Teachers Forced To Take Language Tests

[PeaceBlondie]

This is not about English English English English English English EnglishEnglish English English English English English EnglishEnglish English English English English English English

[otherstuff1957]

Every other Friday I play some sort of grammar game with my English Class. On the other Fridays I take the kids to the school library and make them read for 40 minutes & then write a short book report. They sometimes ask me if they can read Thai books instead of English. I usually respond by telling them that they can read Thai books when their Thai teacher takes them to the library!

None of them have said anything, but I can tell from the looks that they give me that their Thai Language teacher would never do anything like give them free reading time or play a language based game with them!

[retdson]

This is not about English English English English English English EnglishEnglish English English English English English EnglishEnglish English English English English English English

You have a point. The threads is not about English. So. maybe it's about:-

1) Students at high school graduation (pre-university level) doing 12 subjects (including gardening, home-design and cooking.

2) Thai teachers doing 35+ contact hours a week.

3) Thai teachers getting paid 5,000 baht a month ...that's before we get to...

4) Thai teachers being ordered to attend unpaid 'camps' on weekends. (have a family?...your bad luck)

5) Thai teachers having to go on meaningless 'jaunts' ...national/international ...the purpose of which is to cream travel expenses off the top and inflate the ego of the sen-yai - who could just as easily addressed them in his home town.

6) Libraries?

7) High profile IT intiatives than finish with the self-access computer facilites being abandoned in the back of someones office- riddled with viruses and porn.

The list goes on. The national education system is a sleasy business where the only motivations are self-egrandisment (spelling?) and fraud. I agree. The problems of English language teaching pale into unimportance compared to the fact that the average Thai Uni student has read less than two proper books (novels, biographies, etc) in their lives, and has never heard of Pol Pot.

Edited June 27, 2009 by retdson

[Ijustwannateach]

I'm afraid this is absolutely the last gentle public warning that this thread will get to stay on topic. Further posts about the teaching of subjects other than Thai will be removed and their posters will receive warnings.

Mobi, this does also mean you, as much as we love you.

[animatic]

Well the issues of teaching Thai to Thais,

and teaching Thais themselves and critical thinking being extolled,

gets to the intractable point of 'Face' again.

How can you question your teachers, when you are taught that

questioning your teachers and elders could make them lose face?

And so is avoided at all costs.

It is against most all cultural norms to question superiors publicly.

And teachers needing to maintain class discipline are more sensitive to this I suspect.

So it comes back to rote learning. Interesting that they expect actual letter groupings

pronunciation to be inculcated by social life and not proper teaching methods also.

Not just what and how, but why also.

I suspect some of this bruehaha about testing is from 'Thai Language Teachers'

losing face by being told to be tested.... hmmm. It is so impolite of use to verify

that our children are learning from people who KNOW the SUBJECT...

TIT

Thailand,

the Mai bpen rai education hub of S. E. Asia....

Edited June 28, 2009 by animatic

[slapout]

Most people who decide that teaching will be their livelihood and what they want to do, have a major/minor field/fields of study. The education/teacher training study is in addition to the former. If a science/math qualified teacher was told to teach language or computer they would probably show their as. to the students quickly or admit their lack of knowledge to the clam brain who came up with the idea and get excused. As has been mentioned several times, face (self perceived) etc are all important in the education system here. We can discuss our answers but when push comes to shove, we, as farang, have no say in the matter.

[animatic]

We can discuss our answers but when push comes to shove, we, as farang, have no say in the matter.

I disagree.

I rather recently had to decide what type of education my child gets.

I made a choice for one were face saving is not the S.O.P. of daily school life,

but a wide ranging, thought compelling, education to give her a better life in future IS.

[slapout]

I made the decision to send 2 children to International school for their education. They both attended Thai preschool, which was not that bad, surprisingly enough. The Thai school system does remind me of the US system of the 1940-1950's,(another topic) including the old 1 room school with 8 grades and 1 teacher. Most Thai systems with the exception of some of the small temples do not utilize the latter. So I guess I do have a say in this way, but do not think the Thai educators would be interested in Competent Foreign Input. If they were they could get good advice via TV teaching forum for free.