How can I 'give face'?

[Madot]

I am about to go to a regional city in China as a 'foreign expert' and part of my job will be to give lectures to the professorial staff of a Teachers' College on the latest language teaching methods. These staff members' job is to teach language teaching methods to future teachers, so, as you can imagine, this could raise delicate issues of status. I am in serious danger of stepping on some very sensitive toes. The "I know the College President wants this foreigner here, but who is she to teach US how to teach?"-- sort of attitude is what I fear I may be facing.

SO, I was looking of ways to 'give' face to my colleagues so as not to cause them to lose face due to my role at the College. Of course the usual rules of Chinese politeness apply-- the way you address people, the use of 2 hands to take or give things, the 'equal' exchange of invitations etc-- but does anyone have any further, more substantial suggestions? Please help me here if you can.

Mado

[kdavid]

These staff members' job is to teach language teaching methods to future teachers, so, as you can imagine, this could raise delicate issues of status. I am in serious danger of stepping on some very sensitive toes. The "I know the College President wants this foreigner here, but who is she to teach US how to teach?"--

It's great that you're thinking this way. Many people new to China would take the stereotypical approach and make the wrong impression.

However, I think you might be thinking too negative. While there are sure to be some natives thinking the way you've described above, most of those you'll be lecturing will welcome you and your new ideas.

To answer your original question, there are many ways to give your new colleagues face:

Figure out how many people you'll be working with. If the number is not staggering, prepare some small gifts. If you'll be working with some supervisory-level people, or will have a "boss" of your own, you'll want to consider bringing them a more expensive gift.

Treat people to dinner. Don't wait for the bill to be settled after the meal--take care of it before anyone ever arrives at the restaurant.

Be lavish with praise. Whenever someone approaches you and speaks to you in English, compliment their "fluency", even if they're not any good.

Make it a point to figure out what the Chinese as a people have contributed to your lecture topics. Make it a point to praise what previous thinkers have contributed to the field.

Find out what your colleagues are contributing, and praise them as well.

[rezaf]

i don't know about face but tell them that china's entire language teaching system is boring 死了!!!

[Madot]

Yes, at heart that's the problem. They use an antiquated system of teaching based on memorisation, an approach which is particularly unsuited to the teaching of languages!

The good thing is that they do know this but aren't famiiar with the more modern techniques -- and hence my invitation to visit for 4 months.

KDavid -- thanks for some wonderful ideas. I have already bought quite nice presents for the Dean, the Head of Foreign Affairs and the one particular colleague who has facilitated the whole visit, but I hadn't thought about gifts for everyone. I'll find out how many there are. Perhaps a simple pin-- I've seen some really cute ones with the Chinese and Australian flags joined at the masts. Would someting like that be appropriate?

Because my Chinese is not good enough, I'm afraid that reviewing colleagues' contributions to language teaching methods would be out of the question, BUT they have all (I think) published articles on English language or literature in (often execrable) English. I could check those articles out and certainly find some interesting things to praise. Hadn't thought of that either. Thanks.

And of course praise whenever possible, as well as (pre-organised and paid) dinners.

Anything else?

My biggest problem is going to be going against the very deeply help Chinese cultural horror of making mistakes in public. It is simply not possible to learn a language (or to teach it, for that matter) without having the courage to risk doing this. This is at the very heart of the modern language teaching methods they want to learn and I have a speech in Chinese prepared to encourage students (and professors too, I guess) to have the 'courage of a warrior' in order to overcome this difficulty. (I will be demonstrating it because although the speech is word perfect, the delivery will NOT be.) If anyone has any further suggestions on THIS, I would REALLY appreciate them.

I'm sure the issue of needing to give face is not unique to me. It's a really impprtant social issue to anyone trying to function in China, so please keep this going.

Mado

[imcgraw]

Sorry, I don't know much about giving face, so I'll just comment on this bit:

My biggest problem is going to be going against the very deeply help Chinese cultural horror of making mistakes in public.

Are you instructing them on methods to teach English or Chinese, or both? Either way, it seems like the issue above is a problem that the students would need to get over, not the teachers (as much, anyway).

The biggest cultural difference I come across with respect to language teaching is that Western teaching methods seem to many Chinese to be a little wishy-washy relative to rote memorization techniques. To put it simply. Given two distinct methods of learning: (1) something task-based, fun/interactive, and (2) rote memorization... I find the Chinese tend to gravitate towards the latter, with the reasoning that "not only is it a time tested teaching technique, but the student is taught 'diligence' in addition to the new language." It's the old "no pain, no gain" strategy of language teaching.

As a Western student of Chinese who found rote memorization techniques tedious and ineffective, I obviously feel quite differently. That said, there's a certain amount of structure inherent in those techniques which I think many teachers are afraid of losing by switching to communicative methods of language teaching.

[Madot]

Well, the methods would be suitable for teaching English to Chinese speakers or vice-versa. Without getting into the substance of a very long discussion on methods, the issue is that the methods class has been designed to include BOTH rote learning of the theory (so the students can point to what they've learned, the way they are used to doing) as well as practice of the communicative techniques. This practice is what will cause the problems because whether I'm dealing with the undergraduate future teachers or the professorial staff themselves, they will need to engage in planning communicative-style lessons. The teachers cannot just say to the students: go forth and communicate. The teachers have to engage the students in various communicative tasks (among other kind of tasks because the most modern approach is not wholly or solely communicative) so they will need to risk making mistakes in their English. They will also need to learn strategies to get their STUDENTS to overcome this cultural taboo. Stressing the courage that it takes, making the simile with a soldier (warrior) who must risk being wounded, etc. were the only techniques some Chinese friends could suggest to me. I was hoping for further suggestions.

Mado

[Scoobyqueen]

There is probably some background information which will be circulated about you in advance. Make sure you see it. You could place some messages in that material, for example emphasising your experience which hopefully also draws a little on Chinese research, if not you could just emphasise that it it interntional and has been drawn from various countries and hopefully not just one.

If possible you could point out in the intro of the lecture that you are keen to learn from them also so that it will be an exchange for you as well. In fact exchange and coooperation should occur whenever possible.

update yourself on the latest discussions on Gao Kao. This exam is under review and has been hotly debated in the papers this week. There might be a reference to langauge in there. If so, mention it in the intro.

Consider praising Chinese students at your own institution/county for their dilligence and dedication.

Do a 2-3 minute introduction in Chinese using some of the above points.

[Madot]

Scoobyqueen, those are some great ideas. The research is indeed international and they already have my CV to circulate which does include a very long list of international publications of my own, but at UOW I often work with Chinese students and can certainly find lots to priase them for, as well as looking for the exchange of ideas, as you suggest. I can see that this is what I will need to emphasise. . In particular, I'll have to follow your suggestion about familiarising myself with the exam discussion and whether or not languages were mentioned in the discussion. Thanks

Mado

Edited July 9, 2009 at 08:49 AM by Madot
left something out

[Scoobyqueen]

I currently live in Germany and have noticed that the universitities here have lots of Chinese students. They come here having started to learn German at home and then typically learn German every day for months in order to sit a HSK equivalent exam that is required for university entry. I have seen this in other european countries too. You may be able to look up some stats that reveal if Chinese top the list of foreign students going abroad to study for a full degree (not exchange students), especially as it pertains to non-English universities. That would go down well in your intro if this is the case.

In terms of the intro in Chinese if you feel comfortable with it, it will go down very well even if it is only 30 seconds. It will engender a surprised reaction in the audience and that will help position you for the contents of the lecture itself.

In terms of the rote memorization method 填鸭式you will find that a lot of young Chinese realise this is not an optimal method and probably a lot of teachers agree. They may just be tied down to the one method.

Also I just saw you mentioned UOW – avoid internal acronyms.

[Madot]

Yes, of course, sorry-- UOW is the University of Wollongong in New South Wales, Australia.

Re: overseas Chinese students studying for degrees at English-speaking universities-- my interest in teaching methods in China stemmed originally from experience in precisely this area. I was volunteering time in the Learning Resource Centre and although by far the most diligent, putting in unimaginable hours of work every day, the Chinese students were by far the least prepared to actually do sstudy in English. There were exceptions of course, but the vast majority, although able to recite the Chinese meaning for thousands and thousands of English words, words many native English speakers were unfamiliar with, they couldn't read simple assignments and even worse than their reading and writing abilities were their aural/oral skills. It was at times so shocking that many of us were sure there must have been some fraud going on for certain students to have passed the international English exam which gave them entry to the university as a graduate student. The second motive for my desire to teach methods in China was the appalling experience I had of the language teaching methods in a 3-month course of Beginners' Chinese at BLCU. (Sorry, guys. Maybe my experience was atypical?)

I do know that I will not be able to change the system. Students will still have to be prepared for their national exams. My hope is that by introducing teachers to modern foreign language teaching methods, teachers will be able to BOTH prepare students for the unfortunate memorisation exams they have to do, as well as learn how to learn in a way that fosters communication, that is the ability to USE the language rather than simply learning about it.

I will try the little speech. Possibly VERY little, but it will model what I'm trying to teach, i.e. not being afraid of making mistakes in public. I'll give it a try. :-)

Mado

[stoney]

Madot,

If you are not already familiar with this, here is an link you might be interested in.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_English

[jbradfor]

I am in serious danger of stepping on some very sensitive toes. The "I know the College President wants this foreigner here, but who is she to teach US how to teach?"-- sort of attitude is what I fear I may be facing.

I think you're very smart to realize this.

I think you can have one of two attitudes. One is "you're teaching methods are all wrong, here's the ONE TRUE WAY", the other is "here are some approaches we've found useful, I hope you'll find them useful too." Now far be it for me to give advice (cough, cough), but even if feel the first one (and I can understand if you do), I recommend you approach it as the second. That way you give face (or at least don't decrease their face) by saying that you're here to offer suggestions, but ultimately they are in charge of how they teach and it's up to them.

It's not quite about face, but two other potential issues came to mind as I typed the above. You already probably thought of them, but I was thinking that others might have ideas on how to approach it.

The first issue you might encounter is the infamous "this won't work for Chinese, we're different" attitude. To deflect this, you could focus somewhat on experiences teach Chinese students.

The second issue I can think of is the "this is always how we've done it" or "this is the Chinese way/culture" attitude. I'm really not sure how to address this.

[Madot]

Re: 'Crazy English'-- if it is simply repetition and memorisation (but shouted aloud together), I think its use might be limited, but I do like the idea that it encourages people not to be embarassed about making a mistake. Do you know anything more about the ideas Chinese teachers of English have about it? I mean, perhaps one could mention that although the 'shouting' is definitely non-Chinese (and probably not useful), the idea of not being afraid of mistakes is good. But this would not work if the mere mention of it makes the professional teaching audience cringe.

Re: the 'this is the way we've always done it' argument, you're spot on! On the other hand, one could gently suggest that ADDING certain communication or pattern-finding techniques to the teaching repertoire might perhaps improve students' oral communication skills. You're right. I had thought of this and have included quite a bit about the good things of traditional Chinese teaching. Your second point is more difficult. People do often say, 'it won't work here', 'it won't work with the Chinese'. and to an extent, this is a possibility, precisely because of the 'face' problem (among a few others). It is easy to demonstrate that the technique of 'direct association' works far better than translation but that doesn't fly in the face (pun intended) of the 'face' problem.

So, what I am looking for (apart from ways of giving face to my colleagues) are ways to minimise the fear of losing face among students in order to be able to get them to practise the language. In the U.S. and Australia, I have set up competition scenarios which work quite well, but if NO ONE will participate because the fear of a mistake weighs more heavily than the desire to win... Any suggestions?

Mado

[imron]

People do often say, 'it won't work here', 'it won't work with the Chinese'. and to an extent, this is a possibility, precisely because of the 'face' problem (among a few others)

To be honest, I think that face will be the least of your problems. Your greatest difficultly will be trying to break bad habits and assumptions learnt through spending years in an education system that doesn't promote healthy learning habits.

Here is one example of many: When I was teaching English, one bad habit I noticed was that when students encountered a new word in their text, without fail they would write the Chinese translation directly above it. Their textbooks were absolutely full of these notes directly written above the text. This solves the immediate problem of understanding what the sentence says, however it usually results in the student not learning that word very well because every time they come across that word, instead of looking at the English and having to think about it, their eyes will flick to the Chinese to get the meaning and the English is essentially ignored. It's a particularly nasty habit because it means you end up ignoring the very words you need to pay the most attention to.

After noticing this to be very common, I gave all of my classes a talk on how to remedy the situation. Namely, instead of writing the Chinese above the word, underline the word and then in a separate notebook write down the word and its meaning. The benefits of this approach are that 1) the underlining serves as an indication that you didn't know the word, and can help act as a trigger. 2) If you are reading the text again, then when you encounter a word you didn't know on your previous readings (and possibly have already forgotten, or are still not 100% familiar with) then you have to stop and think about it. Stopping and thinking about it is how you learn. 3) You have a handy notebook of all words you didn't know, which makes an excellent revision tool.

After listening to my suggestions, most students gave it a try, but in the end probably only about 2-3 students per class (in classes of 20-30) took what I said onboard and continued through with it and adopted it as a long-term practice. These were always the better students. The common perception was that such a method was an ineffective way of learning. Not long after explaining this method, I had a student come up to me and say, "Imron, your method doesn't work. I tried it for for a couple of weeks, but I found that when I looked back over previous articles in the textbook I couldn't understand any of the new words, and it took me significantly longer to learn each word. Previously when writing the Chinese above the word, I could learn everything very quickly."

The problem of course was not with my method, but with her understanding of what it meant to learn a word. Underlining the word and keeping track of unknown words in a separate notebook forces you to confront the fact that you don't know a word. Writing the translation above the word, disguises the fact that you don't know it, and gives you the perception that you are learning even though the reality is that nothing is being learnt. I demonstrated this by going to previous articles in her textbook that had the Chinese written above unknown words, covering over the Chinese and asking her the meaning. After numerous failures, it finally dawned on her that it wasn't that my method wasn't working, it was just that my method would tell her when she hadn't learnt a word properly, instead of letting her feel like she was learning it. Her experience was reasonably typical, and most students would choose a method that made them feel like they were learning, rather than one that constantly reminded them that they hadn't learnt things yet.

Anyway, I wouldn't get too concerned about face in the classroom. Just be prepared that many of your suggestions may not really be taken seriously because on the surface they don't give the appearance of being as effective as their existing methods.

[Madot]

Imron, you are absolutely right! Fortunately, I will NOT be trying to overcome these habits in MY students but rather trying to teach THEM how to instill in their own future students more effective habits. Your demonstration to the student who had been writing the characters above the English words, is precisely the sort of thing I will need to be doing in order to convince the future teachers to consider other methods. Once bad habits take hold, they are ever so hard to break, but theoretically at least, my students should be among the better ones (since they are studying the language in order to teach it, not just use it for some exam). Also, although people with a special talent for languages seem to be able to learn even DESPITE the method they were taught by, these future teachers know that their own students will not all be 'talented' the way they are, so these other methods may be useful for them. (Well, that's going to be my line anyway.)

Of course the lectures for the professors are another matter. They will find it very hard to change their way of teaching and, as you mention, to change the bad habits of their students.

Mado

[imron]

I will NOT be trying to overcome these habits in MY students but rather trying to teach THEM how to instill in their own future students more effective habits.

Ah, but you will need to overcome these habits in your students. If they believe their existing habits are more effective than any new ones (especially if on the surface they are given the impression that this is the case), they will not see the point in instilling these newer habits in their own students.

Anyway, it's definitely possible to achieve this, I just think that this and other differences in the basic education system are going to be the far greater issues in the classroom, rather than concerns about face.

[chen88]

Chinese schools are based on the Confucian-Heritage culture which emphasizes "deep memorization" and understanding. While this method works well for learning math and the sciences, it is less effective for promoting creativity and critical thinking skills.

China is currently becoming interested in Western teaching methods because they want their students to become more innovative and have stronger critical thinking skills. As a Western expert, you are understanding of American students, how they learn language, and what it means to them to learn a language (beyond the linguistic skills). Be prepared to be asked about this, and talk about how the pedagogy you are introducing to them helps cultivate innovation, creativity, and critical thinking skills.

[BrandeX]

As someone who has done a little "teacher training" to local Elementary teacher groups in the past, you should also be prepared for the possibility that there will be a group of people there who may or may not actually understand English much, are required by their employer to be there, and will watch you for a while, then go off later afterwards to resume doing their work in whatever manner they feel like, or is easiest.

Edited July 13, 2009 at 10:04 AM by BrandeX
typo

[Madot]

Chen88, that is a real challenge. That kind of education or political jargon always puts language teachers in a bit of a bind, doesn't it? All we want to do is to enable our students to communicate in the foreign language! I guess all I will be able to say is that teaching English (or other foreign languages) in this manner will enable the students to communicate their innovation, creativity, etc. to the rest of the world in a convincing way.

BrandX, you are SO right! And I know that for me, personally, this is going to be the hardest thing. I KNOW it will happen. Probably all I can do will be to try and ensure as best I can that as few as possible take that attitude, but really, there's not much you can do if the audience is unable to understand what you are trying to have them do and aren't much interested in changing anyway. I'm sure there will be some nights for me of a few private tears of frustration in this regard. (...added to the usual frustrations of living in China, particularly when your Chinese is rudimentary.)

:-)

Mado