Teaching English in China: Universities or Language Schools?

By Amber Rollins
Shengda College

Part 2

Universities can be either public or private. Public universities are considered more prestigious than private universities. Language schools can be either small and independent or part of a franchise, such
as Cambridge English, the AES schools, and Dashan Language School. Schools that are part of a chain are not identical, however. The schools that make up a franchise are owned and managed by different people, so
just because an A.E.S.-affiliated school school in one city is good (or bad) does not mean that an A.E.S. school in the next city will be the same.

Language schools are more willing to train teaching newbies than universities, and language schools tend to have more defined curriculums, with all teaching done in conjunction with a certain line of textbooks.
Universities will take on beginners, too, but offer little training, and seldom have set curriculums for their EFL courses. The teacher often has to make his own, and spends more time lesson planning than a
language school teacher. But university teachers tend to have more freedom
in teaching style, lessons, and activities, and fewer demands to "stick to the book".

Universities will have students almost exclusively in the 18 - 22-year-old age range. Language school students are mostly children, of many age ranges, with a few adult classes. Universities have their
classes split up by college year: freshman, sophomore, junior, senior. But language schools organize their classes by age, and teachers will have to teach over many age ranges. You may have one class of 5-7 year olds, then an adult class, and then a class of 13-16 year olds. It's not unheard of for a language school teacher to request a certain age range, but in general language schools want teachers who will tackle any and all ages, and make this requirement part of getting the job.

University classes can be very large. It's not uncommon to have an oral English class with 55-60 students. Language school classes are much smaller, with 10-15 or so students per class.

Click here to continue