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Thailand’s English proficiency plummets: Survey


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2 hours ago, scorecard said:

I wonder what was tested:

 

- Reading proficiency?

- Reading and comprehension proficiency?

- Grammar (alone)?

- Conversation skills?

 

Or?

 

 

Correction, to add   - Writing (construction),    and correction  -Grammar (rules)?

 

I wonder what was tested:

 

- Reading proficiency?

- Reading and comprehension proficiency?

- Writing (construction)

- Grammar (rules)?

- Conversation skills?

 

Or?

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1 hour ago, ikke1959 said:

Thailand is the center of the world and when Mr Prayuth came in power he said that Thai was a world language... I have explained so many times that students should learn English because it used everywhere and on the internet, but the only response I get is speak Thai is better.....Refusing to participate in the lessons and never try to say a word English. 
I noticed that in the 15 years I am teaching English went downhill in speedtime...But I retire after this semester because the unwillingness of the students. Results are visible.. and than you have to watch DLTV when the Thai teachers teach English..... than you know no wonder...... 

I have arranged courses largely in business and Universities.  in Thailand Laos , Italy, Morocco, Spain and UK.

I think that most people really don't understand when and why people need to acquire a foreign language - and this repeated report seems to ignore who is actually learning English.

However I have at times come across some amazing parochialisms when it comes to leaning any foreign language amongst Thai students.

I was talking to some University student who were going to study some science in Africa. I pointed out they would need a good level of English as no -one ob=ver there would speak Thai. - They wouldn't even know where they came form.

one student said in disbelief "What? they don't understand Thai?" - it had never crossed his mind before. I got the impression that he had watched loads of American movies - and didn't realise they had been dubbed - he just thought tase actors spoke Thai as a second language.

 

In te ed, though I have worked in industry with many Thai people who spoke really good English.

PS - the worst students I had were Spanish or sometimes Italian.

Edited by Thunglom
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The English Proficiency Index is the most methodologically flawed test around. Serious linguists wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. From their own website:

 

"The test-taking population represented in this Index is self-selected and not guaranteed to be representative. Only those who want to learn English or are curious about their English skills will participate in one of these tests. This could skew scores lower or higher than those of the general population." Not 'alf guv.

 

A more telling comparison would be with the number of westerners who gain any Thai fluency after years or decades of immersion in the Thai language.

 

 

Edited by blackprince
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1 hour ago, Longwood50 said:

I wonder where the USA would rank?  Some areas of the USA if you don't speak Spanish like Miami, you can't function.  I lived in Houston for a period of time and some areas of the city if you did not speak Spanish you could not communicate with anyone. 

That is saying nothing of the Ebonics that takes a special degree of understanding.  And for anyone who has ever traveled to Louisiana that Cajun dialect may be something but English it is not.  

English speaking Americans are some of the most parochial language learners I've ever come across. Not only are they totally mystified by the simplest foreign phrases, they often can't even understand mainstream versions of other forms of English.

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