How did you lead your students to the situation of a text?

Ask them to leave the class.

Care in choosing your text would, of course, be important. However, a good deal of the burden is laid on you. Are you able to present the text in a manner which attracts the interest of your students? It is my experience of the best of teachers that they are able to arouse the interest of the students in the material being covered.

An additional aid is for the teacher to largely keep their mouth shut. I had an instructor in advanced French grammar who was famous for his teaching methodology, which can be summed up in the title of a paper he had published on the subject, which was entitled: "Let the Student Do the Talking." If there were a question asked, or there were a concept which needed to be discussed, he (Frank Nachtmann, who, sadly died of cancer several years ago) would go around the room and ask each student for an answer, rather than provide it himself. If he got no answer, he would go around the room again, asking each student in turn. I never knew of a situation in which one of the members of the class did not provide the answer within two attempts.

Getting students involved is the most difficult task of the teacher. I highly recommend involving the students by making them do the talking, by making them provide the answers. If no one offers an answer, ask them, one by one, asking each student, until you get the answer.

You can also guide that a bit, rather than just plain asking. Like, if you ask the question, and someone gives an answer that is incorrect, instead of saying "no" and moving on you can say, "You started in the right direction but not quite," then ask the next person. This kind of shaping will help bring out the right answer from the students.

Encouraging "relevant reading" was always my main focus as an English teacher. I found that students did their best writing when the subject was personal. Grammar rules I could have pounded into their heads, they applied almost effortlessly when they cared about the topic. So the trick was to make all texts personal.

As a result, discussion comprised the majority of class time. I prepared my lessons by doing very close readings and thinking of multiple ways in which my students might relate to the text. How is an eighteen-year old white boy from rural Alabama going to relate to an address by Nikki Giovanni, geared toward black college students, about surviving racism on campus? I would think of other forms of discrimination he might be familiar with; for example, the stigma a southern country boy might encounter in a northern city. I would ask him to share his story.

It was amazing how quickly the energy in class would pick up once my students realized their teacher was actually interested in the stories they had to tell. I got the feeling high school was four years of one-sided lectures.

None of this is possible, though, unless teachers find ways to truly become interested the texts they are teaching. Not in Structuralism or Deconstruction or Feminism or Marxism or the obvious criticism. But in the personal narrative that corresponds to the text.

Hao,

Welcome to A2K.

You present a formidable problem to this retired American English teacher, in that you are teaching in China and I don't know what English book(s) you are using.

The two friends I have who taught in your country found the students (high school) very polite and reluctant to admit not being able to understand something. If they could not comprehend what the teacher was exploring, they assumed it must be their (the students') fault. And they were reluctant to lose face by asking for help. Is this sort of cultural conditioning coming into play in your situation.

Would you kindly tell us what book(s) you are trying to teach?

If the text is too difficult, it will be hard to get a discussion off the ground.
Also, as pointed out above, the text needs to be one you love, if you hope to interest your students in it.

Guided discussion, as opposed to lecture, is, for me, the easiest way to teach English lit. Are your students accustomed to discussion? Are they, perhaps, looking to you to tell them how to get into the book. They may even be expecting you to tell them what the reading assignments mean. If that is the case, and it's a cultural expectation, you will need to explain carefully what you're expecting, before they start reading.

I am sorry not to be more specifically helpful to you, but I need better to understand the context in which you are teaching before I can try to give detailed advice.

Please fill us in on the age of your students, the kind of school (public or private?), the cultural expectations they might have for you as a teacher, the expectations your employer has for you, etc. Also, are you teaching boys or girls or both? Sometimes, that can make a difference which may be magnified by one's culture. In America, I vastly preferred teaching boys and girls together to a single-sex classroom--the teacher and class benefit from the different points of view. Here, it's nothing unusual to have a mixed-gender classroom. Is this true in China, too?

As you can see, I'm clueless about your situation, but I'd really like to help you if I can.

Best wishes

Good points on the role of culture, Miklos. While I've never taught literature, the subject I taught (for 23 years) also required student interpretation. This was never a problem with graduate students, but Asian and Native American undergraduates often presented a considerable cultural problem. No matter how smart or prepared, they often seemed very hesitant to stand out in class. I made it a point to meet with them individually during office hours to assess their abilities. I discovered that they often had much to offer in class but felt constrained not to do so. Bad form.

do not for 1 moment think this dilemma is peculiar to teaching english. engaging students in any school material is difficult at the best of times.

Ask your students to choose topics of interest to them.

Although most of my teaching was in English, I have also taught Math, History of Art, swimming, and tennis. Any cultural issues have been in play across the board. For example, increasingly, American students do not like to get "dirty," whether by getting their faces wet or by digging deep into a poem of John Donne. If you don't get your face wet, you're not going to learn to swim: therein lies a broader message--one that brings concern to many contemporary teachers in all fields.

Hao, would you describe your unfocused students as primarily confused, unmotivated, or actively obstructionist. Or all three? To get through to them, it will help you first to try to plumb their situation. Generally best to know your audience as well as is practical before you introduce a book, even if it's a book they've chosen.

Good luck and best wishes.