by Wendel Sloan
Editor’s Note: Dr. Bob Elliott, associate professor and director of the Aviation Science Technology Program, spent May 18-June 12 teaching at Linyi University in China.
He taught teaching assessment and evaluation to 150 undergraduate Chinese students who will become ESL teachers at schools in China. Although he and his students faced several challenges during the course, language was not as much of a barrier as he anticipated.
He says the efforts of the Foreign Languages School dean, staff members and the students helped him turn it into a very rich and rewarding experience for everyone. He said, “I was especially impressed with the students’ mastery level of the English language, and there was much more learning that occurred outside the classroom than in the classroom.”
He also spent time visiting with the school dean, faculty members, and university administrators to gain an understanding of Linyi University in the landscape of the China system of higher education.
Dr. Elliott received a personal invitation to teach from the Dean of the Foreign Languages School whom he had met during his brief visit there in 2014.
In the following interview, he discusses the experience.
Q. What was the purpose of your trip?
It was a huge success for everyone involved; students, faculty, and administrators. The purpose was multi-fold: (a) to teach assessment and evaluation to undergraduate English and ESL teacher education majors for the possible inclusion as a required course in the program curriculum; (b) to gain a more in depth understanding of the education structure and policies, teacher certification requirements, and the campus culture at Linyi University.
Q. What was your impression of the students?
After having spent considerable time with numerous students within and outside the English major during my one-month stay, it quickly became evident the students were very focused on their education and devote considerable effort to excel in their studies. For them, pursuing an education is a highly selective privilege with their families paying for their education, so they take pursuing their degree very seriously.
Q. What was your daily schedule like?
On most mornings, I would have breakfast in the hotel with the dean of the school to talk about various issues and our schedule for the next few days. Often, my planned schedule would change because of a special meeting being added on short notice. My teaching schedule was Tuesday and Friday from 2–4:30 p.m., so I was constantly working ahead on the next day’s lesson to send out the PowerPoint slides to the students beforehand. The key in all of this was to take advantage of any time I had to work on the various items that needed to be accomplished and to remain flexible with my schedule. This included advising students in the Aviation Science program, which took priority. Upon request from some of the faculty members, I also visited classrooms to observe and to participate in class discussions.
Q. Where did you stay and what was the food like?
Throughout my visit, I stayed at the International Exchange Hotel built last year. This was convenient because the hotel is located on campus just a few yards from the school building where my office was located. My office was two doors down from the dean’s office which made it very convenient to meet with her on different issues throughout my stay. Because Linyi is a rural “country” city, there are no franchise restaurants with American food. Most days, I ate at the school “canteen” (cafeteria) which had a wide selection of very delicious Chinese food. Rice is the main staple of any meal and the main course consisted of steamed vegetables and meats of different varieties (mostly chicken and pork). For breakfast, porridge is very popular along with naturally brewed beverages.
Q. What other places did you have a chance to visit in China?
Because my visit was brief and focused on specific items and issues at the University, my schedule did not allow me to venture out beyond making quick trips to Linyi city. However, I was able to visit the International Free Trade Zone and other selected areas within Linyi.
Q. How were you treated as an American, and what did the attitude seem to be toward Americans?
Throughout my entire stay, everyone was very accommodating and genuinely friendly. Generally speaking, my money was no good there, for the simple fact that everyone strived to leave me with a very positive impression of the people in China. Because of this, the students wanted to make sure I did not feel alone so they would have meals with me. In my dealings with others on- and off-campus, I was treated with the utmost respect with a sense of being genuinely friendly and helpful. Occasionally, I would get a strange look from passersby but this was very rare even though I was a rarity to them.
Q. What was the political climate like there, and did people seem to be free to speak freely about political issues and their leaders? Did they have opinions on the U.S. and our politics?
If there was a political climate (other than who was running in our race for presidency), it was not noticeable to me as it was not a common topic of conversation.
Q. What memories stand out the most about your visit?
My fondest memories of my visit are the times I spent with students at Linyi, getting to know them on a level that would give me a good sense of the cultural climate on campus. This included their thoughts about college, their dreams and goals, the realities they face under their current environment, and more. The other memorable experience was when I and the dean were walking across campus in the evening for our exercise and we were caught in a torrential downpour that soaked us completely. I still recall one of the students sending me a message on my phone asking me if I needed an umbrella because it was getting ready to rain hard. She told me: “You are going to get wet, wet, wet!” I should have listened to her!
Q. Other thoughts?
The scholarly work that I and others have started at Linyi University have laid the groundwork for our large-scale research proposal looking at Teacher Certification programs across the five Asian countries of China, Thailand, Taiwan, South Korea and Vietnam. Embedded in our proposed research with me as principal investigator of our multi-country research team, there is much to be gained in a practical sense of linguistics and how students learn languages at the primary, secondary and collegiate levels.
We all see this as a great opportunity to enhance our skills as both researchers and practitioners in the field of education. Regardless of our location, we all realize the challenges we face at accomplishing this at a distance and intend to remain persistent in our efforts to be successful in our quest. We believe the scholarly community has much to gain from our experience throughout this journey together.
