Comments on: Language Skills and ESL Teachers

By: Teaching Young EFL Students Faster | Doubting to shuo: Chinese, Investing, EFL and Being a Geek in Taiwan

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 22:26:58 +0000

[...] Periodically reviewing your notes and looking for things to improve makes all the difference in the long run. Related Posts: Dr. Seuss Is My Friend The Hardest Week at School Yet 1st & 2nd Grader Spelling Drill Language Skills and ESL Teachers [...]

By: Daniel

Daniel — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 15:51:33 +0000

I’ve had a really good experience with Taiwanese co-teachers, but it wasn’t the kind of teaching that you’re doing (ie full on serious). I came into four classes for 40 minutes a day, and while I was there the usual Taiwanese teacher was really supportive. This was in a big kindergarten in Keelung – basically I was the co-teacher, not them.

One teacher was a terrifyingly strict woman who slapped the kids on the hand if they did anything out of line, and they loved her. That class was so easy to teach (combining my fun and games and her discpline), plus she knew enough English to explain things to them when I couldn’t.

One point to add, Mark about advanced level students, is that for them, a lot of what they are after is the how the language is spoken in certain settings (eg writing CVs, giving speeches to investment bankers). The demands that some of them have would be difficult to satisfy if you weren’t familiar with Western things, and a fairly specific set of Western things, no matter how good your general level of English was.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 09:43:12 +0000

David, I’ve had very poor experiences with the co-teacher approach. There have been many times in which co-teachers or well-meaning parents have undone the phonics work I’ve done with my students. Grammar and word usage problems come up, too. In one case, my co-teacher incorrectly taught my class the meanings of “above” and “on”, and since she explained it in Chinese and she had control over my students’ grades, no amount of visuals and examples on my part could disuade the students from using the words incorrectly.

I realize those are just my experiences, but the one thing in common amongst every single school I’ve seen in Taiwan that gets decent results is that they don’t use co-teachers. They all use single teachers from the fifth category on my list or below. Some, like Kiki, start the kids in a class with a local with decent Chinese skills and then move them to a class with a foreigner with enough Chinese to answer the tough questions and communicate with their parents, once they reach higher levels. I’m sure it’s possible for two teachers to effectively share a class, but at least in the way it’s implemented at most buxibans, it doesn’t happen often.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 09:33:20 +0000

Michael, since both my school and Big Ell’s school emphasize oral communication skills above writing, that’s what I decided to look at. If a teacher uses a whiteboard or expects the students to write anything, I’d say writing skills do matter, but nowhere near as much as speaking skills do.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 03:27:52 +0000

@Michael
Fill in the blank:
Were writing skills ever to be used-God forbid-as a yardstick for measuring ability to teach English,____________.

By: EFL Geek

EFL Geek — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 01:34:15 +0000

David,
In Korea it is also common at public schools and hagwons for elementary students to have co-teachers. However a lot of NS teachers complain that the Korean co-teacher resents their presence or does absolutely nothing to help or in a worse case scenario undermines the work that the NS teacher is trying to accomplish.

What is it like in Taiwan?

By: David Reid

David Reid — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 00:10:28 +0000

In Taiwan foreign native-speaking teachers often have a local co-teacher or teaching assistant. This is another way of addressing some of the issues you mentioned. The combination of the two teachers is probably much better and easier than trying to find a “Dashan”.

By: Global Voices Online » Blog Archive » Taiwan: English teaching essentials

Wed, 26 Apr 2006 18:48:18 +0000

[...] Mark at Doubting to shuō blogs critically on what separates good ESL teachers in Taiwan from the bad. [...]

By: Michael Turton

Michael Turton — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 14:59:21 +0000

I’ve met LOTS of fake Americans here.

It is interesting that this list focuses on SPOKEN language skills and doesn’t cover writing — or is that the premise of the conversation between you and Big E?

Michael

By: EFL Geek: ESL & EFL in Korea

EFL Geek: ESL & EFL in Korea — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 12:41:34 +0000

worth the read

Mark has written an inciteful post about Language Skills and ESL Teachers. This post is very related to one I wrote in April 2004 Language Teachers Should Learn a Language. On another note An Australian EFL teacher in Cambodia has been sentenced to ten…