They aren't that bad While my students are not perfect, they can say much more than just "Hello" and "Thank you".
My students are much better speakers than they think; it's just that they are afraid to make mistakes in front of the class. You have to not only teach them, but build their confidence to speak out in class. As teachers, we have to remove the fear of being wrong from their minds and that's very difficult to do.
According to one of my students, a lot of Chinese-English teachers really break their ass on every little mistake they make. It's counter-productive to teach English in such a way because they begin to fear speaking in class because of that negative reinforcement. It's quite hard to take years of negative reinforcement and create a positive teaching environment by pointing out what they did right.
china was the best vacation I ever took I visited Shanghai last summer, and I loved it. While we were there, we set off fireworks in the middle of the Financial District, it was soooo much fun! The vid is on YouTube, I'll link it here so you can see it. It's amazing what you can do over there that you wouldn't get away with anywhere else in the world! We had a great time :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xvGyhGZ_w8
chinese are pretty bad at learning English, just like japanese. A lot of chinese started learning English from Kindergarden, but even after they graduate from college, they still cannot speak basic English other than Hello or thank you.
but they do remember a lot of english words, so they can read, but can't speak. they learn English because they have to pass the exam.
The Circumnavigator
GTO
They aren't that bad
While my students are not perfect, they can say much more than just "Hello" and "Thank you". My students are much better speakers than they think; it's just that they are afraid to make mistakes in front of the class. You have to not only teach them, but build their confidence to speak out in class. As teachers, we have to remove the fear of being wrong from their minds and that's very difficult to do. According to one of my students, a lot of Chinese-English teachers really break their ass on every little mistake they make. It's counter-productive to teach English in such a way because they begin to fear speaking in class because of that negative reinforcement. It's quite hard to take years of negative reinforcement and create a positive teaching environment by pointing out what they did right.