I had an interesting discussion with some teachers in Japan about why Japanese students are so quiet in class.
But it seems odd to discuss the quietness of Japanese students with you, the reader of this blog, yes, YOU.
Why are Japanese so shy? Why do they respond so little? What is it in their culture that causes this situation? What can teachers do to make Asian students more responsive? After all, as teachers we think our students should be responsive. They should be interactive. Right? What teacher in his right mind would actually want students who are not interactive? Who would want quiet non-responsive students?
Although you and I are not students it does seem really odd that we even try to discuss this question on this blog. Why does it seem odd?...because you are probably not going to comment on this blog. You will not mention your thoughts or opinion, agreement or disagreement. YOU are going to be quiet. YOU are not going to interact. I am not upset with YOU. It’s just that I don’t understand how we can ask our students to be something that we are not going to make the effort to be ourselves, interactive.
Is it because the YOU are too timid to venture an opinion? Some people reading this page are experienced teachers, MA's or even PhD’s. It is likely we may draw some managers of various schools as well as IELTS, UCLES, TOEFL, ETS, Oxford and Cambridge University Press. We may have university professors who visit. We may have the very gurus and rock stars of our profession on this list. But still this blog is impoverished by the lack of sharing of the riches of their experience and training.
Seriously, how can we as professionals in this field ever blame the poor students in Japan for not being interactive when we are doing the very same thing everyday?
This seems odd to me. We all understand the Japanese problem. What I want to know is:
What is your problem?
Please tell us in the “Comments” section.
Showing posts with label foreigners. Show all posts
Showing posts with label foreigners. Show all posts
08 March 2007
07 March 2007
Will a McTeacher steal your job?
One teacher in the USA explained: "As for Allwright's comment, surely everyone knows that the day of 'teacher proof' materials has already arrived. The trend in publishing now is to write teacher's manuals with step-by-step directions and explanations of anything likely to cause the teacher difficulty. I have written half of dozen of these myself."
A teacher in Greece declares: "Dick Allwright's views do resonate with me. Behind the perceived indispensability of packaged methods and coursebooks alike lies (lurks?) a conception of teachers as semi-skilled 'materials operators', rather than educated and trained professionals."
A McJob is "a low-paying job that requires little skill and provides little opportunity for advancement."
I don't think we can call any of my blog readers a McTeacher. Just by viewing this blog shows that you are a professional and serious about your career and looking for more information to improve your skills. But let’s ask the question:
Are there McTeachers "out there"?
I'll venture answering "yes" as far as China is concerned. In China, we don't call them McTeachers. We call them backpackers. There has been a lot of discussion amongst teachers in China about the problem of the McTeachers which some teachers claim have infested the teaching jobs in China. Teachers with MA's and trying to find good jobs with decent pay blame these McTeachers for driving the wages down. A teacher working at a university with an MA will likely get only $120 more per month than a McTeacher or if working at a private training center may get paid the same.
Jack Richards referred to Apple and Jungck for a definition of deskilling published in a paper called "You don't have to be a teacher to teach this unit": "The first is what we shall call separation of conception from execution. When complicated jobs are broken down into atomistic elements, the person doing the job loses sight of the whole process and loses control over her or his own labor because someone outside the immediate situation now has greater control over both the planning and what is actually to go on.
"The second consequence is related, but adds a further debilitating characteristic. This is known as deskilling. As employees lose control over their own labor, the skills that they have developed over the years atrophy. They are slowly lost, thereby making it even easier for management to control even more of one's job because the skills of planning and controlling it yourself are no longer available. A general principle emerges here: in one's labor, lack of use leads to loss."(1)
This is not an issue to blame on publishers or material writers. It's a tribute to coursebook writers. They have made the new coursebooks so easy to use that even a McTeacher can use them. Fine. But what are you going to have to do to preserve your job?
============
(1) Apple,M and Jungck, S. 1990. "You don't have to be a teacher to teach this unit." Teaching, technology, and gender in the classroom. American Educational Research Journal 27(2):230
A teacher in Greece declares: "Dick Allwright's views do resonate with me. Behind the perceived indispensability of packaged methods and coursebooks alike lies (lurks?) a conception of teachers as semi-skilled 'materials operators', rather than educated and trained professionals."
A McJob is "a low-paying job that requires little skill and provides little opportunity for advancement."
I don't think we can call any of my blog readers a McTeacher. Just by viewing this blog shows that you are a professional and serious about your career and looking for more information to improve your skills. But let’s ask the question:
Are there McTeachers "out there"?
I'll venture answering "yes" as far as China is concerned. In China, we don't call them McTeachers. We call them backpackers. There has been a lot of discussion amongst teachers in China about the problem of the McTeachers which some teachers claim have infested the teaching jobs in China. Teachers with MA's and trying to find good jobs with decent pay blame these McTeachers for driving the wages down. A teacher working at a university with an MA will likely get only $120 more per month than a McTeacher or if working at a private training center may get paid the same.
Jack Richards referred to Apple and Jungck for a definition of deskilling published in a paper called "You don't have to be a teacher to teach this unit": "The first is what we shall call separation of conception from execution. When complicated jobs are broken down into atomistic elements, the person doing the job loses sight of the whole process and loses control over her or his own labor because someone outside the immediate situation now has greater control over both the planning and what is actually to go on.
"The second consequence is related, but adds a further debilitating characteristic. This is known as deskilling. As employees lose control over their own labor, the skills that they have developed over the years atrophy. They are slowly lost, thereby making it even easier for management to control even more of one's job because the skills of planning and controlling it yourself are no longer available. A general principle emerges here: in one's labor, lack of use leads to loss."(1)
This is not an issue to blame on publishers or material writers. It's a tribute to coursebook writers. They have made the new coursebooks so easy to use that even a McTeacher can use them. Fine. But what are you going to have to do to preserve your job?
============
(1) Apple,M and Jungck, S. 1990. "You don't have to be a teacher to teach this unit." Teaching, technology, and gender in the classroom. American Educational Research Journal 27(2):230
Why my students hate me
One teacher confided, "The first thing I do is to explain why I'm asking for change."
I've had entire classes rebel and reject me when they thought I didn't teach enough grammar. I've been told I was the worse teacher a particular student ever had (and he was an adult.) I have taught in classrooms with a big "No Pain - No Gain!" sign over my head that the students' regular teachers had placed to make sure the students knew that learning was supposed to be an academically masochistic(1) experience.
A teacher has two options in these situations.
A) Go along with what everyone wants. After 10-12 years of grammar translation training in school they have at least reached low intermediate level -- so just give them more of it.
B) Help them learn about learning and teach them about teaching.
This is the same thing a doctor does when he introduces a new therapy, drug or treatment. He explains the research. He explains the results. He explains the problems with the older and the advantages of the newer. The doctor teaches you. He doesn't say, "Well, if your mother always said cod liver oil will heal anything, then let's try that."
We have to explain the history of English teaching and the advances that have been made in understanding how the mind and language works. We have to sell our methods and set their minds at ease. I tell my students about Dell Hymes. I tell them about Krashen. (I'm going to have to start telling them about Mert.) I don't follow a Krashen plan (nor Mert plan) but I mention these things to show them some of the ideas involved in current research. I think we have to hit the problem head on. Teach them exactly why we are going to do things differently and really sell it. Teach them exactly why they don't already know English from their previous learning experience if it was under strong Grammar Translation.
Of course, this doesn't preclude the possibility that cod liver oil is just what some people needed nor the possibility that many people learn best with a strong grammar translation method. I had an American buddy who loved grammar. To him it was like a puzzle. We picked up a how to learn Japanese book with lots of grammar in it and after three months he was speaking Japanese and I knew nothing.
But if Grammar Translation and Audio Lingual are so great then everyone in China should be speaking English fluently by now.
(1) A willingness or tendency to subject oneself to unpleasant or trying experiences. (The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
I've had entire classes rebel and reject me when they thought I didn't teach enough grammar. I've been told I was the worse teacher a particular student ever had (and he was an adult.) I have taught in classrooms with a big "No Pain - No Gain!" sign over my head that the students' regular teachers had placed to make sure the students knew that learning was supposed to be an academically masochistic(1) experience.
A teacher has two options in these situations.
A) Go along with what everyone wants. After 10-12 years of grammar translation training in school they have at least reached low intermediate level -- so just give them more of it.
B) Help them learn about learning and teach them about teaching.
This is the same thing a doctor does when he introduces a new therapy, drug or treatment. He explains the research. He explains the results. He explains the problems with the older and the advantages of the newer. The doctor teaches you. He doesn't say, "Well, if your mother always said cod liver oil will heal anything, then let's try that."
We have to explain the history of English teaching and the advances that have been made in understanding how the mind and language works. We have to sell our methods and set their minds at ease. I tell my students about Dell Hymes. I tell them about Krashen. (I'm going to have to start telling them about Mert.) I don't follow a Krashen plan (nor Mert plan) but I mention these things to show them some of the ideas involved in current research. I think we have to hit the problem head on. Teach them exactly why we are going to do things differently and really sell it. Teach them exactly why they don't already know English from their previous learning experience if it was under strong Grammar Translation.
Of course, this doesn't preclude the possibility that cod liver oil is just what some people needed nor the possibility that many people learn best with a strong grammar translation method. I had an American buddy who loved grammar. To him it was like a puzzle. We picked up a how to learn Japanese book with lots of grammar in it and after three months he was speaking Japanese and I knew nothing.
But if Grammar Translation and Audio Lingual are so great then everyone in China should be speaking English fluently by now.
(1) A willingness or tendency to subject oneself to unpleasant or trying experiences. (The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Academia resists change
Xiujuan Zhang and Hongna have pointed out the challenges that they've faced as teachers in China. If there were more support or at least tolerance for change it would not be so difficult. Changing academia is one of the hardest things in the world to do. How do you tell the teachers that they don't know?
A couple years ago we were having our annual Communicative Approach (CA) vs. Grammar Translation (GT) debate. A teacher said that although she believed CA was more effective she had to teach GT because their school expected them to do it that way. The teachers had to act against her conscience and against what she thought was in the best interest of the student in order to please their employer. And in this case this was an American teacher in New York, USA! So we can only have sympathy and admiration for our Chinese colleagues who struggle to do something different in their schools.
It was the end of my last class when she came in. She unloaded an armful of books on the desk and asked me if I had any videos or films that she could borrow to help her learn about business. I assured her I could help her and offered to leave them with one of the students to pass to her. She asked me to not do that. She explained that although she has been an English teacher for many years, she just passed a special training to allow her to teach business English but now she doesn't want students or her superiors to know that she doesn't know a thing about business. She felt very badly about being so covert about the whole thing but made it clear that showing any kind of weakness in professional skills was risky.
Teachers feel bad about inadequacies but at the same time the necessity to cover them up. It is likely they are covering them up from superiors who also are covering up inadequacies from their superiors who are also covering up inadequacies from their superiors, all in the politics of academia.
This sort of situation, which happens in certain academic situations in many places around the world, can be like that children's game where everyone makes a circle and slowly sit down until they are sitting on the knees of the person behind them while at the same time providing their knees as a seat for the person in front of them. They can even march, although, only in a circle. Lots of action but not getting anywhere. But if one person stands up then everyone falls down. The dynamics are that there is more common interest in perpetuating the system and strong risks in challenging it or rocking the boat.
Dynamics like these cannot last an instant in business where it is sink or swim and constant change and real progress are the keys to survival. Academia does not have to play the survival game.
A couple years ago we were having our annual Communicative Approach (CA) vs. Grammar Translation (GT) debate. A teacher said that although she believed CA was more effective she had to teach GT because their school expected them to do it that way. The teachers had to act against her conscience and against what she thought was in the best interest of the student in order to please their employer. And in this case this was an American teacher in New York, USA! So we can only have sympathy and admiration for our Chinese colleagues who struggle to do something different in their schools.
It was the end of my last class when she came in. She unloaded an armful of books on the desk and asked me if I had any videos or films that she could borrow to help her learn about business. I assured her I could help her and offered to leave them with one of the students to pass to her. She asked me to not do that. She explained that although she has been an English teacher for many years, she just passed a special training to allow her to teach business English but now she doesn't want students or her superiors to know that she doesn't know a thing about business. She felt very badly about being so covert about the whole thing but made it clear that showing any kind of weakness in professional skills was risky.
Teachers feel bad about inadequacies but at the same time the necessity to cover them up. It is likely they are covering them up from superiors who also are covering up inadequacies from their superiors who are also covering up inadequacies from their superiors, all in the politics of academia.
This sort of situation, which happens in certain academic situations in many places around the world, can be like that children's game where everyone makes a circle and slowly sit down until they are sitting on the knees of the person behind them while at the same time providing their knees as a seat for the person in front of them. They can even march, although, only in a circle. Lots of action but not getting anywhere. But if one person stands up then everyone falls down. The dynamics are that there is more common interest in perpetuating the system and strong risks in challenging it or rocking the boat.
Dynamics like these cannot last an instant in business where it is sink or swim and constant change and real progress are the keys to survival. Academia does not have to play the survival game.
05 March 2007
Our students are not cultural virgins
Many teachers have laid out their viewpoints on the appropriateness of the teacher speaking frankly about personal feelings on various issues.
I can understand that some teachers, sensitive to being charged with "cultural imperialism" or not being "politically correct", would carefully control their communications to remain absolutely neutral on these issues.
But I think the cultural imperialism of today is a little different than the cultural imperialism of 50 or 60 years ago. My students show up in class wearing Nike shoes and a copy of an NBA magazine in their bag. I often have to ask them to put away their MP3's which are loaded with songs by Backstreet Boys or Britney Spears. I have to ask them to discontinue their excited discussions about the most recent cool American movie adventure so they can direct their attention to my class.
And I teach in China!
It is not much different at my business English classes at various American, French or Japanese joint ventures here in China. The difference only being the product, now it's cars, houses, travel abroad, technology gadgets or MBA programs. Rather than magazines it’s the latest business book by Jack Welch or Tom Peters.
Due to the "small world" dynamics of the Internet movies and TV, our students have already been exposed to culture worldwide. They have already made cultural choices. They are not culture virgins. Now they want some deeper understanding of it, some explanation.
About half of the classes that I begin in China are met with the request that I devote a certain amount of time to teach "western culture" every week. This does not mean that they think western culture is superior to their own but it does indicate that they feel they don't know enough about it and want to improve their understanding.
What is the teacher's role in this? I do not believe the teacher should always remain a neutral and passive instrument on this subject. After establishing that this is the teacher's personal opinion the teacher should feel free to explain what and why he or she thinks or feels something as well as offer the other side of the argument.
Our students are not young naïve sheltered cultural virgins and are capable of making their own independent choices and forming opinions which might even frequently and surprisingly include the assessment that the "teacher is a jerk" for thinking that way.
It seems to me that some arguments are elevating the English teacher's role to that of high priest of all knowledge or to something like Plato's Cave scenario.
If we are not talking about children then we should treat our students like adults who can, will and have already made up their own minds about ethics, morality and culture.
There are far too many wars going on around the world because people don't understand each other or fall prey to the demonization efforts of others. Especially when students request it teachers can be ambassadors of understanding. And as on teacher implies, why can't the teacher also be a realia?
"Here is why I'm against the Iraq war...Here is why George Bush is for the war." Our students know these are opinions and not the universal oracle of knowledge speaking. We are not doing some Stanley Milgram experiment on them. "Teacher, just obey and administer the shock!"
Teachers could be so bold as to state"Here is why I am a Christian." I sure wish I had some teacher in my school who told me, "Here is why I am a Muslim" because currently there are some raging misunderstandings going on over these matters and all kinds of crazy opinions are flying around.
I'd certainly be interested in talking with a real live Muslim in my classroom about his religion instead of relying on media reports and politicians. (After I hear his views I'll go look it up somewhere on my own.) I have a friend who is a black American Muslim and often use her as a substitute teacher when necessary. She gives my students a different perspective than the fat white American viewpoint which I embody.
I don't think our students, especially adult students but also many teenagers, are so malleable that we are going to brainwash them in our ninety-minute a week class with them. That is why I claim they are not cultural virgins. Teachers should not be afraid to give their own opinions and use themselves as a form of realia as long as they do it in an explanatory manner without being combative.
I can understand that some teachers, sensitive to being charged with "cultural imperialism" or not being "politically correct", would carefully control their communications to remain absolutely neutral on these issues.
But I think the cultural imperialism of today is a little different than the cultural imperialism of 50 or 60 years ago. My students show up in class wearing Nike shoes and a copy of an NBA magazine in their bag. I often have to ask them to put away their MP3's which are loaded with songs by Backstreet Boys or Britney Spears. I have to ask them to discontinue their excited discussions about the most recent cool American movie adventure so they can direct their attention to my class.
And I teach in China!
It is not much different at my business English classes at various American, French or Japanese joint ventures here in China. The difference only being the product, now it's cars, houses, travel abroad, technology gadgets or MBA programs. Rather than magazines it’s the latest business book by Jack Welch or Tom Peters.
Due to the "small world" dynamics of the Internet movies and TV, our students have already been exposed to culture worldwide. They have already made cultural choices. They are not culture virgins. Now they want some deeper understanding of it, some explanation.
About half of the classes that I begin in China are met with the request that I devote a certain amount of time to teach "western culture" every week. This does not mean that they think western culture is superior to their own but it does indicate that they feel they don't know enough about it and want to improve their understanding.
What is the teacher's role in this? I do not believe the teacher should always remain a neutral and passive instrument on this subject. After establishing that this is the teacher's personal opinion the teacher should feel free to explain what and why he or she thinks or feels something as well as offer the other side of the argument.
Our students are not young naïve sheltered cultural virgins and are capable of making their own independent choices and forming opinions which might even frequently and surprisingly include the assessment that the "teacher is a jerk" for thinking that way.
It seems to me that some arguments are elevating the English teacher's role to that of high priest of all knowledge or to something like Plato's Cave scenario.
If we are not talking about children then we should treat our students like adults who can, will and have already made up their own minds about ethics, morality and culture.
There are far too many wars going on around the world because people don't understand each other or fall prey to the demonization efforts of others. Especially when students request it teachers can be ambassadors of understanding. And as on teacher implies, why can't the teacher also be a realia?
"Here is why I'm against the Iraq war...Here is why George Bush is for the war." Our students know these are opinions and not the universal oracle of knowledge speaking. We are not doing some Stanley Milgram experiment on them. "Teacher, just obey and administer the shock!"
Teachers could be so bold as to state
I'd certainly be interested in talking with a real live Muslim in my classroom about his religion instead of relying on media reports and politicians. (After I hear his views I'll go look it up somewhere on my own.) I have a friend who is a black American Muslim and often use her as a substitute teacher when necessary. She gives my students a different perspective than the fat white American viewpoint which I embody.
I don't think our students, especially adult students but also many teenagers, are so malleable that we are going to brainwash them in our ninety-minute a week class with them. That is why I claim they are not cultural virgins. Teachers should not be afraid to give their own opinions and use themselves as a form of realia as long as they do it in an explanatory manner without being combative.
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