The China Teaching Web

Or can we be both?

Most of my university students hate their Chinese teachers. I don’t blame them. And I don’t blame their Chinese teachers either.

I blame the system. In China, classes are taught around exams which means that they are predictably boring and sleep inducing.

That’s why foreign teachers in China are lucky. We can prepare lessons that are more creative and imaginative. We can push students to think critically and form their own opinions – something which rarely happens in Chinese classes.

“We are actually entertainers”, complained one of my colleagues recently after a particularly exhausting week. “It takes too much energy to keep them engaged”.

I don’t disagree with him about the entertainer part. As foreign teachers, we are expected to be different than our Chinese counterparts. For a couple of hours a week, our students want to be able to escape the drudgery of their other classes.

But being an entertainer isn’t necessarily synonymous with being a comedian. If you think you have to be an ESL Jay Leno then you’ll tire yourself out in no time.

Instead, I see myself as an entertainer in the sense that I am trying to entertain their minds with ‘out-of-the-box’ ideas and concepts. I want to stretch their imaginations in my class to the very limits. I don’t want them to just look at two sides of an issue – I want them to look at all possible angles.

How can I achieve this? It’s pretty simple, actually.

I continually ask my students questions. Lots and lots of questions.

I point at them in class and ask them to stand up. And then I start firing at them.

Many of my questions start with “What if…?” or “You said this so does that mean that…?”.

I challenge my students. I contradict them. I point out their inconsistencies. I try to get them to perfect their arguments and opinions.

I also enjoy switching sides from student to student just to confuse them a little bit.

For example, with one student I may act as if I’m completely in support of gay marriage but with the next student, I seem vehemently oppose it.

By the time the class is over, my students may feel mentally exhausted bit that’s only because I forced them to use a part of their brain that otherwise gets little exercise – their imaginations.

And yes, I do try to spice things up a bit with a light infusion of wit,sarcasm,and humor into our activities and conversations. The students responses often provide plenty of fodder for this purpose.

Naturally, it’s important to find topics and questions that are appropriate for your audience.

For middle school students, you could probably have pretty good success with topics like”should you be allowed to chew gum in class?” or “are you old enough to travel by yourself?”

For college age students, the possible topics are endless. In my classes, we have talked about everything from animal rights to premarital sex. For some more great topics, click here.

So don’t try too hard to put on a show for your students. All you really need to do is appeal to their interests and pique their curiosities. And once you achieve this, run with it.

They’ll be entertained and so will you!