LawrenCe Phillips

(Continued from the last issue )However,I did not feel I had made the right choiceand the next time I saw her I apologized.She said to me I had done nothing wrongand said “it''s not your fault teacher, it''smy fault my English is too poor.”But Istill insisted that I had made a mistake.Yes, I had corrected her, but at what cost?The experience obviously embarrassedher, and her peers by the third time sherepeated the word incorrectly had beenshaking their heads. She may have leftthe classroom being able to pronounce theword correctly but what about the damageto her confidence? I thought about it forliterally hours. I feared that perhaps nexttime she might not want to stand up, orshout out the answer in class in case shemight be humiliated again. In her mindit was her own incompetence but for me it was my ownignorance.

I realized after that class that I did not want my studentsto learn through embarrassment or fear, the same wayI don''t think a parent should teach a child not to dosomething by hitting them. I wanted my students toenjoy speaking and that they shout out the answerhoping they are right not sit quietly for fear they mightbe wrong. That''s why now if a student shouts out a wronganswer I don''t just say “no” but I might say“that''s a greatanswer! But just not to this question! Do you have anyother great ideas?”Inspiring confidence in your studentsis what will ultimately lead them to pursuing andachieving their goals. It''s not about playing games butabout disguising learning, and I use the same methodsin my writing classes. When I correct students'' writtenassignments I will mark sections I think are excellentwith comments such as“great!” or “amazing!” and if Ido have some suggestions I put them under the heading“points for improvement”instead of “wrong” or“bad”.All these little things just say to our students“I''m proudof you and I want you to do better”, and who doesn''trespond to that?

Stay relevant

However, it was not the only learning experience at myfirst post at a Chinese university, another one provedhumiliating but this time for me and not the student. Wewere discussing superstars and one boy asked me“do youknow who the world''s most beautiful girl is?”I repliedno.“Fu Rong''s sister.”he said. His classmates burst intolaughter but I stood near the blackboard confused. Isaid“So Fu Rong is a person and her sister is beautiful?”The boy said that I should check online and I will seebut when I did I found out the person was called “FuRong JieJie”and was not a beauty at all but a slightlyoverweight woman who''s misguided confidence makesher believe she can dance. I sat at my desk knowing I''dbeen tricked by my student but it was another importantlesson for me as a teacher, one that is now the basis ofmany successful classes.

The incident made me realize that using things theyknow was the perfect way to inspire them to speak. Itmay seem simple but the fact of the matter is that mostlearning materials for English are out-dated, especiallytext books. They often talk about events or people thathave long been forgotten or words that are now out ofuse. So armed with the passion to make my class relevantfor my class I collected a list of names from differentstudents about which people were popular at the time(I still use the same list today apart from a few newadditions like Tiger Mother and Li Gang) and wrote themall down on small pieces of card. I then used“white-tac”which is essentially a sticky kind of rubber which youcan use to stick posters on the wall but instead I used itto stick the pieces of card on the head of each student. I''dseen the idea before of putting names of famous stars onthe back of each student but I thought it was silly to haveto keep turning around and the idea that the answer isLITERALLY right in front of then made it all the moreentertaining! From then I always made sure I kept upwith what student like whether it be movies, music oreven superstars.

If you can make English or any other subject for thatmatter, seem relevant to students'' lives, then they arepassionate to talk about it because it''s what they talkabout after class with their friends or dorm-mates. Oncelanguage seems useful and relevant it becomes moreof a skill than a chore, and students want to be able tospeak about the things they love. When I was in schoolFrench and Italian did not seem relevant, they seemeddemanding. Once I graduated and went out into theworld and only used them to talk about the things Iwanted to talk about I found 1 loved talking both Frenchand Italian. It''s the same for Chinese students. WhenI plan my classes I normally plan thinking "wouldI have liked to do this in my Italian class or would Ihave felt embarrassed to speak?" I''ve learned to notsimply concentrate on the knowledge but concentrateon fostering the interest and passion of the studentsto pursue that knowledge. To make my students pushthemselves to new limits and to not be afraid to have atry. From my time in China I''ve learned that students arethe biggest source of knowledge and that they seem tohave taught me more than I have taught them.I''ll finish with a story. Once a student noticed the pictureon my phone wallpaper at the end of our class and saidshe wanted to see it so she came and said to me“teacherteacher let me looka looka”. “Looka looka" proved to bea direct translation of看看(Kankan) meaning to have alook and it''s now one of my favourite Chenglish phrasesof all time. Sometimes correcting every little mistake cankill all the fun.