Teaching Oral English and English Writing in China

Graham Paterson, Australia

Graham Paterson is a retired mine manager with over 20 years experience in S. E. Asia and the Pacific region, learning four languages in the course of his career. He completed a Certificate in Teaching in 1996 and has since taught in Australia, Fiji, New Guinea, China and Indonesia. E-mail: guggzie@yahoo.com.au

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1. Introduction to oral teaching in China
General comments about classrooms
Goal setting
Exams and marking
Students' names
Translation Exercises
2. Oral classes
My very first lesson in China
Attendance records
Identifying potential Group 'Managers'
The problem of Idioms
First thoughts about Public Speaking
The Poetry Exercise
Play writing
The Oral Workshop book
Spelling contests
Reciting an Essay: The Spirit of the Chinese
The Art of Public Speaking
Statistics
The Economics Class
3. English writing
Format
Exercises
Précis
Free Writing
4.The Second Semester

1. Introduction to oral teaching in China

There are quite a few variables involved with teaching English in China. For one thing, the class size of around 50 students limits the amount of time a teacher can dedicate to any individual student. Another factor is the amount of time the University allocates each week for classes with the foreign teacher. In my case it was two 45 minute lessons a week with a 10 minute break in between. With 15 or 16 weeks in each semester, this equates to about 25 hours per term. When this is coupled to the 11 different classes I taught each week, we are talking about 500 individual students. Taking into account the lesson breaks, this works out to around 21 classroom hours a week, which is not a difficult schedule to follow. There is extra time necessary for lesson preparation and record keeping which, depending on what goals a teacher wishes to set, will amount to something between 5 and 10 hours a week. If a teacher decides to set homework, which is generally not a requirement of any contract arrangements, then that will involve extra, unpaid, time according to how much conscientious effort is applied. I found setting homework for the Writing classes was the most effective way to provide individual, personal, tuition.

General comments about classrooms

From a practical point of view, where group work is adopted with Oral classes, it is far more effective if the classroom has moveable desks and stools rather than fixtures.
Fixed furniture severely restricts the size of groups and their proximity to one another plus, it restricts the access of the teacher to each group. With fixed desks, groupings of 4 students are the most practical, with 6 probably being the maximum. With moveable desks, I was able to divide the class into 4 groups of about 12 students each. It provided good separation of each group as well as ready access for me to move between the different groups.

I always made it a practice to have the students replace the desks and stools at the end of the lesson in preparation for whoever was to use the room next. The supply of teaching aids will vary from school to school and possibly, from classroom to classroom. Our classrooms were equipped with a large blackboard, a small raised platform at the front with a small desk for the teacher. While some teachers chose to sit at the desk in front of the class, I preferred to stay on the move for better interaction with the students. A supply of chalk and a blackboard duster were usually available but occasionally we had to send the students off for replenishment. Most classrooms had a large plastic bottle of drinking water on a securely padlocked dispenser that may, or may not, contain water. It was common practice for students to bring personal bottles of drinking water with them. Although no food was supposed to be brought into the classroom it was quite normal to see students finishing off their breakfast when I had an 8.00 o'clock lesson.

A typical classroom with moveable Desks

None of our classrooms were equipped with heaters for the winter season but most had overhead fans for the summer. Some of these classrooms can get very cold in winter and often the students, and I, remained well rugged up with gloves, scarves and padded coats.

Female students were in the majority in every one of my classes; representing around 75% of the total. It is fairly standard for the men in the class to congregate at the rear and to find the first few rows of desks, empty. With Oral classes this didn't matter because I broke the class up into groups and allocated some of the men to each group. With the Writing classes the pattern tended to change as the students became more comfortable with me and as they became more interested in what they were doing. Sometimes I would arrive at the classroom to find many of the students reading aloud from their Chinese lesson English books. This generated a totally uncoordinated din but, apparently, this was a normal process for the students to memorise passages.

On some of these occasions I would quietly take a seat at one of the empty front desks and let everyone keep at it - it was, after all, English language they were reciting irrespective of the technique used. After a while, some of the students began to look at me to see what I was up to until, eventually, the noise tapered off whereupon I would then congratulate them on their oral English ability and get on with the Oral lesson. As I later found out, all the English Major students had to have a separate set of English text books for their classes with their Chinese teachers. These books contained a liberal dose of Oral exercises that were never used in their Chinese classes. I eventually approached the Dean to suggest the foreign teachers coordinate their Oral lessons with their Chinese counterparts by using the same textbooks. This would seem to have some obvious advantages in relating the Oral work to their other studies and, at the same time, save the students having to buy a separate Oral book. Mobile phones have become an essential attachment to nearly all the students in the University so I made it a rule that they had to be switched off in class time. I never had any problem with this as the request was honoured by the students, probably because it was also demanded by their Chinese teachers.

As for talking Chinese in the Oral English class, this is virtually impossible to stop. I tried to limit it as much as possible but did agree to allow students to help one another if there was a need to explain some point of discussion. Of course, not knowing Chinese, I had no idea what was being discussed anyway. Mostly I put the responsibility on the shoulders of the group 'Managers' and this did prove relatively effective. Occasionally, as I mentioned above, I resorted to 'punishing' offenders by having the group sing a song to the class. Of course the other groups loved this but once the singing started the whole class usually joined in. I did repeatedly appeal to the classes to make the most of their opportunity to practice their English in the one and a half hours of Oral English they had each week. I believe this appeal did eventually sink in to many of the students because the level of Chinese conversation was noticeably less when I had the same classes for the second semester. It may also have been the result of the students becoming more accustomed to my accent and the way the lessons were presented.

Goal setting

Setting goals is really the crux of the matter and that seems to be an individual choice left largely to the foreign teacher.

From discussions on the "teflchina" forum, it seems fairly common that foreign teachers are given few guidelines as to how they conduct their lessons. In my case I was offered the choice of two "Oral Workshop" books, both printed in China, and asked to select one to be used for about 70% of the course. In the case of the Writing classes, I was given one text book to use as I saw fit. In the case of the Economics class, I was given no guidelines at all.

All the books were in English but the Oral books did have some explanations, and word definitions, written in Chinese. The students are required to purchase their own copies of the appropriate books but only about 60% of the students did so. In my view, goal setting is a matter of philosophy. We need to ask ourselves - what are we trying to achieve during our stay in China? For me, the main purpose in coming to China was to help the students as much as I could and to learn what I could about the Chinese culture. Seeing as much of China as possible was not a principle aim so, I was more than satisfied with the travel opportunities that did arise. The most difficult factor to build into the goal setting was how to motivate the students. Not knowing the ability, or commitment, of any of the students the development of ways to motivate them has to be left until one becomes familiar with each of the classes. As with any class, there will always be a range of ability and different levels of interest and this will vary from class to class. It occurred to me that one way to establish some measure of these unknowns was to focus on why they were doing this course at the University.

I therefore decided, at the first lesson, to set every class three questions which were to be answered as written home work for the following week. The questions I wrote on the blackboard were:

• "Why are you learning English?"
• "What do you intend to do with your English when you graduate?"
• "What pass mark do you intend to aim for in Oral/Written English?"

Exams and marking

This last question was based on the fact that I explained to each class how their marks would be awarded at the end of each semester. They could get 30% from their attendance record for the semester, the Oral classes could get another 25% from the occasional written homework to be set, including the above three questions. The remaining 45% would come from their final test at the end of the term. I confirmed that 65% was the minimum pass mark and I also set the rules for attendance. If I received a note, or message, explaining their absence, then they would not lose marks but, if I heard nothing, then their record would be marked as absent. The same rules applied to the Writing classes except I intended to set weekly written homework assignments that would count toward their final marks. As a result, their homework percentage was set at 45% and their final test providing the remaining 25%. This arrangement was agreed, in advance, with the English Department.

At some schools the Oral and Written English courses do not carry much weight in the overall exam process and, consequently, are not taken seriously by the students. The Xiaogan University did rate the courses important in terms of the final results. There is a fairly common rumour going around China that the foreign teachers are not supposed to fail any student. In my experience, not once did the English Department make any suggestion along those lines and, when I did fail three students at the end of the first semester, the Dean said the marks I gave could not be changed. On one occasion, I had the mother of one of the students approach me to change the result but, when I showed her the attendance record she made sure he showed up at every lesson for the following semester.

Students' names

It is standard practice for all English Major Students to have an English name. Mostly this is decided in their first year at University unless they have already adopted one in Middle school. There is a lot of discussion about how these names should be selected but it is usually up to the foreign teacher to organise a system. As I only had 2nd and 3rd year students, all of them already had their English name. Two small problems can arise regarding these names. Firstly, some of the same names are duplicated in the different classes so we can finish up with 4 or 5 'Shirley's' amongst the different classes. This tends to lead to confusion in identifying which 'Shirley' we are talking to. The second minor problem occurs when some students decide to change their English name in the course of the semester. This necessitates changing the records but it also acts as a prompt in helping to remember the name and the student.

Getting to remember the names of 500 students, whom we mostly see once a week, is a problem that is not easily solved. One teacher resorted to taking group photos of his 'freshman' classes and having the prints blown up to allow passport size portraits to be cut for each student. He then made up a set of student cards to relate the names to the faces. This is as good a system as any but it still requires a well developed, memory ability. Normally, this photography has to be done at the teacher's expense and is unlikely to be compensated by the school. Whenever I set homework I always made it a practice to return the work individually to the students by calling their name. This was very effective with the writing classes as I also spoke to each student individually about the comments I had made on their work.

With the Oral classes, I always had the 'Managers' of the groups' use the names of the students to whom they asked questions or called on to participate in the exercise. It is just as likely that the students do not know many of the English names of fellow students in the class so this practice helped both them and me.

An approach another teacher used to allocate English names to his 'freshman' classes was to write a list of names on the blackboard and have the students cross one off as it was selected. This system avoided duplicating names but did not prevent students adopting another preferred name that may not have been on the list. It is useful to explain the value of a suitable English name and point out why some names can be inappropriate, especially if the student is likely to have contact with native speakers in the future. Virtually every Chinese name has a meaning whereas the meaning of many English names is lost in obscurity. There are some WebPages on the Internet that do list the original meaning of most names and this can be useful when asked for explanations about names.

Each teacher is supposed to be given a list showing the names and student number of each student in the respective classes. At the beginning I did not know this was supposed to happen because nobody came forth with such a list. When it did eventually turn up all the names were written in Chinese characters which made it useless to me. In the meantime I devised my own method of finding out who was in the class. I bought a few cheap lined notebooks and set up the first few pages to allow for 2 students to a page. I wrote the headings:

• English Name
• Chinese Name (in Pinyin - not Chinese characters.)
• Date of Birth
• Student Number

My intention was to use these books as a record for the performance of each student and whatever comments appropriate about their needs and ability.
I passed these around the class and, after the first few students had filled in the details, the other students wrote in the headings and completed the information. This proved to be a very useful system for keeping track of the students and it also allowed me to interpret the official student list for both their English names and the pronunciation of their Chinese name. The reason for including the Birthdays was to wish the respective students a "Happy Birthday" during the lesson.

Translation Exercises

Quite a few of the students had expressed a hope of becoming interpreters when they graduate so, it seemed appropriate to incorporate some translation work into the program. I tried several different approached with the groups. One idea was to use a Chinese language book I had brought with me where they had the passages written in Chinese characters, then Pinyin and with a proper, grammatical, English translation. One of the students would read a selected passage to the class and each group had to agree on a translation and write it on the blackboard. This was a valuable exercise because each translation was invariably different and often gave different meanings from the way the words were used.

Another exercise I tried was to do a role play with each group where one student took the part of a prominent Chinese person being interviewed through an interpreter. The 'reporter' only spoke English and the interpreter had to translate both ways. This always seemed to turn into a hilarious skit but, as I did not know Chinese, I did not know what was being said and how it was being translated. The group took it in turns by rotating the three students so different questions were asked and answered. Translation work is an important part in understanding how English is used and it can apply to the Writing classes just as much as to the Oral classes. I did much the same thing with the Writing classes by having a student dictate a Chinese passage and then randomly select a few students to copy their translations on the blackboard for discussion with the whole class.

2. Oral classes

The goal I set for the Oral classes was to maximise the time for each student to actually talk English in the classroom. This meant the less talking I did the more talking the students could do. In terms of communication, listening is as important as talking and this led me to the idea of group discussion, as I mentioned above.

My very first lesson in China

For the first two forty-five minute lessons I did all the talking. I started off by introducing myself and providing the class with a brief background of my experience; a summary of Australia, languages I had learnt and places I had been.
I then gave the class a summary of the program for the semester trying to emphasise the limited time they would have in the classroom with their foreign teacher and the need to practice their English every day. I had found out from other teachers that most students were 'afraid' to use English outside the classroom and, consequently, they did very little practice in their own time. The Chinese classes attended by the English Majors dealt, almost exclusively, with the technical aspects of the language with little, or no, oral work at all. The University did have audio laboratories where the students listen to tapes but do not get to respond orally. Throughout the semester, I continued to stress the need for everyday practice of the language and also encouraged all the students to attend every Sunday's English Corner.

During this first lesson I dwelt on accents, and pronunciation, because my Australian accent was new to everyone and I understood it would take a little while for the students to get used to it. Contrary to some schools of thought, I believe it is important to speak a little slower than normal when speaking to second language learners but, just as important, is the need to speak clearly and be able to project your voice to those at the back of the class. Having had to learn four other languages during my career, I know for a fact that I always had problems when the native speakers spoke at their normal speed.

I introduced the selected Oral Workshop book to the class and explained how we planned to use it and that everyone was required to obtain a copy before next week's lesson. I then listed the sort of program we would be following during the semester which would include:

• Discussions and debates
• Cultural subjects
• Role playing
• Poetry
• Psychology of learning methods and memory techniques
• Aspects of teaching (Because the majority of students will be teachers)
• Public Speaking (Introduced later)

Attendance records

Having explained the importance of attendance in the allocation of marks, it occurred to me that I would need a system to keep the record of attendance. The simplest idea I could come up with was to use another of the cheap lined notebooks and rule up four columns to a page. Each student was to write their English name in one column and their student number in the adjacent column. The students would simply pass the book around the class and, when everybody had signed, I would collect it for recording in the class record. The beauty of this system was that it did not take up any lesson time and was relatively foolproof.

I made it the practice to hand this book to the nearest student at the beginning of each lesson and from there it automatically did the rounds of the class. The system worked very well because a simple head count was enough to confirm that the number of names conformed to the number of students present. When an anomaly occurred I announced that we had some 'ghosts' in the class and I needed to do a roll call. Usually I could tell from the writing who had done a 'double up' but the roll call avoided pin-pointing the 'culprit' in front of the class. After a couple of roll calls this put an end to people signing in for anyone else and resulted in proper messages, and notes, when people were absent. Another benefit of the roll call was in providing the opportunity to relate names to faces.
Later in the day, or during the lesson break, I would transfer the attendance to the class summary sheet that covered all the lessons of the semester. I used this latter sheet to calculate the percentages to be allocated for total attendance.

The Attendance Record Sheet

Identifying potential Group 'Managers'

Once I had the answers in for the first lot of homework I was able to get a better idea of the different standards within each class. Some responses contained the absolute minimum replies while other wrote a couple of pages. It was fairly easy to assess those students who possessed a better understanding of English although, as I was to discover, this did not always relate to their oral ability. Nor did it always relate to their ability to 'manage' a group which was one of the reasons for using this approach. Out of a class of 50 students I found that 20% to 25% had a good command of English, about 55% to 60% were average and around 15% were having difficulties.
I listed the 10 or 12 better students in each class and, in the initial instance, selected 4 to 'manage' the groups but after first asking for volunteers. As I rotated between each group I was able to see how the 'Managers' were coping because this was a new experience for most of the class. I rotated the 'Managers' over the first few lessons because there was a definite reluctance to volunteer but later, as the classes became accustomed to the system, I either had a student volunteer or the group would nominate one of their members to the position.
Overall, I found this system of "managed" groups about as effective as I could get to ensure everyone's participation. I varied each lesson from week to week but, once I had decided on the approach, it was used for all the classes during that week. The weekly program could be easily amended from class to class as we found ways to improve the presentation.

The problem of Idioms

As mentioned above, I soon discovered the confusion caused by the use of idioms in the English language. This led me to adopt the practice of starting each lesson by writing a list of idioms, and their meanings, on the blackboard. Later I added a "Saying for the Week" and wrote some meaningful expression, or quote, that might give the students a little food for thought. We usually spent about 10 minutes on this but it was noticeable how it generated questions on the use of the idioms.
This practise proved popular as confirmed by the feedback I received from subsequent homework questions when I asked for their views on the lessons.
While there is a need for variety in most things we do, there is also a need for familiarity because; most of us are creatures of habit to a certain extent.
I believe this is a valuable insight to lesson planning where we can start off with something that is useful, and familiar, before branching off into things new and different.

First thoughts about Public Speaking

During the course of this first semester I began to realise how prevalent was this attitude relating to 'shyness', 'fear of making a mistake' and concern about pronunciation. As I thought about ways to overcome some of these problems it occurred to me that the students might benefit from learning the principles for the art of Public Speaking.

Public Speaking is not something you can thrust on people without warning so I decided to develop a strategy to progressively illustrate the principles through practical exercises. Vocabulary was really not a problem because each student knew several thousand words - using the words in the right context was the problem. Similarly, pronunciation was not a major problem because all the students would have a natural Chinese accent. Normally, pronunciation errors do not often lead to misunderstanding in the context of a reasonably constructed sentence. The way words are used is far more important to the student of a second language than the way they are pronounced.

The Poetry Exercise

I have long believed that poetry can be a very effective tool in learning English, particularly in selecting rhyming words to make a meaningful poem. I first tried this with my Sunday classes of youngsters and was really impressed with the effort of a little 10 year old girl. She wrote this four line poem:

I decided to try poetry with my University students by using their renowned ability to memorise passages. I gave each class 4 lines from Rudyard Kipling's poem "If" to learn in the course of each week. I wrote the lines on the blackboard then recited the poem to each class, emphasising the tone, rhythm, pace and expression. I explained the meaning of the lines as the students copied them into their notebooks then offered the punch line that, next week I would be randomly selecting students to recite the lines to the class.

In practice, I first called for volunteers the following week and was pleasantly surprised with the response because most of the class had made the effort to memorise the lines. Usually, I limited the recitals to 5 students and offered genuine praise to each for their performance but this allowed me to introduce aspects of voice projection, body language and enthusiasm. As the weeks went on we discussed how to achieve confidence by knowing what needed to be said. Poetry is an excellent medium for illustrating the value of the pause and the effect voice tone has on a speech. When we finally got through the whole poem after 4 weeks, several of the students volunteered to recite the complete poem to the class.

I chose the poem because of its meaning, its rhyming properties and, quite simply, because I like it.

Play writing

Staying on the theme of public speaking I tried out the idea of having each group put on a 10 minute play. The first lesson was set aside for each group to come up with a script using at least four of their members to perform a short skit in the second lesson. I offered some suggested themes by writing a few ideas on the blackboard such as, going to a restaurant, going shopping, a job interview, being arrested and tried or being involved in an accident.
The groups were free to use whatever theme they liked and they had to make use of things available in the classroom for props.
Some of the performances were really impressive for such short notice and the limited props available. The classes were shown a few of the rudimentary rules about acting such as, not turning their back to the audience and projecting their voices so that everyone could hear what was said. It was quite amazing how the members worked as a group in planning what they would portray and in setting the scenes for their skits.
This turned out to be a very popular exercise and I was asked to repeat the idea which we did in the next semester. The first group to perform were always the 'guinea pigs' and the performances tended to improve as they learnt from the group before. I used these exercise to emphasise there was no need to have any "fear" about speaking out in front of their class mates. Everyone was here to learn and this was the perfect way to practice. I repeated that message at every opportunity I could as part of the 'softening up' process before officially springing the idea of Public Speaking on them.

The Oral Workshop book

As we were committed to using this book, supposedly, for the greater part of the course, I purposely selected lessons that had a cultural aspect or could lead into an issue pertinent to the students. A couple of examples are, one dealing with setting the dining room table and the other concerning a woman who had been passed over for promotion.

The first exercise led into a discussion about English table manners, then manners generally and cultural differences between Chinese and English customs. The second exercise dealt with the issue of discrimination in the work place and broadened to discrimination generally before going back to workplace practices and the differences between Australia and China. We also set up a mini debate between the four groups on the best way to eliminate discrimination. All the exercises in the book consisted of dialogue between groups of people and the 'Managers' of each group allocated the separate roles to members of the group in rotation. Every body in the group had to take on a role and then had to answer some of the questions included as part of the exercise.

As the teacher, I would move from group to group and listen to the students as they read the dialogue or answered the questions put to them by their "Manager." I would explain any points that were unclear and occasionally help with pronunciation if the 'Manager' didn't pick it up. The students were not allowed to refer to the book when answering the question put to them as the exercise had as much to do with comprehension as it did with speaking. There have been a number of complaints about this Oral Workshop book which, in part, are justified but, if used as a means to developing ideas and discussion, it can be useful. I varied the question routine by having each group devise its own set of 12 questions and then passing this list onto the adjoining group to answer. Each person in each group had to come up with a question and each person had to answer one.

The 'Managers' became quite adept at organising these sort of modifications. In part, this was because most of the groups tended to stick together each lesson and only 2 or 3 of the group would volunteer to be the 'Manager'. Unless I appointed them, most would not try but those that did found it gave them confidence and useful experience.
Another variation in the use of the textbook was to let each group select the exercise for the lesson. The groups usually chose different exercises after coming to agreement between each other. Once the various exercises were completed we developed further discussion as to why the particular exercise was selected. The first time I tried this proved very successful in generating conversation in the groups, and then between the groups, which is the reason I repeated the process later in the semester.
I am not sure if these tactics would apply with 'freshman' classes but they seemed to work with 2^nd and 3^rd year students.

Spelling contests

Another idea I adapted from the Internet was to organise Spelling Contests between the groups. The first time I tried this I wrote out 4 lists of 24 words and had each group 'Manager' select a list, sight unseen.

The way the contest was conducted was to have one student from each group go to the adjacent group and tell them the word which, a student from that group then had to write correctly on the blackboard. I had divided the blackboard into 4 columns and explained the system to be used for the contest and, especially, the prohibition on using electronic dictionaries. Each group had to decide how to spell the word, given to them verbally from the adjacent group, and they could also speak to the person writing the word on the blackboard if it was misspelt. Using 24 words in the list meant that each student had to pass on 2 words to the adjacent group and each student had to write 2 words on the blackboard. The first time we tried this, the group 'Managers' did a great job in getting everyone involved.

When all the words had been written on the blackboard I did the count to see which group had spelled the most words correctly. This proved to be a very popular contest with all the classes because it generated a lot of activity and a lot of conversation. The contest can be completed comfortably in one 45 minute lesson and it was always a 'fun' competition. The next time we tried it, each group had to make up their own list of 24 words without using the electronic dictionaries. This led to the introduction of a lot more complex words as each group tried to make life difficult for the adjoining group. If a group didn't understand the word they were given, they could ask the 'messenger' to explain its meaning.

Reciting an Essay: The Spirit of the Chinese

In keeping with the theme leading up to Public Speaking, I demonstrated, and explained, how to prepare a talk and how to practice from notes. Again we discussed body language and the value of a pause when reciting a passage. For the exercise, I selected the essay on "The spirit of the Chinese" because of its historical content and its relevance to the students. This essay was then typed in large, double spaced, print with extra spaces at the commas and the end of each sentence. The full essay, set out in this manner, was contained in 9 pages.
This was not a group exercise so; I walked around the class, displaying the pages to all the students. I explained how we would be using the notes but first gave a demonstration to illustrate the technique of reciting, the use of the pause and the use of body language. The technique that was particularly emphasised was to avoid reading word for word from the page. The students should try to take in a phrase at a time and then recite it while looking at the audience and not at the paper in front of them. By making use of the pause and not rushing their speech, they have time to do this. They were also shown how to use the paper in their hand to emphasise a point by using body language and holding the page up in the air or, as the passage dictates.

The 9 pages were then distributed at random around the class and the student with page one came to the front of the class and read that part of the essay. I gave a bit of prompting with the first few students but, thereafter, the class got into the swing of it and started to encourage, and applaud, the good presentations. After each student had recited their page they would pass it on to anyone they chose and that person would take their place at the front of the room when their passage was due. Each student had a little time to digest what they were to recite and to look at the pauses shown on their page.

We got through three complete recitations inside the 45 minute lesson but, although only 27 students got to speak, the whole class began to understand a little more about the art of Public Speaking. Some of the students were naturals at this 'imposition' and others had a sense of humour which they illustrated through some exaggerated body language. It turned out a very good activity in helping to submerge some of the unfounded 'fear' associated with speaking English. While it was 'fun' and everybody had a few laughs, it was also a topic that was of direct interest to the students and dealt with a bit of history that very few knew.

The essay has been written in large text for the purpose of being read aloud as training in Public Speaking. Spaces are deliberately placed in the sentences to emphasise 'pauses' and certain words are underlined to emphasise 'stress'. The application of these notes, as used in the classes, was first to have the teacher read the whole text, clearly, with emphasis, with pauses, and with the appropriate use of 'body language' while avoiding reading directly from the script. The pages are then randomly distributed around the class and the students take it in turn to read their respective page in numerical order. Having read their page, they then pass it on to any other student they choose. The teacher can offer some encouragement, and help, where appropriate. Each student has a short period to digest the page they will read while also being able to observe the presentation of the other students.

The Art of Public Speaking

About two thirds the way through the semester I introduced the subject of Public Speaking by telling the classes that Public Speaking was easy if they understood the principles of SECS. By announcing the need to understand 'sex' and then writing it on the blackboard in big letters, it seemed to arouse a degree of curiosity. Admittedly, this subject came easier to me because I had already given short courses on Public Speaking and had written a booklet entitled, "SECS and the Art of Public Speaking." I subsequently adapted this booklet to the Chinese environment and a copy can be obtained on request to the author.

As the meaning of the acronym 'SECS' was explained, I tied it into the work we had done in previous lessons and how it would help improve a persons speaking ability. SECS stands for:

• S - sincerity - to speak well we have to be sincere and believe in what we are saying.
• E - enthusiasm - we need to be enthusiastic about what we want to say - if we are not enthusiastic then the audience certainly won't be.
• C - confidence and conviction - we need confidence in speaking to an audience, whether it is one person or one hundred. We have to be convinced that what we have to say is right and proper and we have to say it with confidence. Both these attributes come from Preparation and Practice.
• S - simplicity - we need to keep the talk straight forward, to the point and to avoid complicated words, or phrasing, that tend to confuse an audience.

In order to relate this directly to each student's future needs, I used the example of a job interview where each of the SECS principles applied. The process of preparing for a job interview was exactly the same as preparing to speak to an audience. I then announced that the final test in Oral English at the end of the semester would be based on a 3 minute speech that each student would present to the class.

The above principles were to be covered, in detail, over the coming weeks and everyone would have the opportunity of further practice in front of the class. Step by step over the next few lessons, details of Preparation, Planning and Practice were explained, along the lines set out in the Appendix below. When it came to the time to commence the 'exam' for the end of the term, all the students had been given a good grounding on preparation and presentation for their 'test' plus the opportunity of practising in front of their class and their respective groups.

With an average of 48 students to test in each Oral class, I opted to do this in blocks of 12 students a lesson, starting in numerical sequence by their student number. Out of fairness, I gave each group a list of topics to choose from the week before, thus allowing each student the same time to prepare, and practice, their speech. Students were not allowed to use notes during their speech but could use 'flash' cards, as prompts, if they wanted. The 12 speeches were completed in one 45 minute lesson and, as a reward; part of a film was shown in the second 45 minutes. These 'exams were conducted over the last 4 weeks of my semester but, the students then had a week to prepare for their other official exams set by their Chinese teachers.

Each speech was assessed on the basis of seven criteria which had been explained to each class prior to starting the 'exams'. These criteria, each in the range of 1 to 10, were:

• Presentation
• Pronunciation
• Preparation and Planning
• Voice Projection
• Fluency
• Enthusiasm
• Quality of the speech

As I was the sole judge of each presentation, this lent a degree of uniformity to the marks. I had thought about allowing questions from the audience at the end of each speech but decided against this because the concept of a speech, as an exam, was new to everyone. I had also considered having the audience register a vote for their choice of the best speech but deferred on this to avoid further complicating the process. The audience participated by way of applauding the speakers and, from my discussions with students after the lessons; they were clearly able to discern the better speeches.

The Oral Speech score sheet

For something so new, I was very impressed with the quality of the talks and the ability of the speakers. There were a few nervous starts and a few speeches that were obviously memorised but, on the whole, most students made a good attempt. The most common weakness was in the ability to use their body language and impart a sense of enthusiasm for what they had to say. Pronunciation was never a significant problem from any of the speeches although there were the occasional words that had to be interpreted.

One of the side benefits that arose from using a speech as a means of testing the students, was its help in alleviating their 'fears' about speaking English and it produced an obvious, and tangible, boost to their confidence. It can be a fairly daunting task to get up in front of an audience, even though it is your classmates and friends, and give a speech, the more so, when the speech is not in your native tongue.
Whilst there are some reservations about using this system to test the students, I believe it is a valid test because of its uniformity in assessment, its measure of each student's commitment, and ability, and its measure of how well a student can use the English language. Any good speech needs to be prepared, planned and practised and this, rather than detracting from the value of the test, in my view, adds to the value. Having students give a speech from a random subject or, with minimal time for preparation, is unfair because it benefits the quick witted and penalises the more careful and studious candidates.

The more common Oral test seems to involve a one on one with the teacher or, maybe, two students with the teacher, in a question and answer routine. There is nothing wrong with this approach other than it has to be done in a semi private manner and is not open to the class in the way Public Speaking tests are.

An unexpected request arose from adopting this method because I was asked to teach Public Speaking to a class of third and fourth year, non English Majors, throughout the next semester. In view of the general support for this testing approach from the students and the Department, I opted to use it again for the final exam. We continued to provide training and opportunities during the semester and the classes were subsequently rewarded with a measurable improvement in their Oral English.

Statistics

The Statistical Report

By adopting the same format to calculate the marks of both semesters, it gave us the information to make a valid study of the class statistics. Apparently, this was the first time the Department had been presented with this sort of report and, both the Dean and Assistant Dean were greatly interested. A summary of the statistics, comparing the first Semester with the second one, is shown in the excerpt from my memo to the Department. The statistics were calculated for all the Oral classes as well as the Writing classes. I did look at the students that showed adverse results and, in every case; it was due to a drop off in attendance coupled with not doing the set homework.

From the Oral classes, the statistics show that 52% of the students improved their Oral English ability while, 41% showed no improvement and 9% seemed to have gone backward. The significant facts regarding the Oral classes are as follows: 1 student did not pass the first Semester but all passed the final Semester. 10 students, previously in the 60%-70% range improved to a higher level while 53 students in the 70%-80% range improved to the next level. One of the pleasing things was that 3 students scored in the 90+% level compared to none in the first Semester. In the case of the Writing Classes, 65% showed definite improvement, with 18% remaining static and 18% getting worse. In the first Semester, there were 2 students in the writing classes who did not achieve 60%, compared to 1 the final Semester. 22 Students improved their writing skills from the 60%-70% range to a higher level. 17 students improved from the 70%-80% level to the next range with 3 students scoring higher than 90+%

In essence, these results are probably realistic when considering the size of the classes and the limited time allocated each week. Any sort of dramatic improvement for a class as a whole, cannot reasonable be expected. Every class will have its quota of 'good' students along with a larger middle group of 'average' students and, at the lower end of the scale, the students of lesser ability, or interest. The key to the validity of a statistical analysis is the ability to compare like with like. In having the opportunity to apply the same type of test at the end of each semester, coupled with uniformity in assessment, provides the basis for a valid comparison of each student's ability.

The Economics Class

As mentioned above, there were no specific guidelines given for this class other than to help improve their oral English. The course structure was much the same as the course for the English Major students except it was slanted towards using Business English. This class was not required to use the Oral Workshop book so I replaced this with special lessons that could be adapted from some Business English sites on the Internet. A particularly good site is www.onestopenglish.com because, it provides lesson ideas for a lot of topical business issues. As with all the Oral classes, I had no idea as to their English speaking ability and, this was compounded in the case of the Economics class, because I had no idea about their level of economic knowledge.
My friend, Tiger, who had achieved his Batchelor's degree in Economics at the Wuhan University, proved very helpful with advice in organising lessons for this class. He explained that some of the things I planned to use were beyond their current level of study. As it turned out, the English speaking ability of this class was relatively good and, what was more important, some of the students, Windy and Tommy in particular, were honest and straight forward when I asked them for an assessment of the lessons.

As it happened, I only had this class for one semester because the University appointed another Australian to teach Business English for the second semester.

3. English writing

In many ways, the writing classes are a lot easier to teach but, a lot more time consuming in imparting a tangible benefit to the students. As with the Oral classes, the first issue was to get some idea of the English ability of the students so I adopted the same approach for their first lesson. With these classes there was no requirement to use a group technique nor select 'Managers' as writing relies on individual effort. However, I did use the students to cross check each other's work before handing it in or, in marking some of the exercises as I gave the answers.

For the first semester we selectively used the textbook for most of the lessons. From the answers to the three questions I set at the first lesson it was immediately noticeable that punctuation was a common problem for a lot of students. The textbook dealt with punctuation near the end so it became one of the early lessons on the program. The textbook was relatively good as it interspersed practical advice in amongst interesting articles to which thoughtful exercises were added. It became apparent, very early, that there would be little opportunity for the teacher to provide any significant personal instruction to a class of 50 students in the hour and a half we had each week. For this reason I chose to set homework and use that to give each student personal comments, and suggestions, about their writing. One of the things I did recommend was that the students should keep a diary, in English, but I did not make this compulsory. I offered to review this if asked but made clear that it would not be used to award marks.

First though, we had to establish the ground rules. One of the rules I established was that I would not be teaching grammar; I would correct their grammar in their work but teaching grammar was the responsibility of their Chinese teachers. I also explained I was not going to deduct marks for spelling errors; what I would be looking for was the correct use of the words even if they were misspelt. Again I would correct spelling errors but it was up to the students to try and avoid repeating the mistakes. Another rule was that every student had to have two homework exercise books so they could do the week's homework while I marked the previous week. As much as possible, I avoided using grammar terms preferring to talk about 'naming' words, or 'doing' words and 'joining' words. This relates the words to their use in the language rather than in the context of the technical structure.

Format

The textbook proved useful in helping establish some of the rules because, the first chapter dealt with the format for writing. This required all work to be done using border columns down each side of the page, proper titles to be used for headings, rules about hyphenating and an extra one I added; to write on every second line. This allowed me to use the space to make changes or comments. Another rule I had to add was to write on every other page because; the pages of some of the exercise books were so thin it was almost impossible to read if both sides were used. Some of this was a new concept to a few of the students and it took a little while for them to get the message, especially when I sent their work back without comments.

Exercises

One of the first exercises we did dealt with summarising. I used the Chapters of the textbook as the example by underlining the selected sentences, or phrases, that were considered important. The homework set for the week was for the students to write their summaries for the first two chapters on the textbook.
During this first semester we covered issues such as - conciseness - rewriting given sentences in past, present or future tense as the case may be - joining short sentences by using conjunctions - rewriting a group of sentences in their correct chronological order - and converting sentences from singular to plural.
Most of these exercises were not part of the textbook although, in some cases, the issues were mentioned in passing.
A lot of these exercises had to be developed as I started to get feedback from the homework. The problem areas of tenses, singular and plural, use of the "little" words in English and the propensity for using short sentences, came to light from the homework.
These problems were common and wide spread, in the Oral classes as well as the Writing classes. This seemed peculiar to me because they represent some of the major differences between the structure of the Chinese language and the English language. One would have expected these differences to be highlighted in the teaching of English but, although many students told me they did 'know' about these differences, they did not seem able to apply them adequately.

Précis

There were a number of very good articles in the textbook which we used as homework exercises by having the students condense them to a third, or quarter, of their length. With all such 'free' writing, the students were asked to use their own expressions and not copy word for word from the text. This type of exercise provides a very good insight to a student's ability in the use of the English language. One of the things this sort of writing revealed was how often elaborate words were used when simpler expressions would have been better. One of the more difficult exercises was getting the students to condense the chapter on, 'Figures of Speech,' without using the technical terms applied to the various 'Figures.' This was done deliberately in the hope the students would get a better understanding about using the 'Figures' rather than worrying about just knowing their correct technical name. As I pointed out to the classes, there were some terms in their textbook that I had never heard of and have never needed to know, let alone use.

Free Writing

The first 'free' writing exercise was set early in the semester to write a minimum of 500 words about the week's holiday to celebrate China's National Day. The topic was the only stipulation and the content was left to the students. 'Free' writing provides a very good assessment of one's ability and setting this exercise at the beginning of the term provided a base for comparing later exercises. The second major 'free' writing exercise was to write 500 words, this time on the subject of a video on "Outback Australia" that was shown to all the classes. We had to arrange the use of the 'Meeting Room', in the main Admin block, as this was the only room equipped with a TV and Video Player.
As this exercise was assigned near the end of the term the students were told it would represent their end of term exam. All the standard rules applied and I would mark their work, and return it, before the end of the semester.
The Department did not make any special conditions for the exam at the end of this first term as the second semester is the one that carries the weight.

4.The Second Semester

The problem I had with the first Semester was, to me, the lack of focus for the writing. Doing, basically, disconnected exercises lacked a sense of continuity and the ability to motivate writers. Over the Spring Festival holiday, I came up with the idea of having everyone write an ongoing story throughout the whole semester. The concept was to write one chapter of 300 to 500 words each week which I would mark and comment upon with suggestions for different ways to express the ideas. The students were to obtain three exercise books at the start of the term; two of these books would be used for their weekly chapter and the third book would be for transcribing all their amended chapters to make up the complete story. They would then hand in this third book at the end of the semester and it would represent their final exam.

The last week was set aside for the completion of this book to allow for proof reading and making any changes they thought necessary. At the first lesson of the semester I announced the idea to the dismay of some and the delight of others. Over the next few lessons the classes were given the basics of story telling, how to outline their story idea, how to plan each chapter, how to work out the time frame for the story line and, most important, the need to proofread their work before handing it in for marking. We dealt with characterisation, narrative, descriptive writing, plot, climax, timing and chronology.

I often had students swap their weekly chapters and proof read each other's work. This proved a very good practice because each student saw how others expressed themselves and also made them more aware of the errors they made. Although one student wrote me to say he thought I must be crazy because he couldn't write a story in Chinese, let alone English. I wrote back telling him to write about his life at the University each week and this is what he finished up doing. As he went along he started mixing in various articles about issues that were important to him. He finished up among the better writers in the class.

As the weeks passed there was a definite awakening of interest and the improvement in the writing became obvious. I always distributed the homework personally to each student in the class and spoke to them about the comments I had made or some aspect of their story. Students began to show a lot of interest in each other's work and the different comments I made and it became commonplace for the students to ask me about aspects of their story either, during the lesson, at the break or after the lesson.

The major problem with this approach is the time it takes to mark, and comment, on each chapter. On average, I found it took and extra 24 hours a week to mark all the homework. Sometimes I would write a whole page of comments where it was necessary to properly explain an issue. Other times, the point was too complex to describe and I told the student I would explain the point personally. The extra hours didn't worry me because I was there to help the students and I felt this was the best way to achieve this. It is not the sort of thing other teachers might take on and it certainly wasn't part of the job description but, it was effective.

Each week there was always some unusual aspects of English that would arise from the homework and, without mentioning names, I used these as examples to share with the classes. Sometimes it was and exceptionally good piece of writing, other times, an original and unusual way of expressing the idea. There were also examples of writing where the idea was not clear or, the words could be interpreted in different ways. Some of these examples could become quite sophisticated and needed a simpler way of expressing the intention. The three common problems of tense, singular and plural, and the "little" words of English were hammered home and I often used the blackboard to have the students' correct deliberate grammatical error I made in the sentences.

When it came to the "final exam" I was immensely impressed with the results displayed in the stories presented by all the students. Many students were amazed that they had been able to create something which was unique, and original, to them, especially after the doubts expressed at the beginning of the semester. Although the Department had originally agreed with my marking proposals for the semester, at the last moment they threw in a separate written exam for the Writing students. I had already told my classes how they would be marked so I was not too pleased with this amendment. I complained to the Dean but, because we had a couple of other foreign teachers with writing classes for this last semester, the Department had to have a uniform test. We eventually compromised and, because I was the one marking these tests for my classes, the Department would accept what marks I gave. Although I formally marked this second test properly, I was impressed with the correspondence between those results and the marks I awarded from the original program. This was a very satisfying experiment for myself and all the students, many of whom thanked me for the help I had given them during the semester. Having the same classes over the two semesters allowed a realistic evaluation of each student's improvement.

Please check the Creative Methodology for the Classroom course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Creative Writing course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Pronunciation course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Drama Course course at Pilgrims website.