Teaching Thai To Forgeiners

[ruds]

Hi to you all,

My girlfriend is wanting to teach thai to forgeiners in pattaya. She has a university degree (yes a proper one before anyone comments) and obviously speaks reasonable English but she has no prior teaching experience. Does anybody have any advice regarding books to buy, sample lesson plans etc.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Ruds

[boxig]

My personal opinion: she can easily teach speaking but teaching reading and writing, without a teaching experience, is not a good idea.

box

[kriswillems]

I would advice her to buy the books of B.P. Becker and read them. My Thai wife also has real university degree but she can't teach me Thai, because she doesn't know the problems foreigners encounter when studying Thai.

The books explain the tones rules. Thai people don't know what rising tone or falling tone is, they use other names for the tones and other ways to remember or explain them. The books provide a logical way to structure her courses.

Not all Thai people with a "real" university degree are good in English. if she doesn't have a masters or bachelor degree in English it might be useful if she studies a bit more English (for explaining the grammar, not the vocabulary).

I've followed a Thai course in Pattaya and I was a bit disappointed. The teacher only seemed to have experience with teaching abosulute beginners. She couldn't put any structure into the course.

[ruds]

I would advice her to buy the books of B.P. Becker and read them. My Thai wife also has real university degree but she can't teach me Thai, because she doesn't know the problems foreigners encounter when studying Thai.

The books explain the tones rules. Thai people don't know what rising tone or falling tone is, they use other names for the tones and other ways to remember or explain them. The books provide a logical way to structure her courses.

Not all Thai people with a "real" university degree are good in English. if she doesn't have a masters or bachelor degree in English it might be useful if she studies a bit more English (for explaining the grammar, not the vocabulary).

I've followed a Thai course in Pattaya and I was a bit disappointed. The teacher only seemed to have experience with teaching abosulute beginners. She couldn't put any structure into the course.

Thanks for the replies so far, she is only looking to teach conversation at the moment but maybe progress to teaching reading and writing later, we'll see. Oh and she is reading the becker book atm, very useful but any others any of you know?

ruds

[Casanundra]

Maybe she should go and attend a Teaching Thai as a Foreign Language (TTFL) course first...

However as one probably doesn't exist out there then maybe she cannot.

The thing I am trying to point out to you is that "We" as 'forgeiners' have to jump through several hoops in order to teach here so I don't see why your girlfriend shouldn't be expected to either.

I honestly do wish her the best of luck when she embarks on her new adventure and hope that she also makes a real effort to do it properly. I actually find it refreshing and enterprising of her for trying but please insist that she trains before she tries to teach otherwise her career could end before it begins with disgruntled foreigners giving her a bad reputation as a bad teacher.

Chok dee na!

Edited February 28, 2007 by Casanundra

[taxexile]

advise her go and teach in a "thai for foreigners" school for a month , then give notice , but not before she has filched and photocopied all their course material.

that seems to be the most popular way of starting up.

language teachers either have it or they dont , and from my experience learning with teachers , i would say that 80% of it is in them having an engaging personality and the ability to use that to project enthusiasm for what they are teaching.

[sabaijai]

Maybe she should go and attend a Teaching Thai as a Foreign Language (TTFL) course first...

However as one probably doesn't exist out there then maybe she cannot.

I believe such courses do exist, think I've seen it in the Chula curricula.

[withnail]

Such a course does exist although it would be a one year graduate programme, I believe this university offers such a course http://www.swu.ac.th/ She could also do as taxexile says and learn at a Thai for foreigners school, but the better ones would probably require that her degree was in education and this would only really be of use if she worked at the school for some time teaching many different levels.

If she does neither of these then I'm sure she could still find private work by simply placing fliers in the right places, but don't expect her to get many returning customers if she's no good. I've had about 7 or 8 private teachers and only one or two of them were any good at all. If she does do this then I would advise choosing a book and sticking to it lesson for lesson not trying to create her own syllabus. My recommendation would be the A.U.A. Language Center Thai Course Book (which has a basic teaching guide in it) or Benjawan Poomsan Becker's Thai for Beginners. If her English is good enough then I would also recommend a Thai grammar book which explains things in English, either David Smythe's or James Higbie's.

[dseawarrior]

advise her go and teach in a "thai for foreigners" school for a month , then give notice , but not before she has filched and photocopied all their course material.

that seems to be the most popular way of starting up.

language teachers either have it or they dont , and from my experience learning with teachers , i would say that 80% of it is in them having an engaging personality and the ability to use that to project enthusiasm for what they are teaching.

tuktong na krab!

[meadish_sweetball]

Such a course does exist although it would be a one year graduate programme, I believe this university offers such a course http://www.swu.ac.th/ She could also do as taxexile says and learn at a Thai for foreigners school, but the better ones would probably require that her degree was in education and this would only really be of use if she worked at the school for some time teaching many different levels.

If she does neither of these then I'm sure she could still find private work by simply placing fliers in the right places, but don't expect her to get many returning customers if she's no good. I've had about 7 or 8 private teachers and only one or two of them were any good at all. If she does do this then I would advise choosing a book and sticking to it lesson for lesson not trying to create her own syllabus. My recommendation would be the A.U.A. Language Center Thai Course Book (which has a basic teaching guide in it) or Benjawan Poomsan Becker's Thai for Beginners. If her English is good enough then I would also recommend a Thai grammar book which explains things in English, either David Smythe's or James Higbie's.

Solid and constructive advice.