教师原创：What makes a good English teacher?

（单词翻译:单击）

教师信息：http://www.oralpractice.com/read_78626.html

From my own observation, there are a lot of imperfect teachers in China, including myself.  Why am I saying this?

A lot of teachers cannot even make English sounds correctly. They do not talk in a way which is easy for others to understand them readily. On my part, I am not talking normally (when I am engaged in a conversation with real native speakers) when I talk to students or people here in China, I have to flatten¹ my voice deliberately² and also slow down.  If I use my normal English speech, most of them will fail to catch anything from me at all.  I am using simple English and structure, but my choice of words and my standard pronunciation (each person has their own set of pronunciation as a standard) will stop them from understanding me easily.

What else I would like to educate those who always challenge the standard of teachers?  Yes, the overall knowledge and especially accent.

Let me deal with accent first which is quite simple and straight forward. You don't judge an English user with his/her accent because English is an international language now.  A lot of that has to do with mother tongue habit and the vocal³ cord.  If you don't grow up young in a native English environment, it is not that easy (though not impossible) to have an American or British accent.  We all know that the best is Canadian accent which means neutral or no accent.  Australian, Scottish and Welsh accents belong to the same category - pretty tough.  Then American accent can also be a problem.  The American accented English of the Filipinos is also not easy to understand.   Singaporean accent is funny in my mind.  Hong Kong accent  can be ugly ... Well, it is not the accent per se, it is the how they keep raising their tone as they go towards the end of the sentence.  (As a Hongkonger myself, I hate to hear people talk that way, but nothing much can be done.)  Then the South Asian group like Shri Lankans, Indians, Pakistanis (and add to this the Gurkha i.e. Nepalese) are hopeless if you are not used to them.

Well, many words have been used to describe the accent situation after all - not that simple.

The next point - knowledge.

No one who is native can easily give you the English word for anything or describe something in English easily.  

As language is a skill set, it is how skillful the user can present himself in the language, even though with certain things either ordinary or special, he may have difficulties from time to time.  That won't label him as a weaker user or disqualified for helping⁴ others with their English.

Students or users have either committed into memory a lot of vocab or not enough of them.  However, they have their own version of English sounds so if you use those words they know, they may not be able to understand you exactly because of this.   The other group can't understand you or talk to you because of vocab as well, but this time the lack of it.

If you are following my forum⁵ here, you must know that I always challenge those who think they have the right to criticize others or pick up the flaws of others, to present their arguments or viewpoints entirely⁶ in English with minimum hiccups⁷ and easy understanding.

Some young English users are so proud because they know a lot of slang and will tease others or snob⁸ others if they don't know the slang that they know.  This is an unwanted attitude.  You should vouch⁹ others on their overall command of the language rather.

Having been around in China for 7 years and always present at English corners or scouting¹⁰ in QQ English chat groups, I am too familiar with the unwanted attitude of the what you can call 'more able' users of English here in China.  Much more, those who have been in some native English speaking countries.  What a big deal?   You are more proud if you don't have to leave home to become competent in a foreign language.

I was already very competent before I was offered jobs overseas.  When people know that I had stayed and worked overseas, they think automatically that I was lucky to have the chance and that must be the reason you can speak English so well.  That's all wrong!

Now, some lesser¹¹ skilled English teachers are serving their own functions here in China due to their lower charges and the lower skill level of the learners.  Between money and quality, you have no better options.

True to say that teaching speaking and writing is a separate issue.  Not all so called English teachers have equal and balanced skills in both.  So students have to exercise care picking the right teacher for these two aspects of the language.

I have read a lot of English composition by senior English teachers in middle schools in China and also demo or model compositions on English learning Web sites in China.  You know too well what I would say about them anyway.  Save my words ....

This is written up quickly on the spur of the moment without any planning.  However, it has summed up my own temperament¹² on the issue of English language here in China.   

Oh, I forgot about my own weakness.  I have no patience with too low level students and students who cannot make English sounds correctly.  And the arrogant¹³ students who are picking bones from eggs.  I am fit only for those who need applied¹⁴ English at above intermediate level, or those who are humble¹⁵ to discuss about me learning strategies so they can move on on their own without wasting time and effort.

The English language education and use is all distorted to the highest degree.

I just happened to chance upon a multimedia¹⁶ report on "Renting a White Face".  You can find that easily on iFeng.com.
 

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