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Published: January 6th 2007
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It's a young man.
Beijing Opera presentation at TTC, in which a male actor portrays the role of the female. My first college semester at Taizhou Teachers College is coming to an end, and its 7,000 students once again confront more sets of examinations, testing their study-skills and learning habits. These consist mostly of never-ending memorization, encouraged by almost all of their teachers, the amount of which has left me amazed and astonished.
The volumes of printed materials in each of their courses, which are comitted to memory by every one of my Chinese students, who are also English majors, is something few Western educators, parents, or my former students at Coral Gables Sr. High School would believe, if they could not witness it for themselves.
For that reason, the daily hours of strictly organized and carefully supervised group-studies taking place at our Teachers College, and every other college in China, (7 days a week), would as well be totally foreign and probably un-acceptable on any Western College Campus.
Each student's personal commitment, to abide by this disciplined college arrangment at every school campus in China from grade school through college, is guaranteed by 24 hours direct and indirect supervision of every Chinese student at every academic level. Dormitory monitors, themselves students, and supervising head teachers, are made
Where to sit?
Arriving early, I wasn't sure of the seating arrangements, which in China are quite formal. responsible for the conduct and progress of every one in their charge.
This process of learning English for the young and older students in Chinese schools is not one I like to encourage in my classes. These wonderfully amazing, young minds absorb and store, word for word, mountains of information. Unfortunately, they are then mostly unable to logically process and understand in context all they have so tediously learned and committed to memory.
When Chinese students study literature, linguistics, lexicology, reading comprehension etc., the from childhood rehearsed and trained skill of memorizing is sustained through hours of monotonous repetition, until the mind has photographed most, if not "all" teacher- suggested and offered materials. Every bit is then stored in the brain and available for instant recall, not only in the class-room setting, but as the main tool to tackle the incredibly difficult, re-occurring examinations.
But when asked to present an analysis or critique, perhaps through deductive reasoning, and when confronted with impromptu questions outside those found in the texts, it rapidly becomes obvious, that most students are un-aware of the deeper and contextual meaning. It seems as if the content is foreign and as if they had
Mr. Wang, Vice President of TTC
Mr. Wang came to the rescue and made sure, the seats were the best in the house. never read it.
Though every student will be able to recite the "dictionary-definition" of each individual English word they encounter, they are at a loss for words, when it comes to critical or original thinking, and they find it uncomfortably difficult to explain and analyze what they have commited to memory.
I watch my students spend endless hours learning to recite pages of challenging and complicated reading-passages, essays, as well as complete pieces of literature. It is a learning-process that has continued since their early childhood education, and now, that they are admitted to a college, it is difficult to teach them, as old dogs, new tricks.
This process and style of learning generally produces student work, compositions, and presentations, that are remarkably similar in choice of words and phrases as well as style and content, and clearly fosters and even encourages a lack of originality and independent reasoning.
A continuous suggestion to my students is not to study harder and harder, but to study better; to search out and acquire newer and more proven methods to succeed on their desperately important CET 4 and CET 6 examinations, where the old methods have failed them.
ushers Mike and Zhang
These two attentive ushers escorted the VIP's :-) to their section. Little time is available for personal and independent activities, and though they do not verbalize and show their stress and anxiety, too many usually express an aura of impending doom, when we entertain in conversations about the consequences of test results. Too many believe that every previous examination had not been met with success, though they are not aware of their scores for months to come.
When asked about how they believe the examinations went, few will respond with positive enthusiasm, but rather a less then cautious: "so so", "maybe", "not so good and not so bad", "perhaps", "just o.k.",etc. and most would rather not talk about it. They are already hard at work for the next battery of examinations, whose scores will guide them to their uncertain future.
One of the greatest challenges to China's continued and successful growth will be to re-evaluate and to modernize educational methods that challenge the mind with originality. A continuous thriving economy needs up-to-date educational foundations to sustain new ideas, growth, and advances. Every nation's hope for greater prosperity is directly linked to successful schooling and the learning-tools it offers its young, who are forever the future.
***Let me add,
Stephanie and Sue.....
... were ready for a show of their own. that this a purely personal observation, and does not reflect the thoughts other foreign teachers in China may wish to express.
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Perhaps one of the most beautiful, superb, dynamic, colorful, and exiting stage productions I have witnessed in all of China was right here on our little college campus during the New Year celebrations. This professional offering to a packed school auditorium left me wanting for more, and the conclusion came much too soon.
The performances by both students and staff became one of my great joys this semester. Though photos can only transmit superficial impressions, I want to express my admiration to all of the wonderful entertainers on the campus of Taizhou Teachers College, the music and the art departments, its teachers and students.
It was an impressive presentation, the personal invitation to which I will continue to appreciate. Sharing with you the enclosed pictures is almost primitive, compared to the excitement of the live performance on a very special evening, celebrating the New Year, 2007 at our little college.
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Thomas Scianmarello
non-member comment
China
Those performances must have been a night to remember.