Ask Headmaster Ken

I've been offered a 3 month contract with the likelihood of renewal at an English Village apparently designed to prepare students for study overseas. Ominously, the contract states they want teachers to create their own innovative lessons and be energetic and enthusiastic. The class sizes are apparently 40-50.

Is this arrangement common? Are these kind of English Villages generally good places to work?

If you are looking for full time employment, then this is probably not what you are looking for.

It seems unlikely they would provide a FEC and Residence Permit for such a job.

If this is the business model I believe it is, your "coworkers" will be college student volunteers who pay nearly 1,500 dollars for the one day of training they receive and the "experience" of teaching in China. This fee also covers meals, accommodation, etc. So, as a volunteer program, this may be right for a certain market segment.

But if you are looking for a teaching position with a curriculum, experienced coworkers, a working visa, etc. then I'd move on.

Best wishes.

Interesting. They are not asking me to pay for the privilege of working there, so if you are right then I wonder why they want me instead of another college student.

Maybe they want an older teacher to show the students how it is done, which might be why they want me to submit original lesson plans up front. I'm considering another option in another country right now, so perhaps I'll give this a wide berth.

Devlin,

My take on this is that they are willing to pay you for up to three months to have you create class materials that anyone (read Chinese teachers) can then use after you are gone.

This is a common ploy, both in the private and public school sector. Many Chinese universities push their Western faculty to create Powerpoint Presentations for every week of every class that they teach. While most Chinese teachers do not have the English language skills required to teach that class simply by being given the syllabus and textbook, they can all memorize slides on a Powerpoint Presentation and attempt to teach the class by standing up in front of the students and reading the slides--and all is fine just as long as no one asks any questions.

You are probably wise to pass this by.

Supposedly they don't want the lessons for Chinese teachers since the program is more about teaching students about "culture, nature and studying overseas", so it would only be appropriate for a foreigner to teach.

I might take the job, as it would likely be a good introduction to China and an interesting working holiday, and if I don't like it I can move on to other places.

I'm just wondering what sort of lessons I should do. What sort of things do Chinese high school aged students find interesting?

Some things you might want to consider:

What kind of visa will you be on? If you don't like it and plan to "move on" in China? Are you prepared to return to your home country at your own expense to obtain a proper visa if necessary?

In other words, will you be working legally as a Foreign Expert in China or will you be working illegally. Regardless of what you might be told, there is no in between.

From an educational perspective, there's nothing in my understanding of what you describe as teaching duties that would yield a measurable learning outcome. I suspect the primary role of the foreign teacher is to model authentic English, at most. Without some defined curriculum, you would, of course, have no idea where you are going. As such, it doesn't really matter what road you choose to take if you don't have a defined destination.

I have no personal experience with this type of instruction. However, those I've met who have done it tell me they just ramble on in a stream-of-consciousness mode on whatever strikes them at the moment. I don't believe that very effective instruction.

Your primary focus should be having students produce spoken English. As such, it would be desirable to create activities that require students to speak by whatever method.

You can find many sources for these activities simply by searching the Internet.



Best wishes.

The idea seems to be that we are rounding out the year as "voluntary" workers. The company will pay for everything including some internal tourist travel and give us some spending money and such, but no actual salary. We would then return home and if desired sign up for next year with a standard contract and foreign expert status.

From the description given, it sounds like they want lessons that are entertaining but with actual language goals. One thing I'm not sure of is the expected ratio of real instruction to entertainment. For example, if I were giving a lesson on English for traveling and tourism, how much of the lesson would be given over to real practice and how much to watching YouTube clips of bungee jumping, jet boating, and what have you. (It may of course be that they have no idea of what sort of lessons they want so I'll have to just do what I feel like, just like in Korea.) Also, it would be good to know what sort of things Chinese teenagers were interested in. Is there no standard formula?

I am unaware of any "standard formula" for teaching teenagers without a curriculum based lesson plan.

One could speculate of course, but even if one did know a topic, say, pop culture, one would still have to know the learner's level, develop delivery and measurement strategies, etc.

That is, if one had clear instructional goals, which is sounds not to be the case here.

I'm afraid my background is in standards based instruction and what you describe seems apart from that, so I cannot offer knowledgeable guidance on something I have never done, studied, or observed.