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TEACHERS.NET GAZETTE
Volume 4 Number 4

COVER STORY
No matter how many hundred of millions of dollars are spent, school reform initiatives will continue to produce unsatisfying results until we unflinchingly address the critical problem of teacher quality.
We're Still Leaving the Teachers Behind...
ARTICLES
We're Still Leaving the Teachers Behind by Vivian Troen & Katherine C. Boles
Bureaucrat's Field of Dreams: If You Test Them They Will Learn -- A Rousing, Rip-Roaring,Raving Rant by Bill Page
That's My Job! Promoting Responsibility in the Preschool Classroom by Mary E. Maurer
War Impacts Preschool Students -- Current events and behavior changes from the Teachers.Net Early Childhood Chatboard
TEAPOT Word Game - What Every Teacher Should Know! by Catherine Schandl
How To Use Anchoring for Accelerated Learning by Stelios Perdios
An Art Historian on Children in the Museum by Erick Wilberding
China ESL, An Industry Run Amuck? by Niu Qiang & Martin Wolff
Editor's epicks for April by Kathleen Alape Carpenter
Egg Hatching - A PowerPoint Presentation by Mechele Ussery
Direction for Teachers of Creative Writing by Dan Lukiv
Tutorial - High Frequency Words (for students who struggle) from the Teachers.Net Chatboard
Vocabulary Activities by Lisa Indiana 2-3
April Columns
April Regular Features
April Informational Items
Gazette Home Delivery:

Niu Qiang & Martin Wolff...

Niu Qiang, PhD was born and raised in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, PRC. She obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree (1991) in English from Jilin University; her Master of Arts degree (1996) in English Linguistics from Jilin University; and her PhD (1999) in English Linguistics from Shanghai International Studies University. She is currently an Associate Professor at the School of Foreign Languages, Tong ji University, Shanghai, China, where she teaches Psycholinguistics, Second Language Acquisition (SLA), and Testing of English as a Second Language. donna_niu@yahoo.com

Martin Wolff, J.D. was born in Rochester, New York, USA. He obtained his Juris Doctor degree (1976) from Loyola University, Los Angeles, Ca. He has taught Legal English, Business English, Business Management, Marketing, Human Relations and English Conversation. He is currently a Foreign Expert at the School of Foreign Languages, the Shanghai Institute of International Exchange, as part of the Sino-Canadian Joint Program. teachbesl@yahoo.co.uk


Teacher Feature...

China ESL
An Industry Run Amuck?

(continued from page 2)

by Niu Qiang, PhD & Martin Wolff, J.D.


It's time to say our farewells. P55
Could they make me known the exact time the plane takes off? P69
Have I got the go ahead to put out the fire? P119
I wonder if you'd excuse me for a moment. P152
… I'm afraid. P183
I'm afraid …. P 24, 167, 182
Will it be convenient if I call upon you at seven this evening? P220
To be openhearted, your denial that you had witnessed the accident dumbfounded me. P 249
He chooses to look into the matter till the truth is out. P264

More often than not the FEs are left to their own devices to obtain materials for the oral English class. When materials run short or the well runs dry they resort to showing DVD movies or playing games like "hangman" in class to "kill time."

The FE must also keep in mind that topics for discussion must be of interest to a majority of the class members. A female to male ratio of 6 to 1 is restricting on the quantity of sports related articles that may interest the class.

Ad Hoc

When a recruiting school encourages a FE to bring cultural materials from home, it is a pretty good indication that the teacher is expected to provide their own teaching materials and that the school has little or no English teaching resources. There are probably not any English books, magazines, movies, or other written materials suitable for English discussion, not even the prevalent out of date, twenty-year-old texts used by so many modern Universities throughout China. Those FE who require a structured or "set menu" curriculum may view this as a detriment. However, the truly creative FE view this as the greatest and most challenging opportunity to develop their own teaching program using up-to-date articles of local interest and relevancy that will interest, excite and encourage their students to participate in the discussion.

Some schools provide English resources and materials but the teacher is free to select the specific materials and organizes them in the order of presentation. And of course there is always the school that does not provide any teaching materials and also forgets to advise the Fe to bring their own.

IV. Recruitment

Introduction

The only universal guidelines, regulations or laws regulating salary, travel expense, housing, medical or teacher qualifications appear in a 1994 publication of the State Bureau of Foreign Experts (Guide for Foreign Experts Working in China, republished in 1999). While there are controlling national immigration laws, FE certification requirements appear to vary from province to province, notwithstanding the guidelines of the State Bureau of Foreign Experts. Some of the remote provinces have allowed U.S. high school graduates to teach while Shanghai and Beijing will not.

  1. SALARY
  2. Please see the limited, representative salary charts below for public and private schools, by province. This information was compiled simultaneously from www.ESLcafe.com; www.chinatefl.com; and www.abroadchina.org on a single February 2003 day and is only representative, not comprehensive. They do reflect the differences in salary (which are inconsistent with the guidelines of the State Bureau of Foreign Experts) ranges and numbers of employment opportunities in a given province, comparatively speaking.

    KEY
    K -- Kindergarten
    P -- Primary
    M -- Middle
    U -- University
    BI -- Business Institute
    Pu -- Public
    Pri -- Private

    ANHUI:
    SALARY

    K

    P

    M

    U

    BI

      Pu Pri Pu Pri Pu Pri Pu Pri Pu Pri
    2,000             1      
    3,000             3      
    3,500   1   1   1 3      
    4,500               1    
    11 jobs 3,500 average salary
    HAINAN:
    SALARY

    K

    P

    M

    U

    BI

      Pu Pri Pu Pri Pu Pri Pu Pri Pu Pri
    2,500         1          
    3,000             2      
    3,500             2      
    5 jobs 3,000 average salary
    INNER MONGOLIA:
    SALARY

    K

    P

    M

    U

    BI

      Pu Pri Pu Pri Pu Pri Pu Pri Pu Pri
    2,500         1          
    3,000             3      
    3,500       1   2        
    7 jobs 3,000 average salary
    QINGHAI:
    SALARY

    K

    P

    M

    U

    BI

      Pu Pri Pu Pri Pu Pri Pu Pri Pu Pri
    2,000 1   1       1      
    2,500 1   1       1      
    3,000             2      
    3,500     1              
    4,000     1              
    10 jobs 2,500 average salary
    SHANGHAI:
    SALARY

    K

    P

    M

    U

    BI

      Pu Pri Pu Pri Pu Pri Pu Pri Pu Pri
    3,000             3      
    3,500         1   2     1
    4,000             1   1  
    4,500         1          
    5,000         1   1      
    5,500             1      
    7,000 1     1   1 1     1
    7,500             1      
    8,000                   1
    8,500   1   1     1      
    9,000     1              
    25 jobs 7,000 average salary

    The amount of salary is also tied directly to the degree held, particularly in public universities. The higher the degree, the higher the salary.

    The private schools that offer higher salaries usually tie the higher salary to a heavier workload, i.e. more teaching hours per week.

    The Central Government guide provides:
    "According to the invitee's professional level, post held, and academic background and experience, he or she will be paid a salary of between 1,200 and 4,800 RMB Yuan per month. For every year's work completed, the equivalent of half a month's salary is paid as a departure allowance." (1994, Guide for Foreign Experts Working in China, State Bureau of Foreign Experts, p.52)

    This regulation is somewhat outdated by differing salary schedules in various provinces.

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