What, in your opinion, makes one a cheater? Is sharing answers on an assignment cheating? What if it's a dumb assignment or busy work? What about on a test? What about finding information on the internet and "rephrasing it" (kind of) and claiming it as your own? How often did you cheat on things and get away with it? Did your teacher ever catch you?
There is a ton of cheating among ESL students. I don't know if it's because they have a different idea of what cheating means or what, but they all do it, even after we have long, in depth conversations about it. And one of the most unpleasant things I get to do as a teacher is tell students that I know they've cheated and this is how they're going to be punished for it. I always feel extremely awkward, but at the same time slightly vindictive. Ccome on people. If you're a level 3 ESL student, should you really be writing essays that look like a college student's senior thesis? Probably not. But somehow they think I won't notice. They really do think I'm that dumb.
6 comments:
I know there are cultural differences in thought when it comes to cheating....that might be worth exploring.
I hate awkward situations. In General.
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Thats funny. I can just imagine you talking to a student who barely understands you, telling them that you know they cheated and are thus receiving a 0. What a funny image this brings to my mind! hahaha I love it!
I think that people do have different standards for cheating. I never would say that I cheated in college, but I wonder if someone else would have thought that I was cheating if I asked, "Hey, Ixoj, what did you write down as the answer for #4 on our busywork Italian assignment?" Of course, I would have already written an answer of my own down - does comparing my answer with another person's equate cheating? I wouldn't think so, but perhaps someone else would?
I think JackJen is right that there are also cultural differences.
And I can totally relate to your questioning if your students think you are "that dumb." Especially when it comes to plagiarizing. When students turned in art history papers that were copied-and-pasted off of Wikipedia sites, I wondered how they thought I was that stupid...
Kell, I do think they think we are retarded! What did you know who say? And I don't mind tellin' the student they cheated when i have the website to prove it! Which is always the case huh?
I think part of the problem with cheating in an ESL setting is that anyone would feel like an idiot writing something like, "See Kelly run. See Trav cut tree." When in their own language they are a little more eloquent.
Another part of the problem is that the current generation is so used to living in the digital world where stealing someone else's work (aka music, movies, essays, etc.) is extremely easy and somehow viewed as not stealing at all. They have a kind of 'if you can do it is okay' mentality.
In general, I think you should definetly stop any cheating that is going on. And perhaps read "good" examples of the level and quality of work/assignment that you anticipate being handed in, that way perhaps they will not feel like they have to cheat. Good luck!
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