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ESL forum >
Ask for help > Teaching English
Teaching English
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eslteacher78
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Teaching English
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Hey everybody,
I�ve been working as an EFL teacher in Brazil for some time now and I�ve also been working for an NGO, where most of the students come from public schools, my students often say they learn �nothing� at school, many of them complain saying that in order to improve their skills in a foreign language they MUST attend classes in a private English course since the government does not provide them with a good quality educational system as they should.
It is said that they can grasp some grammar as they go along but there is no emphasis at all to speaking. As a result their four skills are impaired and they, most of the time, fail to get a good job and go ahead in life due to the fact that most job interviews are held in English.
Does the same happen in the country you teach?
Could you shed some light to this issue?
Cheers. |
9 Mar 2010
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ksalomao
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Hello,
well I am also teaching at public schools here. I hear the same old complaints, but the reality is much more complicated than what it seems.
How can we do a good job with 50 or 60 students inside a classroom? How can we work with NO support like good material, good salary, and a good environment? I don �t have a book, the school doesn �t have xerox, and students don �t want to pay for anything. So, am I supposed to spend my own money on them??? So, yes, although I hate it, I am sticking with the old grammar classes.
Students ask for different and communicative classes, but once you propose an activity they either refuse doing them or use the opportunity to misbehave and do something else. And honestly, controlling 50 students in 45 minutes is kinda difficult.
So, the government doesn �t care, parents don �t care, the school doesn �t care, and consequently students don �t care... I am having the worst time in my life teaching at public schools, simple because I can �t teach at all.... and students???? They couldn �t care less!
Our education system is a shame and we are teaching our children and young adults that it is okay not to study, it �s okay to treat teachers like nothing, it �s okay to behave the way they do because there is no immediate consequence (they can �t be flunked).
But, is life like that? Or should they learn that there are consequences for the choices we make?
Sad sad sad... |
9 Mar 2010
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mustafa01
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Believe me I have all of the problems you have mentioned. In Turkey, we have too limited materials to teach that we teach English as if we teach maths on the board. Some unknown authorities make our education system worse day by day. So our country will never be a superpower like America or European countries. I think Brazil also has the same destiny. Don �t worry. I am hopeful for the future. bye. |
9 Mar 2010
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RabbitWho
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That sounds horrible, almost impossible, but the funny thing is i hear the same thing from students about Czech schools and they have photocopiers and only 15 students per language class. It was the same when I studied languages in public school in Ireland. (except a class of 30)
There is something terribly wrong with state schools in most countries and i have no idea what it is or what causes it.
My students come from Grammar Schools (Gymnasiums) with great reputations, and yet they tell me their language teachers just sit down and tell them "Do exercise one. Now do exercise 2. Now do number 3. Okay now listen to me talk about this for half an hour and then go home and do homework." How anyone is ever going to learn in that environment I don �t know. It was the same for me, our teachers talked and any discussion activitiy in the book was skipped. After 6 years of studying German I can barely ask to go to the bathroom. And actually when I do ask what I �m actually saying is "Could you please tell me the best way to get to the toilet?" In one year of studying Czech by myself and with an hour a week of communicative class i know more than I did in 6 years of German. (I should add that i never felt motivated, didn �t know how to study a language, and didn �t study.)
A friend of mines boyfriend went to teach French in Ireland, the French
teachers there could not even pronounce his name, let alone understand
him when he spoke.
Anyway they tell me their teachers can �t pronounce things, that they never improve, that they �re making the same mistakes for ten years (Often i have two generations of students in one class and the older generation say "Yes! She was making the same stupid mistake when she taught me!"
They seem to say "I have a job now, I don �t need to study" and when their students correct them they don �t learn from their mistakes. I make mistakes all the time as well, my greatest problem is spelling but I have many other little things as well and there are lots of grammar things I struggle with occasionally, but I try to find out and read about these things after the classes and get back to the students the following week.
There is apparently one teacher who has never been to an English speaking country in her life, who was a Russian teacher before the revolution and who was told after "Teach English or find another job" so she taught herself English from books and tapes and was always just one step ahead of her students. Now of course this is admirable, but apparently no one can even understand what she says. (My students are prone to exaggeration, as you can probably tell! )
Of course I am not getting a fair cross section, the students with excellent English teachers don �t need to come to me for extra classes!
On our CELT course to teach EFL there were a few secondary school teachers, when they started out they were expert at walking into a room and making the students feel tense and nervous and afraid to speak. Because that was their job! They nearly failed their teaching practice and it was difficult for them to break the habit and see students as "friends" and not "enemies". It was hard for them even to laugh or smile in class because in secondary school that is an invitation to chaos.
I have know idea why this happens as I have never taught in this kind of situation, my classes are small, my students and I like each other, the students want to talk (though they start shy in the beginning) , they want to improve their English, and they want to get as much as possible out of the hour and a half.
I understand that people working in state schools have much harder jobs, they usually have to do more with less practical training (which makes it harder, although I �m well aware that their academic training is amazing and most of them know the grammar inside out) and for much less money. I know from reading the posts of some of the posters here that in some countries they have to work ridiculous hours that could never allow them to spend time preparing lessons, and teach classes far to big to allow them to communicate or even learn the names of the students.
I think that any teacher who contributes to this site obviously cares about their students and wants the best for them, and I think that is the main thing about being a great teacher. You guys make amazing work, and I don �t know how you do it and then teach 40 hours or more a week!
I know that you guys are great, and I don �t want to generalise, this is just my own experience and what my unhappy gymnasium-refugee students have told me.
mustafa01
When I was in Turkey I met many people who spoke either excellent English or excellent German to me (despite what I wrote I do have a reasonable understanding of German) I think that a lot of Turkish people are so hard working that they can learn languages despite having bad schools!
I suspect it is the same in many countries :) But the more opportunities we can give kids the more they will learn... and the one thing is that only 10% of learning (or less) takes place in the classroom, the rest is at home or at play or something the child does by themselves, if you can get them interested in English then they will be fluent by the time they are 20, no matter what terrible teachers they have, if they are interested enough I think they will find a way to learn it. Motivation is worth so much Classes help, books and the internet are fantastic, motivation is key!
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9 Mar 2010
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donapeter
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I have been teaching English for 6 years and I always wanted to improve my way of teaching. I do not have compulsory textbooks (I can bring whatever textbook or texts I want but according to a certain curriculum ( i do not obey it anyway as I don �t have students who can handle that curriculum)) and I use texts that i choose for my classes. I try to make students enjoy English classes BUT how can I do that when they have only 2 hours/week and at the end (12th grade) they have to pass an exam (as any official exam it requires grammar instead fluency and other stuff like this) and they try to prepare for the exam not to learn the language as it has to be! Then....another problem.....how can we have s peaking with 30-35 students???  Different levels of English???????? They are not even the same level!!! Some are beginners and some are intermediate ( no advanced students in my school-LOL). How can I handle that???? They want to have the right grade/mark not to speak English!!! and.....let �s be serious ...English is a language that can be studied alone .....they all use computers, they all watch movies, they all listen to music....but they never look up in a dictionary if they see a new word!!! They just wait for the teacher to do everything!!! I won �t make this thread any longer ....but .....if you want to learn a new language you have all the necessary tools to do it: internet, books , television etc!!!! DON �T BLAME THE TEACHERS FOR FAILURES!!
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9 Mar 2010
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MJ_Misa
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I �ve been teaching for 6 years at state school and have to agree with donapeter. If someone wants to learn English (or whatever else), he/she can manage. I have classes of 13 children, but also of 25. The difference is enormous and so is my approach to these classes, but I believe it is possible to teach - and for those who want - to learn. My English isn �t perfect and I am still working on it (and I will carry on al long as I live;o), but I have the opportunity to talk to my former students, who �s left my school for higher education.Most of them belong among the better students at high schools so I know it is possible to teach even 20 sts at once. But it is true that we have at least good books, comps, video, xerox - so our conditions are much better than yours, but worse than in private schools.
But donapeter is absolutely right when she said "DON �T BLAME THE TEACHERS". Most of us is doing our best. It mainly the students � business if they want to really learn or not.
Have a nice day/ evening/ morning.... Michaela
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9 Mar 2010
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