English Summer Camp: 15 Days; 90 Hours of English

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Time is short and my blogs are running long. My trip here will get way ahead of me if this keeps up!

Here's how teaching here at HUST looks: First 3.5 hour class starts at 8:30 AM. 25 undergraduates of varying English skills. 2.5 hours break of lunch and a rest. Another 3.5 hour class with about 25 students runs until 5:45. Repeat 5 days on; 1 day off for 3 weeks.

To call this "teaching" is really a misnomer. Instead, I'm looking to give students more confidence in speaking the English they already know. I do it through as many activities as I can squeeze in, each one designed to encourage students to speak and to have fun doing it. Most of the "teaching" is helping students improve their pronunciation, since this is one thing they don't get much of from their Chinese teachers of English.

A day might include some kind of game, small group projects resulting in a presentation or some kind of performance and a role play conversation exercise.

While the students are doing most of the work, I tend to wear myself out encouraging, giving feedback, and keeping things fun, not to mention biking back and forth to class and meals in the heat and humidity here. I try to create the opposite environment they're used to in school where there's little interactivity among students or among the students and teachers.

When I'm not teaching, I'm eating. I'm lucky to have several former students still on campus, so many nights I've been catching up with them over food. Getting a chance to see some students over several visits is one of the things that keeps me coming back.

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Photos

Barbecue with Tom, Ian and Kevin
1/2 hour wait just outside of HUST West Gate. A Wuhan meal highlight.