My kid just got the lowest mark possible for English in his school report

[BritManToo]

30 minutes ago, Scott said:

It's a very good idea to check with the school and find out specifically what resulted in the low score.   There are a lot of possibilities, and not all of them may relate to his academic performance.   Perhaps he is acting up in class, not doing assigned work and other things.   His teacher may be targeting him for some reason, so as a parent you owe it to your child to make sure he is headed in the right direction.  

 

All his other scores are fine.

[scorecard]

5 hours ago, impulse said:

I don't know how it is in Thailand, but a neighbor in China asked me if I could help her son in English class.  I perused the material and some sample questions (with answers) and told her that my help would be useless- in fact, counterproductive.  He doesn't need my help.  He needs better teaching materials.  Sooooo many errors.

 

One answer could be (if available somewhere near you) to buy a set of progressive course books, workbooks etc., even a teachers' guide book, published by a well established publishers (Oxford and more). The pictures / drawings are always everyday life (situational English) and the lessons are progressive, and they are written for different age groups to keep the kids more interested. They work, but yes there is cost. 

[impulse]

2 minutes ago, scorecard said:

One answer could be (if available somewhere near you) to buy a set of progressive course books, workbooks etc., even a teachers' guide book, published by a well established publishers (Oxford and more). The pictures / drawings are always everyday life (situational English) and the lessons are progressive, and they are written for different age groups to keep the kids more interested. They work, but yes there is cost. 

 

That's a great way to educate the kids, but the objective in China is to conform, get a good grade and assure yourself a spot in a good school when you move to the next level.  Which means checking the right box on multiple choice questions.

 

Update... The kid in my story spent the last 4 years in a boarding school in the USA, and has been accepted at 4 or more great Universities- no bribes required.

 

[david555]

2 hours ago, luckyluke said:

There is often a big difference between an academic and a social language. 

 

With the English I learned at school, I wasn't (still aren't) able to understand  the English spoken by some native British. 

 

 

Same experience I had , my Thai girl friend told me once she understand my English (I am a non English native ) better tan the English from real native English speakers … especially British English speakers , I think it has to do with the local English from those , as they see it as normal common English language , but even I had some problems to follow a conversation with a English table mate in bar , as too much local lingo in it so must ask to repeat ….I have no problem to follow English news on Television …, as long it was not "coronation street English"  .

 

BTW I don't have any problem with American English from wherever state (thanks to Hollywood )…. unless the hilly Billy tribe American English...

[Denim]

3 hours ago, luckyluke said:

There is often a big difference between an academic and a social language. 

 

With the English I learned at school, I wasn't (still aren't) able to understand  the English spoken by some native British. 

 

 

Understandable , some of the native British are off the page.

 

 

[bert bloggs]

I wont say the standard of English teachers here in universitys is bad ,but our son ,who went to school in the UK until he was 12,was many times paid by his university to give English lessons to the students .

[david555]

13 minutes ago, Denim said:

Understandable , some of the native British are off the page.

 

 

No no no , not pointing to that pidgeon English....just replace the dark people by White ones and almost same  difficult to understand "local chewed rolling over tong inside mouth before spitting it out English" )….

Edited May 11, 2019 by david555

[Wiggy]

He probably gets low marks for not using English ‘Thai sty.’

[spidermike007]

I would not be too concerned. On a nationwide test that the teachers were given in math and english skills, a few years back, given only to math and english teachers, there was an 86% failure rate. Frankly, I think the educational system here is hopelessly broken. Home schooling would be far more effective, though I think for most, the schools are used as a babysitting system. 

 

No doubt these grades were based on jealously, envy, and a dark petty heart.

[Just1Voice]

My Thai niece, who is actually more like my daughter, was attending one of the high end International schools here in Chiang Mai. She came over on day, very upset that she had failed an English test, and felt the teacher was wrong. Ok, I have a Masters in English Composition & Creative Writing, which she was aware of, so I checked it for her. I quickly found 6 answers the teacher had marked as incorrect, but which were actually correct. The next day we confronted the teacher in a polite way, and I pointed out HER mistakes. Naturally she was adamant that she was right. Then my niece opened up. Told the teacher of my educational background, of the books I have had published, and capped it off by telling her that with my IQ of 130, I had more brains in my big toe than the teacher would ever have.  Naturally this didn't sit well with the teacher, who went into a screaming rage, which drew the attention of the Principal.  After some polite conversation with him, he checked the paper himself, and found that I was right. He apologized to my niece, then did the unexpected....he fired the teacher on the grounds that she wasn't qualified. 

[Pilotman]

21 hours ago, Dmaxdan said:

I have a friend here who has had a similar problem with his son. Constantly marked near the bottom of his class for English. The boy is about 11 years old, was born here and has never traveled outside of Thailand, yet he speaks English fluently, to the point that he even has a south coast British accent. His father has concluded that the low marks are based purely on jealousy, or/and complete ignorance. 

 

 

 

 

All about 'face'.  The teachers don't want to loose it in front of a student who is clearly more competent in the language than they are.  It's the teachers that hold back Thailand's education,  as much as the system itself. In the villages and smaller towns, they are often incompetent amateurs of the worst kind. 

[Longcut]

16 hours ago, batata said:

you worry about a Thai teaching English given the lowest mark to your kid... would waste 5 seconds thinking about it

Is his English teacher Philippino by any chance. They spell English words in the American version. Since the Philippines used to be a U.S. colony until 1946. The British way of spelling words and the American way differ in several respects. Please don't tell me the British way or the American way is the correct way, that is not the point of this post.

[maxcorrigan]

On 5/11/2019 at 5:53 AM, luckyluke said:

There is often a big difference between an academic and a social language. 

 

With the English I learned at school, I wasn't (still aren't) able to understand  the English spoken by some native British. 

 

 

 

"With the English I learned at school", i get the same problem with some British accents coupled with my 80 year old ears does not help, and i notice you use the clunky type US spelling ie learned not learnt, no problem just my observation FWIW!

Edited May 28, 2019 by blackcab
All highlighted text reformatted

[Krataiboy]

23 hours ago, Dmaxdan said:

I have a friend here who has had a similar problem with his son. Constantly marked near the bottom of his class for English. The boy is about 11 years old, was born here and has never traveled outside of Thailand, yet he speaks English fluently, to the point that he even has a south coast British accent. His father has concluded that the low marks are based purely on jealousy, or/and complete ignorance. 

 

 

 

 

Luk khrueng children are generally discriminated against in Thai schools and frequently abused/bullied.

 

My half-Thai daughter was the best English speaker at her school and won a number of inter-schools speaking contests.

 

Then one day she came home and announced she would not be allowed to compete any more because she had a falang father.

 

She was understandably angry and upset, but soon perked up when I explained she was a victim of racism, jealousy and envy (well, we're all entitled to play the victim card sometimes, in a good cause!) and that in the end the school would be the loser.

 

She's never looked back.

Edited May 11, 2019 by Krataiboy

[connda]

Considering the most Thai educators who supposedly teach English don't actually have an understand of the subject they are teaching.  

[connda]

While we're on the subject, here one of my favorite skits about teaching English in a Thai school  <laughs>
 

 

[essox essox]

23 hours ago, Puchaiyank said:

How many times has he spoken up and corrected his English teacher's bad English?

probably many times thats why Thai English teacher marked his work so low......ONLY a guess on my part.

How a Thai can teach ENGLISH is beyond me as they can not pronounce R's and L's

[Stevemercer]

Remember also that the Thai education system teaches American English and spelling. For example, the English use 'colour', but Americans use 'color'.

 

I guess both are correct, but Thai spelling books would only recognise (sorry, recognize) the American spelling.

[soalbundy]

4 hours ago, Aforek said:

I am very surprised of this! How is it possible ? if the exam and questions were normal, she should have been the first of her class; in my classroom, in France, there was an American guy ( brillant guy !) who got  19.5/20 in English (normal, for me ); the teacher just said she couldn't give him 20/20 , just because it couldn't be done 

It's easy to fail in your own language, just take a grammar or spelling test, you won't fail the oral but you may fail on the other two thirds, since it is your own language you may not pay as much attention in class as the foreigners.

[soalbundy]

6 minutes ago, Stevemercer said:

Remember also that the Thai education system teaches American English and spelling. For example, the English use 'colour', but Americans use 'color'.

 

I guess both are correct, but Thai spelling books would only recognise (sorry, recognize) the American spelling.

Which is wrong, if English is taught then it should be British English otherwise call it American.

[essox essox]

11 minutes ago, Stevemercer said:

Remember also that the Thai education system teaches American English and spelling. For example, the English use 'colour', but Americans use 'color'.

 

I guess both are correct, but Thai spelling books would only recognise (sorry, recognize) the American spelling.

also TIRE when it should be TYRE.....LICENSE when it should be LICENCE.....there are many eggsamples.....sorry for bad spelling of last word !!!

[Saltire]

For my first year here I used to wish I could volunteer at the local village school to pass some time and contribute something worthwhile to the community but didn't, despite several requests as I have no desire to be booted out of Thailand unceremoniously for 'working'. However now I know that if I did I'd be lucky to last a week in a class with a Thai English teacher. I have spoken to them all vaguely now, there are about 4 of them, and not one of them could manage a basic conversation with me, and not because I am Scottish ???? . My gf speaks basic English but its way better than the teachers.

 

This was clear to me when, at 39 she got to go to school for the first time to learn Thai and allegedly, English (Myanmar father = girls don't need school!). After a few months of very haphazard, constantly changing timetables she came to her first exam. She passed the Thai and brought home the English paper. It was all in English, obviously copied from somewhere, but was aimed at higher then even Intermediate. I went to talk to the teacher who promptly took the hump and dropped English from the class, politely telling me to teach her myself, which I happily did. In her defence she told me the paper is just given to her from ' the office' which i do believe. I bet no one in that school could pass, or even read that test.

 

[KC 71]

You have just reminded me ,i must find my old reports from the loft
They make classic reading ,thats for sure !


Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect

[tlandtday]

Either you are not paying the teacher enough tea money or you are spending too much time teaching the kid english yourself????????

[Bangkok Barry]

5 hours ago, Orton Rd said:

Biggest mistake here is the obsession with grammar, puts the kids right off as it's hard and boring. Mrs often asks me obscure questions on English grammar, never even heard of half of it! They need to learn vocabulary and actually speak, work books on grammar seems to be what most classes consist of.

 

True. My wife studied for seven years to be an English teacher, and much of the time I had no idea what it was she was learning. Far too technical. And much of the material provided by the university where she studied was full of errors. She was afraid to point out the errors because then she would have been 'placed in solitary' by the know-nothing leaders. Nothing to be gained by letting people know they are idiots. Nothing at all. Ignorance isn't not knowing, it's not wanting to know.

[jak2002003]

24 minutes ago, essox essox said:

 

How a Thai can teach ENGLISH is beyond me as they can not pronounce R's and L's

If you listen to the news reports, or times when more formal or polite speaking / conversation is needed you will hear that most Thai people can indeed pronounce R's and L's perfectly.

 

A proper qualified Thai teacher will most definitely be able to teach English properly. 

 

 

 

 

[Ajarnbrian]

If school-parent communications were good this news would not come as a surprise. Of course it also depends what criteria were used (if any) to determine the grades given. Again the school should be able to tell you. In my experience some schools have not developed good assessments that meet acceptable standards of validity and reliability. If the school does not give you a clear basis for the grades, hunt around for other schools.  

[StevieAus]

7 hours ago, soalbundy said:

At my school in England we had a French girl in my class who always came bottom of the class in the French language exams.

As for not understanding some native English speakers, that isn't unusual, some Brits, especially the younger ones aren't capable of stringing two sentences together in a logical way which added to regional accents can make them difficult to understand. I once met an English teacher from Birmingham in Bangkok and even I could barely understand him, he had a degree in English literature, God help us.

You are lucky he/ she wasn’t from Glasgow or certain parts of Yorkshire ( beautiful places that they are) or you would have struggled.

[mercman24]

small thing i know but i always smile, when every single Thai i know writes (thankS you,) always adds an S,

[jesimps]

Doesn't surprise me, my Thai wife teaches English at school, so I see the papers set by the various examination boards and they are appalling. It's the questions that need marking and correcting, not the answers. I feel for the poor kids having to decypher these questions, even I would fail one of these papers. Just like Thai Immigration, most of the questions are ambiguous and on multi choice papers (which most are) all or none of the answers could be correct. Fortunately, if my wife sets papers for her classes, she first gives them to me to check over and correct before she presents them to the kids. I'm no Will Shakespeare, but I knock spots of the local exam boards.