Teaching Comparisons

I am a little late in writing my blog post this week, I have been extremely busy as I have had lots of errands to be completed as well as feeling a little tired and under the weather due to the change in seasonal weather from hot to cold and wet.

This week I thought I would write about the comparisons I have found in teaching here in China. In Wuhan, where I currently teach grade eight students aged 14/15 from Monday to Friday one of the biggest challenges is the behavior or poor self discipline of some of the students.

In this school the majority of the students come from rich or very wealthy families, all their lives they have had everything done for them and studying is too much of an inconvenience for them. They think they can breeze their way through school and get a good job because of their family connections. That may be so; it is frustrating for me seeing so many of them wasting their time and that of others by just being a disruptive influence in the classroom.

I do have some good students but they are often held back because of the attitude and influence of their nonconforming classmates. Whenever a Chinese teacher is in the classroom they behave impeccably, because if they behave in front of them they will be punished with additional work or if serious enough sent home for a few days and face the wrath of their parents. The most I can do as a foreign teacher is to take them to the office where they will be told to say they are sorry, return to the classroom and continue as they were. It is a waste of my time taking them to the office.

In comparison, my weekend classes are a breeze, students are aged from 8 to 12 across four different classes and although their knowledge of English is generally a lot lower they more than make up for it in enthusiasm. Most of them want to learn English, it is the first time they have had a foreign teacher and the experience of learning from a native speaker is mostly a positive one.

The classes are loud as they learn mostly through games and giving each class a competitive edge as they try to ensure their group is the best each week. In addition to learning with me at the weekend we also have a chat group on wechat so they can ask me questions or just generally practice their English on there.

Back in Wuhan, the emphasis is supposed to be on the students practicing their spoken or oral English, while some are good, the majority do not want to stand up and talk in front of their classmates. While one or two students are speaking the rest of the class will not sit quietly and listen, so having an oral class is not possible. So we revert to having a writing class, I have tried playing games, but some are just too lazy to join in when they could be having fun.

This is my fourth year of teaching middle school students and the same pattern emerges every year, with students not interested to learn English. They have lots of pressure to learn and do well in each subject they are taught, learning English is not seen as a priority for most of them, then when they get to university and realize that they could go and study overseas, their level or understanding of English is what prevents many from doing so. I try to tell this to my students, but most refuse to listen to this wiser and older experienced traveler and teacher and continue along the same path as others before them.

As we approach the end of another week I look forward to getting on a train on Friday evening and my respite from Wuhan and some classes of enthusiastic mayhem with my younger learners.

If you have enjoyed ready this blog post, then, please, leave a comment, I would love to hear from you. If you would like to sign up to receive automatic updates you can do this below, thanks for reading this article.