[Hellosir]

Just to fill you guys in on the situation, I teach in China and have nine classes per week (2 periods each), this is the only class that continues to cause my endless amounts of pain and torment. Last semester I helped teach an Australian certificate for English ( similar to IELTS), I taught the class for 6 hours a week, according to a book with set topics as well as some of my own ideas.

I tried to mix my ideas with the book to liven them up a bit, (including designing A4 drawings, teaching vocabulary to explain them, with one student describing and the other drawing which proved SUPER popular with all my other classes) but nothing.

Its not one individual in particular but just any activity which works well in all of my other classes and gets a big buzz just crashes and burns with this class.

Last semester the year 1 students of their major were divided into four classes. In the class I taught were 30 students in the class, all of whom received the lowest scores in the entrance exam (total was 150, pass was 100, they got 30-60) for the certificate and were put into the same class. They are all aged between 17-20.

This semester all of the students have been divided based on their student iD and not their English ability, but I've still got 10 of the 30 students from my class last semester, and the effect is the same.

They basically did not want to study English but have to as part of their major. They have been forced to study reading, writing, speaking and listening 5 days a week for 4 months last semester. They are now lethargic and can't be bothered to do anything, and I have to drill them several times to make them actually do what I tell them. I pour huge amounts of energy into the classes, using all the things that work in my other classes, but activites that last 20-30 mins in another class can die in about 5 minutes in this class.

I can't go through another semester of feeling drained and depressed after failing to have an impact on this class.

Does anyone have any suggestions?