I know from personal experience that Chinese students who are from areas where the local dialect is strong, will struggle with some elements of pronunciation often confusing "v" and "w" for example. This also applies to some Chinese teachers I have worked with over the years who make the same errors and with the word 'usually' reduced to 'urally' as another example. At no stage in their language education were these errors corrected.

This is a common problem around the world. Italians put an 'eh' on the end of most words, Spanish use the same sound but at the start of any word starting with an S! In Greece they have huge trouble with the 'ch' sound.

This is the main reason I argue against state schools being better than TCs or private schools. I can only speak for the countries in Europe I have worked in, but in those countries (Greece, Italy, Spain) state school teachers of English are always non-native speakers who hold a B2 certificate of English (ESOL FCE or IELTS 6). Once they have gained this qualification and the job is theirs they are under no obligation to continue studying or advancing their own English, which means it's not at all uncommon to find English teachers who haven't spoken English with an actual native speaker for many, many years.

Their intentions may be good and I'm not suggesting they are completely ineffective, but they are very limited in what they can do, both pronunciation-wise and grammar-wise; if they are no longer practising English, their own fluency will wane and some of the horrific things I've heard from my students that their state school teacher tells them is worrying at best!

Private schools in Europe that are staffed by qualified teachers do their best to rectify these errors as they come across them, and as said before smaller classes equals more teacher-student time and a better grounding in English.

Yes indeed, there will always be examples of this happening and, in a system that needs urgent reform, it will continue. But there are many examples from the TC sector reported here and elsewhere by committed and passionate teachers of inadequate, outdated resources or poor curriculum and staff management. It takes a special kind of teacher to do a good job in this situation because the responsibility has been diluted by a corporate approach that focuses on making money, promotional work and getting bums on seats. It is this aspect and also contractual arrangements that are often the focus of regular contributors to the Forum. Sometimes that message is lost in the bickering and character attacks that prevail.

This is all I've ever tried to put across here. Ultimately the responsibility for what is taught in the classroom is that of the teacher alone. You don't need fancy gadgets and interactive whiteboards (although they are nice!) to teach well. If you are a qualified and experienced teacher you don't even need decent textbooks... While I worked at EF I rarely used the course books provided, instead creating my own material to teach the grammar points which was why I was so often in trouble with the management there! But I stuck to my guns and continued to teach what was in the best interests of my students.

Which is why I know it is possible to do good work at a Chinese TC. If I can do it, so can other teachers, they just have to want to.