Contract Slightly Changed; What Are My Courses of Action?

Hi Everyone,

I'm liking my school so far.  My direct manager is from the US and he's nice; his co-manager is Chinese and has been helping us.  The upper manager has a lot of education and is understanding.

However, because they are new, they assigned me to teach English speaking practice classes (i.e. ESL classes) in addition to what was on my contract (English teaching only).  I know I'm only mediocre at best with ESL, compared to what else is out there. 

What is it smart to do? 

Right now, I am trying to be understanding that they are a brand new school.  They have given me some history classes.  If I help pitch in now, is there time to change things and demand only history classes?

My initial gut level reaction is simply to accept the reality that almost all teaching jobs in China do end up including speaking classes at some point, and there is no way at all you are going to avoid using ESL teaching skills in teaching anything at all in China if you want to be effective in what you are teaching. I would be inclined to treat them as a learning experience, which will be easier than including those skills as you will probably need to in teaching just "English" classes or even history classes. The simple reality is that you are teaching ESL students or EFL students whether you acknowledge it or not. I prefer teaching "content" or "writing" classes over the "speaking" classes but to be sure I do know that lessons I learnt on the speaking classes in the early days did help along the way.

If you want to keep the job (and they're still paying you nicely, even if you're teaching English, right?) you don't have much choice except to suck it up and teach what they've scheduled you to teach.

Last semester we had to ask our math teacher to step in and teach English because our regular English teacher had a pretty severe medical issue and we couldn't schedule him. The math teacher didn't like it, but basically we needed him to step up and he did.

Plus? If you want to survive in China you can't be a one-trick pony. Being a specialized history teacher is fine. I teach history too and it is what I vastly prefer teaching. However, if I only taught history and never ever agreed to teach anything else? I'd be specializing myself right out of a job. If you are a native English speaker there is always a chance you may be called upon to teach English.

At the school where you're teaching, a good TOEFL score is going to be much much more important to the students than learning US history. They can't go abroad without TOEFL, period. It is sort of like a Chinese student's version of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. TOEFL will always take precedence over "fun" subjects like history or psychology. And, trust me, you don't want to be teaching history to a bunch of kids who can barely muster 80 on TOEFL anyhow.

The compelling rationale for hiring expensive foreign teachers is we bring something to the country/school/students that a teacher born and bred here can't. Ask anyone and the thing they'll say we offer is English practice. Some few administrators do also suppose "western teaching methods" magically appear alongside us as well. The default, possibly even reasonable position, though is they have most of what they need already covered by being a society in their own right with traditions and methods and what foreigners offer is language. (And IP.) So... outside of actual programs meant to train students for international exams, insisting on being a subject teacher is hard work. What you can do is teach your subject anyway.

What's the main skill a student of history ideally gains in the study of history? Do they bulk up their knowledge base or do they also gain some kind of knowledge handling tools? Is there something specific to dealing with history as a subject that could be reinvented as some kind of asset to communication? If worse comes to worst, how hard is it to remake a history exercise as a language exercise? Let History provide the content, you teach some relevant analytical skill, they learn "English". You'll need to brush up on what it is to teach "English", but a class is a class. Just tailor the delivery and make sure the students expectations get at least some service.

Do you know what anyone actually expects the students to gain from the classes?

CP, the study of history provides a lot of opportunity for learning analytical thinking skills. The ability to make connections, compare and contrast, differentiate between fact and opinion, and to recognize patterns and trends -- these abilities carry over into a lot of different subjects. On top of that, "hard skills," such as learning to recognize and differentiate between different kinds of sources (primary and secondary), synthesize those sources, and finally, properly cite said sources are invaluable for kids studying overseas.

But, make sure they are asking you to just do generic ESL and not TOEFL test prep. If it is test prep that is a whole different ballgame and they will want lessons that are very specifically targeted at boosting the kids' exam scores.

Hi Everyone,

I'm liking my school so far.  My direct manager is from the US and he's nice; his co-manager is Chinese and has been helping us.  The upper manager has a lot of education and is understanding.

However, because they are new, they assigned me to teach English speaking practice classes (i.e. ESL classes) in addition to what was on my contract (English teaching only).  I know I'm only mediocre at best with ESL, compared to what else is out there. 

What is it smart to do? 

Right now, I am trying to be understanding that they are a brand new school.  They have given me some history classes.  If I help pitch in now, is there time to change things and demand only history classes?

Give and take, you have to give more now, so that you can take more later. But, the lesson planning also matters, again if they're asking you to do TOEFL / IELTS / SAT classes, then those are an entirely different style of lesson, and require quite a different form of lesson planning.

I landed in China in 1997 with a strong background in teaching English literature, but no real idea of TESOL. I ended up with classes in Foreign Trade, Tourism, Economics.........but essentially, the medium was the message: English. I learned a lot, enjoyed the ride and set off in a new career direction

What's the poem about the road less travelled?

"English" is used more frequently than ESL/EFL in China so depending on the exact wording of your contract you may very well be obliged to teach what they are asking.  I'd need to see the Chinese to be certain though.

Thanks, guys.

My students are fairly advanced for their ages (7th and 8th grades).

I found out the Speaking Class is closer to debate than rehashing basic things from textbooks.  I'll try it out and see what happens.