This afternoon, we experienced a Canadian Free Talk.

No doubt, free talk plays an important role in English teaching. What is a language used for? I think the most important is for communication. Free talk is just a way to communicate, which may bring different kinds of situations of communication vividly alive in an English class. And to use is one of the most practical ways to learn, especially in language learning. And just as a drama, during the free talk, we learn not only the language, but also culture, history, society, and even team work, and so on.

We have never tried free talks guided by a guest teacher. So it’s rather new and interesting for me, and so is the way for the students to take turns. Guided by, Oh, I think I should say sorry I can’t remember the spelling of the teacher’s name clearly, is it Briana?  We exchanged information about the education system. It was really interesting and effective for us to learn about the education system of Canada, and it did a great help for us to improve our oral English.

Actually, free talk is frequently used in our English class. It has some different types of form and contents. It depends on the main tasks of the classes. Sometimes, teachers will prepared some questions tightly related to the main task of the class, and asked some students to answer them one by one. Sometimes, some certain topics will be given to the students before class, and then some students will be asked to present in front of the class. And sometimes, pair work or group work should be used. That’s to say, the teacher shall give a topic to the students and a dialogue should be prepared and presented in front of the class. And some times free talk can really be very free. A student can talk about anything, such as the weather, a match, a TV, with his/her desk mate or friend. And about the turns for the students to talk, it also depends. Sometimes we will let students do it one by one according to their seat, and sometimes will let some stronger students do it first, followed by medium, and then the weaker students. But we must make sure each student may have at least once for his/her turn in a week.

In addition, I think I should say a little more about the free talk this afternoon which I didn’t have an opportunity to say in the afternoon. Because I thought the guest teacher might get a bit confused about something.

I think the most different thing between the education systems in Canada and China is that examinations play a rather important role in China. The students of Grade Nine students will take part in a unified examination hold by the city. After the examination, some students with higher marks may enter schools what we called senior middle schools, or high schools. And they aim to enter a college or a university in the future. And all the others will enter Secondary Technical Schools. They will find jobs as worker, clerks, salesmen, and attendants and so on. Very few will try to find jobs.

As to those students studying in high schools, after three years of study, they will have to take part in the university entrance examination. Around 80 percent of the students may enter colleges or universities. And rest of them may try to find jobs.

If someone wants to be a teacher, he or she shall choose to enter a normal college (Teachers college) or normal universities. If he/she graduates from a college, he/she can only be a primary school teacher, or a teacher in a kindergarten. But that doesn’t mean all the students from normal colleges or universities can be teachers. Every school will make an announcement in public to announce how many new teachers they need this year. Who wants to be a new teacher must apply for the position and first take part in a written examination to test about his/her basic knowledge of being a teacher. And about 120% of the people need can pass the written examination. Then they must take part in a oral quiz to test about their teaching skills. That’s to say 20% of them may fail the examinations. They will have to find other jobs.

Those who has never studied in a normal college or university also has the opportunity to be a teacher. But at first he/she must be trained and get a certification. And then they must also pass those two examinations as well. It’ll be rather hard.

Usually, what a teacher shall teacher is decided by what he/she learn in the college or university. It is seldom the case that a person majored in one course while teaches other subjects in a school.