Bilingual schooling planned to boost English proficiency

[bumpkin]

'English Speakers'  is not the same as 'English Teachers'.

 

Knowing how to teach is just as important as what to teach,  and the 'Conversational' English, which is the limit for many of us, is hardly adequate for a serious teaching role.     

 

[Harveyg]

5 hours ago, Slip said:

Impossible to say- too many variables.

I agree. So I don’t understand why the new terminology- bilingual.  More confusion I guess. 

[kingofthemountain]

On 11/8/2019 at 7:08 PM, snoop1130 said:

“The ministry is currently developing a plan to resolve the issue and hopes it will be able to meet the needs of the labour market, while the country has to prepare for the rise in investment resulting from opening up in the future,” said Nataphol.

I wonder what is exactly this ''opening up''   ????

 

What is exactly going to be opened, the country? The economy? And to who?

the chineses? The indians?

It seems they have a long term plan for the country

but they are still very mysterious about it

it's a bit scary imo

 

Edited November 9, 2019 by kingofthemountain

[ubon farang]

I think the problem arises that many Thai students dont want to learn English. In fact many dont want to learn nothing at all. My step daughter for instance goes to learn English at a university She has an Indonesian man Teaching her English. After 6 months I think her English skills are zero and she understand hardly a word in English. In fact her mother talks better English than her and i taught her how to speak English in 6 months and hold a conversation in English.That is why I am a firm believer that the person teaching English at Thai schools must be a native speaker 

[Lunchbob]

To fix this someone would have to fire thousands and thousands of middle aged, uneducated, deeply inculcated "teachers" who dominate the educational space and gobble up funds, programs and reforms like papaya salad. All of those families would collapse. The teachers would not be able to find any other jobs. 

[mickey rat]

19 hours ago, Orton Rd said:

But it is not the language of medicine, science, aviation, navigation, international economy or most of the internet.

Well then, they have done an excellent job of limiting access! 

[MrMo]

The Ministry should look carefully at the "english" speakers that are employeed in English speaking roles.

 

Amongst the Thais, the level of proficiency is generally poor.

 

Amongst the foreigners employed, many have heavily accented speech.   I have encountered a number from my country, England, who teach English in Thailand and whose strong regional dialects makes it extremely difficult to understand.

[Shiver]

Speaking English is one thing, but thinking in the way of a western culture would also be important if the goal is to improve competitive edge 'over there'.

I'm really trying hard to speak natural English with my wife and slap my own wrist when I fall back into using their version 'my sister she go do air' (My sister is going to have to stay at home from 3pm as she's getting air conditioning installed') - made that up, but everyone here will get the gist.

Get better at Thai for our job, or better at English for their part.

Then there are the accents ... OMG last time I had to go to BKK I felt like I'd just got off the boat (being an Isaan guy).
 

[justin case]

my daughter goes to SARASAS international program

 

the RECEPTION in live or on the phone DOES NOT SPEAK A WORD OF ENGLISH !

 

good publicity

[gimo]

My kid was in a multi school English speech competition 2 years ago , in rural Thailand . I accidentally walked into the room and crossed in front of a girl making her speech . When she had finished , I went to the 3 Thai judges and , in slow clear English ,  said I was sorry for walking into the room while the girl was speaking . All 3 of them just stared blankly at me because they couldn't understand English. 

[samsensam]

5 hours ago, ubon farang said:

I think the problem arises that many Thai students dont want to learn English. In fact many dont want to learn nothing at all. My step daughter for instance goes to learn English at a university She has an Indonesian man Teaching her English. After 6 months I think her English skills are zero and she understand hardly a word in English. In fact her mother talks better English than her and i taught her how to speak English in 6 months and hold a conversation in English.That is why I am a firm believer that the person teaching English at Thai schools must be a native speaker 

 

I think the problem arises that many Thai students dont want to learn English. In fact many dont want to learn nothing at all. (sic)

 

but i digress, having worked at a high level in education and EFL education i can assure you the the ability and effectiveness of an EFL teacher has nothing to do with being a native speaker, indeed some of the best EFL teachers are non-native speakers.

 

as evidence; the british council, who inspects and accredits EFL providers in the uk and abroad, makes no stipulation whatsoever about an EFL teacher having to be a native speaker.

[shadowmaster1971]

22 hours ago, overherebc said:

Eats German cake a lot?

Or maybe a reference to English Tort law.

[overherebc]

13 minutes ago, shadowmaster1971 said:

Or maybe a reference to English Tort law.

Injustice in German.

I was just playing with the accent.

[Kurtf]

On 11/9/2019 at 12:26 PM, hotchilli said:

So stop employing Thai teachers who have no capacity for teaching English after leaving University training.

Stop employing foreign teachers whose language skills are less than adequate.
Start by raising the standards of teachers and the students may have half a chance at a decent education.

Past years have seen an endless supply of the no-fail Thai system passing off new teachers as qualified, and an endless stream of foreign teachers who cannot speak the English language enough to teach it.

I have been told by a native Thai that those wishing to work for the government that the bottom of the barrel is school teacher. Those that can not qualify for any other job end up being teachers.

[Kurtf]

On 11/10/2019 at 8:46 AM, MrMo said:

The Ministry should look carefully at the "english" speakers that are employeed in English speaking roles.

 

Amongst the Thais, the level of proficiency is generally poor.

 

Amongst the foreigners employed, many have heavily accented speech.   I have encountered a number from my country, England, who teach English in Thailand and whose strong regional dialects makes it extremely difficult to understand.

Reminds me of the 14 months I spent in Scotland. I tried chatting up a young lady on a park bench and inquired where she was from. She told me she was from Germany and came to Scotland to improve her English. Really cracked me up because I was having a hard time understanding the Scottish accent.

 

[MRToMRT]

The article and the sentiment behind it is an excellent one. So why do about 70% of the posters nitpick fault with it or with Thailand? 

 

Colonialist attitudes are not dead on this forum. Farang (read "White) "supremacy" of the mind seems to rule the roost here.

Edited November 11, 2019 by MRToMRT

[Orton Rd]

4 minutes ago, MRToMRT said:

The article and the sentiment behind it is an excellent one. So why do about 70% of the posters nitpick fault with it or with Thailand? 

 

Colonialist attitudes are not dead on this forum. Farang (read "White) "supremacy" of the mind seems to rule the roost here.

Thailand was not colonized though was it, if it had been the standard of English would be better. The language has nothing to do with being white, all races speak English.

[MRToMRT]

5 minutes ago, Orton Rd said:

Thailand was not colonized though was it, if it had been the standard of English would be better. The language has nothing to do with being white, all races speak English.

But the general sentiment seems to be it would have been a better place for being colonialized? And come on ...... 80% of the posters here are white males from 3 specific global regions (Europe, America and Australia).

[Kurtf]

On 11/11/2019 at 4:21 PM, MRToMRT said:

The article and the sentiment behind it is an excellent one. So why do about 70% of the posters nitpick fault with it or with Thailand? 

 

Colonialist attitudes are not dead on this forum. Farang (read "White) "supremacy" of the mind seems to rule the roost here.

You obviously have not lived in Thailand for very long to know that the government's best published intentions seldom come to fruition. All the good intentions in the world aren't worth a damn if not implemented vigorously.

[MRToMRT]

1 hour ago, Kurtf said:

You obviously have not lived in Thailand for very long to know that the government's best published intentions seldom come to fruition. All the good intentions in the world aren't worth a damn if not implemented vigorously.

 

 

Since 1994 actually. 

[DavisH]

On 11/11/2019 at 4:33 PM, MRToMRT said:

But the general sentiment seems to be it would have been a better place for being colonialized? And come on ...... 80% of the posters here are white males from 3 specific global regions (Europe, America and Australia).

Would it be better to live in the Philippines? It my opinion it would not. 

[MRToMRT]

51 minutes ago, DavisH said:

Would it be better to live in the Philippines? It my opinion it would not.

Why not? 

[Reigntax]

Probably mixing up bilingual and double speak!

[mrwebb8825]

On 11/8/2019 at 8:33 PM, Slip said:

In fairness it is only in the last 5-10 years that the the native speakers have been squeezed out.  I'm not sure it was working that well back then either.  Those were the days that any Tom, Dick or Harry could work as a teacher just because they were white.  SSDD.

There must be a shortage of Tom's and Harry's but there are a lot of Dicks working in schools. 

[ivor bigun]

Our son went to junior school for years in the UK when he was in university over here ,they used to pay him to teach English  sometimes as his English/Thai was better than the teachers ,he now runs a small company ,when he was initially interviewed the owner could not believe his English was so good and he had a local  English accent . Pays to be able to speak read and write English here ,my wife can as well

[SteveK]

There's a Thai lady in my village who is the "English teacher" at the local school. Sometimes I see her in 7-Eleven and she tries to speak English with me. Given that I can barely understand a word, I don't think the kids have got much hope. 

 

English is the international language of business, and as we recently saw, aviation. You'd think that the Thai ministry of education would want to get some qualified, native English speakers over from the UK or the US, but it would appear that they are happy with a "Indonesian maid" standard of English. 

Edited December 3, 2019 by SteveK