Become a Great English Teacher! In China... or Anywhere.

By Ernest C Smitten

Share your knowledge of spoken English without worry! This clear, concise guide tells you everything you need to know to walk into a classroom with confidence - in China, or any country in the world. Solid ideas and sample materials proven to work over and over again, with students of all levels. Let my experience become your wisdom.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jan 9, 2015
• ISBN: 9781312816152

Book preview

Become a Great English Teacher! In China... or Anywhere.

Become a Great English Teacher!

in China... or anywhere.

Copyright

ISBN 978-1-312-81615-2

© Ernest C. Smitten 2014

all photos and illustrations © Ernest C. Smitten

Special thanks to all my students.

first edition, 2014

Introduction

Is This a Game to You?

There’s an awful stereotype of foreign teachers that they just play games or make arts and crafts in class, or even saunter in hungover after the bell and say, So what you do guys wanna rap about, maaaan?

Try to imagine yourself running down a hallway, reading the word moi off a piece of paper, and then running back to tell someone moi! Would you feel like you’re learning French? Would you be able to live and work in France after doing that, or even complete a basic task? Getting the students to be active is a worthy goal, and some games can even be productive in moderation. But choose activities or games that accomplish something. Don’t play hangman just to kill some time. That’s lazy and unprofessional, and the students know it, even if they don’t say anything to you. They will say it to someone.

To teach in a Chinese high school, college, or university, you need a four-year college degree and, usually, a TEFL certificate too (Teaching English as a Foreign Language). For private (aka cram) schools, you may be able to find a job with just one or the other. However, private language schools have a well-earned reputation for being unreliable. TEFL certificate programs vary in quality, but most of them mainly try to simply help you feel comfortable managing a classroom and focus on leading students in playing assorted games. This book aims to show you a far more effective and natural approach to English instruction.

Keep in mind, if you’re teaching students at a college or university, they’ve endured 18-hour study days for 12 years to get there, and their families have likely also worked very hard to pay for this opportunity. You owe it to these people to give them the most effective instruction you can. And for high schoolers, even more so! In China especially, the college entrance exam is the most important test of their lives.

If you like little kids and you choose to teach kindergarten, then that’s great - you can play games and the kids will pick up something just from being around a native speaker. But if you’re looking at this book, it means you’re interested in more than just getting paid to hang around in a foreign country for a little while, you want to see some success mixed in with your adventure! I aim to lay out step-by-step, with all the reasons and thinking behind the approach, everything I have done in my teaching that has won me a seriously overwhelming amount of respect and praise from my colleagues, superiors, and most importantly - from my students.

Role of the Teacher

For those planning to teach in Asian countries: Confucian cultures tend to endow their teachers with superpowers. Students are expected to listen and obey without questioning. I tell my students directly that this it's up to them to use the language - to express themselves, to ask questions, to communicate with others, and transform their daily lives into those of English speakers. I'm only here to help them and guide them. If you explain this explicitly, you might just be amazed at how they pick up the baton and run with it.

The promise of success as a teacher is entirely predicated upon presenting yourself as a serious professional. You can have a light-hearted, easy-going manner at times of course, but if you come to class wearing sweatpants or without a well-conceived plan, if you show that you are not serious about teaching, the students will see no reason to be serious about learning. There is a fundamental understanding between all teachers and students: You give me your time and attention, and I will give you valuable information, along with an idea of how to use it. There may be one or two students in every class who break their side of the bargain, and you’re justified in reminding them of their obligations, but if you don’t hold up your side of the agreement, you’ve got no ground to stand on, and there’s nothing stopping you from losing your whole class to daydreaming, tetris, napping, and gossip. Similarly, so long as the class is indeed giving their attention to English during the instruction time, I consider it one of my responsibilities to ensure that they are not short-changed on their 10-minute break nor held beyond the scheduled end of class. They respect my time, so I respect theirs. That may sound obvious, but you’d be surprised how running a classroom can become a bit of a power trip for some people. I’ve seen student surveys (from other teachers’ classes) showing time management to be a real problem.

Native speakers are usually brought in to teach Oral English, or College English, with an emphasis on speaking fluency. Chinese students study English grammar and memorize from vocabulary lists throughout primary school and high school, but they’re never asked to use what they know. They’re used to rote memorization and regurgitation. They study it almost like a set of dinosaur bones, rather than a living language. As a result, even most low level students probably have a decent starting vocabulary, but they’re afraid of saying something in the wrong way and get a lot of interference from