Saturday 19 January

Books with messages from students

Message from Xu Liang who organised
the book for the 3rd years

Today is the last day of the semester and I have had many good wishes and positive feedback from the students.

Some students have presented me with books with the classes’ comments and given me some gifts which has been very touching.

The teaching experience has been interesting in many ways. It has challenged some of my preconceptions about both teaching English and what the requirements are for speakers of other languages in speaking English (communication over accuracy) and in writing English (much harder).

Hamming it up with the Year 3 boys

I’ve already written about some of my observations in the 1st December post. Initially I found teaching English more difficult than expected, and  the students were not terribly interested in following the set workbooks. I moved to using a combination of the workbooks for basic content and I borrowed ideas from many online resources, modifying the content to be more appropriate and, where possible, to be entertaining.

There is no distance -
Year 1 Dior 's comment

With class sizes from 32 to 48 it was difficult to give too much individual attention, and with oral classes, very difficult give each student an opportunity to practice speaking.

It is with some regret that I leave the college and China, but I am very grateful for the opportunity the college provided me to teach English, and wish all the students well in their futures.

Tomorrow I catch a train to Shanghai for a couple of days sightseeing before heading back to Australia.