China ESL
An Industry Run Amuck?

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by Niu Qiang, PhD & Martin Wolff, J.D.

More often than not the FEs are left to their own devices to obtain materials for the oral English class. When materials run short or the well runs dry they resort to showing DVD movies or playing games like "hangman" in class to "kill time."

The FE must also keep in mind that topics for discussion must be of interest to a majority of the class members. A female to male ratio of 6 to 1 is restricting on the quantity of sports related articles that may interest the class.

When a recruiting school encourages a FE to bring cultural materials from home, it is a pretty good indication that the teacher is expected to provide their own teaching materials and that the school has little or no English teaching resources. There are probably not any English books, magazines, movies, or other written materials suitable for English discussion, not even the prevalent out of date, twenty-year-old texts used by so many modern Universities throughout China. Those FE who require a structured or "set menu" curriculum may view this as a detriment. However, the truly creative FE view this as the greatest and most challenging opportunity to develop their own teaching program using up-to-date articles of local interest and relevancy that will interest, excite and encourage their students to participate in the discussion.

Some schools provide English resources and materials but the teacher is free to select the specific materials and organizes them in the order of presentation. And of course there is always the school that does not provide any teaching materials and also forgets to advise the Fe to bring their own.

The only universal guidelines, regulations or laws regulating salary, travel expense, housing, medical or teacher qualifications appear in a 1994 publication of the State Bureau of Foreign Experts (Guide for Foreign Experts Working in China, republished in 1999). While there are controlling national immigration laws, FE certification requirements appear to vary from province to province, notwithstanding the guidelines of the State Bureau of Foreign Experts. Some of the remote provinces have allowed U.S. high school graduates to teach while Shanghai and Beijing will not.

1. SALARY

Please see the limited, representative salary charts below for public and private schools, by province. This information was compiled simultaneously from www.ESLcafe.com; www.chinatefl.com; and www.abroadchina.org on a single February 2003 day and is only representative, not comprehensive. They do reflect the differences in salary (which are inconsistent with the guidelines of the State Bureau of Foreign Experts) ranges and numbers of employment opportunities in a given province, comparatively speaking.

KEY
K -- Kindergarten
P -- Primary
M -- Middle
U -- University
BI -- Business Institute
Pu -- Public
Pri -- Private

ANHUI:
SALARY	K		P		M		U		BI
	Pu	Pri	Pu	Pri	Pu	Pri	Pu	Pri	Pu	Pri
2,000							1
3,000							3
3,500		1		1		1	3
4,500								1
11 jobs 3,500 average salary
HAINAN:
SALARY	K		P		M		U		BI
	Pu	Pri	Pu	Pri	Pu	Pri	Pu	Pri	Pu	Pri
2,500					1
3,000							2
3,500							2
5 jobs 3,000 average salary
INNER MONGOLIA:
SALARY	K		P		M		U		BI
	Pu	Pri	Pu	Pri	Pu	Pri	Pu	Pri	Pu	Pri
2,500					1
3,000							3
3,500				1		2
7 jobs 3,000 average salary
QINGHAI:
SALARY	K		P		M		U		BI
	Pu	Pri	Pu	Pri	Pu	Pri	Pu	Pri	Pu	Pri
2,000	1		1				1
2,500	1		1				1
3,000							2
3,500			1
4,000			1
10 jobs 2,500 average salary
SHANGHAI:
SALARY	K		P		M		U		BI
	Pu	Pri	Pu	Pri	Pu	Pri	Pu	Pri	Pu	Pri
3,000							3
3,500					1		2			1
4,000							1		1
4,500					1
5,000					1		1
5,500							1
7,000	1			1		1	1			1
7,500							1
8,000										1
8,500		1		1			1
9,000			1
25 jobs 7,000 average salary

The amount of salary is also tied directly to the degree held, particularly in public universities. The higher the degree, the higher the salary.

The private schools that offer higher salaries usually tie the higher salary to a heavier workload, i.e. more teaching hours per week.

The Central Government guide provides:
"According to the invitee's professional level, post held, and academic background and experience, he or she will be paid a salary of between 1,200 and 4,800 RMB Yuan per month. For every year's work completed, the equivalent of half a month's salary is paid as a departure allowance." (1994, Guide for Foreign Experts Working in China, State Bureau of Foreign Experts, p.52)

This regulation is somewhat outdated by differing salary schedules in various provinces.

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