> Open letter to all individuals, Websites, private and government
> organisations involved in the ESL teaching in China.

> This letter was composed by a foreign ESL teacher who is currently an
> oral English teacher at a primary school in China. The motive for
> writing this letter is to express a genuine concern over the low
> standard of English education delivered to Chinese students. This is
> primarily caused by the indifference of Chinese Administrators,
> particularly at school level. The in-country teaching resources made
> available to foreign teachers are inadequate and outdated. In many
> cases it is the conscience and professionalism of individual foreign
> teachers that have driven many to privately burden the cost of
> supplying and producing home grown resources and introducing
> initiatives to ensure their students receive the best English
> instruction they can.

> What is greatly affecting the morale and motivation of ESL teachers
> after arriving in China is the realisation that is most cases they
> are simply an advertising icon for the school to recruit fee paying
> students. The main purpose they serve is to generate profit for the
> school and they are constantly facing barriers and lame excuses from
> their employers for failing to implement new strategies for the
> advancement of English competency of the students. Lets look at some
> examples:

> At a primary school of 230 students there is one ESL foreign teacher.
> The teacher is allotted one 40 minute period each week to a class
> size averaging 23 students. The foreign teacher is not permitted to
> teach over the quota of hours per week. The teacher is not allowed to
> volunteer extra time to students because the English subject is
> considered a low priority. Often the oral English classes are
> cancelled and preference given to other subjects. The overall English
> learning environment at the school is not given consideration for
> resources and materials and has no budget allocations. The children
> are not given other lessons in English because those Chinese lectures
> cannot speak English display disdain and arrogance towards foreign
> teaches who make suggestions which they perceive as lost of face.
> To balance the argument there no doubt would be arrogant or
> egotistical foreign teachers to add fuel to the fire.

> However, I have witnessed on an individual scale some Chinese English
> teachers who love their students that is they give the best they
> can to thier students with the resources available. They are denied
> repeated requests for advance training and professional development.

> Low morale and frustration is causing a growing number of foreign
> teachers to leave their posting before the end of their contracts and
> to incur great financial loss. False advertising, that is allowed to
> go un-policed and that is subject to no proper verification is
> continuing to lure the inexperienced and nave job seeker into
> teaching positions. In reality these positions offered by Chinese
> schools are under funded and would be otherwise abandoned and
> unlawful by western standards. In the long term, the mounting social
> and emotional stresses placed on foreign teachers, plus the almost
> nil support and response from Chinese authorities will see the demise
> of quality and professional English teaching, by foreign teacher, in
> China.

> Taking a futuristic and macro perspective, and if the situation goes
> unchecked, China will eventually be viewed by the educational
> community of the world as failing in its reforms to bring English
> competency to those who are genuinely struggling to improve there
> cross-cultural awareness and to further unlock their potential to
> advance China on the world stage.

I always advise people never to give advice.

XI