Teach English in Chunlin Zhen - Weinan Shi

I have been in China for four years; I entered the country in September 15, 2015 as a student. During this time pursuing my master’s degree, I taught English as a foreign language in training centers, elementary school, high school and currently teaching in one of the polytechnic affiliated to a foreign polytechnic. English has become one of the fastest growing subjects in the country. Today many Chinese students study the subject in middle, high and tertiary educational institutions across the country. It is also interesting to note that most of the universities teach some of the programs using the English language; this has attracted many students from diaspora to study in China or have an exchange program conveniently. The country and the cities are fast developing interconnected with fast-speed-rails, subways, affordable public metro buses, and taxis makes life better. There are also affordable housing that enables teachers to save much more on housing rents. Many schools provide teachers with the basic amenities needed for everyday living at a zero cost. Amidst all these positive sight to promote, the effective teaching and learning of English Language students are faced with problems that hinder success. These problems ranges from culture, management, motivation and some other factors explained below. WEAK LANGUAGE FOUNDATION. The foundations of most students learning English in China are quite weak due to a couple of reasons explained in the points below. Late start: Most students in China begin to learn begin to learn the English language at quite late or at an older age. predominantly they begin to have their first English lessons when the students into the middle school at an age of thirteen or later, at this stage the peculiar problems students face are related to weak language acquisition device and teenage development problems. Weak language acquisition device: Child psychologist and early childhood development studies opines that every child has the ability to learn new languages quite easily at their early stage including learning second or third language. The problem here is synonymous to this issue. At the teen age the language acquisition device is not as strong as it would have been during the ages of six and ten years. This is quite obvious in the sense that my younger students in the English training institutions easily learn the language and can easily recollect what they are taught than most of my students in the middle school. Teen development problems: Since students begin to the learn the language at a quite later age makes it difficult to implement some beginners practices that will facilitate the learning process, because some of the students in the middle school are at the adolescent age hence refuse to perform activities, they regard as childish though effective to facilitate the learning process. CURRICULUM STRUCTURE The curriculum has been structured in such a way that only engages students to answer questions that are intended to help them pass the final high school English exam therefore some important areas of the English language are ignored hence students are not exposed to certain aspect of the English language. Combined topics per lesson: In each lesson many topics are taught, since most students are beginners thus from grammar to comprehension to essay, reading and writing. All these requires special skill that need to be mastered well in order to properly assimilate the knowledge associated with each topic. Although students perform the tasks involved, however they do just a small part of a broader topic that could be taught if the contents were separated and treated holistically to its full extent. Student placement: Students with different strength levels are usually placed in one class, though it must not be a problem for learning in the class it usually makes it difficult for students to get the independent attention of teachers to get the needed clarity needed. The major cause of this is the mass promotion of unqualified students into certain higher classes they ought not to be. Course Materials: Teachers and management of English training centers and schools adopts exactly contents and methodologies suggested in authentic materials such as the text books without adopting the contents to suit the level of the students engaged. Some of the contents need to be broken down or the basics needs to be reviewed before such contents could be taught, however, the contents are passed unto the students as it appears in the book without cross checking the contents and students level this makes it hard for students to assimilate the knowledge been passed on to them. Students therefore take it as they are taught without the right understanding of the subject. Hence, they cannot effectively apply the knowledge to similar language points. LACK OF MOTIVATION There is limited opportunity for students to practice the language, the first language is predominantly used in the daily conversations, hardly do people greet with English. All the social and business conversations are conducted using the mother tongue. Most document only English in the restaurant or any business setup. This gives students less motivation to study English language as compared to other countries where both English and native language are common medium of communication among the citizens. Testing of Students: The testing conducted for students are not challenging enough to encourage students to retain and reproduce knowledge acquired in the classroom. More often than not students home works consist of only fill in where answers and Chinese translations have been provided, all the students needs to do is to copy the answers right away without a rigorous exercise of the mind to reproduce answers without aid. The trend is also repetitive in the exam situations, all these methodology does not to take the subject any serious. Student Placement: Students in China are placed based on age other than ability to learn, comprehend and maintain study level. This causes a lot of problems in the language classroom where the needs of almost all the students are not at par making it extremely difficult for teachers to effectively teach because different grades of students have been put in one class. It slows the down the pace of teaching and as well takes a chunk of the time thus wasted to teach prior knowledge. This impedes students study speed and progress. This doesn’t motivate students since students are not promoted to the next grade based on achievement but rather based on their age. POOR LANGUAGE TRAINING INSTITUTIONS Poor management of training language institutions by staff and teachers have had adverse effect on the quality of English learning and teaching environment. These emanates from the unprofessional behavior of management and employees engaged in the service delivery. These can be group into two parts; Teaching, learning and business: Management fail to separate marketing activities from teaching and learning: Thus, most schools have been running the school system as a business rather than the focus on education. They are more concerned about the monies and targets to be made rather than the quality of education, as a result sales staff sell false hope to parents and guardians to parents, while in actual fact shouldn’t be the objective without knowing the competencies of the student as to whether the student is willing or capable of learning the language. Flooding of schools by unprofessional Teachers: Many unprofessional teachers have flooded the country due the obsessions of white loving culture, parents and language institutions teacher preference has been mostly based on the white complexion and the beautiful blue eyes of white teachers. Some institutions even takes body size into consideration: if a person is fat, he or she is considered to be not active and hence cannot teach. This causes the influx of unprofessional teachers hence nonnative speakers without formal education in English language are engaged to teach students English in language training centers and schools, this act has destroyed the basic foundation of most students, they missed out on right principles and rules of English language. Students are doubtful in class and see the subject as too complicated. Lack of regular training: Though some nonnative speakers without formal English language education are employed, there has been inadequate training scheduled to train these teachers to have a better understanding of the subject but rather the teachers are left alone to use personal experience and judgement to teach which for the most part doesn’t fall in line with the language rules or procedures. In the end, the students rely on such information for as long as he does not find a teacher who will rectify these errors.