2,000 Native English Teachers To Boost Thai Students’ Language Skills

[Scott]

I have to agree with quite a few posters. First, doing it on the cheap IS a big part of the problem. It's a problem with many businesses. Teaching is a career and even if it's done on a part-time basis, it requires knowledge, dedication and consistency.

Second, there needs to be a curriculum. It makes less difference what curriculum used, but you need one and you need to stick with it. It needs to include reading, listening, speaking and writing to be comprehensive and usable in an educational setting.

The majority of text books written for those pursuing high education in technical fields are written in English. Whether it is engineering or medicine, a well educated professional group need to be able to read and comprehend in English.

[Crossy]

Yet another racial / accent related post removed along with an off-topic attempt at humour.

[Ijustwannateach]

I'm afraid that other posters are right and the numbers do not add up. Never mind that, what about the paperwork? What are the 2000 'native English speakers' doing during their 10 weeks of training to earn an income? How is this going to fit in to work permits, visas, etc.? And if they follow their own rules (these are PUBLIC schools, right? so don't give us the BS about the 'Private Schools Act') there is a certain minimum salary to get the work permit?

I'm afraid I can only see two resolutions to this (which have been the resolutions to similar 'grand plans' before for English teaching in public schools): hiring ... questionable types.... from cheap agencies, or hiring non-native speakers at the last minute to save face. It already appears from the way the program is set up (training) that they are not planning to hire anyone who has ever taught or been trained to teach anything.

[Scott]

If they hire experienced or qualified teachers, it will take 10 weeks to train them to teach Thai style--no failures, no loss of face, etc. etc..

[overherebc]

If they hire experienced or qualified teachers, it will take 10 weeks to train them to teach Thai style--no failures, no loss of face, etc. etc..

Never, ever allow the students to ask you a question, you may not know the answer and lose face by saying, I'm really not sure but I will find out and let you know tomorrow.

[Bakeman]

^{Lets be honest. They will never be able to suppliment the teachers salaries or living arrangements with Visas for fully qualified Natives with the Educational requirements stated. Teachers, though underpaid, still make more back home with less of a hassle. Like Scott stated "If they hire experienced or qualified teachers, it will take 10 weeks to train them to teach Thai style--no failures, no loss of face, etc. etc.." LOL}

[otherstuff1957]

The OP doesn't say anything about native speakers, it just says English speaking teachers.

[Ijustwannateach]

^Um, try reading both the thread title and the article title:

2,000 native English teachers to boost Thai students’ language skills

[Ijustwannateach]

Bakeman- it's against forum etiquette to post in all large font for no real reason. No biggie, but I wouldn't make a habit of it.

[crazydrummerpauly]

I am an English teacher in Thailand with three years experience. I have TEFL certificates etc, but no degree. I am now over sixty years old and now no one will hire me. Thailand is a country where age and appearance are more important than anything else. They would rather hire some young blue eyed blonde who frequents ladybars and turns up at class the next morning stinking of smoke and alcohol,rather than an older experienced mature ex pat who knows a lot about Thai culture and also lives in Thailand.

That's interesting - in my town, i have to turn work down all the time - and i have no language-teaching qualifications at all - teaching work here is done by anyone with a pulse and a caucasian appearance - even incomprehensible glaswegians, geordies, etc. Admittedly, it is not formal-contract type work at the highest salaries, more cash-in-the-hand casual, but a number of acquaintances do live off it. Oh - and they are definitely NOT young blue-eyed blondes - they are typically older, and grey if not bald! So as usual with LOS, everything depends...

[MrMuddle]

This will never get off the ground, just more government BS for the masses. How many years have these sort of initiatives been talked about in the press, but never actually happen?

I'm retired, live here and have both a degree and a UK City & Guilds TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages - similar to TEFL). I would be happy to work 4 hours a week or so, helping Thai kids learn English. I would be quite willing to do this for free, as I don't need the money, and it would give me something useful to do.

The problem - I'm not allowed to do this by the Immigration Dept, and even if I did work for free, you can guarantee somebody, somewhere, in the Thai Education system will make money out of my kindness. I would like to help, and I'm sure that are many others who feel the same, but the Thai authorities, instead of making life easier, ( as in the example earlier in the topic regarding Slovenia), just make things so difficult, it's not even worth enquiring.

[kaorop]

The Education Minister needs to talk to the Immigration Department and to the TCT.

55555 shouldnt laugh but if i dont lll cry

[PaulHamon]

If they were truly serious about this then it seems to me that they already have a pool of semi-qualified amongst the retired folk here. Don't get me wrong, I certainly would not want to teach in a Thai school again, but I am sure there would be others that would do so, if the "no-working" regulation was eased.

some people would pay to teach... the voluntourism is huge in other parts of the world, some come for life experience, some come for teaching expeirence... some do it because they're board a home while the partners work long hours.

ok the level of 'teaching' might not be that great, but at least Thai students would acutally get exposure to a wide range of proper english.

who knows, just thinking out loud.

[notime]

If the Education ministry was serious in their intentions this could have been sorted out decades ago with native speakers already residing and many working illegally because of the ridiculous buorocracy over work permits. The truth is the Govt do not want a middle class eloquent in English as it will threaten the power elite's grip on wealth.

I think you've hit nail on the head here JGV. It seems like the business of government in Thailand is all just about making false pretenses to look good. And talk is cheap of course. 100 mill rai owned by foreigners is threatening the future of Thailand and the government will do something about it (hunt them down and expel). To improve English education the government will hire 2,000 (why not 200,000 ?) native English teachers. They will build a high-speed railway from Issan to Malaysia. They move mountains every day. Very good government! ;-)

[elliss]

What part time means is they are going to work on a 9 month contract. no vacation pay, no pay for thai holidays. This has been tried before , its called the Nothaburi project. they ended up with 90 percent non native speakers teaching at these schools.

Good luck British council finding Native speakers, under those conditions no Native speaker will work. Maybe you can find some out of work Liverpool folks, Those are native speakers right? heh

Good idea La, teech em ter talk laak proper scouzer skallys laak.

But seriously old chap. With 25% of British graduates out of work in UK, they'd have no trouble at all with recruitment. A job with a moderate wage in Thailand beats life on the Dole in Britain.

quite right,

and many of these unemployed graduates in the uk ,

have gained work experience , filling shelves @ tescos.

every little bit helps .

[pomchop]

There is a huge untapped resource of retired farangs in Thailand, many of whom are bored and financially don't need any pay but just something to do a couple of days a week. In my experience the kids in the rural areas can actually semi read and write english reasonably well but have ZERO experience in actually speaking English. Part of the reason is that the Thai english teachers teach for the written tests as the results impact funding/staffing etc. Unfortunately there are no tests for conversation so they don't teach that. Also the thai english teachers typically do NOT really speak english to the kids.

As a farang when i came into a rural school i was the FIRST farang that most of my students had ever even interacted with up close. At first they are of course terribly shy to try and speak english but after a while they sorta get used to the farang and some of them will try to speak with you. As for worrying about all the various farang accents i think that is really not important..what is important is to get the kids to try to speak and understand english with ANY accent. Would you rather have thai kids speaking english with an accent or not speaking any english at all?

IF IF IF the govt would recruit volunteer farang teachers by offering them a waiver of work permits and perhaps a special no hassle visa i suspect they would ger thousands of older mature farangs on a part time voluntee/free basis. Even a couple of days a week can make a big difference to the kids and also really make the farangs feel good about trying to help out. Yes it would be better if the schools all had highly trained native speakers BUT it seems that is a pie in the sky dream while the retiree volunteers could be in place in a matter of months IF the govt would just do it.

[finnomick1]

Let's hope the salaries for these English teachers are adequate for them to live on, if employment is only part-time.

What nationalities under the scheme are considered "native English speakers"? Does it include Philippines, India, etc., where the first language is not English?

Sounds like the British Council may also employ these teachers to make their employment up to full-time, or is the BC merely a subcontractor?

Yeah right, just how many English teachers are going to give up a salary the equivalent of 1,500,000 baht p.a., for a Thai salary of 150,000 baht p.a ? Can't see any queues around the block yet.....