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Via Lingua: International TEFL Courses

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I wish the TEFL mills would have told me about Thailand's cheating problem
By:RhenoThai
In Response To: OH NO - NOT MY CLASS! (Rosalind)

What you describe is no surprise. Thailand without cheating students would be as plausible as Thailand without mangy, stray dogs.

What IS a surprise is that my TEFL mill never tells its students about the prevalence of cheating in Asia. It sure as hell didn't tell my class about it. I had to be 'introduced' to the epidemic 'the hard way'--something I do NOT appreciate.

I'll never forget the first time I saw students cheating in my class....it was my very first day on the job. I was giving a diagnostic test to see where my students stood. I'll also never forget my reaction--a feeling that I'd been duped.

Yes, I instantly felt like a fool that day for believing Thai students were actually SERIOUS enough about learning English to justify me coming all the way from the US to try to teach them. I fall down laughing now when I look back on those 'green' days.
All I became for a lot of my students was their glorified babysitter--something else I didn't appreciate.

I learned right away that if I was to make it through my year-long, I had to adapt more creative ways to defeat cheating on exams and tests. I also began to take roll in every class and not allow stragglers to enter.

Taking roll may be a problem for someone in a large class, as it takes valuable class time to call out all the names.

My advice to you, finally, is to talk to the administrators. Explain to them you are a TEACHER--not a babysitter. Also tell them you will be resigning if they don't improve the situation. When a few students cheat this way and get away with it, more will inevitably follow in their footsteps. You don't need it. Tell the school to clean this up or you're outta there.

Good Luck!

RT






Messages In This Thread

OH NO - NOT MY CLASS! -- Rosalind
Discipline in the classroom -- Julio Luque
Cheating -- Gary
Creativity in Language Teaching -- Dr. Yanni Zack- ESL Teaching Tips and Strategies
Cheating - morals and consequences in real life. -- Kevin
Re: Oh No- Cheating -- Dr. Yanni Zack- ESL Teaching Tips and Strategies
This is great. -- Rosalind
I wish the TEFL mills would have told me about Thailand's cheating problem -- RhenoThai
Screaming and shouting and running about ... -- Rosalind
disruptive students -- The Joker
disruptive students -- Z
Re: disruptive students -- Yanni Z Zack
Confession -- Rosalind
Thailand's big do-do bird notion -- RhenoThai
Amazing ... this is what we've just put into the works here -- Rosalind


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