hey nick, i've got some questions. Hello EG, I will answer as well as I can

Is a ft allowed to teach grammar, reading, listening, writing at omeida? at this place, what's the ratio of what a ft is to teach comparing it all to "oral english"?

There is a lot of freedom with syllabus, and as such grammar, reading and listening can all be taught. I only ever did major writing tasks as homework assignments, with minimal writing actually in-class. I cant tell you what every other teacher did/does, but I can tell you roughly what I did. I used New Interchange books and took the parts of the chapter I liked and used this resource mainly for oral activities and reading. I also used Face 2 Face. I dont know if you are familiar with these textbooks but each two page section features tasks based around all the skills. I tended to use this resource for most of my real listening tasks (Im not counting students listen to me talking as listening tasks for the purpose of this thread) and for grammar tasks. I had all the listening tasks on MP3 for Face 2 Face.

I also used Guardian Weekly lesson plans, (I really like these, if you havent seen them you might want to have a look), these lessons also feature a number of skills.

Overall...the above material would probably cover 3 or 4 days of a typical week. The final day each week might feature a lesson with self generated material. This final day might be an adapted problem page letter with a discussion/dilemma angle, mainly oral, with reading and vocabulary. The other lessons I liked to experiment with were music lessons. This of course could be classed as listening, but I tried to use songs to illustrate language points rather than just 'lets sing a-long' lessons. I have a new lesson I developed at Omeida with Beyonce's 'If I were a boy' which leads into 2nd conditionals. I also used a Des'Ree's 'You Gotta Be' as a gap fill focusing on collocations.

I also have 3 task lessons based on grammar points which I used in rotation in my classes. I do need more lesson like this though, hence wanting professional development etc.

Overall, I would guess my ratio was something like Oral 50%, Targeted Listening 25%, Grammar 15%, with the last 10% being the odd bit of writing.

Are fts allowed to give placement testing to students at omeida?

There is a standard placement test given by the education dept. At the time of writing this is a Chinese FT. If the three FT's feel the student is placed in the wrong level, we could make a group decision to move them into another class. I would guess that 9/10 the placement task was fairly accurate.

are there any end of level or course final exams given to students there and if so what do they consist of and who administers them?

No final exam. Student certificates on 'graduation' just state 'student XXX has attended an XXX hour Oral English course' or something similar.

are fts allowed to teach the beginner levels at omeida?

Earliest level that FT's get involved is at the New Interchange 1. Thats the red book if you know the books. I have taught lower levels in what Omeida call 'Elective courses'. These are a one hour optional lesson FTs can volunteer for (paid BTW) and teach a topic of their choice. I did one beginners class. Omeida beginners (level 0) normally cant count to 5 in English BTW.

and, has any ft ever done successful pronunciation classes there?

Id like to think I have! By working with very small groups with frequent class contact you can identify pronunciation issues. I wrote a few minimal pairs tasks based on weaknesses I noted following a similar format to the minimal pairs tasks on 'one stop English'. The Face 2 Face books also feature tasks on sentence stress, weak forms, and linking ... I actually thought these were the best part of using Face 2 Face. I cant speak for other teachers though....but this is what I have done.

by the way, could you explain how the omeida ft evaluation process works? i've been told there was a foreign professor (phd) that was "involved" in this process.

In my first month during my probation period, I was observed 3 times and given feedback after each observation. At that time, the guy in charge of the education dept was an American. I dont know if he had a Phd to be honest....All I can tell you is he was a US state certified teacher ... which I actually think is a weakness, rather than being positive. That may sound controversial to some, but I feel having qualifications that dont actually relate to EFL teaching dont count for much IMO. I personally wouldnt have anyone involved in evaluating teachers unless said individual had EFL qualifications.

I can only remember one time in my 6 months that students were asked to fill in a teacher evaluation. This was just before Spring Festival. I dont know quite what the form entailed as I gave them to students in sealed envelopes and didnt see the actual form. Nothing was ever mentioned to me about the results of the evaluation, and I wasnt especially worried about seeing the results either.

Peer observation was more important to me than student feedback forms to be honest. I only had those 3 'formal' observations, but did have newbie teachers observe me a number of times and I was always interested in feedback from them, good or bad.

Hope that helps ... Im sure you are going to find something to rip into from these answers! Haha, These are only based on my experience of course! I cant tell you the ratio etc of other teachers, but I hope this does show there is an element of freedom in what FT's can do.

Regards

I admit I apply for positions on a different basis to many FT's, so my reasons for choosing an employer, and my likes/dislikes may be quite different to other FT's.

I know you are likely to disagree with me on this point LOL, but the actual teaching is one of my first priorities! I didn't/dont want to work with large classes, kindy, or kids and teenagers in general. This is especially so for China ... Im far more open to teaching teenagers and kids in other countries though. I also wanted more contact time with my classes rather than the once a week thing I had in Middle School and College before.

On that basis training centres are probably always going to be a better bet for me. I find small groups of students easier to engage, manage and I can concentrate on my TL/Pronunciation etc much easier in the environment of a small class. I found large classes in a college setting became far too teacher centred, although I would admit that is perhaps my fault. I dont know...I dont want classes of more than 15 students though....30 or 40+? No thanks.

So adult classes of up to 11 students suited me. In practice, I think typical class sizes were around 6 students, which was even better.

The second motivating factor for me is location. My UK address is Eastbourne, a small coastal, tourist town with a pretty good climate. Well, as good as any in the UK at least! This is perhaps why I wouldnt really consider a city, and especially a Northern city which could be far too cold for me. An ideal China job for me is in a town that I can walk from end to end in. Yangshuo fits the bill there, and due to its popularity as a tourist destination ... its also quite 'foreigner friendly' with lots of English speakers, and the bars and restaurants that are normally associated with bigger cities. Its probably quite unique for China in that respect.

I was also lucky as a previous workmate of mine went to work at Omeida, and he gave me the low down on the place long before I went there. Obviously from his experience, he knew Omeida, and knowing me as well as he does, he thought it would be a good match. I was fortunate that it was!

Salary and long holidays are rarely a consideration for me in choosing a job incidentally...I think lots of people prefer Uni jobs for these reasons. Not that I have money or other sources of income BTW!

As I had already mentioned, professional development is important to me, and my next goal in terms of qualifications is to gain a DELTA. Im pretty sure it would be hard to gain one whilst in China, but working in a training centre with small classes of adult students is more akin to DELTA type teaching than Uni work would be (I think???).

I think we are on opposite ends of the teaching scale in terms of preferences etc. I think a Uni job might possibly offer everything I dont want from the actual teaching, where I am sure a training centre holds a similar amount of appeal for you! Each to their own I guess :)

Regards

NP