Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2007

"Don Phillipson 写道：
"

No.  English teaching is still at its very primitive stage in China and
many of the 'experts' are indigenously grown.  Practically all the
textbooks they use in schools are written by these home grown experts
and these textbooks have been designed for the students to pass
national exams rather than to inspire them to learn English.  The one I
am using was written and complied by a local expert and contains a
collection of home-made essays.  It is specifically created for the
students to mimic what has been written for exams.  There are, however,
quite a few 'foreign' or non-Asian looking teachers in China who are
expected to make meaningful contribution to the English learning in
China.  Unfortunately, most of them are not teachers by trade and they
are here for the predominant reason that they cannot find anything
better to do back home.  You can go on to deduce the rest of the
mess...

If you contribute to this group and ask for comments on your English,
people will help you improve it.  I've learned a lot here.

...

This has an advantage additional to helping them learn research, logic,
and planning.  People learn better when they're doing things they're
interested in.  (I believe there are studies that show this, and anyway
it's obvious when you look at how we learn thousands of words without
trying but most students struggle to learn a few assigned "vocabulary"
words a week--the difference is whether we want to know the words.)  If
you let students pick their own topics, you might find that they learn
English composition better.  You have to do this within reason,
though--otherwise many of them will just write papers on celebrities
and get all their information from the Web.  One way is to stipulate
that you have to approve the topics; another is to give them a set of
topics to pick from.

Another approach to this is to let students write things other than
essays, if you're allowed to.  Students may put more energy into
writing the kinds of things they expect to write--personal letters,
letters to the editor, business communications, advertisements,
personal statements for graduate- or professional-school applications,
cover letters for job applications, etc.

I hope your students are spending some time rewriting their work in
view of what they've learned.

To amplify what Don Phillipson said, I believe there's been a great
deal written on teaching English composition.  You might have to adapt
it to teach Chinese students, though.  (You might even have to adapt
what I just said about individual topic choices--I've often heard that
Chinese culture is less individualistic than American.  Still, I'll bet
giving them some freedom will help.)  You can also ask experienced
colleagues what they do and ask to sit in on their classes to
observe--they'd probably find that flattering.

"Adrian Bailey 写道：
"

I think your suggestion is well taken that students are encouraged to
express and share their views on a topic before proceeding to write.

Tks

When I teach essay-writing I give