Learning English phonics by using Thai symbols

[slappy]

Hi all,

Advice needed on two matters.

I am employed by my School to teach English conversation, as all the Thai English teachers are informed to teach grammar. I am a Native English speaker by the way(uk).

Matter 1: I have done detailed lesson plans for each of my lessons for each term, and made into a A4 size booklet each containing about 30 pages (English) and before each new lesson plan is a page in Thai, which explains what has to be done, ie

1, I have to write a brief of summary of my lesson if went well or not and write possible answer to why not go as planned and sign etc.

2, My head of department (she) has to look at each page and make a comment and sign, then she has to past to assistant director, who is in charge of educational matters at school. He has to do the same thing look and make a comment if needed and sign, then he passes it on to the director to do the same thing and finally hand it back to me as my lesson plan report is part of my profile. They are 4 booklets, as I teach M1, M2, M4 and M 5, four different levels.

The problem is, the head of department has had my 4 reports on her desk for 5 weeks and she has not lifted a finger to do anything with them. even after being asked every week, what stage are you at with my lesson reports.

Advise please to what I should do. Thanks

Matter 2: We have a youngish (25/30ish)Thai English teacher, she never speaks to me, unless I speak first, because of her rude behavior I mostly ignore her. She teachers M5 level. Last semester I did a project where I wrote on future board 20 different conversation and stuck them on wall for all to see (conversation wall) she then got all M5 students to write each conversation down. I was not happy as she had spoilt my plans for the rest of the term with M5 students. I diplomatically told her I was not happy with what she had done and that she should has asked me first if she could do what she wanted to do. As the norm with a lot of Thai English they think they are far superior to Native English speakers and can do no wrong.

Now this term (part of term) she is teaching English Phonics to M5 and I taught phonics to M5 last term. but she is teaching them by using Thai symbols and some of the students are getting confused. From what I understand some Thai symbols don't match the English sounding phonics and that there are some English sounding phonics that don't have a Thai symbol.

Is this correct?

Advise again please to what I should do

slappy

[stubuzz]

Using Thai symbols to teach phonetics shows a very poor level of teaching ability. If the HOD has signed off on the lesson plans, just mind your own business because you will be labeled a trouble maker.

[KhunBENQ]

From what I understand some Thai symbols don't match the English sounding phonics and that there are some English sounding phonics that don't have a Thai symbol.

Is this correct?

In a way,

Many sounds in English are simply "impossible" in Thai (like certain consonants at the end of syllables or words, e.g.: l, f. r).

This "deficit" is one of the main reasons for the problems they have with English pronounciation.

On the other hand, if you can read Thai you will notice that these transcriptions are used frequently.

Does not make them better!

Using this method will harden the deficit.

Silly idea!

(I am not a native English speaker, but can read Thai and have much fun with these phonics in Thai ).

Edited November 17, 2014 by KhunBENQ

[Richard W]

Many sounds in English are simply "impossible" in Thai (like certain consonants at the end of syllables or words, e.g.: l, f. r).

That's not a problem in itself. You just need to fight the battle to stop final lo ling being mispronounced as /n/. Letting it be pronounced as though it were wo waen is useful; it reminds them that final English consonants are different. The real nasty is English words like 'banner'; they seem to defeat Thai English-Thai dictionaries.

[KhunBENQ]

I am not sure what you are writing about?

"lo ling" = ล is pronounced "n" at the end of the syllable.

As many other consonants change their tone at the final.

Guess you know the rules/tables?

Like here:

http://www.thai-language.com/ref/consonants

You can not change the rules of the language,

There is no "Bhumibol", there is no "Mitrphol".

Just nonsense transcriptions.

No avarage Thai will understand what you mean.

[Richard W]

"lo ling" = ล is pronounced "n" at the end of the syllable.

As many other consonants change their tone at the final.

<snip>

You can not change the rules of the language,

Do not confuse script and language. While the script is Thai, the language is English. What you have to ram home is that it is being pronounced according to the rules for reading English in Thai script (not English with a Thai accent), and that most final consonants are pronounced differently to Thai. Lo ling is a good starting point, as the natural Thai approximation is different to what the Thai reading rules yield. Final so so might also help, as reading it as an alien final /s/ is almost a Thai reading habit.

One thing to be vigilant against is the bad habit of marking consonants that would be silent by Thai phonology as silent. There should not be any thanthakhats in English written in Thai script. One good habit is using phinthus in final clusters - it helps draw attention to the un-Thai pronunciation.

[otherstuff1957]

Using Thai transliteration to write Thai words should only be done for absolute beginners who don't know the English alphabet yet. As others have pointed out, there are sounds in the English language that do not exist in Thai and vice-versa. There are also certain conventions for transliterating English words in Thai that are absolutely wrong, as KhunBENQ pointed out. By the time students are in M5, they should be comfortable using the English alphabet and phonics should be taught by modeling, rather than transliteration.

Don't worry about the lesson plans, the HOD might know something that you don't or she might just be clueless. I would, however, not be surprised if she hands them back to you on the last day of school and asks for a total re-write because you should have referenced the MOE Strands, Standards and Indicators, or some such nonsense.

[slappy]

thanks for the response guys. just a little update.

HOD has now finished 2 of the 4 reports, after gentle persuasion in that she hurries up with them!, next step they have to be past on the assistant director for him to make comment and sign and then finally to the director. So hopefully I should get them back by mid December if everyone pulls their finger out!

[lostinisaan]

Matter 2: We have a youngish (25/30ish)Thai English teacher, she never speaks to me, unless I speak first, because of her rude behavior I mostly ignore her. She teachers M5 level. Last semester I did a project where I wrote on future board 20 different conversation and stuck them on wall for all to see (conversation wall) she then got all M5 students to write each conversation down. I was not happy as she had spoilt my plans for the rest of the term with M5 students. I diplomatically told her I was not happy with what she had done and that she should has asked me first if she could do what she wanted to do. As the norm with a lot of Thai English they think they are far superior to Native English speakers and can do no wrong.

Just reading this part of your post makes me wonder how much liked you really are. I always share all my handmade stuff with Thai English teachers and never have a problem when somebody is using it.

This "youngish" woman had spoilt your plans for the rest of the term? She never speaks to you, but a sentence further you wrote that you'd ignore her?

Have you ever thought about why she isn't talking to you? What do you consider rude behaviour? Reading between the lines could be that you'd love to talk to her, but she doesn't want to talk to you.

Is it possible that you really need a Thai culture course to understand why people act how they act? You "diplomatically" told her...

Your last sentence seems to be far away of being able to work in a team with Thais. But you're in Thailand.

What goes around, comes around. Wait and see. Best of luck.