Common Student Complaints
International students typically come to Australia with expectations of their education experience, including their college environment, classmates and teachers, as well as lesson content and learning outcomes. Some of these expectations come from education agents, others from parents, and others from the students themselves.
When their experience doesn’t match up with their expectations, we can encounter complaints such as those common ones listed below.
Teacher is late.
When the teacher doesn’t start their lesson on-time, or extends the break time, or finishes early, the students can complain that they are not getting value-for-money.
Teacher is rude.
International students are customers. They are not forced by parents to study, and many pay for their own tuition. They expect to be treated with respect, never spoken down to, and never treated rudely.
Teacher makes grammatical mistakes.
Students can make complaints about the teacher if there are grammatical mistakes either written on the board or spoken by the teacher. If you don’t know the answer to a grammatical question, it’s okay to say that you don’t know the answer and that you will find out and let the student/s know once you’ve checked in with a colleague or manager.
Teacher smells like alcohol or cigarettes.
Are you a smoker or drinker? Please, check your breath, hands and clothes are clean before coming into contact with students. Believe it or not, drinking the night before a class will still leave a lingering smell in most cases, so avoid drinking if possible.
Teacher only teaches from the text book.
Textbooks are useful in forming curriculum, learning outcomes and for formative and summative testing. However, they can be dry and boring, and lack context. General English students prefer lessons that are mixed up with games, speaking activities, and music. Exam preparation students (IELTS, FCE) are often happy to focus the whole lesson on the book pages, if they are given ample opportunity to apply and practice their skills.
Teacher has a ‘strong accent’.
This complaint is sensitive, awkward, and hard to stomach, but it’s one that does come up, especially for teachers who are new to Australia and who are just starting to work with classes of mixed language and cultural backgrounds. If you feel your accent or pronunciation is a barrier to teaching in Australia, please let us know, we have access to a pronunciation expert who cares about creating professional opportunities for teachers of all L1s and we can arrange small-group training and support for you.
Do you have any questions or feedback about this page? Please email sarah@readyteacher.com.au.