End of term tales

Apologies about the space between the last post and this one, but I’ve been busy finishing off the marking, travelling home and then chilling out a bit!

Praise God, I made it through!

I really do believe I had to do a job in the last couple of weeks of term that a teacher of my level and experience shouldn’t have had to do. I tested nearly all of my students (211 of them) on their English speaking ability and five classes on their listening skills too. The listening tests were fine although we (Martin and I) were harsher with the marking this time round. What got me going however was the oral exams. In each test we had to concentrate hard on what each student was saying, listening for good and bad bits and write plenty of notes, because there was no recording equipment at our disposal and no second teacher for a second opinion (and we will have to justify our marks to our supervisor in January). We had already done a set of oral tests with our first year students, but they were role plays which were easier to mark (as it was largely down to guess work!!).

This time I tested the first year students on their spontaneous English which I felt was important because they like to write things down all the time before speaking but they’re at university level now and that’s not how communication happens outside of the classroom. So for the test they came in to the room in pairs and I gave each of them an advert from a British magazine and after a minute or so they had to describe it and give opinions on it. The second part was to have a conversation with their classmate on a randomly chosen topic out of five that were face down before them. I think some of them were surprised with how well they handled the task and others got a wake up call. I was not impressed with those that strolled in saying ‘So what are we supposed to be doing Miss?’ (we had practised it the week before in class!), but there’s always going to be some of those.

This time I had a mark scheme and it was much more time consuming to write out comments on all of them and add up the marks, but I think it was worth it. It did surprise me how hard it was to not have a bias towards students who work hard or have a pleasant manner or have a generally good level of English (or the opposite – a negative bias towards those who wind me up!). Some of them are very enthusiastic students but when you look closer at their English they’re making silly mistakes. For others, you can’t understand some of what they’re saying because of their sentence structure or their accent…then you get stuck as it means you haven’t got much to go off for the marks!

The second and third year students did different kinds of oral exams, which was good as it gave some variety to my fortnight (I won’t bore you with the details!). I celebrated the end of the 14-week craziness by sharing a tub of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream with some friends J I think it’s fair to say that overall there was good progress made over the semester and I’m pleased with the job I did. I got quite attached to some students over the 12 weeks and some of them got quite attached to me too! I got a few disappointed comments of ‘Is that it?’, and ‘Aren’t you teaching us any more Miss?’ at the end. (I will carry on teaching some, but said goodbye to the majority).

The Spaghetti Challenge

One of the more fun activities I did towards the end with some of my classes was the ‘spaghetti challenge’. In teams the students had to build the tallest free-standing tower possible in 18 minutes, with 20 spaghetti sticks, 2 lengths of tape, and a marshmallow which had to go on top (whole). Here's one of the winning towers pictured. They had to do the task entirely in English and every time I heard a person speaking French, I told them I’d note down -1cm for their team! It worked a treat for most participants and showed them they could put their English to practical use. I was impressed by how well some of them resisted the temptation to speak English.

Fun times

In the last couple of weeks before leaving for home I enjoyed making biscuits and cards at friends’ houses, I wandered around the Rennes Christmas market, went to the cinema and along to our church’s Christmassy family fun afternoon.

Next time I’ll tell you about my Christmas break. I hope you’re all enjoying the festive season!

Fiona
x

The French university system

I just don’t get it

It’s about time I told you a bit more about the university here and how things work (or don’t sometimes as the case may be). In France they’re fans of education. Children can go to state-provided pre-schools from the age of 3, then by the time you get to the other end of the education system, you’re expected to have a degree in order to be qualified for a lot of jobs, and many students are looking to do a Masters in order to get the job they want.

Unfortunately when you talk about the French university system with any French person or foreigner who has been here for a while, everybody moans about it and doesn’t seem to have much confidence in it. Except for maybe the highly prestigious ‘grandes écoles’, but they’re something else. The French university system seems to be lacking resources, a bit outdated, and in complete disorder with no one being able to do much about it.

There are two large problems in my opinion (plus a number of others). The first is that there does not seem to be much (if any) standardisation… is a grade of 12 out of 20 the same with one teacher as it is with another? I don’t think so and (to my knowledge) nothing is done about this. Are all the students of a particular course assessed the same? No. Are they taught the same material? No. Therefore the knowledge a person gains in a module and whether or not you pass will largely be down to which teachers they have been lucky or unlucky enough to have.

The second is this: A range of students obtaining the equivalent of A levels can sign up to any one course, meaning you have ‘A’ calibre students in the same class as ‘E’ just-scraped-a-pass students. Now this means the ‘A’ students have to put up with the ‘E’ students in all their classes. This isn’t so bad for lecture theatres crammed full of students where the teacher just talks at the students, but it’s not so great for smaller, more interactive classes (like mine). Some of the more capable students are really held back by their lazier or less intelligent class mates. One second year student said to me she felt she hadn’t learnt anything in 1^st year because they were going over basic things and having to put up with less serious students in the class, so she thought it had been wasted time.

The French system is one which is about the survival of the fittest. The French expect a high drop-out rate in first year (1 in 5 students or higher I would estimate!). If you get below 50%, you don’t get into second year, and already lots will start to drop out or change course in first year by Christmas. (This resulting in me having new students post half term, and numerous people telling me X isn’t doing the course any more as I try and organise end-of-term assessments). They also expect a large number to not get through to third year.

I can’t help thinking if the system was more just and regulated and everything worked towards the same quality result, maybe there would be more jobs available off the back of a Bachelor’s degree and not so many would have to prove themselves by doing an extra two years in education (a Masters).

Someone told me this week “The teachers don’t care and the students don’t care”. Well, I don’t completely agree with that from what I’ve seen, but it can be the case because it starts to get tiring to battle against all the difficulties encountered in the system. I’ve certainly been hurt by not-caring attitudes and found it extremely hard to find my way in this system with very little direction from more experienced people.

Aside from that…

I’ve not had a very good week. I’ve had a cold, am battling tiredness, and feeling lost in 100s of oral exams which are time-consuming and difficult to mark. The highlight of my week was having lunch with my American friend Halle, at a Chinese buffet J

Bonne semaine* everyone, hope you’re keeping warm in the colder weather!

Fiona x

*Have a good week