I Need A Professional Thai Teacher To Teach English

[Asiacat]

I need to find a Thai teacher to teach English at a company in Map Ta Phut industrial estate.

The company have specifically asked for a Thai teacher as the current level of English for their staff is very low.

It is two afternoons per week. Three hours per session and the pay is B600 per hour plus 600 travelling expenses for each session.

If anyone knows of a Thai teacher who may be interested please PM me with contact details.

[scorecard]

No intent to be negative but here's some thoughts that hopeful might be helpful:

- "Current level English is quite low." Can the students read English? Is there a desire that the teacher use structured and progressive course materials? If so then all good materials are written in English, so ability to read English is critical. I have seen rough materials available with English words written in Thai script, but why use these, they are not helping to develop English. Plus the materials mentioned are very poor in terms of teaching in a structured and progressive way.

- If the objective is listening and speaking skills, will the Thai teacher be instructed to ensure that he/she speaks mostly English in the classroom? Otherwise there is a strong danger that the teacher will fall back to Thai all the time.

- If the objective is listening and speaking skills, will the Thai teacher be instructed to ensure that every student speaks in English at least several times in every class, and ensure that there is group drilling of the target language for that lesson?

Why do I mention this? I'm very familiar with a case (coincidentally at Map Ta Phut) some years back. The Thai managers in the picture insisted that the English language teacher had to be Thai. After about two weeks the students complained en masse that the teacher spoke in Thai 95% of the time, the students didn't speak at all, and they were making no progress at all.

After some counselling nothing changed. The class was cancelled and restarted a few weeks later with a farang from a professional school who was well familiar with technique for teaching English where the current level is low and well experienced. There was a good result.

As mentioned, no intent to be critical but hopefully worth sharing.

Edited July 23, 2010 by scorecard

[GIGATT]

Never use a Thai native teacher to teach English to Thai students(learners) ; will never work ; standard of English will be low ; Thai students (learners) tend to fall back in using their own native language to speak to the Thai teacher .Have seen the end results in a few Universities in/around Thailand especially those who has graduated and enter teaching line. Even their grammar usage is unthinkable ;so literal ! Can't blame multi national companies willing to pay higher salaries to better English Speaking staff ; sadly all Universities graduates here maintain a very low standard or 'nil' English speaking skills ; One ponders how they can pass out and graduate with a degree so easily in Thailand !!

[Scott]

Well, I'll play Devil's Advocate here. In the past several years we have had a number of Thai teachers who teach in English. A couple of them teach "English" as a Thai subject and a few teach other subjects (Science, Social Studies etc.). They have been very good (I'll not discuss those that aren't good, can't communicate in English, sound like they have a mouth full of marbles and use a Thai grammar structure in English).

You might want to look at people that have lived/studied overseas or who may have studied at an international school. There are a few who didn't, but still managed to learn the language well.

Your salary is also competitive enough that you might find a native speaker who speaks Thai fluently--but that isn't what you are looking for.

Adults can be more challenging than children, so the approach planned may be fine. Once they have their head around the language, and can understand and communicate, you can switch to a native speaker.

The approach depends on the degree and standard that you wish the students to achieve and the time allotted.

Unfortunately, the people I know who would meet your standard are living too far away, I think. How far is Bangkok from your location? (Distance and time wise).

[Somtamnication]

What an oxymoron.

The Thai teachers at my school speak zero English. One is a Chinese teacher, the other a Science teacher. Both forced to teach English.

If the OP states that the level of English is poor on the students´ side, the last thing they need is a Thai teacher.

[otherstuff1957]

If the goal is to help the students learn some basic communication skills, then a Thai teacher who speaks English well could teach the students just as well as a Farang teacher could. For more advanced students, a Farang will usually be better as most Thai teachers have issues with pronunciation and grammar and they will pass on their errors to their students.

The real issue will be finding a Thai English teacher with the necessary skills who lives and works two hours outside of Bangkok!

[zaphodbeeblebrox]

I know a few Thai English teachers in the area who have university degrees from the west, but they are all engaged in much more lucrative businesses. I have to agree that a foreign teacher would be suitable, perhaps one with good fluency in Thai.

[krading]

The staff were probably already taught english by a thai teacher when they were at school, hence the current low standard.

Why put them through that again.

[Briggsy]

Why not use ECC Rayong? It's within their price range and they have Thai and native teachers.

[Asiacat]

Why not use ECC Rayong? It's within their price range and they have Thai and native teachers.

Because I already have an agreement off the company to pay the training agency I represent B1200 an hour so long as I can provide a suitable Thai teacher.

I've no desire simply to pass my own customers to the competition.