming out of control. If you're unlucky they're looking at you quietly and expectantly.

Both situations are daunting in their own way, but with experience and the right tools you'll be able to handle either without a problem, and perhaps even get to the point where one day you’ll welcome those challenges.

That Said, What Exactly Do You

Reviews for English Last

[Jared Bernstein · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

As someone who has taught EFL since 1998, I am quite secure in writing this "book" is utter rubbish. It offers little useful advice, and. The information it contains will make teaching more, not less, difficult and ineffectual.

But what can one expect when the subtitle of this drivel is, "Teaching ESL, #2". Teaching English in a country where the L1 is not English is EFL, not ESL.

The author has not learned even the basics of the industry...