All The Students Failed The English Exam....

[teacher17]

Okay, I know that this is very common in Thailand. Basically all of my prathom students (300 of them, except for maybe 20 students,) failed the English exam I made. The English exam was VERY easy (colours, matching numbers with the number words, days of the week, parts of the body,etc). In fact, the kids in P.3 did worse than the kids in P. 2.

I know that a lot of the kids don't really pay attention in class. The Thai teachers told me many of them failed other subjects as well (so I know it's not only me haha). I guess I am just getting really burnt out from teaching in Thailand (at least in a government school). I feel like if the kids have no motivation whatsoever, I have no motivation. They want to play games all the time, and they could care less about learning. I know they are young, and it's hard for them to understand the importance of education at that age. I try to make learning fun for them (but let's face it, learning cannot always be "fun.")

I am really trying to figure out ways for next term to motivate them more (or even to motivate myself haha!). I am staying in Thailand for at least 2 more years (so don't try to talk to me about moving back home please....I love Thailand, I just get annoyed with teaching here sometimes). I know international schools might be better....but I imagine it would also be more work (or am I wrong about that?) In the beginning, I had so much hope and motivation and now...not so much....haha. It's like...what's the point in even trying to motivate the students when they don't care?

I'm just looking for ideas on how to get the student's more involved/motivated. I don't know if I will get any good feedback...but it's worth a shot....

[rijb]

Here are a few things that work for me:

- Use a visible point system for learning and behavior. They need a visual way to see their progress. They live in the moment and love to compete.

- Give them short exams as often as possible (daily). The final exam shouldn't be a surprise - just a longer version of all the exams they've already had - many, many times. Post the scores in the point system.

- They'll learn more / faster by seeing / touching, than by listening. Cut down your talking as much as possible. Even if they understand you, they're not listening.

- If possible, put them in pairs or small teams. Let them help each other.

Good luck.

Edited October 9, 2012 by rijb

[Briggsy]

A lot of people, including teachers, think that teachers are the most important component in a child's learning. I would put a number of factors higher.

1. The child: genetic potential, intrinsic motivation, natural bents, malnourishment, foetal alcohol syndrome, etc....

2. The parents or guardians: the parents' abilities and interests, parents' involvement in the child's learning, parents' expectations for the child, parents' choices in pre-primary intellectual development for the child, etc....

3. The environment: The home environment, sleep time, intrusive noise, tv policy, intellectual and academic discussion at home, peer achievement, housework chores, etc.....

You may be beating yourself up for little reason here.

rijb's points are standard teaching methods and work well.

I note you were surprised they did so badly. That would suggest you either were not really monitoring their progress (see rijb's use of very regular quizzes and tests) or you unrealistically expected a big improvement when it came to exams. Maybe there is something you can learn from that.

Edited October 9, 2012 by Briggsy

[teacher17]

Thanks for the advice. Well, I am not THAT surprised...but I am surprised that my P.3 students did worse than P.2 since they are older and I (assumed) that they listened better...guess not! I am sure there are many other factors, as you said, that contribute to whether a child does well or not (family problems, learning disabilities, etc).

Short exams every now and then (like a pop quiz) are good ideas. My other issue is I don't have a lot of materials to teach with....my school certainly wont supply me with any (let alone an English workbook or a photocopy machine that actually works...don't even get me started on that!) I'm not really beating myself up over it...I just would like to feel motivated to teach them...but in order to do that, I feel they have to be interested. Many of them see no point in learning English (there are little to no falangs around here).

Another issue is even most of the kids in P.3 cannot read! I have been trying to teach them phonics...but teaching kids how to read in a big class can be very difficult...any suggestions?

[rijb]

A whiteboard for you and a notebook for each student will go a long way. Write what they need on the board and let them copy it.

Short exams every now and then are not enough. Daily tests are a learning aid.

Consider using rhymes and word families for teaching sounds.

However, your first priority should be "understanding". Use real (their) world objects and actions for vocabulary and meaning.

Here's a starter for you to demonstrate while you say and they repeat:

Open the window

Shut the door

Take the broom

And sweep the floor.

[mike123ca]

How many students do you teach? Maybe your classes are too large.

[marstons]

there seems very little motivation to improve their education full stop across the whole poplulation. My only obseravtion is they are taught so much nationalistic stuff and how great the country is that seems to be about it.

[Somtamnication]

I have often read that being repetitive in your lessons improves their English skills. Not in my case. You should see the test results for my P4-P6 students. I even wrote the test in two languages to avoid confusion during the test.

Heck, for a P6. I told them to write in English "18".. I got either a blank, or my name is, or behaviour or Thailand as the dam_n answer.

We practiced for weeks, they knew what pages to study. Did not help!

[marstons]

Why are the schools turning out so many students who fail at English, they get lessons from native born speakers but the standard of English is extremely poor compared with other neighbouring countries, who are supposedly less developed. Are the students or the standard of teaching. To the OP why do you think they are so poorly educated in English?

Edited October 10, 2012 by Scott
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[chowny77]

Simply the Thai education sucks!! It does not matter how many farang are thrown at students in the government run schools. Farangs are and will always be used as promotion for the schools rather than the tool to teach. They make the money and look good and we get shat on. While the fat cats are at the top and the ignorant workers in the middle, there will be no change upcoming! Good luck Thailand, you will be the laughing stock of ASEAN if you do not get on with the programme, remove the old school/corrupt directors-teachers and try to catch up with the rest of the world!

[Somtamnication]

Many schools give a 1 hour lesson per week given by a farang teacher. Some give 3 hours. The other lessons are given by Thai "Angleed" teachers.

[TommoPhysicist]

How to succeed as a teacher in Thailand.

1. Make your exams easier.

2. Make sure they know the answers to the exam the day before.

3. Give them a score of 50% for filling in their name correctly.

[Pormax]

I am not surprised that your or any students fail their English exam. I have a 14 year old (who is the wife'se niece) living with us. When she has English homework not only is it very poorly written in the first place but she has not a clue about any of it. I try my best (with my wife doing the translating) to help her but there is no interest at all. In the end I tell her the answers and my wife says 'don't worry, she take to teacher and will pass'. Even in her Thai subjects there is a lot of copying done which will apparently give her a 'pass'. Then of course there are other stupid things such a one day a month (Saturday or Sunday) they must go to the local temple to clean and get a paper signed by the head monk. If they do not do this they do not 'pass' the end of year exams. Other times they have to go to school at the weekend and take flowers or small trees to plant in the school grounds. Again if they do not attend for any reason then again they 'do not pass'.

Back to the English. I have bought many books and have really tried to teach and encourage this young lady to learn English, even telling her that should she learn English good enough so we can talk to each other then I will buy her a motorcycle next year when she is 15 (the legal age for riding a motorbike) and moves up to high school. Did this make a difference? No, she is not interested and too lazy so it looks like a 20KM bicycle ride next year to school. i have given up as it is too much hassle.

My impression of the state schools here in Thailand is very low indeed.

p.s. One weekend my wife's niece had a lot of homework to do, again it was just copying from a book. So My wife, two other niece's and a nephew all took in turns to do some copying. I asked if the teacher was stupid and could not see 4 or 5 people's writing. The answer was 'teachers not care as long as work done'!!!!

Edited October 10, 2012 by Scott
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[Scott]

Nasty, off-topic posts deleted. Unless a poster has asked about grammar or spelling, then don't discuss it. It is off-topic. It is offensive. It is also against the sub-forum rules.

Not everyone posting on this site is a native English speaker. Not everyone is posting with a decent internet connection or with a computer. Just try to get spelling and grammar correct on a mobile phone.

[KhaoNiaw]

One of the major problems is that all the Thais who do higher degrees abroad in Education, English, Linguistics, TESOL, etc., go to work in universities. They need to provide incentives and pay that can encourage them to work further down the education tree.

[nottocus]

Has the OP looked at himself? Could just be he isn't up to it as a teacher.

[Rhys]

A Challenge indeed... Can you try project based learning... even though a few will do it, the stronger, this approach does attemp to involve the students in their learning.. The student will copy away for their homework assignment, why not try a team based approach. It may be a challenges however, due to the maturity and motivation of your students..

It will certainly save your grading time.. 200 students 20 groups..

Cheers

[Somtamnication]

Has the OP looked at himself? Could just be he isn't up to it as a teacher.

Obvious to me that you are not one and have no idea the situation "IN CLASS" at these govt schools.

[Murf]

The people who say the teacher is fault need to really get a grasp of reality.

Try standing infront of over 40 under 10 year olds and try to keep them interested for 1 hour, when they have almost ZERO interest.

[harrry]

The people who say the teacher is fault need to really get a grasp of reality.

Try standing infront of over 40 under 10 year olds and try to keep them interested for 1 hour, when they have almost ZERO interest.

Not saying the teacher is at fault as there may be many reasons but one of the main tasks of a teacher is to develop interest in the subject. He or she must work hard to find ways to be interesting and keep the children responding.

[teacher17]

Has the OP looked at himself? Could just be he isn't up to it as a teacher.

haha I am a woman by the way.....

How to succeed as a teacher in Thailand.

1. Make your exams easier.

2. Make sure they know the answers to the exam the day before.

3. Give them a score of 50% for filling in their name correctly.

Well, in order to make my exams any easier...I would have had to write it all in Thai haha! I'm honestly probably going to give them 50% next time for just writing their name correctly because many of them still can't do that either! And I wasn't teaching them the day before the test....I gave them the answers a week before the test and they wrote it in their notebooks...but obviously that wasn't enough...

The people who say the teacher is fault need to really get a grasp of reality.

Try standing infront of over 40 under 10 year olds and try to keep them interested for 1 hour, when they have almost ZERO interest.

Not saying the teacher is at fault as there may be many reasons but one of the main tasks of a teacher is to develop interest in the subject. He or she must work hard to find ways to be interesting and keep the children responding.

More easier said than done. I have bought my own materials (English board games, which I brought with me from the states,) letter puzzles, etc etc. The student's love those things...but even so, their English doesn't really improve by playing them everyday. I agree that it is not usually the teacher's fault. I am sure I don't do everything perfectly....but I'd say that I'm a pretty good teacher.

My class has about 30 students. Any suggestions for teaching them how to read? I think that's the first step in getting them to understand what I write/talk about....(obviously I will be teaching them conversation as well). Thanks for the input! Good to know other people are just as annoyed with it as I am!

[harrry]

haha I am a woman by the way

Well, in order to make my exams any easier...I would have had to write it all in Thai haha! I'm honestly probably going to give them 50% next time for just writing their name correctly because many of them still can't do that either! And I wasn't teaching them the day before the test....I gave them the answers a week before the test and they wrote it in their notebooks...but obviously that wasn't enough...

.........More easier said than done. I have bought my own materials (English board games, which I brought with me from the states,) letter puzzles, etc etc. The student's love those things...but even so, their English doesn't really improve by playing them everyday. I agree that it is not usually the teacher's fault. I am sure I don't do everything perfectly....but I'd say that I'm a pretty good teacher.

.......My class had about 30 students. Any suggestions for teaching them how to read? I think that's the first step in getting them to understand what I write/talk about....(obviously I will be teaching them conversation as well). Thanks for the input! Good to know other people are just as annoyed with it as I am!

You possibly need to stand among them for a while not in front.

Make signs for everything in the room. door.....window....chair......desk........whiteboard.....book............picture..........even one for teacher. Get them into smalll groups and individually give them tasks...Find the door. Open the door....shut the door.....knock on the door..l..Find the teacher.....hit the teacher.....well maybe not that one

When they can do this get them to copy the sentences into their book.

Next time get them to write a list of things to do using these sentences,. Give them to another group and see if they can do them.

Makes a good start as it is not standing in front lecturing (which does not work) and gives meaning to what they are doing.

[Briggsy]

Yes, the Total Physical Response method works well.

And you have the added benefit of immediately knowing if the students understand.

If they don't, you have to go back and try teaching it again or a different way or drop the level of difficulty.

[Scott]

An off-topic, inflammatory post has been removed. Please stay on the topic.

[Thaddeus]

My class has about 30 students. Any suggestions for teaching them how to read? I think that's the first step in getting them to understand what I write/talk about....(obviously I will be teaching them conversation as well). Thanks for the input! Good to know other people are just as annoyed with it as I am!

One method, ask a Thai teacher to write down the words using the English sounds but using Thai script, and also the translation of the meaning in to Thai.

Reverse logic, I can't read Thai script, but I can read phonetic Thai.

[sirchai]

If you want to teach them how to read. you'll have to teach them phonics. There's some good stuff available online, should you have a projector and PC/notebook in your classroom.

Short vowel sound, long vowel sound etc...don't focus on grammar as they don't have the needed vocabulary to use it.

And don't expect that all of them will learn English. A lot of them will be on the same level in grade six.---

[harrry]

Phonics is just one tool to use when teaching people to learn. Multiple ways are needed as people learn diferently. Whole word recongition is probably even more important especially for commonly used words. Phonics comes into its own in helping in the hopefully rare case where we cannot recognize a word or deduce it from its context.

[isawasnake]

Why dont you give the top score in the class 100%. Doing anything else is making a lot of assumptions about how well your test was written.

[Thaddeus]

Phonics is just one tool to use when teaching people to learn. Multiple ways are needed as people learn diferently. Whole word recongition is probably even more important especially for commonly used words. Phonics comes into its own in helping in the hopefully rare case where we cannot recognize a word or deduce it from its context.

Agreed.......

"Phonics-based instruction was challenged by proponents of “whole-language” instruction, a process in which children are introduced to whole words at a time, are taught using real literature rather than reading exercises, and are encouraged to keep journals in which “creative” spelling is permitted. A strong backlash against whole-language teaching polarized these two approaches to reading instruction. Many schools have since come to use a combination of the two techniques."

:

Source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/phonics

Whole word recognition is especially vital in instances when a word isn't spoken as it is written. The other day I made a post using the extreme example of, Dough, Bough, Cough, Rough, Through and Ought.

The only way you can say those words correctly is being verbally told how they sound and relying on memory alone, or by writing them down with their phonetic equivalent following. Dough (Doe), Bough (Bow), Cough (Coff), Rough (Ruff), Through (Throo) and Ought (Awt). Using the two methods together is best.

If you can write down the phonetics in Thai script as well, even better.

The amount of time varies from person to person, but eventually you don't need the stuff in the brackets.

[culicine]

Try monitoring them a bit more, as was suggested. Use those short quizzes to gauge their understanding - make it easier or harder, as needed. Of course some students will also fail these tests, but the majority should be passing. It doesn't take long to bang out 10 questions and run a 15-20 min quiz. Keeps them quiet for a while! Try spelling tests too - 5 words a week. My yr 3 son get 20 words every 2 weeks or so, but he's in an EP, and also have textbooks. Textbooks are also quite cheap so get yourself a selection and teach units from them. Don't try to write all the material yourself, but at the same time be flexible with your teaching, as book content doesn't always match their interests and needs. You may find they are unmotivated because the work is simply too difficult.....make some flash cards; and think of other games to generate language - kids at this age love games. Moreover relate the work to their daily lives a such as possible. You will be surprised how much they will want to tell you about their favourite toys / games. They can use their interests to generate language more easily.e.g. think of adjectives to describe the toy you like / don't like.

If you think english is hard for them, ask them what they think of their Thai subjects! The level is ridiculous - try 80 multiple choice in 60 mins in Thai social, for P3, for example. At least you can make the english lesson the one they really enjoy.