Teaching English in Yilong and Langzhong

October 27, 2014

Yilong SSTers gather outside one of their school’s three classroom buildings.

Bryan and Ellen teaching an English class in Yilong. There are 80 students in this classroom.

Bryan listens to two students practicing a conversation.

Two students practice a dialog in Ellen and Bryan’s class.

One of Adrienne’s and Jacob’s smaller classes, with 60 students.

Adrienne and Jacob use the class textbook to go over vocabulary pronunciation list with their class. SSTers offer students a rare opportunity to hear pronunciation by native speakers.

Kiernan and Yuli’s teaching on October 23. This class has 68 students.

Kiernan and Yuli teach this week’s textbook-assigned lesson, which focused on differences between British English and American English.

One of the teacher work rooms where Chinese faculty members and SSTers can congregate before and after school or between classes.

View of the Yilong campus from one of the school’s three classroom buildings, showing the school athletic field.

The Langzhong SSTers eating a late dinner in the old city.

The entrance gate of East Wind Middle School where the SSTers teach. Most of the SSTers live in this neighborhood, within walking distance of this gate.

Opening ceremonies at East Wind Middle School sports day, October 24. Students marched around the track, by class, and assembled in the center of the field. The SSTers are in the center of the photo, standing in front of the formal reviewing stand.

On October 23 and 24 we visited the SST teaching groups in the cities of Yilong and Langzhong.

In Yilong we were able to sit in on four classes at Virtue Middle School and saw all of the student teaching pairs in action. We were impressed. Classes in Yilong are large, with 60 to 80 students in a room. The material the SSTers teach varies from class to class since they are teaching different grade levels (with different curricula) and language ability varies within each class. In some classes, the school teachers have asked the Goshen students to use the textbook and go over oral English vocabulary and do pronunciation drills. In other classes, the middle schoolers are encouraged to ask the SSTers questions about life in the United States or about American culture. Goshen students have also created some of their own lesson plans that involve dialogues and topics such as American holidays. Teaching in these situations is challenging, but the SSTers rise to the occasion.

The school’s student body continues to treat the six SSTers here as major celebrities, crowding around them during free time, trying to get pictures with them, applauding when they enter a classroom, and repeatedly asking for their QQ account (similar to a FaceBook account). In between classes and during their free time, the Goshen students have been invited to use the various faculty rooms in the school teaching buildings, and have gotten to know some of the school’s English teachers. The faculty rooms also provide a bit of a break from the crowds of celebrity-hungry students outside.

Typically, the SSTers return to their host family homes during the midday break (12:00 to 2:30) for lunch and rest. They see one another frequently during the school day and have also gotten together outside of school hours. On average there seems to be a bit less freedom to come and go here in Yilong; hosting foreigners is an entirely new experience for this Yilong school, so host families are understandably concerned about their SSTers’s wellbeing and track their activity closely.

After sitting in on classes at Yilong, we all went out to lunch together, and then found a tea house where we spent the afternoon, mostly in individual check-in meetings with each SSTer. The group here got off to a bit of a difficult start because the school had not immediately established routine teaching schedules for them. In those chaotic first days, the group came together and took care of one another in really positive ways and have been doing a great job ever since. We’ll be back to Yilong in two weeks.

Thursday night we went on to Langzhong and met the eight SSTers who are teaching at East Wind Middle School in that city. We went out for a late dinner in the old city section on Langzhong. We got caught up with the group’s experiences in the city and at their school, and enjoyed a lot of laughter.

Unfortunately, we were not able to sit in on any classes at Langzhong. On very short notice (something not uncommon in the SST service experience) the SSTers were told on Thursday that Friday’s classes were cancelled because the school would hold an intramural athletic day with classes competing against one another. Friday morning the day began with opening ceremonies that saw all the classes march around the track and assemble on the soccer field. The SSTers, as a group, were among the first to march and assemble, along with another foreign teacher currently in Langzhong from South Africa, as the loud speakers announced the presence of “a friendly delegation from North America and Africa.” The SSTers did not participate in the actual competitive games that followed and they had the rest of the day off, which facilitated our meeting with the group and with each individual at a nearby tea house. But the sports day left us unable to take photos of the SSTers in action in their classrooms. As a result, almost all of our Langzhong photos are of us eating! We’ll get classroom photos when we visit again.

By all accounts teaching in Langzhong is going very well. The school was quite organized, distributing teaching schedules and room assignments on the very first day. Classes are also a bit smaller here, with only 50-60 students in most classes. The SSTers here teach alone, not in pairs, but each student teaches fewer hours a week than is the case for the teaching pairs in Yilong. Each SSTer consistently teaches classes within the same grade level, which allows for easier planning. Those assigned to teach the same grades work together to develop lesson plans and teaching ideas for a week at a time. Some grades focus on vocabulary and pronunciation drills and then use word games to help with memorization and pronunciation. Other SSTers have developed lessons that center on the seasons of the year, and integrate vocabulary and American culture. For example, during one week they focused on autumn, introducing vocabulary about weather and food associated with that season, and also talking about fall holidays. The next week they moved on to winter, and so on. Zoe has created some PowerPoint slides with vocabulary, which others teaching her grade level have used when the classrooms include projection equipment.

The Langzhong SSTers have relatively flexible schedules and host families who give them latitude to come and go as they need to. So far, everyone has been going home for lunch and the midday rest, but during other parts of the day, when they do not have a class, they can spend time exploring the streets around the school campus or along the Jialing River. Jacob, Garrett, and Michael often play Ping-Pong with each other and with middle school students.