Some improvement, but Thailand’s English proficiency remains low: report

[silent]

2 hours ago, brewsterbudgen said:

One way to begin would be to stop insisting on a meaningless degree for native speaker TEFL teachers and instead insist on a proper TEFL qualification.

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Whether they can speak English or not it's more important to be able to allege they learned it from people with degrees,  (regardless of whether the teachers could have passed an English test). 

[Airbagwill]

16 minutes ago, Lingba said:

and the reason why they choose a Filipina to teach is because they can get away with paying her a Thai wage which is half the price of what an native speaking American, Canadian, Australian etc would demand

Money may be the motive but you don't need an NES to teach English - that is just one aspect (TEFL method).In fact grammar etc is often better taught by someone who speaks the same language as the students as it requires quite technical explanation.

so as long as the teacher can communicate the target language whatever that may be then their nationality is irrelevant.

 

Edited November 11, 2017 by Airbagwill

[Airbagwill]

3 minutes ago, silent said:

Whether they can speak English or not it's more important to be able to allege they learned it from people with degrees,  (regardless of whether the teachers could have passed an English test). 

Degrees are not necessarily meaningless - they can indicate a level of ability, language skills - e.g. structure, gramma vocabulary, writing theses, any didactic abilities and the ability to learn and study...... very rare in those without degrees.

[watcharacters]

1 hour ago, BernieOnTour said:

Well... considering the huge increase in Chinese tourists, growing Chinese economic influence (eg. Silk Road program),

it might far more prudent to learn Mandarin instead of the language of the already lost British empire and the already weakening US empire ... 

 

on the other hand: Thailand was the country with the highest increase + 2.57 ...

 

 

That's cute, Bernie

YOU're trying to dis two birds with one stone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[brewsterbudgen]

Degrees are not necessarily meaningless - they can indicate a level of ability, language skills - e.g. structure, gramma vocabulary, writing theses, any didactic abilities and the ability to learn and study...... very rare in those without degrees.

Money may be the motive but you don't need an NES to teach English - that is just one aspect (TEFL method).In fact grammar etc is often better taught by someone who speaks the same language as the students as it requires quite technical explanation.

so as long as the teacher can communicate the target language whatever that may be then their nationality is irrelevant.

 

 

There is a lot more to English than grammar. Without decent pronunciation effective communication is very difficult. Non NES teachers are fine for teaching grammar but not so good for other aspects.

 

A decent TEFL course like CELTA or Trinity TESOL is far more important that just a degree.

 

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[JAG]

1 hour ago, JAG said:

Well I met a couple of 'Native English Speaking Teachers" from Cameroon last year. I simply could not understand them! Ended up talking to them in French! When they were talking to each other band their colleagues in the school in which the agency had sent them to ( their in lies a tale) they spoke French!

Originally posted using a smartphone. Unfortunately, neither the operator nor the predictive text is particularly smart - hence the "mong" spelling, which is a touch embarrassing in a thread about speaking English!

Edited November 11, 2017 by JAG

[JAG]

4 hours ago, Confuscious said:

EVERY Thai can speak English proficient.
Ask them something and they will use Google (Bing) to translate it from English to Thai.
Then they will type an answer and use Google (Bing) to translate it from Thai to English.
Voila!!!!

Yes, I've had some cracking homework handed in that used that method!

[JAG]

4 hours ago, Cadbury said:

Vietnam was also a French colony as part of French Indochina but they rank reasonably highly for an Asian country.  Certainly much higher than Thailand. 

Don't forget there was a massive (all-pervading?)  American presence in half of the country a generation ago, which I suspect more than canceled out the French influence.

[theguyfromanotherforum]

Most Thais have no desire to learn English, that's why it's so bad here.

 

English is my second language, but while growing up in my country at least I had interest in American movies and picked things up over time. 

 

They would rather enjoy their soap operas and nonsense Facebook posts. They simply don't care about English.

[Geoffbrit]

Thais are lazy. I taught English here and was appalled by the lack of commitment from students.

Karen people, from Myanmar, many of whom live here, on the other hand were so hungry to learn. Some, 2 years ago couldn't speak more a few words. Now, I can have long conversations, on many different subjects ,which is very rewarding to me and to them of course. Some have gone on to improve their working situation as a result.

[tryasimight]

2 hours ago, Muggi1968 said:

Anyway... Goooooooodddd for us since the Thais will  need our help for many decades more ;-)

 

Judging by many of the comments in this thread.....you lot haven't been a real lot of help to date!

Edited November 11, 2017 by tryasimight

[JAG]

2 hours ago, TEFLKrabi said:

For the English readers, think back to your school days. After 5-6 years of French, how fluent were you?

Yes, I did French up to O level ( 5 years), then dropped it. I was by no means fluent. My Fench improved rapidly when in my thirties I worked closely with the French Army for a year. It had to because it was the only way I could do my job. Now I can swear like a trooper - in French!

[realenglish1]

Low proficiency is because you hire non native speaking teachers  for English  such ans Filipinos as well as Thais to  teach English in school rather than hiring British and American English speaking teachers I have heard students that have been tough by Thai English and Filipino English  teachers and it is atrocious  I don't have any idea what they are saying with lots of words

 

How can you teach someone English when the teacher has a very heavy accent You end up with garbage and students that have no idea what the actual pronunciation of the word is

 

 

[Machiavelli]

EF is a dodgy and useless company that can't run a simple online English teaching program. They are trying to seek relevance. Just another Farang run company seeking to trash then gain. You can read the NES crowd here on this thread. They think only them should be teaching English in Thailand. Its funny how people who can speak only one language like to pontificate, to wax lyrical about how to learn a new language! Ban Ki Moon, the ex SG of the U.N. spoke dodgy English but was top of the food chain. Nobody cares about pronunciation! 

[brewsterbudgen]

EF is a dodgy and useless company that can't run a simple online English teaching program. They are trying to seek relevance. Just another Farang run company seeking to trash then gain. You can read the NES crowd here on this thread. They think only them should be teaching English in Thailand. Its funny how people who can speak only one language like to pontificate, to wax lyrical about how to learn a new language! Ban Ki Moon, the ex SG of the U.N. spoke dodgy English but was top of the food chain. Nobody cares about pronunciation! 

Which company is "EF"?

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[Machiavelli]

3 minutes ago, brewsterbudgen said:

Which company is "EF"?

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I refer you to the original post. Lol.

[0815]

Just go to a border crossing Thailand - Laos and talk to immigration or custom officers.
Maybe i am wrong, but it seems on the Laotian side they can speak quite better English...
Or walk along a school in Laos when the kids have lunch break...

[Machiavelli]

3 minutes ago, 0815 said:

Just go to a border crossing Thailand - Laos and talk to immigration or custom officers.
Maybe i am wrong, but it seems on the Laotian side they can speak quite better English...
Or walk along a school in Laos when the kids have lunch break...

Guess Laos is filled to the brim with NES. Lol.

[coulson]

5 hours ago, hansnl said:

Chinese is what Thai people should learn.

At least that is what some want.

They learn as much Mandarin as English. But like their English it goes little beyond *hi how are you im fine what about you*, 1,2,3.....

[0815]

2 minutes ago, Machiavelli said:

Guess Laos is filled to the brim with NES. Lol.

 

3 minutes ago, Machiavelli said:

Guess Laos is filled to the brim with NES. Lol.

The little kids at a laotian school speak a better English then Thai ...

[FarangJon]

This rank list sucks.

The english skills in Cambodia are at least as good as in Thailand or better.

[stephen tracy]

3 hours ago, TEFLKrabi said:

For the English readers, think back to your school days. After 5-6 years of French, how fluent were you?

I'm glad you said that. Although I was born in the UK, I went to primary and secondary school in Toronto (for the most part) and because of the province of Quebec we were subject to 1 hour of French every single day.  Now although I and most of my peers at the time picked some vocabulary and grammar, none of us could actually speak French really, even after years of this.  The fact is that once we left the classroom we didn't use it or even think about it because Toronto unlike cities in Quebec (at least at the time) was an English speaking city.  Basically if you don't use a language outside a classroom, it's very difficult to achieve a reasonable level fluency.  I studied Arabic at university for 4 years, and although we learned to read and write the language to the point where we could all pick up an Arabic newspaper and understand it, all of us were terrible when it came to actually speaking.  I didn't learn to actually speak Arabic really until I graduated and went to work in the Middle East where I was forced to use the spoken language every day and where I heard it being spoken all around me every day.  

[stephen tracy]

To add to what I said in response to TEFLKrabi above, I studied Thai in BKK for 3 years and made a real effort to use it outside the classroom - getting the tones right was the most difficult part - and using it every day made progress rapidly.  Although I still live in Thailand, I stopped using my Thai on a daily basis because my workload (in which I'm forced to read Arabic most days) became so heavy and I became so lazy I just stopped bothering to use my Thai, with the exception of asking for things in a shop or restaurant.  Within one year I had lost so much that now on the odd occasion I'm forced to speak Thai, I have difficulty stringing a sentence together.  It's quite depressing.  It's a bit like going to the gym in that you put all that effort in to achieve results and as soon as you stop going, within 6 months you end up with a beer gut and bitch-tits. 

[wvavin]

The nationality choice of English teachers have greatly contributed to the fast downfall of Thailand's English proficiency. Try asking a Filipino to pronounce fat and what they pronounce is "fart"! Next, the signature essence of the African English teacher. Do you think the Thai students are learning the real English? There are a lot more flaws but these two are obvious examples. 

[stephen tracy]

1 minute ago, wvavin said:

The nationality choice of English teachers have greatly contributed to the fast downfall of Thailand's English proficiency. Try asking a Filipino to pronounce fat and what they pronounce is "fart"! Next, the signature essence of the African English teacher. Do you think the Thai students are learning the real English? There are a lot more flaws but these two are obvious examples. 

You have a point but you could even say that about native English speakers with strong regional accents.  I knew an American from that was living and working in Glasgow for a year and she said when she first got there she had problems understanding what some people were saying to her a number of times.  

[wakeupplease]

Why bother even talking about it in 19 years English will be the second world language, according to a misguided so and so.

[notmyself]

Put's Thailand at a disadvantage what with the official language of ASEAN being English.

[brewsterbudgen]

The little kids at a laotian school speak a better English then Thai ...

It depends where you are in Laos. In my wife's village/town in Southern Laos the standard of English is very poor.

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[connda]

Obviously this must be a mistake.  

[Gandtee]

I wonder how long it will be before the UK appears on this list. With it's changing society in some areas, I believe English is the second language.