Thai officials to slash number of foreign English teachers

[gk10002000]

We relocated TW's daughter out of one private school to another because of the crappy English education, they used Filipinos. The new school used an English Farang (of dubious qualifications) as a class room moderator which worked very well. He just basically sat back and corrected the lessons as they proceeded.

Worked much better for the students and teachers, alike.

Your comment about the moderator is spot on. Native English speakers just tend to speak and write correctly and bad usage just jumps right out at us. For instance the rave today: "Where are you" at versus the proper "Where are you". While some people will never be good speakers or writers, they still probably write and speak correctly.

I could not tell you what a Past Participle is, split infinitive or even discuss or define some of the technical English language things that they try to teach. My recollections growing up is that I didn't pay attention then and I am sure Thais learning English won't pay attention now. What gets engrained is the pattern and usage. I have seen some of the so called English tests given over there. My god they do anything but teach or show your knowledge or use of English. While the lesson plan is well meaning, dwelling on the technical aspects of definitions of English usage I don't think gets the job done. I think focusing more on basic Tenses ( I was, You will, He did) Plurality (He is, they are), using basic Subject Verb Object sentence construction, using adverbs and adjectives correctly (She is pretty, He moved quickly) and trying to minimize the Passive Voice will serve them better.

[Kru Baa]

Hopefully they will get rid of the trashy teachers trying to teach English when English is not their first language. Half the time I can't even understand when the Filipino English teachers at my son's school try to talk to me in English.

Oh no, they will keep them. They work for cheaper, do whatever they are told (no matter how ridiculous), and it's easier to get them visas.

[MRDave]

I feel with only Thais teaching English it will easier for Thais to change English so It will be closer to Thai. Americans And English teachers do not want to change it so quickly

English needs to change

[eliotness]

I feel with only Thais teaching English it will easier for Thais to change English so It will be closer to Thai. Americans And English teachers do not want to change it so quickly

English needs to change

I guess you're not English, otherwise you would be aware of the continuous evolution of the English language. The empire was responsible for many new words appearing in English and post war immigration has contributed many more. English, even the current version has very different roots than Thai, bit like chalk and cheese, not possible to change English to be closer to Thai, and even if you could, why would you want to when the rest of the world wants to learn real English and not Tinglish ?

[cumgranosalum]

I feel with only Thais teaching English it will easier for Thais to change English so It will be closer to Thai. Americans And English teachers do not want to change it so quickly

English needs to change

a bizarre comment - you seem completely unaware of how the English language operates - it is by no means a static institution - this is part of the reason why it is in reality so useful.

[Caitrin]

I'm greatly amused by the comments about "American" speaking students not understand "Brit" teachers and "Brit" students not understanding "American" teachers.

That right there tells me that the "teachers" in question have not taken communication courses which would help them move closer to the "Standard" of their media mainstream. I am from Texas, which is often considered a very strong accent, and it may still come out if I speak to old friends, drink a lot, or am very angry. Otherwise, my communication courses on diction (clarity, enunciation, intonation, etc) mean that under most circumstances I speak clear Standard American English and have little difficulty being understood by any other English speaker. That said, I have run into a variety of individuals from my own home state that I cannot understand, but never ones that have spent significant time obtaining a clear and educated accent, whatever accent that is. I have a friend from Birmingham who is outright unintelligible when she is speaking to her mother on the phone, but does she speak to me or anyone else that way here in Japan? Of course not. JT's comment about African-American Vernacular English (which actually draws its grammar from West African languages and has evolved due to the conditions under which slave groups from the same ethnicity were broken up) is also worth noting here.

This seems like a basic requirement of teaching English anywhere, including Thailand. There should never be a situation where two native English teachers from different parts of the world should fail to understand each other. That should be part of the teacher training process.

Edited November 15, 2015 by Caitrin

[JAG]

I was in US Peace Corps in the '70's in Colombia. We had a 3 month intensive Spanish course, mornings and afternoons, took place in Bogota. The teachers were quite good and all native Colombians. Did I feel qualified to teach Spanish to others at the end? Heck no.

This plan (as pointed out) is poor on so many levels. If want intensive 6 week course, it should be held in an English speaking country. Students would have to learn and use the language to survive. Of course have native speakers. Do Thais know enough idioms to "step up to the plate". I doubt they could "knock this one out of the ballpark" when they can't even find "home plate".

These ministers who make decisions suffer from disconnect from reality. They need to "wake up and smell the coffee".

My old pal who worked in the CIA spent 6 months learning Russian and it was fluent enough to go on a mission and not be suspected of not being Russian.

Did he have a watch with a radio transmitter and an abseiling rope hidden inside it?

[phuketruski]

36 billion baht on submarines and they wont fork out a few satangs for education.

Nationalistic pride mixed with xenophobia add a splash of racism and stupidity and what do you have?

[cumgranosalum]

Most of the posts here - including the OP appear to be focusing on teaching English in schools....... whereas this is important, I feel they are missing out on a hugely important sector of any EL market and that is tertiary education and industry and commerce itself.

To train people for the needs of a country,in a country like Thailand the government can't be expected to do the whole thing - it needs to create a situation where "the experts" can come in and do their thing.

Universities need proper english programs to accompany their courses - especially science and technology - industry (and government) rather than a mish-mash of 30 hour courses bought here and there for the purposes of ISO certification, need to think long term about their companies' abilities to communicate with the outside world.

Schools ca only go so far - think about your own foreign language education back home - every British school taught French - but I seldom meet English here who can utter a single word. in the Spanish is the second language but the usual response from an American is "I'm sorry I don't speak maid".

The schools in Thailand actually do achieve some things - most Thais know the Western Latin alphabet, can count and a few basic phrases - what is needed is for the upcoming generation to have access to and the opportunity to take their EL further with able teachers in appropriately funded courses.

One major factor with teaching in Thailand is the country's inherent reluctance to allow ANY foreigners to work or set up businesses here. The insistence on majority Thai ownership, the ridiculous inflexible foreigner Thai ratios and layers of unnecessary and repetitive red tape and bureaucracy all conspire to deter foreigners from brining in their expertise and setting up language schools. A look at many countries around the world will find foreigners owning language schools or at least in partnership and employing mostly just foreigners as teachers. the result is that those who eventually get round all the red tape are running schools that habitually break both company and employment laws just to function as a normal EL training establishment.

it wouldn't take a lot to introduce a raft of reforms to this sector that would undoubtedly lift Thailand out of the EL doldrums and bring it in line with at least the aspirations of ASEAN.

[brewsterbudgen]

Most of the posts here - including the OP appear to be focusing on teaching English in schools....... whereas this is important, I feel they are missing out on a hugely important sector of any EL market and that is tertiary education and industry and commerce itself.

To train people for the needs of a country,in a country like Thailand the government can't be expected to do the whole thing - it needs to create a situation where "the experts" can come in and do their thing.

Universities need proper english programs to accompany their courses - especially science and technology - industry (and government) rather than a mish-mash of 30 hour courses bought here and there for the purposes of ISO certification, need to think long term about their companies' abilities to communicate with the outside world.

Schools ca only go so far - think about your own foreign language education back home - every British school taught French - but I seldom meet English here who can utter a single word. in the Spanish is the second language but the usual response from an American is "I'm sorry I don't speak maid".

The schools in Thailand actually do achieve some things - most Thais know the Western Latin alphabet, can count and a few basic phrases - what is needed is for the upcoming generation to have access to and the opportunity to take their EL further with able teachers in appropriately funded courses.

One major factor with teaching in Thailand is the country's inherent reluctance to allow ANY foreigners to work or set up businesses here. The insistence on majority Thai ownership, the ridiculous inflexible foreigner Thai ratios and layers of unnecessary and repetitive red tape and bureaucracy all conspire to deter foreigners from brining in their expertise and setting up language schools. A look at many countries around the world will find foreigners owning language schools or at least in partnership and employing mostly just foreigners as teachers. the result is that those who eventually get round all the red tape are running schools that habitually break both company and employment laws just to function as a normal EL training establishment.

it wouldn't take a lot to introduce a raft of reforms to this sector that would undoubtedly lift Thailand out of the EL doldrums and bring it in line with at least the aspirations of ASEAN.

Good post. There will always be a demand for native-speaker TEFL teachers in language schools, private institutes, universities and the corporate sector.

[cumgranosalum]

Most of the posts here - including the OP appear to be focusing on teaching English in schools....... whereas this is important, I feel they are missing out on a hugely important sector of any EL market and that is tertiary education and industry and commerce itself.

To train people for the needs of a country,in a country like Thailand the government can't be expected to do the whole thing - it needs to create a situation where "the experts" can come in and do their thing.

Universities need proper english programs to accompany their courses - especially science and technology - industry (and government) rather than a mish-mash of 30 hour courses bought here and there for the purposes of ISO certification, need to think long term about their companies' abilities to communicate with the outside world.

Schools ca only go so far - think about your own foreign language education back home - every British school taught French - but I seldom meet English here who can utter a single word. in the Spanish is the second language but the usual response from an American is "I'm sorry I don't speak maid".

The schools in Thailand actually do achieve some things - most Thais know the Western Latin alphabet, can count and a few basic phrases - what is needed is for the upcoming generation to have access to and the opportunity to take their EL further with able teachers in appropriately funded courses.

One major factor with teaching in Thailand is the country's inherent reluctance to allow ANY foreigners to work or set up businesses here. The insistence on majority Thai ownership, the ridiculous inflexible foreigner Thai ratios and layers of unnecessary and repetitive red tape and bureaucracy all conspire to deter foreigners from brining in their expertise and setting up language schools. A look at many countries around the world will find foreigners owning language schools or at least in partnership and employing mostly just foreigners as teachers. the result is that those who eventually get round all the red tape are running schools that habitually break both company and employment laws just to function as a normal EL training establishment.

it wouldn't take a lot to introduce a raft of reforms to this sector that would undoubtedly lift Thailand out of the EL doldrums and bring it in line with at least the aspirations of ASEAN.

Good post. There will always be a demand for native-speaker TEFL teachers in language schools, private institutes, universities and the corporate sector.

probably more so if the government doesn't develop workable strategies for the schools...

[Caitrin]

Spanish is not seen as exotic, trust me. Being from a place where Spanish is spoken by 40% of the population as a first or second language, when I had a choice between Spanish and French, I chose French, because I thought it was all about studying a "foreign" language. Spanish is a language I heard every day. Saw written every day. I didn't speak it, nor do I speak it now, but my father does. It sure as heck wasn't a foreign language to me, so it didn't make sense to me to choose it as my "foreign" language.

I think part of the problem I have with my students, even sometimes my coworkers, is the idea that a language has to be foreign. Yet that very thinking is what causes students to think of the language as "unnecessary." "Foreign" immediately conjures up the idea "not applicable to my daily life." After all, if someone had told me learning Spanish in Texas not because I had to, but because it would significantly increase my potential economic opportunities, I might have considered it. I chose French because it was "the other," but that also meant I didn't view at as a serious endeavour with serious future consequences.

Someone mentioned the way the Philippines does things, and while I am intimately acquainted (due to my mixed students, and therefore visits to the PH specifically for educational reasons) with the problems of the PH's educational system, I agree that students are simply told from a very young age, "this might not be the language you speak at home, nor is it the only language you need to speak, but you need to be highly functional in English, and to that end, half of your courses will be in this language." While we can discuss serious issues with understandable accent, issues I have discussed with Filipino coworkers, it's hard to argue that educated Filipinos do not come out of their educational system with a high command of what is often their second or even third (local, Tagalog, then English) language.

English being seen as the "other" rather than as an actual important part of daily worldwide communication across multiple sectors is the issue. HTML? English. Programming? English. Aviation and maritime communication? English. International relations, such as treaties and accords? Often English is the main language, although they may be in others as well. This used to be Latin and then French, and for Asia, it was often Classical Chinese, but now it's.... English! English is not a foreign language for anyone in the world right now, because no can allow it to be considered foreign. It's a global business and mass communication language.

Edited November 16, 2015 by Caitrin

[Lorn]

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

Insisting on B.Ed degrees will instantly kill English learning in Thailand.

In Canada a teacher makes 45-55k a year. How are you going to convince that person to pay their own way to Thailand and get a job that pays 12k ?

With a TESL, I can teach ESL to non English speakers in Canada, why isn't that good enough for here?

Because you will be teaching TEFL at a language school in Canada that needs to ensure you are up to scratch to ensure its survival. If you are crap all the students will leave and it will go out of business. People with a 4 week "qualification" left pretty much to their own devices in a government school is a totally different situation. I doubt there are many 4 week TFFL or TSFL courses which make you qualified to teach Spanish or French at a high school in USA or the UK.

[cumgranosalum]

They should replace those Thai Engrish Teachers with some Bar bitches from Patpong, that would solve the problem instantly, learned English the hard way.....

I'm not sure it reflects on their having a high standard of English so much as your ability to engage in English conversation or judge the language skills of others.

Edited November 16, 2015 by cumgranosalum

[FritsSikkink]

I wonder how many French teachers, say, in the UK are actually French nationals or French native speakers. The notion that one needs to be a native speaker to teach a language is flawed. The notion that you need to be a good teacher to teach a language is not. That is far more likely where Thailand's problems lie.

I went to an underfunded comprehensive in one of the lowest achieving areas of the UK, all of our foreign language teachers were native speakers of the language they were teaching.

did they speak English too?

How many TEFL teachers speak Thai and can communicate with their pupils?

[Caitrin]

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

Insisting on B.Ed degrees will instantly kill English learning in Thailand.

In Canada a teacher makes 45-55k a year. How are you going to convince that person to pay their own way to Thailand and get a job that pays 12k ?

With a TESL, I can teach ESL to non English speakers in Canada, why isn't that good enough for here?

Because you will be teaching TEFL at a language school in Canada that needs to ensure you are up to scratch to ensure its survival. If you are crap all the students will leave and it will go out of business. People with a 4 week "qualification" left pretty much to their own devices in a government school is a totally different situation. I doubt there are many 4 week TFFL or TSFL courses which make you qualified to teach Spanish or French at a high school in USA or the UK.

I have a B.A. in English (education track). I don't currently have my Texas certification, because of course, there are things you must do to get it and keep it over time. But it would only take me three months to acquire because I don't have to retake the pedagogy and methodology courses, although I would need to redo student teaching, I believe. Not that it would do me any good (and so far it hasn't been recognised anyhow) in my present circumstance.

To teach French? I believe I would need a B.A. or at least a minor in French, and I would need to have spent some time in a French speaking country enough to have daily functional command of the language, and I would need to do the three months I already mentioned. That would probably take two years and thousands of dollars, and I already have an education track degree!

So, yes, you're absolutely right.

[cumgranosalum]

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

Insisting on B.Ed degrees will instantly kill English learning in Thailand.

In Canada a teacher makes 45-55k a year. How are you going to convince that person to pay their own way to Thailand and get a job that pays 12k ?

With a TESL, I can teach ESL to non English speakers in Canada, why isn't that good enough for here?

Because you will be teaching TEFL at a language school in Canada that needs to ensure you are up to scratch to ensure its survival. If you are crap all the students will leave and it will go out of business. People with a 4 week "qualification" left pretty much to their own devices in a government school is a totally different situation. I doubt there are many 4 week TFFL or TSFL courses which make you qualified to teach Spanish or French at a high school in USA or the UK.

I think you need to re-think your idea of the "4 week" qualification. Basically that is a certificate give to someone who has spent 4 weeks learning the basics of TEFL theory. Actually the number of hours is the equivalent to 2 or 3 semesters and those who do take the courses usually come from a background of EL usage - i. e. a degree.

I agree the system is open to shonky charlatans but the basic idea is that you need a degree to undertake a TEFL and would require a certain performance to get through the course.

To teach, you need to be able to teach and to teach EFL, you need also to understand the workings of the language - not just speak it.

[Caitrin]

I wonder how many French teachers, say, in the UK are actually French nationals or French native speakers. The notion that one needs to be a native speaker to teach a language is flawed. The notion that you need to be a good teacher to teach a language is not. That is far more likely where Thailand's problems lie.

I went to an underfunded comprehensive in one of the lowest achieving areas of the UK, all of our foreign language teachers were native speakers of the language they were teaching.

did they speak English too?

How many TEFL teachers speak Thai and can communicate with their pupils?

Not enough, not near damn enough. But then, I'm of the opinion your L2 should be the L1 of the students, as you should be able to give grammar or etymological explanations in the students' L1 if necessary. Immersion is important, but immersion can only get you so far.

The major component of my early Japanese learning (before I decided to become a Japanese national) was a desire to explain to my students in Japanese difficult concepts in English. Often because I found the JTEs' explanations lacking or unclear or just plain wrong, and I wanted to do something about it.

It should be pretty obvious by now, if it wasn't already, that while I am all for native English teachers of English, I expect them to work hard at their chosen vocation. If you don't see teaching as a vocation and are not willing to go all out in whatever position you find yourself, get out. You're a detriment, and you bring down prestige, wages, and benefits of all teachers, and devalue the credentials they have obtained.

Edited November 16, 2015 by Caitrin

[cumgranosalum]

I wonder how many French teachers, say, in the UK are actually French nationals or French native speakers. The notion that one needs to be a native speaker to teach a language is flawed. The notion that you need to be a good teacher to teach a language is not. That is far more likely where Thailand's problems lie.

I went to an underfunded comprehensive in one of the lowest achieving areas of the UK, all of our foreign language teachers were native speakers of the language they were teaching.

did they speak English too?

How many TEFL teachers speak Thai and can communicate with their pupils?

these posts would indicate that these people do not understand the most basic concept of TEFL - it is a method for teaching English, using English only and provided by native English speakers.

If you don't do this it isn't strictly TEFL.

Many schools actually ban the use of local native speaking in their classes.

Many schools also use Thai teachers to explain the grammar - in Thai as this is considered more effective......however grammar -based language learning is not for all.

[Caitrin]

I wonder how many French teachers, say, in the UK are actually French nationals or French native speakers. The notion that one needs to be a native speaker to teach a language is flawed. The notion that you need to be a good teacher to teach a language is not. That is far more likely where Thailand's problems lie.

I went to an underfunded comprehensive in one of the lowest achieving areas of the UK, all of our foreign language teachers were native speakers of the language they were teaching.

did they speak English too?

How many TEFL teachers speak Thai and can communicate with their pupils?

these posts would indicate that these people do not understand the most basic concept of TEFL - it is a method for teaching English, using English only and provided by native English speakers.

If you don't do this it isn't strictly TEFL.

Many schools actually ban the use of local native speaking in their classes.

Many schools also use Thai teachers to explain the grammar - in Thai as this is considered more effective......however grammar -based language learning is not for all.

This is not true. Any structured attempt to teach English as a foreign language is by definition Teaching English as a Foreign Language. You may be confused by specific pedagogical methodologies employed by "TEFL" certification granting institutions, but their methodologies are not the end all be all of teaching English as a foreign language.

Immersion is a tool, but it is not the only tool. Many schools do ban the use of the local language. I have been in situations where I have not been permitted to use the local language. I have developed my own opinions based on nearly a decade teaching and my own language education (in French, in Japanese, in Gaelic) to come to the conclusion that this does not work in a typical public school classroom setting. It works very well when combined with an apprenticeship or internship where you're learning the language in tandem with learning to function in an environment where that language is used, but 45 or 50 minutes classes a few times a week of immersion simply do not offer the conceptual tools needed for students to "program" themselves to use the second language. In that setting you need the students to create a "transliteration to translation" tool until they are comfortable enough to be placed in immersion environments as previously mentioned.

I think immersion settings are great, but they require real immersion, and the only way to get that is to place students in an enclave, community, or country where the language is spoken for actual daily survival.

Edited November 16, 2015 by Caitrin

[cumgranosalum]

I went to an underfunded comprehensive in one of the lowest achieving areas of the UK, all of our foreign language teachers were native speakers of the language they were teaching.

did they speak English too?

How many TEFL teachers speak Thai and can communicate with their pupils?

these posts would indicate that these people do not understand the most basic concept of TEFL - it is a method for teaching English, using English only and provided by native English speakers.

If you don't do this it isn't strictly TEFL.

Many schools actually ban the use of local native speaking in their classes.

Many schools also use Thai teachers to explain the grammar - in Thai as this is considered more effective......however grammar -based language learning is not for all.

This is not true. Any structured attempt to teach English as a foreign language is by definition Teaching English as a Foreign Language. You may be confused by specific pedagogical methodologies employed by "TEFL" certification granting institutions, but their methodologies are not the end all be all of teaching English as a foreign language.

Immersion is a tool, but it is not the only tool. Many schools do ban the use of the local language. I have been in situations where I have not been permitted to use the local language. I have developed my own opinions based on nearly a decade teaching and my own language education (in French, in Japanese, in Gaelic) to come to the conclusion that this does not work in a typical public school classroom setting. It works very well when combined with an apprenticeship or internship where you're learning the language in tandem with learning to function in an environment where that language is used, but 45 or 50 minutes classes a few times a week of immersion simply do not offer the conceptual tools needed for students to "program" themselves to use the second language. In that setting you need the students to create a "transliteration to translation" tool until they are comfortable enough to be placed in immersion environments as previously mentioned.

I think immersion settings are great, but they require real immersion, and the only way to get that is to place students in an enclave, community, or country where the language is spoken for actual daily survival.

No you are quite wrong - it does what it says on the tin "Tech English as a FOREIGN LANGUAGE"

I would agree that it is not the only way and often it is propitious or expedient to modify this but the basis of TEFL is to use the native language; learning is supposed to happen as it did when we acquired language, by example not by grammar. This doesn't mean that the teacher can be unaware of the linguist machinations that are occurring.

BTW - I also reject your proposal that because you know of one "african" teacher you couldn't understand, then ALL african and Indian teachers are no good - if you worked for me you'd be sacked for expounding those kind of racist views.

Edited November 16, 2015 by cumgranosalum

[metisdead]

A post containing inappropriate language has been removed.

[Naam]

Hopefully they will get rid of the trashy teachers trying to teach English when English is not their first language. Half the time I can't even understand when the Filipino English teachers at my son's school try to talk to me in English.

perhaps you should get hearing aids?

[Naam]

595 replies. out of that approximately 95% arrogant, derogatory and insulting comments, some of them plain stupid. most probably from the crème de la crème of the local expat community

[Berty100]

595 replies. out of that approximately 95% arrogant, derogatory and insulting comments, some of them plain stupid. most probably from the crème de la crème of the local expat community

Ever been to a Thai school with English program and had a conversation in English with the Thai English teacher Naam?

[Mbaki]

595 replies. out of that approximately 95% arrogant, derogatory and insulting comments, some of them plain stupid. most probably from the crème de la crème of the local expat community

Including yourself are we?

[Fookhaht]

My wife does training seminars for other Thai English teachers and she knows most just of them are useless and lazy. They make no effort to improve their English.

I have taught over a dozen seminars to elementary and high school Thai English teachers--the last one being to over 300 teachers in a large training seminar sponsored by the Thai Ministry of Education.

Sadly, I agree with the above poster.

Basically, you just teach and train the small handful sitting on the front row who are truly trying. The vast, lethargic majority sit, engrossed in their smartphones on Facebook, and simply see the seminar as a chance to get out of the classroom for the day--and they will tell that to you to your face with no shame.

These one-shot-a-year seminars just don't cut it. I retired from the circuit, quite disillusioned. I pity the Thai teachers who will now be set up as role models after a six-week whizbang seminar.

Adequate training has to start at the university level, using a yes-it-is-possible-to-fail standard of evaluation, and filter out the dolts who decided to major in English because they couldn't get into any other faculty.

[Fookhaht]

595 replies. out of that approximately 95% arrogant, derogatory and insulting comments, some of them plain stupid. most probably from the crème de la crème of the local expat community

Typical pot-shot at fellow posters while ignoring the need to speak to the topic at hand. Peruse his posts. He's a broken record. Fail.

[brewsterbudgen]

I wonder how many French teachers, say, in the UK are actually French nationals or French native speakers. The notion that one needs to be a native speaker to teach a language is flawed. The notion that you need to be a good teacher to teach a language is not. That is far more likely where Thailand's problems lie.

I went to an underfunded comprehensive in one of the lowest achieving areas of the UK, all of our foreign language teachers were native speakers of the language they were teaching.

did they speak English too?

How many TEFL teachers speak Thai and can communicate with their pupils?

Not many, but as others have pointed out, it's not required or desirable in most TEFL classes.

[MRH1959]

There can be many reasons for this proposal from the Government, both good and 'not so good' reasons.

Having 'teachers' hitting on students, or similar problems, would be understandable.

Looking after their own 'Thais' that may be proficent in doing this teaching is also understandable.

I converse with some 'Thai English teachers' and help to correct 'their' mistakes and offer some advice. Good teachers are never paid enough for what they do [no matter which country they are in] and Thailand won't be able to hold any capable teachers, as they will migrate to a better opportunity.

I have been involved with advertising for the Thai Ministry of Education, and although it may be due to the present Government situation, I feel there is a loss of interest in 'spreading the wings to engulf a better future with the improved presence of the English language'.

Not everybody is capable of teaching good English , as not everyone has an open understanding or attitude that the students crave for.