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Foreigners may no longer require a teacher's license?


pastafarian

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Although it is good news for some of us who genuinely want to do something with our spare time, it could bring in English eeeeeeeeer, hmmmmm, well you know what I mean. IF, vetting is done by qualified farangs, of which there are many, good stuff.

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That will please a few of my friends if it happens.

If schools put in place a criminal record check and did some training for the new teachers even aiding them in progression. I can't see how this would be bad (fingers at the ready to abuse me)

If the teacher did nothing and took a salary then boot them out. If they are willing to learn and don't use the nickname 'Peder' I don't see a problem.

It's probably all hot air anyway :D

Sent using sausage fingers on my phone :D

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Was it just a year ago when they were "relaxing" the rules for foreigners to teach English...as part of a government program...for 10.000thb a month.

Was not over-applied in my region.

And i am sorry, if a foreigner needs to pay for accommodation/transportation/some foreigner food and standards...the question remains what as a minimum the schools willing and can afford to offer as salary.

I doubt that most smaller and rural schools will have benefits from this, not now, just as wasn't last year neither.

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With all of the Thais teaching English even at the Uni level, but who can't speak English, an NES who could pass a Tefl would have to be better. Too many Thais are being taught vocabulary and grammar but not learning to speak because the teacher can't speak. This is a massive problem in Isaan where many schools have never had an NES.

I have a friend near Sisaket who is a native Thai teacher. Her education is in math and science. Because she learned English at uni especially while getting her master's, she has been designated as the English teacher. Her speaking ability is horrible and we can barely talk. What she can say has such a terrible Thai accent that no child is really going to learn to use the language. Yet they dutifully have English classes with all communication in Thai. It's a joke.

What is an NES?

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With all of the Thais teaching English even at the Uni level, but who can't speak English, an NES who could pass a Tefl would have to be better. Too many Thais are being taught vocabulary and grammar but not learning to speak because the teacher can't speak. This is a massive problem in Isaan where many schools have never had an NES.

I have a friend near Sisaket who is a native Thai teacher. Her education is in math and science. Because she learned English at uni especially while getting her master's, she has been designated as the English teacher. Her speaking ability is horrible and we can barely talk. What she can say has such a terrible Thai accent that no child is really going to learn to use the language. Yet they dutifully have English classes with all communication in Thai. It's a joke.

What is an NES?
NES = Native, English, Speaker........such as the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Not countries that do not use English as their first language.
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With all of the Thais teaching English even at the Uni level, but who can't speak English, an NES who could pass a Tefl would have to be better.

I've worked in English departments uni level in Thailand for over 20 years. While you do come across the occasional dud, most of the Thais at this level have excellent English skills and most have master's and PhDs from overseas. There is a need for NES teachers and I think generally those with a degree and TEFL qualification are fine on certain types of courses. But it's unreasonable to present this as an either/or situation. You need to get the best from NES and Thai teachers. Foreigners with a TEFL certificate often fail to realize that they are not experts in language teaching or education and can actually learn a lot from their Thai colleagues. This should work both ways of course and means that foreign teachers need to be able to adapt to the cultural environment.

One of the problems with the education system is that there in no incentive or encouragement to get Thai English teachers of the standard found in universities into the school system. The majority of English teachers here are always going to be Thai and so it's really all about training and getting the best people into the schools.

Edited by KhaoNiaw
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With all of the Thais teaching English even at the Uni level, but who can't speak English, an NES who could pass a Tefl would have to be better.

I've worked in English departments uni level in Thailand for over 20 years. While you do come across the occasional dud, most of the Thais at this level have excellent English skills and most have master's and PhDs from overseas. There is a need for NES teachers and I think generally those with a degree and TEFL qualification are fine on certain types of courses. But it's unreasonable to present this as an either/or situation. You need to get the best from NES and Thai teachers. Foreigners with a TEFL certificate often fail to realize that they are not experts in language teaching or education and can actually learn a lot from their Thai colleagues. This should work both ways of course and means that foreign teachers need to be able to adapt to the cultural environment.

One of the problems with the education system is that there in no incentive or encouragement to get Thai English teachers of the standard found in universities into the school system. The majority of English teachers here are always going to be Thai and so it's really all about training and getting the best people into the schools.

Correct. My wife has a PhD from Australia - and spent the last 15 years with me conversing in english. Unfortunately, she and her colleagues are too busy with other duties to spend time teaching english (she also has some kind of english teaching certificate she got many moons ago). Most of the unversities will still want native speakers. The problem is getting them - good ones - on the low salaries on offer. I teach maths in an english program to m3-4. That's not so easy, and not for everyone, but I also have a PhD and formal teaching qualifications in my subject area, and the salary is better than what is on offer in most universities here.

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I heard from two schools managed by brits, that they rejected a qualified (diploma in education) teacher, on the reason that he was not a native speaker He lived and worked in the U.S. for a couple of years and speaks English with a slight transatlantic accent. He was not even heard or interviewed by either school. So it is not only the Thai government, which makes things difficult for teachers here.

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I hope this never happens. I teach English (part time) in a local education center and of the several other English teachers here, the only one that actually CAN speak English ( I'm English BTW) is Canadian. I have stood in for many other teachers here and their students speaking and writing skills are way below what they should be. I struggle to understand them on many occasions, with even the simplest of phrases. Yet somehow they always seem to get good grades. Myself and the Canadian teacher have discussed this many times and are appalled by the quality of the English education here. Allowing just anyone to teach will only serve to make the situation worse.

P.S The spell checker here, has just tried to correct the word "Center" to "Centre". ( Mine is the correct English spelling). Case proven lol

Edited by lucifer666
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I agree with this post for sure. We pay a lot of money for a good private school in Sisaket and the English teacher is thai and doesn't teach English by speaking English. Now in the 2nd grade, this student of ours yesterday learned to write the word "Car". Pretty good huh? First day of 1st grade I remember the first word to write was "Cat". I'm a volunteer English teacher and don't not read write or speak thai and my students are doing well in spoken English language now and many have good jobs.

What about the "Free Thai Tablets" given to all the 1st grade students last year?? They never use them and ours sits in the house with a broken screen that cost 925b to replace? Anyone hear what's happening using the tablets in the schools?

Posted Yesterday, 22:30

With all of the Thais teaching English even at the Uni level, but who can't speak English, an NES who could pass a Tefl would have to be better. Too many Thais are being taught vocabulary and grammar but not learning to speak because the teacher can't speak. This is a massive problem in Isaan where many schools have never had an NES.

I have a friend near Sisaket who is a native Thai teacher. Her education is in math and science. Because she learned English at uni especially while getting her master's, she has been designated as the English teacher. Her speaking ability is horrible and we can barely talk. What she can say has such a terrible Thai accent that no child is really going to learn to use the language. Yet they dutifully have English classes with all communication in Thai. It's a joke.

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I would , and could teach English in Thailand ; but I do not have a bachelors degree , only a diploma from my arts education , today it would be a degree .

My background and standard of education is far higher than bachelor degree level in Thailand . I have been asked to teach English by a number of schools , but do not want to fall foul of Thai laws . Previously I lived in Italy , where I gave private tuition to university students , school teachers and business men . I do think that a teacher training course would be useful for those who want to teach in a school .

If foreigners don't have to have a license to teach , would that enable me to teach in a school ?

Edited by metisdead
Unnecessary usage of bold font removed. Stop posting using bold font, if you continue to post using bold fonts, you posts will likely "disappear".
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I hope this never happens. I teach English (part time) in a local education center and of the several other English teachers here, the only one that actually CAN speak English ( I'm English BTW) is Canadian. I have stood in for many other teachers here and their students speaking and writing skills are way below what they should be. I struggle to understand them on many occasions, with even the simplest of phrases. Yet somehow they always seem to get good grades. Myself and the Canadian teacher have discussed this many times and are appalled by the quality of the English education here. Allowing just anyone to teach will only serve to make the situation worse.

P.S The spell checker here, has just tried to correct the word "Center" to "Centre". ( Mine is the correct English spelling). Case proven lol

sorry but people now rarely write - they text. tweet, etc in a language that although gramatically incorrect is understandable to them. This trend will continue so that one day you will only be signing your name.

the problem is practice in speaking English - as there's not enough NES people to go around and no incentive to offer their services.

if the Government relaxes the Immigration rules then some NES retirees might give up some time to speak English with these kids - I say this as the Schools and Uni's dont pay that much - so if a retiree gives up a few hours a week for English classes the Government should give them special consideration when applying for the retirement extension visa or the 90 day show your face rule.

There are 6 schools and Uni's around where I live and I bet they would go for this idea.

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Thailand is an exporting country in a third world region. An unskilled labor force is required to work in agriculture, automotive assembly, electronic assembly, ceramic and fabric production, hotel and tourism. 

 

Thailand allocates 23% of GDP to Education, corruption ensure money is poorly distributed. Strange thing is they don't drink a comparative amount of 'tea.' 

 

Owners and managers require English language to communicate in international trade.

 

An unskilled labor force has no use for English language so why waste scarce resources teaching them?

 

Government posturing promotes Thailand as a 'hub' to everything. Native English speakers with a skill set congruent with a western degree and a language teaching certificate are sort to present language to Thais with the money to pay for it. It's about white faces - not black faces with Education degrees.

 

Thailand has a blinkered world view. They invented everything worth inventing.  And any good idea can only be thought up by a Thai. 

 

Only when Thailand's view of the world is compared to a different norm that a comparison is made. Thai culture - unskilled, disorganised labour designed to consume, produce and assemble. 

Spot on

Sent from my i-mobile IQ XA using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

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A preferably white skinned native language teacher doesn't say or know anything, do anything, don't think, come up with ideas or rock the boat. Manage this simple task and present TEFL methodology until the cows come home for B30,000/month. 3 months paid holiday, WP, visa, and a self perceived sense of worth.

Personally it's a better deal than making money in Europe and spending it on traveling to SE Asia twice a year.

One lesson in life, everyone's different.

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I wonder if teachers will still need to have a degree?

I'd rather take an experienced teacher (in the Thai teaching context), over a fresh university graduate any day. Just think back to when we graduated - I certainly didn't 'know' too much! Certainly not about teaching and not about life in general. Life and teaching experience gave me the tools to blitz through my Grad Dip Ed, which I did from 2004/08. The units would have been much more difficult without real classroom teaching experience - and that was commented upon by a number of my assignment assessors. Having said that, it's really not acceptable to employ young people with no degree and no other training. At the least, having a degree shows the person values having an education, even if it doesn't make them a good teacher. I don't know how someone can teach well if they don't see value in what they are teaching. A degree should be mandatory for upper level technical subjects in english/bilingual programs. I highly doubt my school would employ a degree-less teacher for these subjects, even if the official requirements were relaxed.

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As a kid I failed my English exams sad.png , but half a century on, reading books, reading here with that wonderful spell check gizmo l can help anyone with their English, to speak perfect English, and my big point is, that l do. Not in a school but in my everyday life if people ask. thumbsup.gif

PS. From London. smile.png Nooooooo accent.

Edited by transam
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