Teaching style- Oral English - 48 students/class
Posted: 14 Apr 2010, 14:45
Dear Lucy,
You have helped me a lot before, but I need your help again !
I am teaching Oral English to English Majors, 1st years at university, central China. The classes are for 48 students. Chinese students learn English from a very early age (about 5 years), and so are quite familiar with the language. So these students must have been learning for at least 10 years. In reality Chinese students have poor listening and speaking, because they spend much of their school study on reading and writing.
I have been given a book, but my (and I think the students) opinion is that it is boring. It is a lot of reading, which I think the students can practice in their two other classes - Intensive and Extensive reading. The book has role plays, but just for two people.
So I have tried to make my classes fun - talk about films, singing a song, show photos. However, one student said to me that the lessons are fun, but he never learns anything, and then proceeded to give me tips on how to teach!!!!
So I feel a bit lost unfortunately! I want to ask you about 1. Teaching style,
2. Vocabulary or constructing phrases
1. I want to just talk about teaching style. Splitting into groups/talking to the whole class/or traditional lecture? When I did my TEFL course, the suggested teaching style was split them into groups. Whilst this is feasible in a class of 20, it is less appropriate for a class of 48. So the best I can do is eight groups of six. Even then, it seems there are just too many students to keep track off. Should I get one student per group to speak, and go around to assess them ?
2. Teaching vocabulary/phrase constructing - is this my responsibility in oral English? Or should I just give them scenarios to create and then teach them how to say it? Do you have any useful links to help me here ?
Probably my biggest hurdle is getting a good book or website for ideas. I am in a small city, there are no English books in the shops. I could buy something from the internet though, if you recommended it.
Thanks Lucy, Rob
You have helped me a lot before, but I need your help again !
I am teaching Oral English to English Majors, 1st years at university, central China. The classes are for 48 students. Chinese students learn English from a very early age (about 5 years), and so are quite familiar with the language. So these students must have been learning for at least 10 years. In reality Chinese students have poor listening and speaking, because they spend much of their school study on reading and writing.
I have been given a book, but my (and I think the students) opinion is that it is boring. It is a lot of reading, which I think the students can practice in their two other classes - Intensive and Extensive reading. The book has role plays, but just for two people.
So I have tried to make my classes fun - talk about films, singing a song, show photos. However, one student said to me that the lessons are fun, but he never learns anything, and then proceeded to give me tips on how to teach!!!!
So I feel a bit lost unfortunately! I want to ask you about 1. Teaching style,
2. Vocabulary or constructing phrases
1. I want to just talk about teaching style. Splitting into groups/talking to the whole class/or traditional lecture? When I did my TEFL course, the suggested teaching style was split them into groups. Whilst this is feasible in a class of 20, it is less appropriate for a class of 48. So the best I can do is eight groups of six. Even then, it seems there are just too many students to keep track off. Should I get one student per group to speak, and go around to assess them ?
2. Teaching vocabulary/phrase constructing - is this my responsibility in oral English? Or should I just give them scenarios to create and then teach them how to say it? Do you have any useful links to help me here ?
Probably my biggest hurdle is getting a good book or website for ideas. I am in a small city, there are no English books in the shops. I could buy something from the internet though, if you recommended it.
Thanks Lucy, Rob