Thailand To Hire 300 Native English-Speaking Teachers

[JoshuaCaleb]

SHORTAGE OF ENGLISH TEACHERS

Plan to hire native English-speaking teachers

BANGKOK: -- The Office of the Basic Education Commission (Obec) will seek a Bt350-million budget to hire 300 native English-speaking teachers for its primary and secondary schools to tackle the shortage of English teachers, a senior official said yesterday.

According to the proposal, the native speakers would each get about Bt1 million per year - a salary of Bt83,000 per month - compared with the Bt9,000 per month drawn by Thais teaching English.

Obec chief Chinaphat Phumirat said the foreign teachers would be from the United States, Canada, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, India and the Philippines.

Obec's secondary schools currently have only 25,000 Thai teachers who have graduated in the English language, while primary schools have 5,000 such teachers. He said the move in 2010 to employ 3,000 Thais who had graduated in the English language to teach at its primary schools had boosted the students' academic results greatly. Obec hence felt encouraged to consider employing more native speakers to teach at its schools.

Chinaphat said Obec was coordinating with the Foreign Ministry to recruit the native English-speakers, possibly retired teachers or teaching graduates in their fourth year of study who wanted to get experience in Thailand. They would be given annual contracts and would teach at district-level schools, he said.

Meetings will be held from April 22-24 to discuss the plan before it is submitted for the Cabinet's approval in May, he said. The plan would need a Bt350-million budget to hire 300 teachers for the period October 2011 to October 2012.

He said the plan was a five-year project aimed at hiring 1,000 teachers. However, they would hire 300 teachers in the first year to screen them first.

Will they help teachers get certified too? Such as a person with only an AAS and volunteer teaching experience? Perhaps teaching schooling assistance or higher education assistance?

[61guitarman61]

The total chaos in the environment was simply unbelievable. Students felt at ease getting up and leaving (or climbing out the windows(!) anytime they wanted! Other students from other classes would come in to visit with their friends and have loud conversations,k with the same disregard for any semblance of a learning or teaching environment.

The final straw was another intense day of complete chaos, where students turned off the breakers to the classrooms maybe a total of 10 times, killing the fan, but more importantly, killing my microphone (needed to overcome the constant din of totally disinterested students holding loud conversations throughout the room). I gave up, at that point, feeling like I was teaching in "The Blackboard Jungle"... pointless, stressful, and dangerous.

And this is the reason why they need qualified teachers instead of just another "native" speaker.

A qualified teacher should have no problem at all to handle these kind of small problems.

I see, oh wise one!

And your solution for the kids tripping the breakers (located outside the classroom, down the hall, and down the stairs would be...????

I'd LOVE to see you in that environment. I really really mean it.

So true. Easy to talk from your computer desk out of your hat. The reality is that the farang teacher, "qualified" or not, gets no respect from the students. This is systemic as the administration takes away any teeth that same teacher would have in the west by not supporting the teacher's authority, nay, actually not allowing the teacher to even speak a cross word to the students. The respect afforded the Thai teachers as the result of being backed by administration is denied to all farang, and the students, the older ones for sure, but even the younger ones, are well aware and take full advantage. And the Thai teachers already resent having the farang teacher there getting paid twice or three times what they are being paid, so they encourage the students as well and then are the first to run to administration with reports of student abuse, poor teaching, lack of teaching, and any other negative they can come up with. And if you don't speak Thai, they will even do so in your presense, thus making you appear even more pathetic and stupid not to mention what the kids say to you and about you. If a student blurts out something in class and gets a big laugh, you can bet it was at the teacher's expense, but since you have no idea what he/she actually said, you can't even rebuff it. So go to a school and demonstrate how you would handle these small problems for us, taking control of that situation and reigning in those unruly brats. Your teaching career here would be a short one for sure as administration would eat you up alive for letting those poor students appear to be unruly or in error in the first place. And after you have done your part in actually TRYING to teach them something and having actually taught perhaps 5% of what you presented to your students, you better not try to fail ANY of them. This is a 100% pass policy we're talking about and the kids know this too. Mai pen rai.

(Edited for some typo spelling errors - I hate when someone talks English teaching and then writes like a back-woods third grade drop-out, so I won't do it myself)

Edited March 30, 2011 by 61guitarman61

[bangkokeddy]

The total chaos in the environment was simply unbelievable. Students felt at ease getting up and leaving (or climbing out the windows(!) anytime they wanted! Other students from other classes would come in to visit with their friends and have loud conversations,k with the same disregard for any semblance of a learning or teaching environment.

The final straw was another intense day of complete chaos, where students turned off the breakers to the classrooms maybe a total of 10 times, killing the fan, but more importantly, killing my microphone (needed to overcome the constant din of totally disinterested students holding loud conversations throughout the room). I gave up, at that point, feeling like I was teaching in "The Blackboard Jungle"... pointless, stressful, and dangerous.

And this is the reason why they need qualified teachers instead of just another "native" speaker.

A qualified teacher should have no problem at all to handle these kind of small problems.

I see, oh wise one!

And your solution for the kids tripping the breakers (located outside the classroom, down the hall, and down the stairs would be...????

I'd LOVE to see you in that environment. I really really mean it.

So true. Easy to talk from your computer desk out of your hat. The reality is that the farang teacher, "qualified" or not, gets no respect from the students. This is systemic as the administration takes away any teeth that same teacher would have in the west by not supporting the teacher's authority, nay, actually not allowing the teacher to even speak a cross word to the students. The respect afforded the Thai teachers as the result of being backed by administration is denied to all farang, and the students, the older ones for sure, but even the younger ones, are well aware and take full advantage. And the Thai teachers already resent having the farang teacher there getting paid twice or three times what they are being paid, so they encourage the students as well and then are the first to run to administration with reports of student abuse, poor teaching, lack of teaching, and any other negative they can come up with. And if you don't speak Thai, they will even do so in your presense, thus making you appear even more pathetic and stupid not to mention what the kids say to you and about you. If a student blurts out something in class and gets a big laugh, you can bet it was at the teacher's expense, but since you have no idea what he/she actually said, you can't even rebuff it. So go to a school and demonstrate how you would handle these small problems for us, taking control of that situation and reigning in those unruly brats. Your teaching career here would be a short one for sure as administration would eat you up alive for letting those poor students appear to be unruly or in error in the first place. And after you have done your part in actually TRYING to teach them something and having actually taught perhaps 5% of what you presented to your students, you better not try to fail ANY of them. This is a 100% pass policy we're talking about and the kids know this too. Mai pen rai.

(Edited for some typo spelling errors - I hate when someone talks English teaching and then writes like a back-woods third grade drop-out, so I won't do it myself)

Skip the anecdotes about the small problems.

He talked about qualified teachers.

Edited March 30, 2011 by bangkokeddy

[seahorse]

There are a number of issues raised in this thread.

"Qualified teachers"

Although it does not say so explicitly in the opening post, it seems that these jobs are aimed at teachers who are qualified to teach in their own country. I am not convinced that they would necessarily be better at teaching English than someone who has a TEFL qualification. The biggest factor in being able to teach is that the students are motivated to learn and the second is the willingness of the teacher to do what is appropriate for their students. I don't think that there is any qualification which would prepare someone for teaching in Thai government schools, due to the bureaucracy and pettiness of those in charge, the jealousy of the other teachers and the laziness of the students.

"Native speakers"

Indians and Filipinos are not native speakers. Native speakers understand far more about their own language than the most advanced learners can, due to the sheer volume of contact they have with it. In particular, nuances in the meaning of different words and references to cultural icons escape even the best academic learners. Having said that, there are Indians and Filipinos who I can understand better than some native speakers from the UK, US and Australia, but I have yet to meet someone from the native speaking nations who I couldn't understand after "tuning in" to them. There are plenty of Indians and Filipinos who think they can speak English who I cannot understand.

"Accents"

More important than the teacher's accent, is that the teacher speaks clearly. Even more important than that is that the teacher gets the students to speak. The students should be doing the talking, not the teacher. This is what TEFL qualifications emphasise and show how to accomplish. While it is true that learning English does require the students to read and write, this is all Thai students ever do. They need to practice speaking much more. We learn to listen, then speak, then read and finally write. Thai students learning English learn the alphabet first. Talk about putting the cart before the horse.

Also, it is better for a student to learn from a variety of accents, not just one. When a native speaker is learning the language, he/she hears a variety of people speaking differently and "averages" them out to produce their own style.

Just as a matter of interest, the American mid-west is the easiest accent to understand. The reason for this has nothing to do with computers, pop music or Hollywood; it is because the US has had a high proportion of non-English speaking immigrants who had to learn English to integrate into society. Some call this a "dumbing down" of the language. You might think that; I couldn't possibly comment.

Edited March 30, 2011 by seahorse

[spectre324]

Indian and Phillapinos ? You ever noticed the heavy , over-riding accents these people have ? They are being considered to teach English , let the people pray it is understandable spoken English .

Maybe you should think again considering the fact you can't even spell. Have your heard the heavy over-riding accents that some people from the UK speak with... haha

amen to that! some brits with their cockney accents are completly not understandable!

[mark45y]

The total chaos in the environment was simply unbelievable. Students felt at ease getting up and leaving (or climbing out the windows(!) anytime they wanted! Other students from other classes would come in to visit with their friends and have loud conversations,k with the same disregard for any semblance of a learning or teaching environment.

The final straw was another intense day of complete chaos, where students turned off the breakers to the classrooms maybe a total of 10 times, killing the fan, but more importantly, killing my microphone (needed to overcome the constant din of totally disinterested students holding loud conversations throughout the room). I gave up, at that point, feeling like I was teaching in "The Blackboard Jungle"... pointless, stressful, and dangerous.

And this is the reason why they need qualified teachers instead of just another "native" speaker.

A qualified teacher should have no problem at all to handle these kind of small problems.

I see, oh wise one!

And your solution for the kids tripping the breakers (located outside the classroom, down the hall, and down the stairs would be...????

I'd LOVE to see you in that environment. I really really mean it.

I was a teacher in government schools for four years and did not have that problem. I used to take difficult classes from other English teachers if they were having problems with them.

I didn't have any problems. Why? Singing and dancing for one. The kids love to sing and dance. Sing an English song. Start off the lesson with an English song and they will all sing along. Then start dancing with some English references to what you are doing like, “head and shoulders, knees and toes. This works whatever grade you are teaching.

After you sing with them for 20 minutes take them outside and run around. You can think of reasons in English to have them run around.

Colouring is also great. Thai kids love to colour. No matter how old they love to colour.

I also found out it pays to have a couple of Thai teachers on your side. Older big mean women are the best. Buy them lunch and bring them candy and dried fish or make a dish for them. If problems arise request the big, old mean women teachers come into the class and beat the students for a while. They don't mind and are happy to help you.

Whacking the little devils with a stick gets their attention for short periods of time.

Remember 20 minutes is the limit that you can do one thing. You have to do something different and fun every 20 minutes.

[jackr]

I know I'm not supposed to interfere with another person's post, but I could think of no other way of getting my point across without thorough confusion.

Don't stick your head in the sand - the Chinese are progressing by the day. They have passed Japan in economic size, they will take the lead from the USA before 2025. (My forecast). I am not pro-Chinese, although I do do business with them. I have to - they supply a lot of the equipment used in power plants throughout the world. (Even nuclear plants ) and we shall have to recognise this whether we like it or not.

The Chinese are here to stay. Next you should worry about the Indians, because quality is a concept too far in their case.

The response was designed as a counter to the ridiculous notion of English being somehow a forgotten language already by the previous poster, and of China and the Chinese somehow being superior. The guy was so far up China it was cringeworthy. I couldn't give a tinker's toss on their amazing economic output blah de blah. Do we all have to be in constant awe because of this? They are just one country with an odd tongue that nobody has to learn unless they want to do business with them, or suck up to them.

Oh, and don't alter my post again.

[61guitarman61]

And this is the reason why they need qualified teachers instead of just another "native" speaker.

A qualified teacher should have no problem at all to handle these kind of small problems.

So true. Easy to talk from your computer desk out of your hat. The reality is that the farang teacher, "qualified" or not, gets no respect from the students. This is systemic as the administration takes away any teeth that same teacher would have in the west by not supporting the teacher's authority, nay, actually not allowing the teacher to even speak a cross word to the students. The respect afforded the Thai teachers as the result of being backed by administration is denied to all farang, and the students, the older ones for sure, but even the younger ones, are well aware and take full advantage. And the Thai teachers already resent having the farang teacher there getting paid twice or three times what they are being paid, so they encourage the students as well and then are the first to run to administration with reports of student abuse, poor teaching, lack of teaching, and any other negative they can come up with. And if you don't speak Thai, they will even do so in your presense, thus making you appear even more pathetic and stupid not to mention what the kids say to you and about you. If a student blurts out something in class and gets a big laugh, you can bet it was at the teacher's expense, but since you have no idea what he/she actually said, you can't even rebuff it. So go to a school and demonstrate how you would handle these small problems for us, taking control of that situation and reigning in those unruly brats. Your teaching career here would be a short one for sure as administration would eat you up alive for letting those poor students appear to be unruly or in error in the first place. And after you have done your part in actually TRYING to teach them something and having actually taught perhaps 5% of what you presented to your students, you better not try to fail ANY of them. This is a 100% pass policy we're talking about and the kids know this too. Mai pen rai.

(Edited for some typo spelling errors - I hate when someone talks English teaching and then writes like a back-woods third grade drop-out, so I won't do it myself)

Skip the anecdotes about the small problems.

He talked about qualified teachers.

My point exactly! Qualified or unqualified makes no difference in most government schools when it comes to being an effective teacher. Could you please define qualified? Four years of college on teaching English speaking students proper English in America or the UK? How does that qualify anyone for teaching English to non-English speakers on the other side of the globe where there are phonemes that do not even exist in their native language? Does that college syllabus also cover teaching in a hostile teaching environment? Or how to effectively communicate and connect with these students of another entirely different culture? Everyone looks down on TEFL courses as a joke or a scam, but the good ones actually cover these issues. Anyone who has not taken a TEFL or similar course with specific references and training about the country to be taught in is ill prepared for what awaits them there. The anecdotes illustrate this.

[Payboy]

Whacking the little devils with a stick gets their attention for short periods of time.

Should try that at my office - might work.

[61guitarman61]

The total chaos in the environment was simply unbelievable. Students felt at ease getting up and leaving (or climbing out the windows(!) anytime they wanted! Other students from other classes would come in to visit with their friends and have loud conversations,k with the same disregard for any semblance of a learning or teaching environment.

The final straw was another intense day of complete chaos, where students turned off the breakers to the classrooms maybe a total of 10 times, killing the fan, but more importantly, killing my microphone (needed to overcome the constant din of totally disinterested students holding loud conversations throughout the room). I gave up, at that point, feeling like I was teaching in "The Blackboard Jungle"... pointless, stressful, and dangerous.

And this is the reason why they need qualified teachers instead of just another "native" speaker.

A qualified teacher should have no problem at all to handle these kind of small problems.

I see, oh wise one!

And your solution for the kids tripping the breakers (located outside the classroom, down the hall, and down the stairs would be...????

I'd LOVE to see you in that environment. I really really mean it.

I was a teacher in government schools for four years and did not have that problem. I used to take difficult classes from other English teachers if they were having problems with them.

I didn't have any problems. Why? Singing and dancing for one. The kids love to sing and dance. Sing an English song. Start off the lesson with an English song and they will all sing along. Then start dancing with some English references to what you are doing like, "head and shoulders, knees and toes. This works whatever grade you are teaching.

After you sing with them for 20 minutes take them outside and run around. You can think of reasons in English to have them run around.

Colouring is also great. Thai kids love to colour. No matter how old they love to colour.

I also found out it pays to have a couple of Thai teachers on your side. Older big mean women are the best. Buy them lunch and bring them candy and dried fish or make a dish for them. If problems arise request the big, old mean women teachers come into the class and beat the students for a while. They don't mind and are happy to help you.

Whacking the little devils with a stick gets their attention for short periods of time.

Remember 20 minutes is the limit that you can do one thing. You have to do something different and fun every 20 minutes.

Good points. In amongst all that fluff there will be a few nuggets of knowledge imparted, but for the most part you will end up being the most entertaining part of their day without having really taught them anything that sticks or will be coherently applicable in their attempts at using the English language on their own. Your class sounds just like what the MoE is after: a facade of being progressive in the area of getting their students into the English revolution through a native speaker exhibiting speech in song, dance, and lots of TTT (teacher talk time) which, in reality, yields no results in the students. But at least they had fun.

[mark45y]

The total chaos in the environment was simply unbelievable. Students felt at ease getting up and leaving (or climbing out the windows(!) anytime they wanted! Other students from other classes would come in to visit with their friends and have loud conversations,k with the same disregard for any semblance of a learning or teaching environment.

The final straw was another intense day of complete chaos, where students turned off the breakers to the classrooms maybe a total of 10 times, killing the fan, but more importantly, killing my microphone (needed to overcome the constant din of totally disinterested students holding loud conversations throughout the room). I gave up, at that point, feeling like I was teaching in "The Blackboard Jungle"... pointless, stressful, and dangerous.

And this is the reason why they need qualified teachers instead of just another "native" speaker.

A qualified teacher should have no problem at all to handle these kind of small problems.

I was a teacher in government schools for four years and did not have that problem. I used to take difficult classes from other English teachers if they were having problems with them.

I didn't have any problems. Why? Singing and dancing for one. The kids love to sing and dance. Sing an English song. Start off the lesson with an English song and they will all sing along. Then start dancing with some English references to what you are doing like, "head and shoulders, knees and toes. This works whatever grade you are teaching.

After you sing with them for 20 minutes take them outside and run around. You can think of reasons in English to have them run around.

Colouring is also great. Thai kids love to colour. No matter how old they love to colour.

I also found out it pays to have a couple of Thai teachers on your side. Older big mean women are the best. Buy them lunch and bring them candy and dried fish or make a dish for them. If problems arise request the big, old mean women teachers come into the class and beat the students for a while. They don't mind and are happy to help you.

Whacking the little devils with a stick gets their attention for short periods of time.

Remember 20 minutes is the limit that you can do one thing. You have to do something different and fun every 20 minutes.

Good points. In amongst all that fluff there will be a few nuggets of knowledge imparted, but for the most part you will end up being the most entertaining part of their day without having really taught them anything that sticks or will be coherently applicable in their attempts at using the English language on their own. Your class sounds just like what the MoE is after: a facade of being progressive in the area of getting their students into the English revolution through a native speaker exhibiting speech in song, dance, and lots of TTT (teacher talk time) which, in reality, yields no results in the students. But at least they had fun.

You got the point. When a teacher realises that he is there to have fun and makes sure the students have fun and the other teachers have fun you are on the road to enlightenment.

Your school will enter contests and students will have extracurricular activities and perhaps there will even be an English club. These should also be fun. These activities will allow you access to the brighter students who have a slight interest in learning English.

The teachers will ask you to go on class field trips and camping trips. They will expect your participation for free. This is a bonding experience.

Respect will come slowly and grudgingly. One day you will be on a crowded bus with unruly students in the middle of nowhere and one big bully will throw three kids out of the way and give you a seat.

On Wai Kru day you will get more flowers than the Thai teachers and you will know you have arrived.

[kinmaew]

Hi Petedk, but if you are only on 28K per month wont you now be able to apply for these positions and get the 83k?

Am I getting too excited here or not?

I taught in Thailand 10 years ago and only got 25k per month, now as I read this I could apply for one of these positions and get 83k?

I have a commerce degree and also CPA but no dip ed or celta or tefl.

Can you or anyone else clarify if I would be eligible to apply for these 83k roles?

Regards

Derek

[Arkady]

India and the Philippines?

Why not Singaporeans and Malaysians too lah?

[legend23]

I generally use this forum for information gathering, the community here is amazing in it's ability to share quality and mostly thoughtful posts on all things Thai. Awesome work!!! Thank you.

I only generally post when I read the topic and find I have something useful to add. I am not a teacher's shoelace, just like I am not much of anything, but I have come to Thailand volunteer and to do whatever I can to help, and when I say help, it is not splashing the cash, as I have none, but generally trying to give assistance where I can.

One of these activities where I help, is teaching one hour a week of English to a couple of school grades in local schools. The school's themselves only have two to three hours of English per week and having me or someone from our team, that is a chunk out of the teacher's time. Sometimes we follow the school curriculum and other times we use our own.

I am no expert but have gained a fair understanding of the practices of the schools we work in. Our English contact teacher(usually has limited English) so that is not helpful and most teachers couldn't even care about English. One thing though, I get respect from all my students, how by treating them the same, give them respect.

Translator - you need a translator. There would be no possible way to teach English successfully without a translator. You may have all the teaching qualifications in the world, but if you have little or no Thai language, your useless. After a year here, I am just about ready to go into a class room solo, although our process is to always have a native speaker with us.

I don't really think this plan will work. I think this mostly because of my last point. You can say the words and they will learn them by rote but will have no idea what they mean unless they're explained. Dead set - if I had one baht for every time a person or class said, "I am fine thank you and you?" I wouldn't need the 83K salary. They even say it, when you don't say anything.

Another thing is apart from the 3 class hours, English is not used anywhere, at home, the market or at play, so what kind of difference can you make - one or two percent.

Just a few thoughts, hopefully useful.

Thanks again for being such an entertaining and helpful community, someday I will get more into posting here. Love your work!!!

[NaiGreg]

Why get native English teachers other than from England ?

The British accents can be charming or annoying, but you will find Thailand and the rest of the developing world is moving in a direction towards American English (also known as proper English, in the 21st century) based on general preferences and the offical spellings they have adopted ('aluminium', not withstanding.) Had the Empire persisted, it might be otherwise.

Talley-Ho; All your chins up, eat your pudding, and all that ... Cheerio!

NG

[Scott]

When you are teaching a language you are not teaching an accent. The accent of the teacher is of less importance than using proper diction. I have taught from British texts and American texts. I use the text (spelling, sentence structure of the text). The CD's do not have a strong accent from either the US or the UK.

As far as the qualifications are concerned, I am not sure, but the Ministry of Education has been moving in the direction of hiring teachers who have a Bachelor's degree in education. I am reasonably sure they will be hiring people who are qualified/licensed teachers in their home country.

The salary is not all that high for people with an education degree.

[oldsailor35]

.......".......hire 300 native English-speaking teachers for its primary and secondary schools.......

300 teachers for primary and secondary schools in a country with 66 million people ?

A drop in the ocean...

LaoPo

Objection.............. 09 .... they have 67.764 10 and 11 I don't know ... expect to be 68-69 MP

and not all of 'em in education system..... several MP still to be considered.... but not all 68-69 MP though

Any chance of a translation?

well done Robsamui, i was a little too embarrassed to ask the same question, thought perhaps i was the dumb one not being able to work it out !

[oldsailor35]

I agree with Dumpling on this. I have many years as a trainer. Not to take anything away from teachers as I have a lot of respect for good ones. I am wondering how difficult is it to become a teacher/trainer for Thai students learning English?

Is there any courses that could help me to "cross train" into this field?

" Is there any courses".........................Might be a good idea to learn some English grammar to begin with.............................."Are there any courses"

[oldsailor35]

Will the Indian teachers be able to successfully teach the correct Head and Hand movements so commonly used in an Indian- English conversation

[oldsailor35]

For all the drongoes who are worried about language accents etc. There are many educated English teachers in the UK who have little or no regional accent whatsoever. So the Thai education authorities should recruit one of these to interview all applicants and if she/he decides that there is an unacceptable accent then the said person should be rejected. Being an educated person she or he should have no trouble with this.

[oldsailor35]

I'm young (24), smart, reasonably good looking, and I dress nicely (as we know these things can matter a lot in Thailand).

It's very difficult to believe a good looking American guy in his 20s with a masters degree and teaching experience was unable to find a job teaching English in Thailand.

YEP! and he's 'smart' and dresses well too ! ain't it a crying shame.

[oldsailor35]

.......".......hire 300 native English-speaking teachers for its primary and secondary schools.......

300 teachers for primary and secondary schools in a country with 66 million people ?

A drop in the ocean...

LaoPo

Its a start though....................lets be positive.

We educated the british born Prime Minister. Now we educate he's people. Its in our blood. History and all that stuff

I can clearly see the problem now. Messing up the natives' English language skills by English plumbers.

And the yanks educated Takky !...................says a lot don't it !

[oldsailor35]

I have found that the 8, 10, and 14 year old students all have very good written English knowledge. The need is not to teach basic English but rather proper pronunciation and diction. That is where the problem lies with having so many different dialects of the language presented to these poor kids. And in the case of American vs. UK English, there you have two different languages altogether. So if these students have a UK teacher one year and an American the next, they will have to spend the first month unlearning what they learned the last year, not to mention the difference of hearing UK as opposed to American spoken language. I think it makes a HUGE difference where the "native English speaker" comes from. That is not spoken with a racist overtone, simply reality. If you listen to 5 Americans from different regions talk you would get confused on the meanings of some of what is being said. Now add to that the native accents of India, Philippines, UK, Australia, and the USA and what will these students ultimately take away from their time listening to all these different ways of saying what is already only gibberish to them?

I will assume you have or are a teacher. If so what is your syllabus re: English conversation?

The problem with centering the case around accents being easier to understand is that it is a very subjective case. Person A may find an Southern American accent easy to understand, whilst person B does not, but finds a NY accent much easier. this subjectivity is reflected in the teachers who invariably feel their accent is best as it is such a personal thing.

A national syllabus would include a section on correct pronunciation, so that the teachers understand the expectations for the MoE in terms of what they pass on to the students irrespective of their nationality. As opposed to the current jumble that exists with teachers making it up on the fly based on their own subjective accent.

Point taken. The Thai education system however is not that perfect. They actually only want the native English speakers to teach speech. They want mega teacher talk time and entertainment for the kids. Syllabus? Useless drivel in Thailand's school system. The Thai English teacher, the people who are teaching the nuts and bolts of the English language, for the most part, cannot speak proper English. They cannot put together proper sentences. They are unable to pronounce all of the problematic phonemes. And in the ranks of the native speaking teachers from just the UK and USA alone, there are huge rifts in word stress, sentence stress, linking, homophones, phonetic spelling, article use, and even proper spelling, with Oxford, Cambridge and Webster dictionaries having discrepencies. So don't tell me there can be standardization in this matter in this land. And as far as English speakers finding one particular accent easier to understand than another, that is because those people have gotten used to hearing a particular accent relative to their locale and is really irrelevant to this topic as Thai students have never heard ANY proper English let alone any accent. What any teacher is teaching them is truly first line education and if that first line education is not standardized pertaining to accent and pronunciation, then one class with a UK teacher and another class in the next room with an American teacher will show astounding differences from each other at the end of the day. And if these students get together and compare notes, the frustration will stop their progress and/or interest in learning as it will make no sense to them verbally.

Good example of difference between US and UK English...............people have gotten used to hearing (US) as above !

people have become used to hearing (UK)

and this is only a tiny instance, this is why the Europeans do not like US English.

[oldsailor35]

Give them a good old Aussie accent any day I say!

You might say , but whether they'll understand is another matter. It's not only once have I had a Thai tell me that the only English accent that they don't understand is the Aussie one. True story.

BS...........yes some aussie sayings are sometimes funny and difficult to understand, eg They were banging away like a dunny door in a cyclone ! = having violent sex.

And there are thousands like this. However , straight out aussie dialect is quite simple and easy.

[NALAK]

the Op seems clear enough to me, states native english speakers, dont understand about philipines, india etc they are not native speakers. americanised version of English is not true English by name it comes from England.

the Queens English is the only true English.

Edited March 31, 2011 by NALAK

[mark45y]

American, Aussie or UK how many words a year do you think they are going to remember?

Edited March 31, 2011 by mark45y

[oldsailor35]

If you speak English like the Queen of England or my grandmother that is perfect. My English is American/Canadian and is close if I make a speech.

The best English teachers I have ever met in Thailand were a Swiss brother and sister who were raised in an American school high school and later went to University in Thailand. They spoke English like American natives and German and French and Thai all fluently. But almost as importantly they could dance and sing.

Singing and dancing is very important in teaching English in Thailand. If you can't sing and dance forget about it.

To those people who think one can be an effective teacher in a government school without speaking Thai I wish you good luck.

You also have to have your own printer and source of lesson plans in colour. The kids don't like black and white. You will pay the costs of ink and paper yourself.

Then you have to decide on how many words you will teach them to say per year. Currently the average is two. I think the two words come more from TV commercials than school but be that as it may you should have a target. As a first year goal I would suggest going out on a limb and try and teaching the whole class to say, "I want to go to the toilet." Year number two I would suggest trying something more complicated like, "What time is it?" I will write some more tips in the morning.

Are you an English teacher in Thailand ?

[oldsailor35]

It's amazing how many of you go on about pronunciations but don't realise your grammar is up the pole. Take a chill pill you guys, most Indians living here would snigger at the 83,000 baht. It's what they give their kids as pocket money. So if any of the "native" English speakers/backpackers/sex tourists/geriatrics want the job, you are more than welcome to have them. Peace out!

Amen! I wonder if any of them is even literate enough to spell "hypocritical tool," what with one of them being a rather polysyllabic word.

Forgive me, but I think you might mean "I wonder if any of them ARE even literate..."

BUGGER 61 ...................you beat me to it

[ginjag]

the Op seems clear enough to me, states native english speakers, dont understand about philipines, india etc they are not native speakers. americanised version of English is not true English by name it comes from England.

the Queens English is the only true English.

Heres the Queens English from Lincolnshire,

Git cat owt at kitchen relse ittle fraton budgie to de ad. Translation==

Please remove the cat from the kitchen or it will frighten the budgerigar to death.---gor it av ya ???

Edited March 31, 2011 by ginjag

[ginjag]

When you are teaching a language you are not teaching an accent. The accent of the teacher is of less importance than using proper diction. I have taught from British texts and American texts. I use the text (spelling, sentence structure of the text). The CD's do not have a strong accent from either the US or the UK.

As far as the qualifications are concerned, I am not sure, but the Ministry of Education has been moving in the direction of hiring teachers who have a Bachelor's degree in education. I am reasonably sure they will be hiring people who are qualified/licensed teachers in their home country.

The salary is not all that high for people with an education degree.

You are not teaching an accent, maybe, but the children are going to copy it-and will speak with that. I can tell usually what nationality has taught a person to speak English. IT IS important especially if your accent is strong-Indian for example.

The salary is very good for the cost of living here--not so if your in England-or try to compare-