English teachers in Thai govt schools face test

[webfact]

English teachers face test
THE NATION

BANGKOK: -- THE 46,000 English-language teachers in government schools are set to undergo an international-level proficiency test - the first of its kind in nearly a decade.

It will be conducted this month and next month, Office of Basic Education Commission (OBEC) secretary-general Kamol Rodkhlai said yesterday.

The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) test was last conducted in Thailand nearly 10 years ago, and will cost almost Bt25.5 million - or Bt350 per head for the 46,682 teachers.

The test is part of an Education Ministry policy to enhance Thailand's integration into the Asean Economic Community by lifting the country's English-speaking standards, Kamol said.

This means the standard of Thailand's English-language teachers needs to be improved, which will happen after the result of the test are known, he added.

"We don't know the skill levels of Thai English-language teachers because large-scale evaluations and tests were conducted a long time ago," he said.

There are 33,811 teachers in government primary schools under 183 area offices and 12,871 teachers in secondary schools under 42 area offices.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/English-teachers-face-test-30255137.html


-- The Nation 2015-03-02

[Jessi]

Can they buy a good pass?

[chooka]

Does that mean they will have to speak English and not just recite a few lines?

[noitom]

This will test "grammar" but most teachers in Thailand can't teach structure of writing, organizing thoughts, logic, critical thinking, and argument. Thais are lost when you ask them to write a coherent piece on any subject.

[willyumiii]

This is Thailand.

I bet the test will be written in Thai script!

[lostinisaan]

It's not just about grammar. There's also a listening test, that becomes more difficult when test takers answer the first questions right.

I had to "prepare Thai teachers to pass an A 2 level" on a weekend seminar, which is not possible when they can't even have a basic conversation.

A 2 level is pretty much beginner, so I'm wondering which level they have to pass.

There's no cheating possible, the spoken English is British English, which seems to be pretty much difficult for Thais.

It seems that our educational area xx office knew that already five months ago and it makes perfect sense.

Please see: . http://www.examenglish.com/CEFR/cefr.php Easy for me to score C 2 level.

Foreign teachers should make it to C 2, or Mastery level. I also believe that this might be the replacement test for non native English speakers.

Good to see that somebody obviously made the right decision.

Edited March 2, 2015 by lostinisaan

[lostinisaan]

Does that mean they will have to speak English and not just recite a few lines?

They'll have to be good in English to have a decent score. Gotta love it.

[Jessi]

Good to see that somebody obviously made the right decision

I hope so.

[ExPratt]

Good idea , lots of Philippine English teachers about, some are pretty good but some have a proper Philippine accent and I don't want my kids sounding like Carman Miranda when they speak English

[Jessi]

My eldest step daughter is 12 Y.O. From all the schools in the Korat region she has just got third place, so she is very smart (Takes after her Mother)

English, she is totally hopeless, she will not speak it because she is afraid of making a mistake.

What to do for the best result for her? Perhaps some of the teachers on TV can give me some advice.

She wants to be a Doctor, yes another Thai Doctor that can not speak English.

[ExPratt]

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My eldest step daughter is 12 Y.O. From all the schools in the Korat region she has just got third place, so she is very smart (Takes after her Mother)

English, she is totally hopeless, she will not speak it because she is afraid of making a mistake.

What to do for the best result for her? Perhaps some of the teachers on TV can give me some advice. alt=wai.gif width=20 height=20>

She wants to be a Doctor, yes another Thai Doctor that can not speak English.

Not a teacher but a Father, My girl was the same , I could ask her a question in English and she would understand it and answer yes or no , so she could understand it but was a bit shy yto speak it , so we sent her to a school that does many of the lessons in English, It took her about 2 weeks for he to lose her shyness and she's fine now ,, not perfect but much better

[Jessi]

Good idea , lots of Philippine English teachers about, some are pretty good but some have a proper Philippine accent and I don't want my kids sounding like Carman Miranda when they speak English

The private school where my wife works is full of Filipina teachers.

The school prides it self on having Foreign teachers and are charging the parents a lot of money for Education every year. There are only two native English teachers working there and one Chinese teaching English all the rest are Filipinas.

They get the Filipinas for about 10,000B a month, this school is a complete rip off.

[Yooyung]

This will be amusing. After teaching here for coming on 12 years now I can count on one hand the number of Thai English teachers i have met, at govt schools that can have more than an extremely basic (think 7 year olds) conversation. At one well known school high school I worked at years ago the head of the English department flat out REFUSED to speak English.....to anyone!!! Its going to be an absolute slaughter. The level of English in this country has not really improved very much over the years I have been here. Its NOT the native speakers that are to blame in the most part, in my experience they are NOT utilized effectively, seeing the kids once per week for 40 minutes at best after they all show up.....even then, when they get there you are battling against YEARS of crappy Thai English teaching! Its a shocking state of affairs that people so incompetent at their jobs are allowed to be called 'teachers'....they are not, they are basically making he situation WORSE! I hope this gives some a real kick in the pants, they deserve it. To most Thai English teachers their idea of a lesson is to fill the board up with nonsensical sentence structures written in supposed English, sit on their lazy backsides and make the kids copy it! There is little or NO verbal communication going on there. Its pathetic.

[ExPratt]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

Good idea , lots of Philippine English teachers about, some are pretty good but some have a proper Philippine accent and I don't want my kids sounding like Carman Miranda when they speak English

The private school where my wife works is full of Filipina teachers.

The school prides it self on having Foreign teachers and are charging the parents a lot of money for Education every year. There are only two native English teachers working there and one Chinese teaching English all the rest are Filipinas.

They get the Filipinas for about 10,000B a month, this school is a complete rip off.

They all try it. Similar situation in My Son and Daughters school. They lost a few Uk English Teachers at half term in October , my guess it was the visa crack down last year, Everyone was happy with the previous situation I would assume , No tax and WP and visa to pay for , so everyone was a winner. Now they have to do it properly it will cost far more. So enter the Flipper

[DP25]

After the Thai teachers fail this test miserably the most likely response will be to increase requirements on the foreign native speaker teachers. Clearly they need doctorates and longer Thai culture courses.

[Jessi]

In 2002 I stayed in Korat for about a month, This Dutch guy and myself were offered jobs teaching English. I told this school that I am not a teacher, his reply was that is not important. The thing that is important is " To be white and can speak some English" The Dutch guy could only speak a little English.

The point I am trying to make is the schools don't care about the children's education they only care about MAKING MONEY

To me this is a very sad situation.

I'm not saying that the Filipinas are not good teachers or the Dutch or German but I do believe that only Native English teachers should be teaching English. I just hope for the Children sake they can fix this problem.

[Jessi]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

My eldest step daughter is 12 Y.O. From all the schools in the Korat region she has just got third place, so she is very smart (Takes after her Mother)

English, she is totally hopeless, she will not speak it because she is afraid of making a mistake.

What to do for the best result for her? Perhaps some of the teachers on TV can give me some advice. alt=wai.gif width=20 height=20>

She wants to be a Doctor, yes another Thai Doctor that can not speak English.

Not a teacher but a Father, My girl was the same , I could ask her a question in English and she would understand it and answer yes or no , so she could understand it but was a bit shy yto speak it , so we sent her to a school that does many of the lessons in English, It took her about 2 weeks for he to lose her shyness and she's fine now ,, not perfect but much better

Thank you for that ExPratt.

[NongKhaiKid]

If the usual ' practices and procedures ' that Thai teachers are all too familiar with are in place will anyone actually fail ?

[tx22cb]

My eldest step daughter is 12 Y.O. From all the schools in the Korat region she has just got third place, so she is very smart (Takes after her Mother)

English, she is totally hopeless, she will not speak it because she is afraid of making a mistake.

What to do for the best result for her? Perhaps some of the teachers on TV can give me some advice.

She wants to be a Doctor, yes another Thai Doctor that can not speak English.

Some children might be uncomfortable having a respected family member (eg stepfather) as a tutor - they are afraid to make mistakes in front of someone they see every day. Which is a pity, 'cos it seems you might be the best English speaker in the area!

Suggestion: dilute her discomfort level by offering to tutor your daughter and her best friend(s) in a small informal group. This way, the daughter will have her support group with her and will not be the only focus of attention, and her friend(s) will probably want to learn English from a native speaker for free.

[Mr Somtam]

In 2002 I stayed in Korat for about a month, This Dutch guy and myself were offered jobs teaching English. I told this school that I am not a teacher, his reply was that is not important. The thing that is important is " To be white and can speak some English" The Dutch guy could only speak a little English.

The point I am trying to make is the schools don't care about the children's education they only care about MAKING MONEY

To me this is a very sad situation.

I'm not saying that the Filipinas are not good teachers or the Dutch or German but I do believe that only Native English teachers should be teaching English. I just hope for the Children sake they can fix this problem.

Non native speakers are prefectly abled to teach English. I had a Dutch English teacher in school, I am sure an Englishman could not tell he was not British, just a perfect Accent.

[Jessi]

My eldest step daughter is 12 Y.O. From all the schools in the Korat region she has just got third place, so she is very smart (Takes after her Mother)

English, she is totally hopeless, she will not speak it because she is afraid of making a mistake.

What to do for the best result for her? Perhaps some of the teachers on TV can give me some advice.

She wants to be a Doctor, yes another Thai Doctor that can not speak English.

Some children might be uncomfortable having a respected family member (eg stepfather) as a tutor - they are afraid to make mistakes in front of someone they see every day. Which is a pity, 'cos it seems you might be the best English speaker in the area!

Suggestion: dilute her discomfort level by offering to tutor your daughter and her best friend(s) in a small informal group. This way, the daughter will have her support group with her and will not be the only focus of attention, and her friend(s) will probably want to learn English from a native speaker for free.

Last week I started to teach her English with her younger sister 8 Y.O. and also their Mother. One hour Saturday & Sunday I am trying for. A bit of back ground, my wife is a teacher also a qualified Thai Chef. She prefers to work as a chef. When we first met we spoke using google translate, now with her crappy English and my dreadful Thai we can have a conversation.

The younger daughter will have to start with the ABC, the first lesson I started with the body parts just trying to get them to say the words is a challenge.

I really take my hat off to teachers because no way I could ever do it for a living.

[Jessi]

In 2002 I stayed in Korat for about a month, This Dutch guy and myself were offered jobs teaching English. I told this school that I am not a teacher, his reply was that is not important. The thing that is important is " To be white and can speak some English" The Dutch guy could only speak a little English.

The point I am trying to make is the schools don't care about the children's education they only care about MAKING MONEY

To me this is a very sad situation.

I'm not saying that the Filipinas are not good teachers or the Dutch or German but I do believe that only Native English teachers should be teaching English. I just hope for the Children sake they can fix this problem.

Non native speakers are prefectly abled to teach English. I had a Dutch English teacher in school, I am sure an Englishman could not tell he was not British, just a perfect Accent.

I disagree with you.

[Thian]

My english lessons started in english language from day 1 with "take your books at the tables please" while nobody knew what to do. NO other language was allowed during the lessons AT ALL.

I'm happy the Thai finally realised that the problem is their english teachers (who can't speak english at all).

Next step is teach all radio/tv prominents good english before they are allowed to speak english words during a broadcast.

The Thai just need good examples and get rid of the "me shy"-culture.

The first one who mixes the R with the L deserves some slapping , after teaching my wife for 15 years she still mixes them up sometimes.

[garrya]

In 2002 I stayed in Korat for about a month, This Dutch guy and myself were offered jobs teaching English. I told this school that I am not a teacher, his reply was that is not important. The thing that is important is " To be white and can speak some English" The Dutch guy could only speak a little English.

The point I am trying to make is the schools don't care about the children's education they only care about MAKING MONEY

To me this is a very sad situation.

I'm not saying that the Filipinas are not good teachers or the Dutch or German but I do believe that only Native English teachers should be teaching English. I just hope for the Children sake they can fix this problem.

I have met and worked with numerous native speaker teachers in Thailand, and I can say that I would never allow most of those "native speakers" to get any close to any kids let alone teach them. Travellers, junkies, fugitives and all sort of scumbags account for a large number of native speakers in Thailand. I know there are some good teachers as well. I would say that native speakers should teach listening and speaking. Unfortunately, most of them have no idea how to teach academic writing, IELTS, or grammar. Why would you let them teach these subjects?

The best teachers I have met were non-native speakers, and some of them had real great knowledge of English language.

[Thian]

The other day i looked at the homework the neighbours kids were doing and noticed they even don't learn the ABC-alphabet. They had a mixture of the Thai-Western alphabet which they had to learn.

After seeing that i refused to help them with their homework, come on, which idiot developed these lessons? English is in ABC and nothing else!

So i hope/guess many Thai english teachers will loose their jobs. Those kids even go to a very expensive school at the other side of BKK.

[Rogergreybeard]

46,682 passes nil fails

[farang1979]

So... this is for Thai teachers teaching English, right?

What happens if/when they fail?

[Fullstop]

My english lessons started in english language from day 1 with (,) "take your books at the tables please"

Oops.

[Farang99]

About bloody time. The standard of English teaching in government schools is abysmal.

[zyphodb]

One of two things will happen, either they will do the test properly & over 90% will fail, or they will all cheat, as they wont sack teachers, no prizes for guessing what will happen.... Keeping everyone poor stupid, seems to be one of the main aims of every Thai government, elected or not...