Teach English In China

This text provides teachers of English to Chinese students with information on the linguistic, cultural and pedagogical backgrounds of these students. It analyses the importance of this background, and offers information on successful classroom teaching methods and student learning strategies.

A New York Times Notable Book Winner of the Kiriyama Book Prize In the heart of China's Sichuan province, amid the terraced hills of the Yangtze River valley, lies the remote town of Fuling. Like many other small cities in this ever-evolving country, Fuling is heading down a new path of change and growth, which came into remarkably sharp focus when Peter Hessler arrived as a Peace Corps volunteer, marking the first time in more than half a century that the city had an American resident. Hessler taught English and American literature at the local college, but it was his students who taught him about the complex processes of understanding that take place when one is immersed in a radically different society. Poignant, thoughtful, funny, and enormously compelling, River Town is an unforgettable portrait of a city that is seeking to understand both what it was and what it someday will be.

Tens of thousands of Western ‘teachers’, many of whom would not be considered teachers elsewhere, are employed to teach English in public and private education in China. Little has previously been known, except anecdotally, about their experiences, about the effect they have on education in the context, or on students’ perceptions of ‘the West’ that result from this contact. This book is an ethnographic study of Westerners’ lived experiences teaching English in Shanghai, China. It is based on three years of groundbreaking research into the pre-service training, classroom practices, personal identities and motives, and local socially constructed roles of a group of ‘backpacker teachers’ from the UK, the USA and Canada. It is a study that goes beyond the classroom, addressing broader questions about the sociology, and politics, of transnational education and China’s evolving relationship with the outside world.

With the name inspired by a racial slur coined by his student's, Teacher Black delves into the experience of James Prescott-Kerr, a young Black graduate who lived in China for a year. James threw himself in the deep end of a culture that has obscured itself from the Western world, to see whether he would be able to sink or swim. Through euphoric highs and dehumanising lows of a whirlwind year, he strives to embrace his new environment and the challenges that come with it. But the question was, will the environment embrace him?

Come with us now to the first day of class to teach English in China. Both students and teacher's hearts pound with anticipation as students file into the room, chatting and pretending not to notice the foreign teacher standing behind his desk. But they can't help glancing at him anyway for a first look. Laughter mingles with the sound of books and chairs clanking together. A buzzer sounds in the hall, and Bill Burkett, affectionately known in China by his students as "Mr. Bill," begins. A Manual for Teaching English in China takes us from the first day's buzzer through the first weeks, months, and semesters of teaching English in China, sharing numerous stories, laughs, interesting facts, and many effective ways of teaching ESL. A Manual for Teaching English in China is packed with Bill Burkett's practical ideas, methods, and teaching techniques that can actually be used to teach ESL anywhere. Bill Burkett recently returned from a seven year stint of teaching English in the universities and training schools of Henan, China. An internationally renowned public speaker, Burkett has lived in 46 nations in the last 43 years. He developed a strong interest in linguistics which was fueled by his close association with interpreters. In Chinese classrooms where he taught English, he conducted active research, experimenting and taking student polls. He concentrated on eliminating speech impediments and strong accents. His education, experiences, and research shaped his philosophy of teaching English as a Second Language and formed the basis of his first ESL book, A Manual for Teaching English in China. Following the manual is Secrets to Better English which reveals a proven method of teaching ESL without accent. Although Burkett's doctorate is in philosophy, his love is making a difference in his students' lives by teaching diction and the skills of speech.

This book examines the importance of English language teaching in China, but also the need for this teaching to be modernised in order for China to better join the world economy. The current trend within English teaching in China is for 'communicative competence' - that is, being able to communicate with linguistic, pragmatic, discourse and strategic competence. This volume argues that such a theoretical framework of communicative competence needs to be expanded to address both global needs and local contexts, if English language teaching in China is to be successful. The contributors to this volume examine every aspect of language teaching and suggest new ways in which communication and grammar can be balanced. The chapters include coverage of: * the importance of English in a global world * the theoretical framework of communicative competence * the role of grammar in learning English * assessing and evaluating communicative competence * the starting age of learning English * teaching language skills in the post-methods era * using multimedia in teaching and testing * online learning and self-learning * teacher training through empowerment. With its balance of theory and practice, and internationally renowned contributors, this guide to new approaches, perspectives and standards in language teaching will be essential reading for academics interested in applied linguistics and second language acquisition, and English language teaching professionals.

This is one of two volumes by the same editors that explore historical, philosophical, and cultural perspectives on literacy in China. This volume focuses on English literacy in China, while the other volume is on Chinese literacy. In modern day China, English has enjoyed an increasingly important status in education, but not without challenges. The essays in this volume provide a comprehensive, cross-disciplinary look at changes in English literacy practices and literacy instruction in China from the first English school in the 19th century to recent curriculum reform efforts to modernize English instruction from basic education through higher education. Together, the essays address a wide array of topics, including early childhood English education, uses of information technology to teach English, and teaching English to Chinese minority students. This work is essential reading for those who want to expand their understanding of English literacy education in China.

An irreverent tale of an American Jew serving in the Peace Corps in rural China, which reveals the absurdities, joys, and pathos of a traditional society in flux In September of 2005, the Peace Corps sent Michael Levy to teach English in the heart of China's heartland. His hosts in the city of Guiyang found additional uses for him: resident expert on Judaism, romantic adviser, and provincial basketball star, to name a few. His account of overcoming vast cultural differences to befriend his students and fellow teachers is by turns poignant and laugh-out-loud funny. While reveling in the peculiarities of life in China's interior, the author also discovered that the "other billion" (people living far from the coastal cities covered by the American media) have a complex relationship with both their own traditions and the rapid changes of modernization. Lagging behind in China's economic boom, they experience the darker side of "capitalism with Chinese characteristics," daily facing the schizophrenia of conflicting ideologies. Kosher Chinese is an illuminating account of the lives of the residents of Guiyang, particularly the young people who will soon control the fate of the world.