teaching treachery
By tuck 05 Jan 2002
so, i got in trouble yesterday.
<p>for extra money i teach a high school english class for a couple hours each week. (also an elementary school class as evidenced by funny pics which should be visible in ‘journal’, and im also a wrestling gladiator sometimes as evidenced by the other funny pics. ok wipe the smile off your face, if you were offered as much mulla as i was youd be a gladiator too.) those of you who know me may shudder (or chuckle) at the idea of me in charge of instructing kids in anything. but, honestly, i had been taking the task rather seriously and actually planning neato lessons, homework and occasionally games. that is, <span class="caps">NON</span>-stupid games. possibly a first for a foreign language class anywhere in the world. and they responded well. in fact after the last few months of teaching, the school asked if i would teach english there full time. the answer was of course a big, smiling, whopping No. after all, i am in china for specific reasons and already feel loaded with stuff to do between training and language classes and keeping the guanxi growing and stable. </p>
<p>so heres where the problem began. over the last 7 weeks or so, the kids have been learning english as if their lives depended on it. the erudition became voraciously sought. they began practically snarling for words. its because i made it a life or death issue. not their own lives, but those of their characters. yep. ive brought tabletop, DM, GM, Vibro-Blade and Glitter-Boy role-playing to chinese high school; each item, story, mission and battle is born from my own will, interest and current mood. </p>ive found a level where the english is understandable but challenging and they have to study and repeat and really know what is going on if they want to survive, which they do. ive created a special english world for them based on my own deadly imagination. heh. gotta smile at that.
<p>anyway. they tore into it. </p>
<p>they went home with item lists. plans. teams. at first, most of the new vocab were things like bastard sword,delay grenade, lava spell etc. and i knew it was a problem. so the weapons and spells and non-everyday words have been severely limited. but even so, attendance has been 100% lately, and this is a sunday morning class. their attention on me and on the story is distraction-proof. they want to solve the mysteries, gain the power, be the victors. homework a couple weeks ago involved writing histories of their characters. every single student wrote. and wrote. some drew supplementary pictures. in class, everyone was eager to share. hands in the air. only english. i gave them an urgency to learn. so they did. they like to win and shock and be creative with their options and freedoms within the scope of learning and practicing english.</p>
<p>but the story-based interaction didnt go over well once word traveled the quick route from student to parent to department-head to principal and then back to me. i was yelled at. mostly i heard bu hao (not good) and now i think the adventure may be toast. game over. which is a real shame. obviously english here is boring. the kids want to learn it. they know they pretty much have to in order to be a candidate for university entrance. but the atmosphere is crappy. just like high school french in america. i had the class at 50% text book, 50% interactive english. but the interaction seems to have been snuffed or limited to: now well learn what to say at the post office! and other trashy crappola they can easily learn from their level 1 english books. they, like any 14-15 year olds, really hate role-playing as the shop owner or customer. its boring. its redundant. and it shows whenever they try do it. but put a puzzle in there that may involve imagined physical distress upon failure- and have them speak as characters that they are proud of, and they work hard to not only say things, but also say them correctly for the sake of their status and safety.</p>
<p>im taken down by the negative response despite the overwhelming successes of the technique. parents have told me how much more their kids studied english since this class began. (ok, only two moms told me, but still. heh.) </p>im pretty sure its done. outlawed from above. back to lists and drills and worksheets and memorization. oh how fun learning must be.
<p>i still think adventure based language learning is a worthy notion to consider. the books would be progressive. higher level books for higher level characters- which requires higher level english, naturally. it would work. myriad variations available. of course, i dont want to do this. but it would be neat. </p>
<p>ah well. to mention, i cant believe im actually teaching a class. not even exactly sure how this happened.</p>