Students Starting High School

[chiangrai]

Hi,

I've been teaching students from my home for two years now.

I"ve used a course from Oxford University Press up to now but the older students are nearly finished it.Half of them are in their first year of junior high and the rest are in their last year of elementary school.

So I'm thinking about what to teach them next.The parents want me to teach the same book that they learn in school but I am skeptical.

Does any body have experience with it.I would imagine it has totally irrelevant vocab,grammar that is too difficult and a schedule that is to fast for the amount of materiel.I only have my students for 2 hours a week.

I would also like to know if there are any websites where I can get past test papers for Thai high schools or information on how much of the book they learn every week e.t.c.......

All help welcome..........

[Scott]

Grammar and spelling police are not welcomed unless invited. You were not invited.

[harrry]

If they are the same students you have been teaching with the Oxford books you could possibly continue by using one of the Oxford books for younger readers that uses a slightly simplified grammar and graded vocabulary depending on the books and then give them a chapter to read each week and discuss it in your lesson. This would help their reading, comprehension and expressing their ideas in spoken English.

Otherwise you could consider using another of the Oxford course books most suited to their age and development.

I would be reluctant to use local text books as then you would tend to be reinforcing errors and many I have seen have no real development structure,

Edited July 3, 2014 by harrry

[Johnnie99]

I am not one to complain but if you are charging for this service of 'teaching', shouldn't you already know what you're doing?

[alien365]

Try asking the school in question. I assume different schools teach different materials. When I first came to Thailand I taught in a Vocational College and the book I was expected to teach was mostly in Thai with many errors in the English sections. My colleague and I refused to teach that book and used the English for Life books instead. Now I I find the English File series is even better as it has greater focus on pronunciation and speaking.

[Greg Nixon]

I would try googling " English as a second language curriculum in Alberta Canada. " other provinces in Canada have similar websites with links to sample lessons etc. it would be a good starting point and Canadian curriculum is highly developed. Canada has 100 of thousands of immigrants and is accustomed to teaching ESL . If you are unable to get what you need on line one could also email, snail mail or phone them for a copy of the curriculum. You could also ask for recommendation for texts. I am assuming that you are teaching ESL, although your post does not say this. If i was teaching English, I could devise my own curriculum from a lonely planet Thai book. It has plenty of Thai and English phrases together. I have 13 years of teaching experience so I would not find this difficult. I do not know your experience background. The beginning of High School in Thailand is equivalent to grade 7 in Canada and in Canada this would be known as middle school in many jurisdictions. Some older school systems may call this Junior high School.

[Dr Robert]

I can only suggest you enroll in a four year teaching degree, do the hard yards like every good teacher does and then you

wont need to sponge off other peoples honest work ethic, begging favours from strangers like some intellectual pauper.Once you have done an honest degree you will know what to do and you will equally resent such requests as you have just made..

[Emster23]

Jeez, everyone's a critic..... give the man credit for wanting to do a good job. I was certified teacher in USA for decades with masters and all that wallpaper. Collaboration with other teachers is important. We can learn from each other, help each other. None of us is smarter than all of us together.

[harrry]

I can only suggest you enroll in a four year teaching degree, do the hard yards like every good teacher does and then you

wont need to sponge off other peoples honest work ethic, begging favours from strangers like some intellectual pauper.Once you have done an honest degree you will know what to do and you will equally resent such requests as you have just made..

How are the Thai Lessons you are doing for your ed visa? I guess your teachers all have 4 years degrees so they never ask anyone else what should be included in what they teach you.

[zaZa9]

I can only suggest you enroll in a four year teaching degree, do the hard yards like every good teacher does and then you

wont need to sponge off other peoples honest work ethic, begging favours from strangers like some intellectual pauper.Once you have done an honest degree you will know what to do and you will equally resent such requests as you have just made..

Pompous.

So I take it that you never read or research from others findings good Doctor?

[duanebigsby]

Jeez, everyone's a critic..... give the man credit for wanting to do a good job. I was certified teacher in USA for decades with masters and all that wallpaper. Collaboration with other teachers is important. We can learn from each other, help each other. None of us is smarter than all of us together.

I'm totally agreed. I would add, teaching ESL is a lot different than teaching a specialized subject in a US high school.

I believe the TEFL trained English teachers can do a damn fine job here when they have advice from people with your qualifications.

if I'm qualified for a job teaching ESL in Canada with a TEFL, why do so many TV posters argue I'm not qualified here?

[duanebigsby]

So many TV people with English teacher hate-ons.

You don't need a 4-5 year Education degree to teach conversational English to ESL students.

I'm being tutored in Thai language by one of my M6 students. She doesn't have a degree or experience.

bottom line...I'm learning Thai.

[TerryLH]

The parents probably want the local book taught because they understand that the standardized tests the students take are supposed to be based on that material.

Most students here are not studying ESL.

I'm surprised that nobody asked the OP if he has a WP.

[duanebigsby]

The parents probably want the local book taught because they understand that the standardized tests the students take are supposed to be based on that material.

Most students here are not studying ESL.

I'm surprised that nobody asked the OP if he has a WP.

Completely true.

First decide what the students and parents want. Pass a test or learn to speak English?

The Thai book is hugely based on grammar and far beyond the speaking ability of the students.

You must determine whether the students are coming to you for conversational English or passing the Thai grammar tests.

[JimMagee]

Teach them conversational English first. Get them speaking English, even if they are not using perfect grammar. Once they can carry on a conversation, then fine tune their English with grammar education. Check out www.busyteacher.org for some great material plus they have some very good books to buy. Don't use the Thai school books since they are full of errors, and the students do not learn anything from them. Proof? look at how many years they have been studying English from these books, and still cannot speak English. The Thai school books just confuse them and dissuade them from speaking English. They teach grammar so much that the students are not sure what words to say.

The typical Thai high school student can read and write English, and they have a pretty good vocabulary. Teach them how to use the words they already know. Work with them on correct pronunciation, since the Thai teachers cannot pronounce the English words correctly.

Create some natural every day dialog sheets and ask the students to practice them with each other. Do some role playing about shopping, dating, going to the grocery store, etc.

I hope this is more helpful than the other dribble that has been posted prior. If you don't have anything useful to say, please stay away from the internet.

Edited July 3, 2014 by JimMagee

[chiangrai]

Thanks to those who helped.

I just wanted to get the opinions of people who had experience with the Thai books.

In this town the students aren't allowed to take their English books home so it's difficult for me to

get my hands on one to asses it.

My wife found a website in Thai that shows what they must learn in the first year of junior high(Maw 1).

There are thirty new words each chapter,vocabulary that is much too advanced for their level of English.

The grammar doesn't look too difficult for the first year but goes crazy after that.

This was as I expected but I didn't realize that there would be a lot of mistakes in it as some people have suggested.I have also found out that they have a workbook that they can take home and I can get a copy of that.

I would prefer to use a more communicative style of teaching but the parents(my customers) are all Chinese and only care about exam results.In a way they are right because getting into a university is more likely to get the students out of poverty than conversation ability but that's another debate.

I will most likely not follow the Thai course fully but I would like to teach them the same grammar and get them used to the type of questions that they will be given in their end of year exam.

I was a bit bleary eyed last night when I opened this post and I didn't check my typing before I posted.

I didn't think it would be an issue.

Thanks again to all who helped and God bless the begrudgers.

[sirchai]

Thanks to those who helped.

I just wanted to get the opinions of people who had experience with the Thai books.

In this town the students aren't allowed to take their English books home so it's difficult for me to

get my hands on one to asses it.

My wife found a website in Thai that shows what they must learn in the first year of junior high(Maw 1).

There are thirty new words each chapter,vocabulary that is much too advanced for their level of English.

The grammar doesn't look too difficult for the first year but goes crazy after that.

This was as I expected but I didn't realize that there would be a lot of mistakes in it as some people have suggested.I have also found out that they have a workbook that they can take home and I can get a copy of that.

I would prefer to use a more communicative style of teaching but the parents(my customers) are all Chinese and only care about exam results.In a way they are right because getting into a university is more likely to get the students out of poverty than conversation ability but that's another debate.

I will most likely not follow the Thai course fully but I would like to teach them the same grammar and get them used to the type of questions that they will be given in their end of year exam.

I was a bit bleary eyed last night when I opened this post and I didn't check my typing before I posted.

I didn't think it would be an issue.

Thanks again to all who helped and God bless the begrudgers.

I stopped calling teachers teachers now. God bless you all, especially if there's no one here.( A god.)-

Edited July 3, 2014 by sirchai

[cgphuket]

Cambridge company puts out a book series called "Q-skills" for reading and writing, each level progressively harder. Each book is good for about 40 hours of teaching and cost around 300 baht each. Pretty good books IMHO