SURVEY: Is Thailand prepared to effectively teach English without Foreign Teachers?

[Doc46]

This will depend on the Quality of foreign teachers being used,If they used only Native English speaking teachers they will go Backwards,,If they have been using teachers from all over the world who's native tongue is not English(can't speak English properly ) they will be better off

[NCC1701A]

Some of my Bar girl friends have English accents. Does that count?

[Scott]

I am always amazed at where I meet people that speak English well. Recently, while having car trouble, I had to catch a ride with some co-workers twice a week to a nearby province. When coming back, I was dropped off and had to catch a motorcycle taxi home. The motorcycle taxi driver spoke impeccable English. I was so thrown aback, I could barely answer him.

I have run into a few Thais who manage to pick up some English without much of an accent, but this guy was actually fluent. I told him where I wanted to go and he asked, again very clearly, which entrance to the Moo Bahn did I want to go to, and did I want to take the longer route, which was a little quicker or the shortcut. This wasn't in a downtown area, but an outlying area.

I've run into this on occasion in the lower end workers, including a gardener at the local school who speaks better English that almost all the Thai English teachers . It always catches me by surprise, but it would seem that Thais are indeed capable of learning Thai.

The process of learning a language is a long and not necessarily easy one. Thailand will hopefully reach the point where it can be effectively taught by Thai teachers. I don't know that we are nearing that point in time, however.

[laocowboy2]

Post this same question to the Thais - Can a Brit effectively teach Thai to his countrymen in the UK?

Excellent point - and I would love to see someone put that one to the General (in bad English-Thai)

[GOLDBUGGY]

I think it stands to reason that Thailand does have to stand on it's own 2 feet one day when it comes to educating its own people. I suppose the first step is to "Teach the Teacher" English. Slowly they can progress into teaching the lower classes first then go from their.

But the writing on the wall I see coming here soon is replacing the Native Born English Teachers with lower paid Foreign Teachers, like ones from the Philippines. The quality of English is not as good but there is no doubt there wages will be lower, there hours longer, and the accommodations not as nice.

I personally seen this happen in Poland, when it came out of Communism. By early 1990's very few people spoke English, except at tourist locations. But by then English became very fashionable, and everyone wanted to learn. Many Private English Schools opened up successfully with Native Speaking English Teachers. Teach the Teacher started then and was handled by the British Counsel. English Lesson slowly became part of the early grades in school. By the late 1990's most Polish Teenagers could speak some English, even when there parents couldn't, and some pretty good. Now they employ all Polish Teacher to teach English.

This is quite funny, because in the private sector in the UK, they tout the fact that the languages are taught by native speakers.

Why would I want to learn French from a British person speaking French.

I await the rest of the world appointing farangs to teach Thai...... I mean if Thais are the best equipped to teach English, presumably this goes both ways?

I think the best way to learn any language is to first have an interest in wanting to learn it, then take a serious study course by a qualified teacher in the language you want to learn and in the country you want to learn that language in. So the best way for you to learn French is to go to France and live and study there for awhile. German the same in Germany, and English in the UK.

But it is not always practical to do this. You can't send every kid in the USA, who wants to learn French, to France for 2 months. Although I am sure most wouldn't mind this if you did. So you have to import the teacher to train them there. Do they then import all these teachers from France to do this? Not on your life. They hire American Teachers who know how to speak French. Or UK Teachers in the UK,

[Thai at Heart]

I think it stands to reason that Thailand does have to stand on it's own 2 feet one day when it comes to educating its own people. I suppose the first step is to "Teach the Teacher" English. Slowly they can progress into teaching the lower classes first then go from their.

But the writing on the wall I see coming here soon is replacing the Native Born English Teachers with lower paid Foreign Teachers, like ones from the Philippines. The quality of English is not as good but there is no doubt there wages will be lower, there hours longer, and the accommodations not as nice.

I personally seen this happen in Poland, when it came out of Communism. By early 1990's very few people spoke English, except at tourist locations. But by then English became very fashionable, and everyone wanted to learn. Many Private English Schools opened up successfully with Native Speaking English Teachers. Teach the Teacher started then and was handled by the British Counsel. English Lesson slowly became part of the early grades in school. By the late 1990's most Polish Teenagers could speak some English, even when there parents couldn't, and some pretty good. Now they employ all Polish Teacher to teach English.

This is quite funny, because in the private sector in the UK, they tout the fact that the languages are taught by native speakers.

Why would I want to learn French from a British person speaking French.

I await the rest of the world appointing farangs to teach Thai...... I mean if Thais are the best equipped to teach English, presumably this goes both ways?

I think the best way to learn any language is to first have an interest in wanting to learn it, then take a serious study course by a qualified teacher in the language you want to learn and in the country you want to learn that language in. So the best way for you to learn French is to go to France and live and study there for awhile. German the same in Germany, and English in the UK.

But it is not always practical to do this. You can't send every kid in the USA, who wants to learn French, to France for 2 months. Although I am sure most wouldn't mind this if you did. So you have to import the teacher to train them there. Do they then import all these teachers from France to do this? Not on your life. They hire American Teachers who know how to speak French. Or UK Teachers in the UK,

Of course they do, but actually getting hold of enough domestically qualified teachers in Thailand right now is impossible.

And they have an enormous amount of native language speakers willing to work for absolute peanuts.

And alas as yet, no progress......

[dlclark97]

English as a second language would benefit many of Thailand's younger generation. Times have changed! It is a world economy and issues outside the Thai borders will in time affect current and future generations even more than they do now. A second language, English is common although there are others that will enable Thais to benefit professionally and economically from knowledge of a second language. I did say NO to the question of whether native teachers should be used to teach English to Thais. I said this in part because six weeks does not (can not) make a Thai person an English teacher. An example is that our daughter's English teacher sent homework that she was to rearrange English sentences that had been intentionally miss arranged. Unfortunately I did not see this assignment before it was turned in. However, I did see the 'corrected' paper when it was returned. The teacher had OK'd several sentences that, although our daughter had attempted to correct were still grossly miss arranged. It appears this Thai English teacher either does not truly know English or is willing to accept mediocre performance as OK. My personal feelings are that too little emphasis is put on teaching the subjects that affect 'life skills' or the things that will help students excel in later life. Cultural teachings are fine and indeed necessary but it seems they take up a excess of curriculum time that could be better used.

[connda]

Hate to say it, but most Thai teachers I've met either don't have the aptitude to become proficient enough in English to teach it, or they simply don't have the tenacity and motivation to shrug off their own cultural biases to reach proficiency. Most teachers I've taught would be more interested in the status that would come with receiving the moniker of Certified English Teacher, even though they would still be unable to correctly pronounce English words, let alone carry on a conversation.

[Loaded]

Remember guys, the 'article' reporting this story is inaccurate. There is no plan to train Thai teachers to replace foreign teachers. A change in labour law would be needed to do this. The plan is to train Thai teachers to 1, provide affordable EFL teachers for Thai schools that cannot afford foreign teachers and 2, provide evidence to the MoE that this training improves Thai students' language skills. There will be a comparison between students taught by regular Thai EFL teachers and BC trained EFL teachers after 12 months.

The spin that this project is aimed at replacing foreign teachers is false. Don't believe tabloid reports and headlines on forums.

[connda]

This program by the MoE will be no more successful than sending me or any other NES to a six week course to learn Thai for the purpose of teaching English speaking foreigners Thai As A Second Language.

The idea is ludicrous. But if it happens, the other ASEAN member will walk over Thailand on the global stage where English is the standard language for conducting Trans-national business.

Those parents with the money and resources will continue to educate their children in private schools with NES or NCS instructors. The public schools will output students who speak Thai-english gibberish:

Q: "You eat or not?"
A: "Eat apple red good taste already."

Best of luck to the MoE. Ridiculous plan, but good luck anyway.
It will be the blind leading the blind.

But kudos to the Thai education system. They do have the sentence, "Good morning teacher," down to a science, regardless of what time of day it is.

Edited November 27, 2015 by connda

[lcp0761]

Using a qualified teacher in of itself does not ensure success of mastering the English language.

I spent 2.5 years at the US Embassy - BKK working with local college kids on a part time basis with "conversational English".

They had the basic English language understanding but it was text book language vs conversational. You could see they were putting together one word at a time and struggling.

I made them comfortable talking about sports, the heat,...and later you could see they were better prepared. Also, I brought my Thai wife into the class who spent 7-years with me in the USA to speak with them in English (she also wasn't a teacher).

Lastly getting local Thai businesses who use English as the primary language as part of their business (i.e. Intl businesses) to meet with them to give them their insight why they needed to learn English to succeed vs reverting to their Thai native language.

[RawboneFunksta]

My first point is that the plan to teach native Thai teachers will not work for all sorts of cultural reasons.

Second, many Thai teachers have been taught to teach by rote. Little discussion takes place.

The teacher's own knowledge of the world is very limited.

English learners need conversation skills, speaking is the most important aspect of language acquisition as this ability will help them navigate interviews, panels, board meetings and simple day to day life. Grammar; not so much and this can always been checked and aid enlisted when submitting papers.

Thai teachers rely on grammar rules, in fact, they actively promote grammar as the most important aspect of language learning. They will resist plans for them to become proficient in conversation.

 

Initiative is not rewarded in Thai culture. Change needs initiative.

 

Pay higher wages to properly qualified teachers (who were teachers in their home country) not TEFL'ers.

Anyone can pass a CELTA or similar.

 

[JAG]

1 hour ago, RawboneFunksta said:

...snip

Anyone can pass a CELTA or similar.

 

 

Have you?

[Wilsonandson]

"Foreigner's Out!"
"Xenophobia In!"
The foreign teacher is not there to teach or educate the patriotic Thai child. Oh no, the foreigner is there as a status symbol. "Look everyone my kid has a foreigner teacher." Similar to "Look at my shiny new Apple Iphone or my new BMW or my designer clothes, trophy wife, big T.V next to the big window facing the street so everyone can see. The list goes on and on. You see the foreign teacher is just to show off. That's why in Bangkok City centre young, good looking, foreign teachers can mostly be found and on the outskirts of the city and elsewhere in Thailand the old, fat and ugly foreign teacher can be found.
As they say on the X-Files "The truth is out there!"

[djayz]

Lol lol lol lol

I haven't laughed this much in years!

[Xircal]

On 11/23/2015 at 2:13 AM, JoeLing said:

Of course they are ready to teach Engelish.

Might not be the Engelish the rest of the world sapeaks but I'm sure,
Thais will understand each and after the centel of world eco-no-mics
shifts to Thailand, it will even become the hub of Engelish language
sacools.

I see huge potentials for the Thai economy, could even patent and
copyright Thai Engelish and evelyone who writes or sapeaks it, will
need to pay royalty fees. Clarifications will cost extra.

The future is blight, the future is Thai

 

Brilliant transcript of Thais speaking English!

[Xircal]

On 11/23/2015 at 3:32 AM, gandalf12 said:

They will need it though in the future but then it will be too late. Watching the summing up at ASEAN meeting on TV the Malaysian representative addressed the audience in English not Malay

 

ASEAN kicked off at the end of December last year with high hopes but pretty much everything which was agreed has turned out to be just so much rhetoric with hardly any real implementation. At the time of its conception Burma functioned under a military dictatorship while Thailand was still relatively democratic by  comparison. The boot is on the other foot now with positions reversed.

 

The Philippines is now run by a despot intent on wiping crime from the streets even though the adminstration is itself is perpetrating extra judicial killings without mercy. Hardly an attractive country to engage in trade talks with.

 

China's incursions into the South China Seas claiming it as its own has given another member of ASEAN namely Vietnam something else to think about and Malaysia has its own internal problems to deal with. It's flag carrier Malaysia Airlines has shrunk from a world class five star airline to little more than a regional carrier and its own influence as a regional power has also taken a knock.

 

So all things considered, ASEAN has become a bit of a flop and not so much of a threat to Thailand as it was once thought to be with Singaporeans taking over jobs that required a good knowledge of English.

 

According to the US Thailand is moving away from dependence on the West and becoming closer to China. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/thailand/forrel-prc.htm

 

So this too may influence how the NCPO views the future of the country and whether English is as important now as it once thought to be back when the US and Thailand were common bedfellows.

 

Whether the move towards China will also result in rising hostility towards expats remains to be seen.

 

 

Edited September 28, 2016 by Xircal

[jerojero]

Un-F-Believable, again!

[JAG]

8 hours ago, Wilsonandson said:

"Foreigner's Out!"
"Xenophobia In!"
The foreign teacher is not there to teach or educate the patriotic Thai child. Oh no, the foreigner is there as a status symbol. "Look everyone my kid has a foreigner teacher." Similar to "Look at my shiny new Apple Iphone or my new BMW or my designer clothes, trophy wife, big T.V next to the big window facing the street so everyone can see. The list goes on and on. You see the foreign teacher is just to show off. That's why in Bangkok City centre young, good looking, foreign teachers can mostly be found and on the outskirts of the city and elsewhere in Thailand the old, fat and ugly foreign teacher can be found.
As they say on the X-Files "The truth is out there!"

 

Speaking as an old fat foreign teacher, could I take the opportunity to point out that The X-Files are fiction?

 

[BillBilous]

As a native speaking english Guy. The assessment that only Native English speakers are suitable to teach English is very flawed. Example converse with the many Scandinavians Dutch Germans etc who speak, read and write excellent English, then please ask them how many native english speaking teachers are in the country …. the answer i suggest is very very few. So maybe it has something to do with the desire to learn and the quality of teaching ?   Of course all you highly skilled professional English teachers here in Thailand will disagree.