Page 14 - ELG1802 Feb Issue 454

CHINA SPECIAL FEATURE .
SPECIAL FEATURE
See Li

A look inside

the Chinese

English language

industry

Going the full distance

The EL Gazette investigates this Pam Womack, Celta trainer at British Study Centres Manchester, tells Melanie
emerging market in-depth
Butler about the pleasures and perils of blended teacher training courses

ll markets are the same. Except when they aren’t. So far, so true of Latin America, Europe, East and South Imagine flying half way round the world. many had done initial training before.‘But in around a full-time teaching load.’ Some
There is a lot about the Chinese English language East Asia. But the rest of the world is generally paying for better You get off the plane and almost the first teaching adults,’ says Pam, ‘was a relatively teachers commented that the face-to-face
market that is easy to predict. communication skills – particularly speaking and listening. thing you have to do after you arrive is give a new field for them. They needed the more observations made an immediate difference
A Once English becomes a key skill, middle class parents But as Jocelyn Wang explains on page 20 ‘in China it is all about 90-minute demonstration lesson to students in-depth approach you get in Celta, with to their teaching. For Pam, the sheer time and
rush to enrol their children in local private language courses at ever (local) exams.’ you have never met, in a school you have areas like teaching grammar and vocabulary. commitment needed to complete an online
younger ages. Meaningful communication is not on the menu. It’s all about never been in before. And all that in front of Plus, they were used to explaining grammar Celta, even stretched over fourteen weeks,
There is a massive surge in demand for native speaker teachers. phonics and phrasal verbs. your new group of trainee teachers. to the younger learners, whereas Celta is are something candidates need to consider
And that requires a different kind of teaching, a different kind That is what happened to British Study about eliciting language and ideas from our very carefully.
of teacher and a very different kind of teacher observation. Centre’s Pat Womack when she arrived in learners.’ The seventeen days Pam spent in The Hong Kong teachers had some
Teacher observation is also the theme of Pam Womack’s piece, Hong Kong as Teaching Practice (TP) tutor advantages. ‘Of course, this wasn’t the first
(see page opposite). for an online Celta course. Pam, who has Of course teaching time they stood up in a classroom. Teaching a
This Celta trainer from British Study Centres Manchester been a Celta trainer for some fifteen years, group of adults is not like standing in front of
ponders the experience of running on-line Celta courses for took it in her stride. ‘I had read the students’ a group of adults is not a class of six-year-olds, but they had some of
teachers currently teaching very young learners in Hong Kong. applications and their student profiles,’ the classroom management skills. You could
Even when it comes to language travel, the Chinese are subtly she explains. ‘And I am used to teaching like standing in front of a see the confidence was already there. They
different. They have long dominated the university preparation demonstration lessons to online students. class of six year olds but were very motivated, very enthusiastic. Their
market but unlike their neighbours in Japan and Korea they don’t We do it all the time for the local online experience stood them in good stead really.’
seem keen on a ‘gap year’ learning English after university. Instead students who come to BSC Manchester.’ they had some of the Another advantage for some trainees is that
the junior summer market, so beloved of Europeans, is the next BSC, as the newly enlarged British Study they all worked for the same school group.
big thing. Centres group is affectionately referred to, is classroom management Several worked together in the same branch,
But unlike the Europeans, they are obsessed by rankings and, as now the second-biggest Celta provider in the skills giving them a chance to tap into the kind of
new Oriental’s study travel team explains on page 16, parents care UK. But its course for teachers at Hong Kong peer support group which is the cornerstone
a lot about where the children are going and who is running the young learner specialists Monkey Tree is the of face-to-face training courses.
programmes. first time their teacher-training team has been Hong Kong were mostly spent observing the Loneliness and isolation can be the biggest
They love British boarding schools and universities but they involved overseas. teaching practice. Six separate 45-minute barriers to online training, as Pam knows well.
seem rather wary of language schools. The Hong Kong teachers were not typical lessons a day. ‘It was very full on. Not only for ‘I’m actually doing an online course to train
There are 24 boarding schools running summer schools which Celta newbies. They all had classroom me, but for the trainees. as an online tutor,’ she admits. ‘I can see it
are accredited by the British Council. experience working with younger learners and Remember, most of them were fitting this from the other side as well now.’
By January 23rd, every single one that we spoke to had already ‘The Online Celta has quite a lot of
filled their Chinese quota for summer this year. community work, including forums and live
So our summer school rankings, which you can find on pages 18 rooms, which helps trainees feel part of a
and 19, should come in handy. group. Somewhere you can go in the middle
But perhaps the fastest growing market from China is one of the evening and ask a question to your
that few European countries can deal with: large groups of 100 tutor or peers.’
teenagers or more wanting to study in one school along with local Pam is a great fan of online training. She
English-speaking students. And all this for up to three or four likes the fact it is self-paced – you can study
months. when you like, and look at the same materials
But neither Britain nor Ireland permit children without their again and again. You can even access the
families to enrol in local schools for such extended periods of course for a year from the course start date.
time. ‘That’s really valuable when you’re a new
And as for the boarding schools so beloved of the Chinese, on teacher.’
average they take 440 students in the senior school of whom 150 So what changes would Pam like to make
will be boarders. Squeezing another 100 or so extra Chinese 15 Christine Wu (centre) said ‘We came out of to such courses?
year-olds simply can’t be done. this program feeling more confident and we ‘That’s easy. More time. And a better
The limit to growth is not demand. It’s supply. credit this to the both of you’ internet connection.’
14 February 2018 editorial@elgazette.com 15