TEFL Mendoza

In china, there are some difficulties that must be faced and overcome in order to be an effective english teacher. These include the mentality and nature of the average person, the differences between the chinese and english languages, and the absence of available english exposure. The culture, education system, and upbringing are meant to produce a certain type of obedient individual who does not need to solve problems, innovate new ideas, or think independently. The chinese language does not use articles, change the form of words based on tense or number, use a phonetic alphabet to write words, and in fact the Mandarin pronunciation for he/she/it are all exactly the same! china is surrounded by non english-speaking countries and thus are rarely given the chance to see authentic english material. All of these problems are tough but not insurmountable; one helpful aspect of their society is that they honor teachers; another, is that chinese parents are limited to one child so they focus much time and money encouraging them to succeed. The chinese education system is based around repetition and regurgitation of facts for tests. Before completing high school, students must prepare for and take the Gao Kao college admittance test; because of the importance of this test, begin preparing at a very young age. This system produces graduates who are very good at reciting knowledge. Another aspect of chinese people is that their output requires careful supervision, constant reminders of instructions, and specific directions that guide them through the entire process. This level of explanation is not necessary in every culture, but in china the people must be told exactly what to do. Problem-solving is not often included in their curriculum. The teacher must be sure to carefully plan the entire class, monitor the students to ensure participation, and not leave room for ambiguity. Another important point is that the stress of the Gao Kao test leave many students feeling they have accomplished the greatest difficulty and that further study (in college) is not quite as important. This feeling is also present in graduate students, concerning undergraduate degrees. Having the chinese language as one’s native language can lead to difficulties in learning english. For one, the chinese written language is logographic, so using an alphabet to spell words is a foreign concept; some pronunciation difficulties exist, such as the letters L and R, as well as ending a word with a consonant sound. Grammatical differences include: articles are not used, word conjugation does not change, and pronunciation speed varies in english based on emphasis, unlike in chinese. More differences include the small amount of detail conveyed in the number of words, more so in the order; while english has far more words and new ones are frequently made/adopted from other languages, new chinese words can only come from new combinations of the existing characters. english teachers in china should know how difficult it will be to overcome personal pronoun mistakes (“My mother.....he), lack of conjugation (“Yesterday I go to the.....”), switching L and R, etc. Learning a language is much easier to do and happens more quickly when immersed in a culture that naturally speaks that language. In english speaking countries, for example, authentic english materials are readily available, as are native speakers to practice with. Learning becomes far more difficult when exposure to native speakers and authentic material is limited to class time. This must be counteracted by encouraging as much participation as possible during class time, playing many recordings of authentic materials, and assigning homework. They are eager to compete and earn points, which is a good way to motivate participation. Many problems that english teachers face in non-english speaking countries exist in china, but these are compounded by the reasons listed above. Using the lessons taught as part of this program, together with knowledge of the idiosyncrasies of chinese people and culture, I can adapt my teaching methods accordingly. This will all lead to my becoming a more effective english teacher in china.