from the Kappan

The March issue of PDK's journal, the Kappan, has an interesting article by Gary Squire, a retired teacher/administrator in North Vancouver. Gary describes his one month English-immersion teaching job in Fangshan where he worked with a group of Chinese teachers responsible for teaching English in their own schools. The Chinese teachers were looking for two things from the four week course, improved English language skills and new teaching methodology. He recounts his suprise at how little they understood of his speaking and how reluctant they seemed to his group work projects. He admits to 'struggling to find the appropriate curriculum and effective means of teaching it' and soon learned to 'slow down and simplify'. The solution to the challenge of teaching English to the Chinese teachers begins with understanding how much they actually do know already and realizing that 'knowing' English words, vocabulary words, isn't the same as understanding meaning, or what the words say. Words by themselves are the form of the language and alone have no content. It is only by putting them together in systematic ways that they then begin to carry meaning in a larger sense than their individual dictionary meaning. Putting words together in sentences is best approached at a simplified level to begin with. Over time and with lots of intentional practice the sentences can become more and more interesting. Gary found this out through the regular use of learning journals which he read nightly. By having a written conversation with each of his students through the journals he was able to enter into their understanding of their use of the language. Back on the didactic front he shifted to some good old methodology borrowed I suppose from his experience with teaching French as a Second Language (FSL), explicit vocabulary, choral repetition, backwards buildup, short text passages, lots of practice, personalizing the text, and always moving toward some form of presenting such as role-plays. Incidentally, I learned much of my own FSL methodology from North Vancouver's language guru, M. Pappillon (Don Fraser). Gary's article also touches the topic of passive versus active learning and the more challenging notion of teaching for thinking which he addressed with well structured activities using Bloom's taxonimy. His description of the discussion about putting student art work on display in the classroom revealed something of the bind his Chinese teachers find themselves in as they learn about our ways of doing things. They could see the value in encouraging students to take pride in their work but they couldn't just start putting up student work without first getting the approval of the Principal and that kind of conversation isn't so easy to approach it seems.

getting ready to go to China

The trip this summer will begin in Beijing with a conference for the educators from both countries, China and Canada. Last year the conference was near the end of the 10 day visit and everyone felt it would be better to have it at the beginning so James has made this change. Its great to have that kind of influence and Tianjiao does as one of the co-sponsors of the conference along with the Beijing Education Commission. The size of the group has grown enormously from last year as well. We had 43 people last year and now we will be around 300 in the delegation. James thinks this may be enough to convince the Chinese to hold the conference in the Great Hall of the People. That would be something.

I will be making arrangements for a follow-up teaching delegation to go to China later in the year, possibly late 2007 or early 2008. There are 2 cities in Hunan province that are interested in my proposal and I will meet with the Directors of education while in Beijing this summer to establish details or at least begin the process of setting it up on the China side. Back home I am initiating things through the establishment of a society under the Societies Act. This will create a structure that will manage the project and will work closely with Tianjiao to ensure the mutual benefit to both the Chinese hosts and the Canadian educators who participate in the project. I am doing a lot of research on the internet to grasp the already existing range of similar projects and to gather details of each organization from goals, arrangements, placements, compensation, location, almost anything as each is different from the next. One of my discoveries has been the world of bloggers who are actually living in China and teaching or going to school or just travelling around. I will pick up some of their blog links and add them to this blog as I go. Hopefully a dialogue will follow that can be useful to those interested in the project.