Editorial
Mario Rinvolucri has written about his reflections on teaching Chinese learners among others in Teacher-training in the Dark: Ignorant Westerner Works with Top Quality EFL Teachers from China, HLT Issue 4; August 2008

Why Teach Music Well and Language Badly in China?

Mario Rinvolucri, Pilgrims UK

Mario Rinvolucri teacher, teacher trainer and author. He has worked for Pilgrims for over 30 years and used to edit Humanising Language Teaching. Regularly contributes to The Teacher Trainer Journal. His recent books include: Culture in our classrooms with Jill Johnson, Delta Books, Creative Writing, with Christine Frank, Helbling, Multiple Intelligences in EFL, with Herbert Puchta, Helbling, Unlocking Self-Expression through NLP, with Judy Baker, Delta Books, New edition of Vocabulary, with John Morgan, OUP, Humanising your Coursebook, Delta Books, Using the Mother Tongue, with Sheelagh Deller, Delta Books, Ways of Doing, with Paul Davis and Barbara Garside, CUP, Imagine That with Herbert Puchta and Jane Arnold, Helbling, Creative Writing with Christine Frank, Helbling. Mario's first CD Rom for students, Mindgame, was written with Isobel Fletcher de Tellez, and engineered and published by Clarity, Hong Kong in 2000. E-mail: mario@pilgrims.co.uk

On a visit to Beijing in October 2009 I had the privilege and honour to be part of a NAFLE-IATEFL group of foreign lecturers who visited the Beijing Palace of Children and observed three lessons offered by the municipality to students who had shown talent in a particular subject. ( The Children’s Palace is a sort of special, high-fliers’ Saturday school)

We were first invited to watch a ballet class for five year olds. The children were fully occupied moving to the music and expressing themselves in a sweet, disciplined way. The teacher had full control of her class and offered them a new communal way of expressing their inner selves. These tiny tots were fully occupied at a somatic, affective, unconscious, and musical level. In M.I. terms they were working in their musical, kinaesthetic, spatial and interpersonal intelligences. The atmosphere was so inviting I found it hard not to openly follow the music and imitate the movements myself ! I felt sucked in!

We then went to an English class.

The teacher seemed keen to check whether these 13 year olds had done their vocabulary homework. He said a word in English, pointed to a student who then said it in Chinese. If the student got it wrong he had to stand up and stay standing. The teacher then nominated a second student who had to translate the word. If this person got it wrong they too had to stand up……and so on round the class, till someone got the correct translation. At the end of each word - round the miscreant students were allowed to sit down. This rather un-magical process was repeated with more than a dozen words. The teacher’s vehicular language in this process was strictly Chinese. At no point did he actually speak English, although he did occasionally say a word or phrase in English. I am pretty sure his non - use of the target language was methodologically motivated and not to do with inability to speak the target language himself.

This part of the lesson was rounded off by him telling the students who had had to stand in shame three times “ You did not do your homework at all”. They received this rebuke once again standing. To those who had had to stand twice he said,” you could have done your homework much better”. To the one-time standers he said “Do better homework next time”. At this point we visitors were whisked away from the English class.

This teacher clearly conceptualises his subject as a conscious linguistic - cognitive one and pays little attention to interpersonal, motivational, affective, rhythmical, unconscious or joy factors. I am convinced this teacher really feels he is doing a good job in an elite institution. This is probably the way in which he was taught himself and the way that he feels others should learn.

I was amazed that he could be working in the same institution as the brilliant ballet teacher.

In the English class, as far as I could make out, no English had been heard, spoken, felt, experienced or grasped. The kids had not been in the subject at all. If you think of a preposition to characterise these 20 minutes of teaching the one that seems most apt is about. The learners were doing work about the language. There was no attempt to help them to work in or through English.

The principal of the Children's Palace accompanied us on these class visits and I surmised that she saw this as a standard or even very good English lesson. As a guest, I could not think of a way of courteously asking her opinion about this way of teaching.

When we left the shaming English class we went to see a music class with 9 year olds. We were told in advance that a master teacher was working with this group. What a right judgment this was!

First the girls sang a song they knew well and we could see the teacher loving both them and the music as he led them lustily on the piano. But the teacher wanted us to see learning as well as performance. He asked the girls to sing a song from a Northern province that they did not yet know well. They sang tentatively and from their books. This time the way he played the piano was gently supportive. The master knew when to radiate energy and when to hold back.
The empathy between him and the girls was fantastic.

I came out of the singing class incredibly moved and full of respect for a tiptop teacher.
Those girls spent no time in about and nor did the teacher They were fully in the music and through the music. Their vocal performance was an act of marvellous self - expression.

Let me take you back to the dance class you read about at the start of this piece. Here are some key words describing what the learners did and what the teacher did:

Contrast these with these theme words for the English class:

I came away from our visit to the Beijing Palace of Children that morning wondering how a Chinese person would evaluate the three lessons.

Is the belief in China that children radically change as people and as minds when they move from a singing or ballet class to a language lesson?
Is the belief that younger children should be taught inspirationally and involvingly while early teenagers need to be sternly disciplined?
Is the belief that dance and song are naturally pleasurable activities, while English is a harsh academic discipline?

Why should song and ballet be taught humanistically and why should English be taught as if on a square – bashing, military parade ground?

As I think back to that morning in Beijing I find it hard to believe that I saw the three sessions in the same institution, and that each was offered as a kind of model lesson.

For me, at least, they were chalk and cheese!

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