ESL Lesson Plan

Hey, what's new? An old-school professor being called a hypocrite. And Plaigarising on top of that! . . . What we need in the university system are some good, young, fresh thinking profs to do away with these old fogies. Especially those senior citizens out there teaching ESL with the grammar translation method. Geez.

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Note from Lee:

Well now, ESL Nerd I hope you are not referring to my age (did I carelessly post my own age somewhere?). But, I do agree that progress, generally speaking, is a good thing. Change just frightens the hell out of some conservative-types, don't ya know?

i know that esl nerd must be some kind of copier to be all worried about this.he's probably old too.that's an agist remark there boy.

Hi,

I am a professor at a university in Korea which specializes in teaching translation and interpretation. This is experimental and quite new (just 3 years). Every year I teach composition and every year I encounter plagiarism. It is so obvious that I don't even bother to look where it is from. The writing style is obviously far above the ability of the student.

What can one do? I now start in the freshman year. I engage students in an ethics class. Then I have a bag full of "outrage" writing. That is writing I have found in Korean newspapers, etc. where foreigners have infringed Korean patents. When we finish that...I haul out my fake "Kate Spade" bag which I purchased here in Korea. Then I canvas the class and ask them to open their bags, show wallets, handbags, and other luxury items which have obvious signatures on them. I discuss with the students whether they themselves are guilty of infringement of patents, theft of quotes, blah, blah, blah. The light goes on for most of them. It seems they rarely make the connection with their own "theft" of patent and trademark and written information and the fact that it leaves them open to others stealing their information, patents and trademarks.

Most students have a fairly good moral base (of course in every class there are exceptions), and I see less and less plagiarism in class. For those who habitually continue this practice, I warn them once more and then mark them "F" with the notation that with one more infringement I will ask their fellow students to judge them. That usually does it.

It is my belief that the mark chasing which is done in high school here (rather than "knowlege chasing") and the terrible pressure these students are put under are partly to blame. There also seems to be a disconnect between the outside world and "solitary" Korea. The easy accessibility of the internet and the feeling that the internet is anonymous also contributes.
Really, this is an ongoing problem and needs to be addressed continually.

While I feel successful on a class by class basis, I know this battle will have to be waged for a long time and in a determined and steady manner. There is no use in feeling frustrated...these people are not in our Western world with its own dishonesties.

So, I continue to soldier on in this area. Stick with it and don't imagine this will be gone overnight...or even in a few years.

Syd

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Note from Lee:

Thanks Syd for those wonderful words of wisdom. Your ESL lesson plan with the "bag of outrages" is an excellent, and very unique, idea for giving ESL students a better sense of mass on what the seemingly abstract notion of plagiarism entails in our daily lives (outside of text).

You are absolutely right, IMHO, this problem is one that seems to be continually growing rather than shrinking (like the "war" on drugs, terrorism, etc...what other parallels can we think of?) although one might make this type of argument about all types of social ethics. I realize too that there are even some "progessive" academics out there that feel the bourgeois concept of idea "ownership" is somehow an illusionary construct fueled by a capitalistic mindset (until their own work is stolen and capitalized upon without their consent?)

Whatever "truth" underlies our concepts of intellectual theft, I still feel that, as an instructor, I do no favor to a student for whom I have not encouraged to develop his or her own critical thinking abilites, whether they be in an ESL program of study or otherwise. Also, I feel better knowing that ESL instructors like you are really out there fighting the good fight and leading by example. Best wishes and thanks for commenting. Please come back again!

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Note from Lee:

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Thanks!