ESL Teaching and Learning Tips
I wouldn't worry about your students whispering in class. I think that's just one student asking a colleague what it is you are talking about at the moment. China's public education system is probably a lot like Thailand's. Here in Thailand, students are unfortunately segregated by age and not ability. In my class of seniors, a class of 16 students, proficiency levels are wildly variable. One or two students can communicate on a level one from the west would expect from someone with ten years experience in English. The rest of the students know anywhere from almost as much as these 'star students' down to pretty much nothing. Many times the students 'in the know' are asked by fellow seniors what it is I'm saying when they have my class. I realized within the first semester here that it's futile to prevent such subtle communications among my students. This is because, of course, of variable ability--a problem which began in this class years ago. None of my Thai teachers have tried to eliminate this problem in the past--it has been allowed to fester through the years and has remained hidden thanks to the incessant cheating that goes on here. The students with very little ability have cheated their way through, and I can't do a thing about it. These kids are just too far behind to get caucht up in the last year they have left here.
In my younger classes, such as my M2's (equivalent to about 8th graders in the US), I already see the same old patterns of inattention, lack of motivation, and reliance on cheating that means that class will have the same variance in ability in about four years. Many of these students don't just whisper in class....they talk, sleep, get up and smack each other around, do homework from other classes, and even get up and leave class without permission. Not all my students 'act up' in class this way, however. SOME actually try. It makes me angry to think everyone else will be mooching off these hard-working students long after I've flown the coop. I'm trying to convince these students to say 'no' to cheating and even transfer to other schools before I get out of here. This has met with little success.
If Thailand would start cracking down on cheating and cheaters, actually failing students who lack ability and hold them back a level, and even segregate classes according to ability and not age, a lot of the problems I see in my classes would disappear in about one semester. I've tried to convince my director that is what must be done here. So far I've had as much luck as I would have had asking a brick wall to do it.
Does this sound like your situation up in China?
E
Messages In This Thread
- DISCIPLINE -- Rosalind
- It's a sign of variable ability....probably caused by cheating in the past -- Elephant
- It's a sign of variable ability....probably caused by cheating in the past -- Rosalind
- Some other problems at my Thai school -- Elephant
- Some other problems at my Thai School -- Rosalind
- RE; Some other Problems at my Thai School -- Dr. Yanni Zack- ESL Tips and Strategies
- Some students HAVE responded -- Elephant
- It's a Plan -- Rosalind
- I tried that in one class...with mixed results -- Elephant
- Wait ... Wait ... -- Rosalind
- RLL -- Elephant
- Language Lab -- Rosalind
- Lack of Money--The Language Lab Torpedo -- RhenoThai
- Money, Money, Money -- Rosalind
- Lack of Money--The Language Lab Torpedo -- RhenoThai
- Language Lab -- Rosalind
- RLL -- Elephant
- Wait ... Wait ... -- Rosalind
- I tried that in one class...with mixed results -- Elephant
- It's a Plan -- Rosalind
- Some students HAVE responded -- Elephant
- RE; Some other Problems at my Thai School -- Dr. Yanni Zack- ESL Tips and Strategies
- Some other problems at my Thai School -- Rosalind
- Some other problems at my Thai school -- Elephant
- It's a sign of variable ability....probably caused by cheating in the past -- Rosalind
- It's a sign of variable ability....probably caused by cheating in the past -- Elephant