Use Of English To Teach Multiple: Thai Education

[webfact]

Use of English to teach multiple

Wannapa Khaopa

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- The English for Integrated Studies (EIS) model has proven to be accessible to students from all income levels and to improve Thai teachers and students' English communication skills, organisers of a conference promoting the approach said.

The event, attended by more than 600 educators and teachers, officially opened yesterday to encourage and motivate them to overcome their fear of using English in class - even though they may never have taught English or may hardly ever have spoken it.

The Education Ministry plans to amend a draft law to seek more funds to expand EIS' role in the ministry's English communication development project for Thai teachers and students, said Wiboon Shamsheun, vice education minister. Wiboon was speaking at the event, titled "English Bilingual Education and the 2nd EIS International Conference on Integrated Studies and Asean Community Development".

Teachers at more than 300 schools across the nation have adopted EIS. They use English to teach science - including physics, chemistry and biology - math, computers, physical education, English and social studies, according to Surapong Ngamsom, president of the EIS Association of Thailand. Surapong initiated EIS at Sunthonphu Pittaya Secondary School in Rayong.

He said teachers had been trained in how to teach in English, search for instructional media and content in English, and to use multimedia to help students understand lessons and questions in English. They try to teach most lessons in English, except for some deemed too complicated.

"Confidence is the most important thing. Despite being nonEnglish speakers, many of the teachers have gone beyond their limit with confidence to speak out."

"Sunthonphu Pittaya's rank has improved from around 2,000th out of 2,500 ranked schools in 2004 to around 200th in 2008. It has remained near that rank. Students at the school and other EIS network schools are able to communicate in English more fluently," Surapong said.

As a result, the Office of the Basic Education Commission granted his association over Bt2 million to host the conference, which Surapong said aimed to promote best practices in EIS and demonstrate the teaching of different subjects in English. He hoped the conference would motivate more schools to join the network.

"We hope that the expansion of EIS will help us prepare more Thai teachers and students in terms of English communication for the Asean Economic Community, which will be in effect in the next three years," he added.

Wiboon added: "We're going to use English as the medium of teaching. We're starting today, not in 2015." The conference is being held in Bangkok and ends tomorrow(Saturday 17 March).

-- The Nation 2012-03-16

[sirchai]

Wiboon added: "We're going to use English as the medium of teaching. We're starting today, not in 2015." The conference is being held in Bangkok and ends tomorrow(Saturday 17 March) They try to teach most lessons in English, except for some deemed too complicated.

I'm pretty confident that the conference was held in English. Or maybe they tried to........

Edited March 16, 2012 by sirchai

[Scott]

Let me see if I got this right.....They want Thai speakers to teach a subject they probably learned in Thai, to Thai students, using a language foreign to both teachers and students.....

I don't see a problem with that concept....

[belg]

as all falang who lives long enough in this country, you can agree that the english level is very very poor amongst the thai children and adults alike

[whybother]

Use of English to teach multiple

Whoever wrote this needs to be taught English.

But I see that the article heading in the paper is:

Use of English in class touted

http://nationmultimedia.com/national/Use-of-English-in-class-touted-30178081.html

[JGV]

The whole concept of teaching other subjects in English has some merit but only if the level of English is high to start

To start teaching Science in English to students whose English is rudimentary at best leads to constant use of the dictionary and little if anything is learnt - a waste of time and resources

[anterian]

"except for some deemed too complicated." I wonder which these subjects are?

[BigJohnnyBKK]

All the rich kids are already getting this in the (some only so-called) international schools, and it works for them. At this point only a tiny percentage of the rest are learning much at all worthwhile. The whole Thai education system is so messed up that they have the freedom to try **absolutely any** sort of changes and they have little to lose. The key point buried here is that it forces the **teachers** to improve their English skills, which of course is a necessary first step.

Basic literacy in Thai language, basic numeracy skills, and then English English English for the rest sounds pretty good to me.

[mikebell]

In a vain attempt to find something decent to watch on Truevision, I channel hop. At about 188+ there are some DLTV channels. I think the DL stands for Distance Learning. As a retired English Teacher (UK) I am amused and appalled at the quality of these Educators. I know they are speaking English from some of the words but I can barely follow what is being said. Why they don't pay a farang (me) to read some of the lessons, beats me.

The biggest barrier to learning English is Thai script. The Philippines use Western script and Thailand employs them to teach English.

[scorecard]

Wiboon added: "We're going to use English as the medium of teaching. We're starting today, not in 2015." The conference is being held in Bangkok and ends tomorrow(Saturday 17 March) They try to teach most lessons in English, except for some deemed too complicated.

I'm pretty confident that the conference was held in English. Or maybe they tried to........

A question. Whether it's the program referred to in this thread, or 'Friday is English day' or whatever, there seems to be an assumption that the students & teachers (all schools), government officials etc., in fact already have good English listening and speaking skills but don't use English regularly and just need practice.

Seems to be one hell of an assumption. Talk to some primary or secondary students from a range of government schools across Thailand and you will find (except for some special experimental programs etc.,) that they have zero / close to zero listening skills and zero / close to zero skills to put together even a very simple short answer.in English. Same for most government officials either in ministerial offices or in the local amphur office.

Is it the Education minister's (as an example) assumption that all of these folks will magically on a given day next week all have a 'bing' moment and suddenly have a large vocabulary, good listening skills and good construction and speaking skills.

When are these people going to realize that the easiest / best way to learn any language is by total immersion in listening and speaking, either at home or at school, from a very young age. (Plus of course formal teaching of alphabet, grammar & construction etc.)

But of course Thailand cannot wait until the current kindergarten kids grow up, there needs to be serious work now with Thai adults step by step developing listening & speaking skills.

-------------------

Different point, about 20 years ago the education ministry promoted a one day public seminar which would reveal a whole new policy about all aspects of education in Thailand.

Invitations, indicating that the seminar would be conducted in English, were sent to lots of organizations.

Farang attendees (for various good reasons) way outnumbered the Thais folks who turned up for the seminar.

There was a 2 minute opening in English by a Thai lady who spoke about the following - she announced that the minister had changed his mind and would conduct he seminar in Thai language, she also announced that there was no visual presentation (minister was too busy), and she announced that attendees could send a letter requesting a copy of the rough notes the minister would use for his speech (rough notes in Thai language), but it would take three weeks for mailing.

Minister then stood up and started to give data, lots and lots of data. Example, this year in schools in Chiang Mai province we have 85,263 chairs, two years ago the number was 82,145 (not real data of course). This continued on and on and no comment whatever about policy.

At the morning coffee break someone asked whether there would be comment later in the day about policy. Answer, 'no, more important data'.

99% of the participants left at the coffee break.

Edited March 16, 2012 by scorecard

[culicine]

"except for some deemed too complicated." I wonder which these subjects are?

All except PE and Art:)

[culicine]

This will fail unless native speakers / competent non-natives teach the classes. There is a massive contrast among students taught in EP's compared with those of Thai program schools with Thai teachers teaching english. How many Thai teachers are competent enough to teach technical subjects in english? I haven't met one in 12 years - my wife could do it but she won't work for 10K a month:)

Any attempt to improve education in this country will fail until class sizes are reduced, a modern curriculum is produced, resources are enhanced, and a teachers union (with teeth) is set up to push for better conditions, training and salary for teachers. When those conditions are met, then can we discuss improving english language skills?

[anterian]

About 8 years ago my adult son and myself were invited, by a Thai teacher of English, on a weekend cruise to Pattaya, staying overnight at a hotel and returning by coach. It was organised by the organisation of Thai teachers of English. When we arrived there were about 2 coach loads of teachers boarding the cruise ship, we were the only farangs. Knowing that these were teachers of English I attempted to strike up some conversations, I was naive at the time. Of course none of them were capable of this, except one old girl who had lived 5 years in England in her younger days.

[Phatcharanan]

The whole concept of teaching other subjects in English has some merit but only if the level of English is high to start

To start teaching Science in English to students whose English is rudimentary at best leads to constant use of the dictionary and little if anything is learnt - a waste of time and resources

Nahhh. Have to disagree.

There is curricula available for Science and Math that is specific to EFL/EAL students.

With good planning between departments, a lot can be achieved by using cross-curricular strategies.

[Scott]

Patcharanan is correct, but the operative words in his post are these....."With good planning between departments,"

I work with two programs using this concept, one is bilingual and is quite effective. The students learn the subject material in Thai first, followed by English. It's quite effective. The other is a Thai program with very low English ability. It's quite ineffective.

Until students reach a certain level of fluency in English, they simply cannot learn new concepts in English. Over time, bilingual students gain this fluency, the second group does not. So the problem becomes what are you teaching? In Science, for example, I tell the teachers they are basically teaching English, using Science as the medium of instruction. The Administration, however, says no, they should be teaching science. The students end up lagging far behind in both English and Science.

The students end up being illiterate in two languages.

There in lies the problem of planning--or lack of planning.

[oggie911]

but the kids are confused there learning english from brits,aussies,yanks ,irish,nz ,south africans and fillopinos, plus others,there heads are f@@ked its mostly, us english,my wife familys kids talk gobble gook english,sad but true,

[theanimaster]

Wiboon added: "We're going to use English as the medium of teaching. We're starting today, not in 2015." The conference is being held in Bangkok and ends tomorrow(Saturday 17 March) They try to teach most lessons in English, except for some deemed too complicated.

I'm pretty confident that the conference was held in English. Or maybe they tried to........

A question. Whether it's the program referred to in this thread, or 'Friday is English day' or whatever, there seems to be an assumption that the students & teachers (all schools), government officials etc., in fact already have good English listening and speaking skills but don't use English regularly and just need practice.

Seems to be one hell of an assumption. Talk to some primary or secondary students from a range of government schools across Thailand and you will find (except for some special experimental programs etc.,) that they have zero / close to zero listening skills and zero / close to zero skills to put together even a very simple short answer.in English. Same for most government officials either in ministerial offices or in the local amphur office.

Is it the Education minister's (as an example) assumption that all of these folks will magically on a given day next week all have a 'bing' moment and suddenly have a large vocabulary, good listening skills and good construction and speaking skills.

When are these people going to realize that the easiest / best way to learn any language is by total immersion in listening and speaking, either at home or at school, from a very young age. (Plus of course formal teaching of alphabet, grammar & construction etc.)

But of course Thailand cannot wait until the current kindergarten kids grow up, there needs to be serious work now with Thai adults step by step developing listening & speaking skills.

-------------------

Different point, about 20 years ago the education ministry promoted a one day public seminar which would reveal a whole new policy about all aspects of education in Thailand.

Invitations, indicating that the seminar would be conducted in English, were sent to lots of organizations.

Farang attendees (for various good reasons) way outnumbered the Thais folks who turned up for the seminar.

There was a 2 minute opening in English by a Thai lady who spoke about the following - she announced that the minister had changed his mind and would conduct he seminar in Thai language, she also announced that there was no visual presentation (minister was too busy), and she announced that attendees could send a letter requesting a copy of the rough notes the minister would use for his speech (rough notes in Thai language), but it would take three weeks for mailing.

Minister then stood up and started to give data, lots and lots of data. Example, this year in schools in Chiang Mai province we have 85,263 chairs, two years ago the number was 82,145 (not real data of course). This continued on and on and no comment whatever about policy.

At the morning coffee break someone asked whether there would be comment later in the day about policy. Answer, 'no, more important data'.

99% of the participants left at the coffee break.

The key is national programming -- TV. This is evident in the way Filipinos have adapted to English --- because Philippine TV is mostly English. They don't watch cartoons translated into Tagalog.

My two sons, 5 and 3, speak both Thai and English. I have them on Pocoyo in the mornings and whatever cartoons or movies they watch will be in English. In contrast my niece, who is 4 months older than my eldest, speaks ZERO English, though it seems she sometimes understands me when I speak to her in English (which is the only language I speak to her in)! She watches her cartoons in Thai much like every other Thai does. I protested, tried to have my in-laws to speak to her parents on behalf of me to voice my concerns and her parents are all the typical "Mai-ben-rai, as long as she's outta our f---ing faces, ~WE~ have nothing to worry about."

Don't you worry, I'm sure when she reaches Mathayom level her parents will spend boatloads of cash for EnGrish lessons and cram schools. Meanwhile my kids are probably learning a third language by then.

[theanimaster]

About 8 years ago my adult son and myself were invited, by a Thai teacher of English, on a weekend cruise to Pattaya, staying overnight at a hotel and returning by coach. It was organised by the organisation of Thai teachers of English. When we arrived there were about 2 coach loads of teachers boarding the cruise ship, we were the only farangs. Knowing that these were teachers of English I attempted to strike up some conversations, I was naive at the time. Of course none of them were capable of this, except one old girl who had lived 5 years in England in her younger days.

The head of our English Program (EP) speaks ZERO English. Thank God we have the former head -- speaks excellent english -- who is on as the program's "consultant"... but everyone knows she's the one really running the show (and thankfully too)!!

[anterian]

About 10 years ago I was in Beijing for a while, my hosts took me to an "English cafe" not its real name, but a place where students gathered to speak English. When a native speaker appeared I was almost mobbed with everyone trying to speak with me. I could never imagine this in Thailand.

[Phatcharanan]

The key is national programming -- TV. This is evident in the way Filipinos have adapted to English --- because Philippine TV is mostly English. They don't watch cartoons translated into Tagalog.

It's not just TV. Filippina kids are immersed in the English Language from Grade 3 upwards. The Philippines Basic Education Curriculum states which subjects must be taught in Filipino and which are taught in English.

Science, Health, Math are taught in English, along with IT (I think). That continues through to Secondary as well.

[BigJohnnyBKK]

The first pre-requisite to any sort of learning is the would-be student's awareness of his/her ignorance. The second is the willingness to admit the gap, and the third is a sufficient degree of motivation to overcome it.

Curriculum, materials, an available "teacher" etc - none of these are sufficient when the above are lacking. If the above are strong, the rest will follow, the learner will find a way to learn, if on a mass scale the necessary resources will be made available.

[peteinchina]

About 10 years ago I was in Beijing for a while, my hosts took me to an "English cafe" not its real name, but a place where students gathered to speak English. When a native speaker appeared I was almost mobbed with everyone trying to speak with me. I could never imagine this in Thailand.

Yes this is common all over China.

In that country, there are almost zero tourists!!!

All Chinese are taught English in the early years by Chinese teachers, so the lessons are in Chinese..... As a result, their English writing and reading are great and they have large vocabs. But!!!!! they have never spoken or listened to a Laowai! (farang).

As a consequence, foreigners are often mobbed. Every train or bus ride can be a conversational marathon.

I was teaching 20- 24yr olds for a couple of years (finished in december) and I was the first foreign teacher (first foreign contact!) for 80-90% of them. Notwithstanding they had all been learning English for at least 8 years.

In Thailand the opportunities for English convo are easy to come by, in comparison.