English teachers in Thai govt schools face test

[mok199]

in 12 years living here i have never ever seen a group of thai students practicing speaking english as they interact together after classes..

[Scott]

I've been here longer and I did see it once. It was a group of Kindergarten kids who were doing an MC sort of thing for a Christmas program. They are in the school's international program, but they are all Thai. They were sitting between a few teachers and chattered on in English the whole time. I assumed that maybe one of them was of a different nationality, but I was assured by the teacher that they were all Thai!

It just goes to show that if you live long enough you will see a lot things you never expected.

[soalbundy]

Native speaking English speakers should take a proficiency test as well. Both speaking and grammar.

Ever heard some one from Manchester of Dallas talk or teach English to a group of Thais?

Good point, i met a young Englishman from Birmingham,he had a degree in English literature of all things, i couldn't understand a word he spoke and he was a qualified English teacher. The American accent is painful for me to listen to but rather that than Birmingham.

[lostinisaan]

Native speaking English speakers should take a proficiency test as well. Both speaking and grammar.

Ever heard some one from Manchester of Dallas talk or teach English to a group of Thais?

Good point, i met a young Englishman from Birmingham,he had a degree in English literature of all things, i couldn't understand a word he spoke and he was a qualified English teacher. The American accent is painful for me to listen to but rather that than Birmingham.

A good one. I had to attend a seminar in Kanchanaburi, when I worked for an agency.

Some "old teachers" had to play students, while the "new teachers" had to give a lesson.

There're two Americans and myself, listening to an almost not understandable and incredible English, which was his lesson.

Then I acted like a Thai kid and said:

"Teachaaa, I don't understand you", even without telling a lie. His response was something like: " Hauff yaa note haid fiunn?"

Some of you might know where they speak such a slang in the UK? Life's fiunnier these days.....

I felt sorry for the students this guy "started teaching" two days after the seminar.

[lostinisaan]

I've given it some thought and decided that the question of "what will happen with teachers who do not pass this test?" is not a valid question.

In a country where even the worst students can not fail,

I am confident that no teachers can fail either.

This will just be another huge waste of time and money.

I think, from the sounds, it's not designed to be a pass or fail situation, but rather to measure the Teacher's level of English.

Although the ministry of Education will of course have expectations on what grade it believes Thai English teachers should achieve. Once they ascertain the current level of teachers, they set goals for improvement and schedule a post test to see whether the teachers have achieved that level or not.

The expected standard will likely be relatively low, so as to not discredit the Thai education system, but will be based on what is required for the level they're teaching. I'd imagine that scoring a good grade on the test, or improving their grade from a previous test, would then be linked to their professional development for additional 5 year licences and increases in their pay grade.

At least that's how I'd assume they'd do it, and this should result in higher levels of English in the future.

And all of them who'll "study" to pass such a test will at least learn something.

I personally believe that it's a great opportunity to improve the current system and if they start to understand that they do not lose face, when failing this test,things can only get better for all involved.

Anyway, they'll have to start somewhere.....

[DekDoi]

I think this test for Thai teachers is a great idea - I just hope they use a reliable assessment and not some O-NET style assessment. Does anyone know what assessment they will use?

IELTS, TOEIC, Cambridge KET/PET/FCE would be great but are all way above the price quoted in this article.

Is there a reliable internationally recogniced assessment available at 350 Baht ???

[WonnabeBiker]

Will they ever learn?!?

So they will likely get a Gaussian curve showing a pretty bad 80% majority being quite terrible at English. Then what?!?

Not 1 Baht less for high earning old, errm, ladies. (Yes, I witnessed one of those using the brightest M4 students for their own work)

[WonnabeBiker]

@DekDoi, wish they would stop letting Thais design those tests.

Had a HoD pull stuff off the internet - and then I had been following a specific book for that special class all term. She pulled something off the internet about irrelevant stuff like "Jurassic Park" the movie - and the brightest of the M1/1 students performed so badly that I junked the whole test.

Or they should give that test to some NES and let them do it. If they complain about "ambiguity", then the old issues are prevailing once again.

Q: IEILT, are you serious?!? I've had a Thai teacher who needed it. He booked 1 on 1 lessons and was h o p e l e s s. Only the very best could handle this one, JMHO.

[Rhys]

Native users of English..teaching English.. like it.. works..