Before I begin, a little perspective from a native Chinese:
“Hello! My name’s Camellia. I’m from Tianmen, a small town in Hubei Province. I came to Wuhan eight years ago for college at the prestigious and beautiful Wuhan University. I started learning English when I was 13 years old, and I find it interesting and important. It is also necessary because if I did not pass the English language exam, I could not attend college. It is impossible to attend college without a proper score, and different majors require different scores. A lot of students cannot go to college because of low scores. English lets me communicate with foreigners, and I like to communicate with foreigners, and I am an assistant in the International Cooperation Department because of it. Travis told me that U.S. students do not have to pass a foreign language test to attend college, and I think because of this, they have it easier.”
She then ended with Chinese which translates to “She thanks you for reading and hopes to talk to you again. She hopes you have a great day.”
Chinese students begin learning English early. While in the United States, two years of a foreign language in high school serves as a stamp for entry to college, the Chinese students must have some level of competence before moving on to higher education.
As a foreign language teacher here, I am part of an important process. A lot of these students will end up using English in their jobs. For some of them, English language ability will make or break their future careers. This week I began teaching my own classes.
As I prepared for this, I reflected on what my favorite teachers, particularly, my French professors, did. I reflected on what Les Essif or Karen Levy did, and I tried to incorporate that into my lesson plan.
Of course, the lesson plan is not entirely mine, just mostly. For a 10-week period, I teach eight different classes in a row, and for those eight, I am to focus on a given topic. From there, I pretty much have free reign, as long as I give them some perspective on the topic.
A lot of the students have told me they are eager to learn, but often they are hesitant to speak. For a lot of them, the problem is not their written English but their spoken English. Some of the errors I frequently hear include misused prepositions (“What’s your impression to Wuhan?”), misused question words (“How do you think of China?” instead of “What do you think of China?”) and misused auxiliary verbs.
I have a choice to make when speaking. Do I speak normally, as I would to another American, or do I speak at a certain level that is entirely understandable to them? I decided on the former, while speaking slowly and explaining certain phrases and words they do not understand.
It contradicts their teaching system. I often pause and ask them if they understand. That is not common here in China. Chinese teachers will not ask them directly if they understand or not, so when I hear silence, I know that it’s not fear guiding them so much as it is conditioning under a different learning system.
Chinese learn by rote memorization, but most foreign teachers do not operate like that. They play games, play movies and speak directly to the students. This is good, because it gets them speaking English, something they need to work on. It’s bad, because it puts pressure on you in some classes. They expect a performer, rather than a teacher. A dancing clown. Not everyone can do that.
I prefer to be more teacher than clown, but at this early stage, it’s hard to say how it will all turn out. In the meantime, I have to sit back and learn and adapt — to teach them better and to figure out if this is the profession for me.
I’m looking forward to it.
— Travis Lee is a UT alumnus. He can be reached at [email protected].
