Are Native English Speakers The Answer For Thailand?

[stepenwolf1958]

If Thailand wishes to have an English-competent population to drive up its economy, everyone should embrace the Obec initiative. The only thing is that Obec should make sure it spends the budget efficiently and finds a way to improve its Thai teachers and facilities too. Don't forget that the limited English knowledge of most Thai students is not only due to the lack of native speakers in the educational sector alone.

The key word here is IF(Thailand wishes...) and i am not sure about it at all.

Next in this quota is very true. It is not ONLY due(to the lack...). Not only but it is the MAIN reason. Good teachers are LEAVING Thailand, permanently last 3 years and it is about obstacles in procedures to get working permits and Visas.

So, IF MoE and Cabinet member in charge for education, would proceed this as an OBLIGATION for Immigration Office and Labour Office to make ease for teachers in Thailand, would be much of help.

Only if those 2 Ministries work TOGETHER and synchronized about this-this might give some good result. I deeply doubt that will happen at all.

[stepenwolf1958]

This way of thinking in MoE is very good.

But that will be just a letter on paper if MoE don't find the way to stop school establishments, administrations and principals (or Head of departments) in having too much freedom in deciding which foreigner they will hire.

Why so?

Because, as it is now, all of this 3 bodies are making decisions about the employment NOT based on resumes of applicants, their professional backgrounds or life experiences but by their PERSONAL opinions and appearance of applicants.

So, as happened few times already, applicant will be accepted and hired as a teacher but found later as a pedophile or even convicted murderer of a child in his country.

Obviously, schools seize TOO much of power(and incompetence) in judging about qualities of applicants.

[stepenwolf1958]

Wow this subject should generate more rubbish than 1st April as language teachers are the majority of expats in SE Asia.

All Thailand needs are more know alls who went from school back to school and then to the bars and on to Thaivisa forums

Must be desperately close to the truth as I didn'tget pulled or flamed

No,not worth the reply, just a typical reply from someone with opinions that are not facts.

Teaching for 8 years, age 45 and doesn't drink or frequent bars

That makes 2 of us but that doesn't mean Reason 1 wrong. Unfortunately, he is right because most of so called teachers are in teaching just and only as way to get some more money for their beers or hookers or, if they are decent people, to extend their stay in LOS. Sorry but as you are 8 years here, you should know it is truth about backpackers here.

[stepenwolf1958]

English language learning should be a major priority for Thai students.

The reason is that without a reasonable command of spoken and written English language skills, Thais have very little chance of leaving Thailand and working abroad. In other words, they could be stuck in a rut.

Rather than hiring farang teachers, that may have visa problems, dodgy backgrounds, perhaps only staying in Thailand for the short term and cannot speak Thai, the better option would be to hire half Thai and half farang teachers that are already living here, have Thai nationality and have a good command of both Thai and English languages. Such as my children for example.

The plus sides are, that these teachers would not have visa problems, could be hired at a cheaper rate and here for the long term.

Sorry but you wrong.

According to Thai teachers, the main problem is that majority of Thai teachers teach English but in Thai language.

So, nothing would be change on better if they employ as you suggest, half Thai and half farang teachers. You have examples on cable TV network and those people have ridiculous accent, you must to admit.

You are right about dodgy backgrounds of "teachers" here but it has to be change as a policy of Immigration and Education Ministries. If they are strict in checking WHO is applying for teaching position, would be more nice.

[stepenwolf1958]

http://www.ef.co.th/epi/ef-epi-ranking/

Download as PDF and enjoy. Amazing things.

[AZBill]

Are native speakers with no Thai abilities really the answer? Complete immersion seems a bit much to handle for a population of students that are that far behind the rest of the world and not the sharpest knives in the drawer to begin with.

[tominbkk]

The country needs to adopt a long-term strategy on the teaching of English. In my experience, English is taught on a hit-or-miss basis. The language needs to be taught systematically and it needs to be used. It needs to include all the skills, reading, listening, writing and speaking.

I spent many years as an English teacher here, and still work in schools, but as an administrator. I have found that those students who do well in English either enjoy learning it, or for some reason see how good English skills will help them to reach their dreams. If a student here can't make a connection somehow to what they are learning, then it just comes down to learning enough to pass the test, and never actually internalizing the subject. That's why you can take a student with 8 years of English studies and often times they can't even have the simplest of conversations with you. They were never taught why it is important to learn English or to keep it in their long term memory.

[zydeco]

California, Texas, Illinois, and other states are laying off certified teachers by the thousands. That's the good news about potential teachers for Thailand. The bad news, of course, is that these are the same teachers who have made the American educational system the ungainly, ineffective, PC-riddled monstrosity it is today. Come to think of it, hiring Filipinos might be a big improvement over American trained Kommissars anxious to teach "rap poems" and Ebonics.

[elshaheen]

This idea is a little out there, but I'll mention it nonetheless.

In the USA there is a historically severe unemployment situation and there is no quick and easy solution in sight. Millions of competent Americans have been out of work for years. Many of those lack college degrees but are of course fluent in English and could easily take a TEFL course. Many are also, crass as it sounds, potentially "desperate" enough to work in a country like Thailand (how about Thailand) for much less than 83K baht for month. I would say about 40K would be attractive to a huge pool of such people (after being sold the lower cost of housing and health coverage available here, etc.). Competent, native speakers with a desirable accent, trainable in TEFL, ready to start ASAP. Yet this huge pool of desirable cheap American labor isn't welcome in Thailand to work legally due to the technical requirement for a bachelors degree. Of course many college educated would also work for that low end money, but many more without degrees would find it a decent enough option and may indeed stick at it for many years. Exploit American labor! Also note as you would expect, unemployment rates are much higher among those without degrees, so a bigger pool of potential recruits.(End of soapbox.)

It seems that Thailand MOE wants to phase out TEFL NES who come to Thailand to live and work here, thus remove them and having them replaced with qualified teachers who actually have a Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) which qualifies the graduate as a teacher in schools. Each country has their specifications for teacher qualifications.

But I kind of agree and disagree with what is going on here.

Agreeing: A qualified teacher from any NES or countries that have English as part of their society should be allowed to teach here in Thailand. A “qualified” teacher has gone through the steps in their country to obtain the necessary qualifications, passed the exams (U.S. uses the Praxis series, which is pretty much like the Teachers exam but more professional and its quite effective).

Disagreeing: Thailand Government is so dam_n corrupted, that they don’t even know or care how its citizens feel. They’ve introduced new procedures, new hopes we must jump though usually more then what the average Thai citizen who wants to be a teacher in their country. It’s been going on for quite a number of years. To use OPEC as one of the main programs to push for getting more Thai to learn English, sorry this isn’t going to work. The pay will seem attractive at first, then after the teacher arrives and sees firsthand the condition Thai students education system is like here and might opt out to sowing their oats in some other country that really wants to learn.

Thai students in your class have to make the decision for themselves, not government or their parents, if understanding English is what they want for their lives. It’s good to know a second language in general, but there are so many to choose from in this part of the world. Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Russian, and etc.

In the U.S. we want to go to a higher institution to study after High school. We can choose as individuals, what languages we want to study such as, Spanish, French, or Italian. Asian languages are really not an option for most high school students and need to study independently.

[sirchai]

Wow this subject should generate more rubbish than 1st April as language teachers are the majority of expats in SE Asia.

All Thailand needs are more know alls who went from school back to school and then to the bars and on to Thaivisa forums

Must be desperately close to the truth as I didn'tget pulled or flamed

No,not worth the reply, just a typical reply from someone with opinions that are not facts.

Teaching for 8 years, age 45 and doesn't drink or frequent bars

That makes 2 of us but that doesn't mean Reason 1 wrong. Unfortunately, he is right because most of so called teachers are in teaching just and only as way to get some more money for their beers or hookers or, if they are decent people, to extend their stay in LOS. Sorry but as you are 8 years here, you should know it is truth about backpackers here.

Have you ever thought about people who'd actually settled down here?

You'll find foul apples everywhere, but please don't generalize all.:jap:

[reason1]

Have you ever thought about people who'd actually settled down here?

You'll find foul apples everywhere, but please don't generalize all.:jap:

Some years ago I was hired to redesign all the IT systems fora British International Schoolin the region only to have my respect for "The Oldest Profession" verydiminished when I uncovered that 2 Brit teachers were cooking the IT purchasesto get free laptops. I appreciate that there are some genuinely good ones outthere who are not trying to rip the pants off their students.

[MengWan]

Are Native-English Teachers The Answer?

The answer to which "problem" ?

If anyone hope one day thaï children speak english like an anglo, then the only "answer" would be to replace the pupils by native-english-speaking pupils !

[hammered]

Most Thai people seem to learn English to communicate with Asians. It may be that learning from other Asian English speakers is a better alternative although I do once remember talking to a government minister in the first Thaksin government and he told me that the country needed to improve the English of the lower classes so they could go and be maids in strange and foreign lands. He also was rather upset that Filipino poor ones were better at doing this as they had better English and he could even quote the figures of money remitted to the Philippines that was then spent in locally owned businesses thereby enriching the local elite.

Sometimes those tasked with making decisions on what is best for the country have strange ideas and motivations

[jayboy]

Most Thai people seem to learn English to communicate with Asians. It may be that learning from other Asian English speakers is a better alternative although I do once remember talking to a government minister in the first Thaksin government and he told me that the country needed to improve the English of the lower classes so they could go and be maids in strange and foreign lands. He also was rather upset that Filipino poor ones were better at doing this as they had better English and he could even quote the figures of money remitted to the Philippines that was then spent in locally owned businesses thereby enriching the local elite.

Sometimes those tasked with making decisions on what is best for the country have strange ideas and motivations

I wonder what you thought of the minister's standard of English.I am always amazed by the poor English proficiency of many Thais who have been educated overseas.Graduates of the second tier American state universities are the worst possibly because they tended to congregate mainly with other Thais and perhaps because of the easy peasy multiple choice examination system.Abhisit and Korn are special cases with their perfect (though not quite accent free) English because they went to British secondary schools as well as universities.Thaksin was quite awful at English though he worked on it.

[Rhys]

It is that time of year again.. English is not taken seriously by the academic-politician...until they send their offspring to study abroad.. TIT