I don't find my teaching satisfying enough that I always feel frustrated and do not like my present job at all. What should I do? Can you give me some suggestions?
I have been teaching English for more than ten years in a senior high school in China, but I still can not find a proper way to teach my students interestingly and efficiently.
As an English teacher, I have always been dreaming to teach English naturally and humorously as Professor Fianna, my English training teacher in the UK, presented to us. However, in China, English teachers have to face the reality, that is, the students have to pass an College Entrance Examination. With the heavy burden in our mind, we have to teach them how to deal with examinations, and try our best to help them get high marks. As a consequence, it seems that it becomes a contradiction between teaching the 4 skills of English and helping them achieving their goals. We have to spend a lot of our time preparing examination papers, doing endless exercises and checking answers, especially when we are teaching Grade 3 students. Unfortunately, the results are not as satisfying as we expect.
How to solve the problem? Can you give me some tips? Thanks a lot.
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Hi,
I understand very well your worries and having worked as an English language teacher in Mongolia (two years) I know the school realia that you are talking about, nevertheless, you mentioned that the way you are teaching at the moment does not bring very good results, which probably means that it's time to introduce some changes.
It sounds like you are not happy teaching the way you are expected to teach and your present morale is very low. You mustn't let the system kill your passion, because it is often the teacher's passion that motivates the students best and keep them working.
If the school fails the students, then maybe the school would be interested in trying new approaches towards methodology of teaching? If you could manage to convince them that there are alternative ways of teaching English (you will need some evidence, maybe your ex-teacher could help you on that too?), then maybe they would be willing to give it a go with at least one group? You could work out your goals, assess your students' current level of English and then assess them after 6 and 12 months. Your results should be then compared with the results of all the other teachers' teaching at your school.
I hope that one day you'll be allowed to spread your wings again and enjoy teaching.
Regards,
Agnieszka
Actually, passing an College Entrance Examination is the most important for them, they have many courses with heavy burden, so they learn English not for communication, only for examination, it's hard to find a way teach the students interestingly and efficiently
Life is not easy to these Ss as they need to face the so called 'college entrance examination'. So I think we should have empathy with our Ss. My job is to make them enjoy learning. After all, there are many things we can enjoy other than the examination, right?
Yes, I think it depends a lot on how much they enjoy English. And by that, I really mean 'English', not 'English lessons'.
Context Building
Whenever developing, for example, reading skills. Spend extra time on the lead in. Provide bits of information about the following, wherever possible building it up in a way that emphasises any elements of mystery/surprise:
(eg. a short story = entertainment/a general audience, a post-card = greetings/friend or family, a tourist brochure = advertising/travellers)
Prediction
Encourage a bit of prediction too (some of which could then double as 'gist' tasks). Not just 'What do you think the story is about' but specific predictions:
The main thing, I think, is to emphasise meaning, communication, and a real use for English.