Thai officials to slash number of foreign English teachers

[TKDfella]

Well apart from the problems already given by other posters there is the point about who and where the foreign teachers come from. I have some friends who come from Africa, India etc. and they are here teaching English. They may be okay at written English but their pronunciation/accent is a real problem. While I was holding conversation (only) class in a vocational college one of the points I mentioned was that of various accent. My friend from an African state, had finished his English Proper (grammar etc) class I asked him to join us. 75% of what he said was not understood. I feel that if a school is going to teach English, and any other language for that matter the teacher be standard native speaker.

[simon43]

english teachers are a fraud anyway. notice how most of them are single men.

Ah yes, single men. So they obviously are frauds.

Do you think those teachers who got married are part of a cunning, long-term plan to lull us into a false sense of security??

[carlyai]

You know the British Council is a great institution.

They can really teach English.

Train the Trainer is a little more complicate, but given a lot of year, this is a great step forward.

Have any of you Nay sayers ever worked with the British Council, attended any of their courses, or been a trainer

Yes, I have worked as a BC trainer - and if you think you can teach very poorly trained, if trained at all "English teachers " in 6 weeks you are kidding yourself. 6 weeks training can / will assist skilled English teachers to become better teachers but it won't teach none English speaking teacher, English.

I keyboarded in the dark, but my main thrust was that The British Council is a good institute to have on your side teaching English, but I also wrote, 'given a lot of year', should have been years.

Six weeks is not on as you say, years is.

[mydee]

I have a Thai friend who was an interpreter at the military base in Udon Thani during Vietnam. His English skills are excellent which is to be expected. He asked a Brit friend of mine and myself if we would be interested in helping local teachers with their English classes. I wasn't interested because I have no patience and don't particularly like kids. My friend agreed to meet with the head of the local English teaching department. I was asked by my Brit friend to meet this Thai teacher with him. We met with the guy and we both were absolutely appalled that it was impossible to communicate with him. His knowledge of English was totally lacking.

The kids in this area will never learn English without native English speakers help. The school hired a couple of supposed English speaking teachers from Cameroon, Africa. I don't know who interviewed them but neither of them was proficient in English. After a couple of months they were let go because of all the complaints.

Do they need to? When will 90% of the rural poor ever get into a conversation that goes passed a basic retail transaction, of whatever type? Most of them will contribute to society and earn their livings without ever attaining anything like fluency in English. Perhaps the Thai Government has recognized that it is almost impossible to pour the resources that would be needed to have most of the population bilingual.

I am not privy to Thai educational policy but it might be better to stream promising English language students into schools that have English teachers, whether Thai of foreigners, who can really teach motivated students. This way you can set hiring standards at a level that precludes semi literates, wherever they come from.

It seems pretty good resource allocation which will ensure better outcomes for students who are linguistically gifted and be more beneficial to Thailand. Of course it may thwart the designs of a few of the 90 day TESOL holiday makers and other no hopers. But hey that's life

[Alex Sharp]

A six week training period for these teachers will really do the trick........

[deckape]

My apologies if this point has been brought up previously, as I did not read all 20 pages. I think the point of the article is that they are trying to, planning on, hoping to reduce the number of foreign teachers. Their plan, obviously, sucks rocks.

The only real facts in the article concern the 'teach the teachers' program...not the ouster of a single Farang teacher. Crisis over.

[mydee]

If all the smart foreigners leave Thailand, would Thais be an endangered species?

Well Ravip, there aren't that many of them. In many cases if they were smart they wouldn't be here. If you want proof of that just look at the number of posts here by men confessing that they have been ripped off by a poor young uneducated rural girl or better still drive through Pattaya.

[GerdT]

Well apart from the problems already given by other posters there is the point about who and where the foreign teachers come from. I have some friends who come from Africa, India etc. and they are here teaching English. They may be okay at written English but their pronunciation/accent is a real problem. While I was holding conversation (only) class in a vocational college one of the points I mentioned was that of various accent. My friend from an African state, had finished his English Proper (grammar etc) class I asked him to join us. 75% of what he said was not understood. I feel that if a school is going to teach English, and any other language for that matter the teacher be standard native speaker.

You don’t have to use a friend from Africa to point out accent and pronunciation problems. I have travelled to a certain extend and in parts of the US I had problems to understand what people were trying to tell me. The same applies when back in the UK and if you try the Orkneys, Shetland, Wales or Northern Ireland for example you will be put into the same position. Still all the people in the US (some brought up with Spanish as first language and now mixing that up with English) would be regarded as native English speakers because they have been born in the country.

Would be interesting to see how many on this forum would support American English to be applied in Thai teaching and how many would suggest that only British English could be taught. That doesn’t take into account which accent to use – US from Texas, Alabama or Boston – UK from Yorkshire, London or Liverpool to give only a few of the regional accents there. You might have noticed that I haven't mentioned the Australian cousins since that would only confuse it even further.

[Jingthing]

I don't think the accent is a big issue unless the native speaker has a very strong accent and not competent to be a teacher in the first place. Most Americans, for example, are able to adjust their speech to a more standardized neutral English if they want to (similar to what you would hear on network news shows). It's similar to issue of African Americans and so called Ebonics. Typically African Americans often speak one dialect with peers and another in settings like applying for a job.

[duanebigsby]

english teachers are a fraud anyway. notice how most of them are single men.

I hate this bulls@@t stereotype of the Native English teacher.

I'm single because I want to live my life that way.

I'm not a backpacking, sex tourist, constantly drunk, looking for my next conquest.

You guys pull this <deleted> out of your asses.

I'm not a loser in my home country who couldn't go back either.

Where do you get these crap stereotypes?

[Broeno]

They better stop teaching English. Nothing will change. They just save money.

[elgordo38]

Thailand for and by Thais

Yes the squeeze is on expats. Our immigration system here in Chiang Mai goes from bad to worse. We are almost being shown the door in the way we are being treated.

[CMNightRider]

Thailand's Education Ministry's plan to eliminate hiring qualified native English teachers to teach Thai students English, is one of many examples why Thailand is still a third world country.

[FritsSikkink]

Well apart from the problems already given by other posters there is the point about who and where the foreign teachers come from. I have some friends who come from Africa, India etc. and they are here teaching English. They may be okay at written English but their pronunciation/accent is a real problem. While I was holding conversation (only) class in a vocational college one of the points I mentioned was that of various accent. My friend from an African state, had finished his English Proper (grammar etc) class I asked him to join us. 75% of what he said was not understood. I feel that if a school is going to teach English, and any other language for that matter the teacher be standard native speaker.

the teacher should have a teaching decree, not just be a native speaker

[bendywire]

Well apart from the problems already given by other posters there is the point about who and where the foreign teachers come from. I have some friends who come from Africa, India etc. and they are here teaching English. They may be okay at written English but their pronunciation/accent is a real problem. While I was holding conversation (only) class in a vocational college one of the points I mentioned was that of various accent. My friend from an African state, had finished his English Proper (grammar etc) class I asked him to join us. 75% of what he said was not understood. I feel that if a school is going to teach English, and any other language for that matter the teacher be standard native speaker.

the teacher should have a teaching decree, not just be a native speaker

How do we go about getting a teaching decree?

[MaeJoMTB]

Well apart from the problems already given by other posters there is the point about who and where the foreign teachers come from. I have some friends who come from Africa, India etc. and they are here teaching English. They may be okay at written English but their pronunciation/accent is a real problem. While I was holding conversation (only) class in a vocational college one of the points I mentioned was that of various accent. My friend from an African state, had finished his English Proper (grammar etc) class I asked him to join us. 75% of what he said was not understood. I feel that if a school is going to teach English, and any other language for that matter the teacher be standard native speaker.

My teen is a native English speaker ..... but we're Brits.

She recently got an American English teacher and can't understand a word they say.

So she just pretends to only speak Thai, like everyone else in her class.

I was listening to her speech at parents day earlier this month, couldn't understand most of her Thai speech or her American English speech.

Complete waste of a wage.

Edited November 14, 2015 by MaeJoMTB

[CMNightRider]

Well apart from the problems already given by other posters there is the point about who and where the foreign teachers come from. I have some friends who come from Africa, India etc. and they are here teaching English. They may be okay at written English but their pronunciation/accent is a real problem. While I was holding conversation (only) class in a vocational college one of the points I mentioned was that of various accent. My friend from an African state, had finished his English Proper (grammar etc) class I asked him to join us. 75% of what he said was not understood. I feel that if a school is going to teach English, and any other language for that matter the teacher be standard native speaker.

the teacher should have a teaching decree, not just be a native speaker

After reading your sentence, it appears you must have slept through your English classes. Please try to comment on a subject you have some knowledge about.

[Friendly Stranger]

I can just picture the Thai teaching English to the Thai students. But really, how much English will actually be spoken during these classes?

[DaveinAsia]

I can just picture the Thai teaching English to the Thai students. But really, how much English will actually be spoken during these classes?

Around 36% I read somewhere

[razer]

Good for Thailand. Thailand will be the first non English speaking country in the world to eliminate the need for FOREIGNER FARANG native English speakers to teach English as a second or foreign language.

Can't fix stupid, can you? Why bother trying?

[Nowisee]

I have a stupid question(s).

Where did the Thai nationals, that can speak very good english and most importantly grasp the western concept of language, learn to speak?

The ones I have talked to learned either abroad or from a native speaker.

I agree with those that think this is a colossal mistake and will keep thailand in the 3rd world category.

It's not my concern because I can (and eventually will) pack up and move on, but I feel for the thais that I know and have talked to that want more with their life but can't get it because of the 3rd grade leadership.

[coulson]

Other developing Countries try to implement incentives or programs which encourage their nationals to earn or gather enough experience to be able to replace high earning expats. You'll usually see a reasonable time frame for the switch and a series of stages through education or training.

6 weeks is absurd. It reminds me of the foreign English teachers workshop 2/3 months back where they were lectured on teaching abilities, there was no forum. Just another proof that the education system is going South.

[thai006]

very good general , no work permit get out only

[Wilsonandson]

Thailand, korea, whos next to kick out native English speakers? Chinese will be the language of Eastern Asia soon.

[retsdon]

CELTA was just an example of how 6 weeks is considered more than enough training when it is a native completely inexperienced new teacher.

Not really. A CELTA just lets you know how little you actually know about teaching.

[GeckosDiving]

Well apart from the problems already given by other posters there is the point about who and where the foreign teachers come from. I have some friends who come from Africa, India etc. and they are here teaching English. They may be okay at written English but their pronunciation/accent is a real problem. While I was holding conversation (only) class in a vocational college one of the points I mentioned was that of various accent. My friend from an African state, had finished his English Proper (grammar etc) class I asked him to join us. 75% of what he said was not understood. I feel that if a school is going to teach English, and any other language for that matter the teacher be standard native speaker.

My teen is a native English speaker ..... but we're Brits.

She recently got an American English teacher and can't understand a word they say.

So she just pretends to only speak Thai, like everyone else in her class.

I was listening to her speech at parents day earlier this month, couldn't understand most of her Thai speech or her American English speech.

Complete waste of a wage.

That's funny had the same problem except my teen is a native English speaker.... but were Canadian. She has a brit teacher (International school) and can't understand what he was saying !! We asked for a different teacher but only had brits, so we changed schools (International school mostly Canadian and American teachers) now everything's great top of her class. Works both ways I guess it's what you were brought up listening to. I've been her over 20 years and still have a hard time understanding brits, a lot of my friends are brits but their a hard bunch to understand at the best of times. Lol

[LuckyNo4]

I am lost for words. The people making these decisions are "Brain Dead"

Yeh that and Xenophobic

[facthailand]

Wonder what happened to expat English teachers in Burma when the military coup took over in 1988???

[jesimps]

A couple of years ago I met Head of the English Department, a Professor, at a large Issan University. I understood about 5 percent of what he was saying. Honestly, this is sheer lunacy!

Perhaps you need to brush up your listening skills, or was he using long words you couldn't understand?

You see, your sarcastic reply to this post points to you being one of the rose coloured specs brigade, incapable of being critical of anything Thai.

[tomyumchai]

had a thai man in the barbers shop a few weeks back. he did the usual inquisition about me to the missus, all in thai. i could pick up most of it and i answered all the questions he wanted to know. only he asked them all to the missus, in thai and she asked me in her 'tinglish.

after he left she informed me that he was the big boss English teacher in the biggest school around there.........but he couldnt speak a word in English.