True Story 7.17
Western teachers strongly criticized at a Chinese university
The setting for this story
Teacher Hu, a young English department faculty member at a university in China, had received some of his education in the United States. He eagerly kept abreast of language teaching trends by taking study tours in the West and reading Western academic and professional publications. After he persuaded his department’s decision-makers to try the latest instructional methods, they assigned him to administer the program. Young English as a second language (ESL) teachers from the U.S. and U.K. were hired to teach English the next semester. Teacher Hu picks up the story from here.
A story of misaligned minds27
I had gone into this whole thing feeling pretty enthusiastic. But by the time the semester ended, I had heard pointed criticism from students about 60 percent of the American and British teachers. Worse, 10 percent of the teachers had been “severely criticized,” meaning that their students had been so upset that they called on the department to fire these teachers. Most of the students’ complaints were readily sortable into three categories. Here they are with some quotes:
- “Just Improvising”: Complaints about the teaching methods:
Most foreign teachers only speak, speak, speak, instead of writing something on the blackboard. Blocked from taking notes, we have put down nothing after their marvelous speech is over. And many of their presentations are not as orderly or systematic as the presentations of our Chinese teachers; they seem improvised in that moment. This is another obstacle to our taking notes.
- “No correction of mistakes”: Complaints about the teachers’ role:
How can I learn anything if this teacher doesn’t do her job? They like to give us praises for our written work, such as “very interesting” and “fascinating,” but all they look for is enjoyment for themselves as readers. It is so disappointing that my mistakes are not corrected!
- “Kindergarten teaching”: Complaints about the classroom activities:
The foreign teachers usually treat us like kindergarten kids, making us sing, dance, and interact like children in oral classes while we are wondering what on earth is happening. It’s embarrassing to be treated like preschool children by being forced to spend our classroom time dealing with pictures, cards, puzzles, and toys.
The students’ criticisms were heartfelt and urgent; they saw their opportunity to learn English, and to learn it well, vanishing out of no fault of their own. I was caught off guard. My eagerness for our department to benefit from cutting-edge methods had desensitized me to our students’ perspectives, which I should have foreseen – after all, some of my education occurred in China!
Teacher Hu’s question
What are the underlying factors that have led to each of these three main criticisms?
Critique of story 7.17
This story is one of the best for clearly drawing the contrast between the two main instructional styles. The complaining students were holding tight to a knowledge-focused approach in the face of their Western teachers’ attempt to introduce learner-focused pedagogy into language teaching in China.
Although it is characteristic of Asian students to revere their teachers, learning thoroughly is so vital to most Asian students that they will criticize to the administration any teacher who deviates significantly from their conception of what a good teacher should be and do.
Complaints about the teaching methods: The students were upset by the Western teachers’ lack of systematic organization and linearity in their lessons. With their Chinese teachers, students had become accustomed to relying on an authoritative textbook, which their teacher also followed during lessons, writing the key learnings from the text on the board. This enabled students to take copious notes that aligned with the textbook while also capturing their teacher’s perspective on each topic. For most Chinese students, a critical component of their study efforts is their notes. And, yes, they do make use of their notes during their extensive studying between classes.
Complaints about the teacher’s role: The Westerners deliberately avoided correcting students’ errors. Not correcting errors was a cardinal principle of the new methods, the rationale being that, when children learn language naturally, they don’t worry about errors; they just speak. Eventually they speak more or less correctly. But for Chinese students, “more or less correctly” isn’t good enough. They aim for mastery, for perfection, which isn’t possible if errors are not authoritatively corrected. They viewed these teachers as irresponsible, unprofessional, and lazy.
Complaints about classroom activities: The students regarded lessons as their best opportunity to be authoritatively guided by a master – their teacher. But these teachers were obliging their students to be involved in playful activities. The teachers’ rationale for employing anecdotes, jokes, and games was that “fun” lessons would compel the students’ active physical engagement, never realizing that these students were intrinsically motivated to be mentally engaged. The students felt insulted by their teachers’ techniques; they denigrated such classroom approaches as “not serious.”
For thought
This contrast in pedagogies is usually spoken of in reference to Asia and the West. But for my doctoral project, I studied the cultural disconnects facing immigrant Portuguese children in U.S. schools. The dichotomy was just as sharp. For example, during my interview with a Portuguese secondary school student, I asked for his view of “spelling baseball,” a learning game played in his classroom the previous day. He tartly replied, Não somo crianças! (We are not infants!)
Related stories
Story 7.15 also discusses East Asians’ urgent need for textbooks, but the setting is New Zealand.
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Endnotes:
27 Ouyang, 127–30. In the third quote, the sentence that begins “It’s embarrassing” is from Li, M., 9.
Full citations are available at misalignedminds.info/References.