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

[zaphod reborn]

Nothing will improve the English skills of the Thais until the government adopts an immersion strategy, requiring bilingualism. Singapore, KL, and Montreal all have adopted this model.

However, I can see why the Thais feel that removing foreign English teachers from Thailand will only improve the country, even if it doesn't improve their English skills.

[razer]

The arrogance of the MoE continues to undermine the advancement of Thai education.

[SoilSpoil]

I want to hear from the 3 (so far) that voted it would be better to have just Thai teachers. Perhaps miscue on poll?

There's no doubt that Thai English teachers are, potentially, better suited to teach Thai kids English than foreign teachers. It's almost arrogant to think that native speakers of English are per definition better teachers of English. We're talking about school kids who learn pigeon English, not academics or rocket scientists.

Foreign teachers have difficulties adapting themselves, cannot communicate with the parents (very important), do not understand the cultural and socio-economical backgrounds of the students, foreign teachers are like revolving doors go and on and on.

Edited November 23, 2015 by SoilSpoil

[zyphodb]

No Thailand is not ready to teach English, firstly the students don't want to learn English as they do not understand the need for it as the government today has no concept of world business, my Thai wife's uncle is the English teacher in a small village he knows the days of the week the months and a few memorized phrases he does not speak English but yet is paid as an English teacher.

This puts it quite nicely, I would like to know where they think that they are going to find 500 near fluent Thai teachers to benefit from this course anyway?

There are quite a few Thais especially in Bangkok & the south who speak good English, but none of them are. or will ever be teachers, why would they work for such low wages?

In the mean time by reducing the number of NES teachers, they will make the English speaking even worse & give the kids even less reason for wanting to learn it, (not having a falang teacher to want to talk to). It will also affect many Thai/falang families as the falang are faced with having to leave Thailand to earn a living...

All in all a particularly stupid idea from the -----s in power....

[trogers]

I want to hear from the 3 (so far) that voted it would be better to have just Thai teachers. Perhaps miscue on poll?

There's no doubt that Thai English teachers are, potentially, better suited to teach Thai kids English than foreign teachers. It's almost arrogant to think that native speakers of English are per definition better teachers of English. We're talking about school kids that learn pigeon English, not academics or rocket scientists.

Foreign teachers have difficulties adapting to the school structures and , cannot communicate with the parents (very important), do not understand the cultural and socio-economical backgrounds of the students, foreign teachers are like revolving doors go and on and on.

I agree with the following point, 'Foreign teachers have difficulties adapting to the school structures...'.

And the primary school structure is the "No-Fail" policy.

Thus, the diluted teachers produce even more diluted pupils, resulting in the current ranking Thailand has in English proficiency.

[jgriff]

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

The best comment so far

[Fairynuff]

A Thai friend was sent on an English course by his company. He asked me to check over his translation exercise which I did and it was pretty good with just a few corrections needed. His Thai teacher told him it was full of mistakes.

[gandalf12]

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

Edited November 23, 2015 by gandalf12

[american12bthai]

Of course they're not ready but they're going to do it anyway.

The results will be hilarious.

great... whooppp deee dooo... so far if you speak english a s a thai. you already have a big head. you already speak english loud enough to let others thais around you know how very special you are. you already have a great job, at a salary rate which is waaaaaaaaay too much for such an UNSKILLED person you are. Listen, a thai content writter wanted to write content for me for 150USD a article(global rate was 5USD), she spoke ok. you know like a 14year old British/wales kid. Hardly understandable, but english none the less. Every single thai out there that could even fart in english is going to want better salary now for money they dont deserve, through skill they dont have. ... ENGLISH ISNT A SKILL. its a tool.

Im going to bust out laughing too... I am thai, genetically. (im a west coast kinnda guy) so ican and will say this. THais dont deserve being led by a good person. thailand should just succumb to the rule of chinese slavery and get it over with. LEARN CHINESE cause all the people who speak english... have been SCAMMED, LIED TO, CHEATED, PUSHED OFF BUILDINGS, MURDERED FOR FUN and there are waaaaaaay better places to visit without being KILLED. THAIS dont care about english, its a joke to them to use to scam tourist.

LEARN CHINESE THAILAND cause you suck at english... its been like.... 50 FKN YEARS of crap english. just like the pot, it hasnt changed since the vietnam war.

[FangFerang]

The 500 chosen will be well connected and, of course, pass. The 50 chosen from them will be the very well connected, who no longer teach classes (if they ever did, because they will probably be administrators) who will then visit schools, set payment plans for that school's teachers to pass, and move on to graze elsewhere.

And NOBODY is discussing how the money saved from terminating foreign teachers will be reallocated. Take two guesses, and the first one doesn't count.

It's like the Wyrm Ouroboros--the dragon eating its own tail.

Again.

[BigC]

When was at school in England we had German teachers teach German and French teachers to teach us French

This in a first work country

Funnily enough we had an Aussie teach English in England but

To get results best to have a native teacher

Plus English is the international language

Not French ha ha

Also it looks from a political view conspiracy that they don't want the Nationals to climb to a too high level of intelligence as could be a security threat but I might be wrong

As you can put anything as a security threat is it is a threat to one person

Look at Burma

Fax machines used to be illegal as they were security threat and could go to prison for having one

Look at Cambodia during the killing fields the first people to be killed were educated people like doctors teachers as these people had influence and could teach people the truth which is a threat to their communist regime in Cambodia

Well as you have to do is look at other foreign counties where they learn other languages or even other counties that have high level of English speakers. Where are they being taught from?

Even if have good Thai teachers should be the best person for that job and up to the school who they employ and not the government

[pgrahmm]

Our girls go to an international school with teachers from around the world.....All are basically good - except some of the filipina teachers english is close to impossible to understand.....

Also - when helping with homework I find errors in some of the books which are obviously not proof read by a native english speaker....

How they plan on teaching english -without foreign teaching talent is a recipe for folly and failure.....

[Autonuaq]

Result will be everyone speaks English in Thailand and probably is able to understand it.

only the rest of the world can not communicate with them.

[Confuscious]

Speaking a foreign language is almost impossible without speaking the foreign language on a daily base.

I see many students with Thai parents studying an English program in school and the result is miserable at he best.

Even students with foreign parents who don't have the time (or will) to speak English at home with their children show a miserable result.

Beside a "Hello"; "Good Morning/Afternoon" and the compulsive "How are you", their vocabulary is finished.

So, IMHO, it is not enough to have native English teachers but nobody at home to speak English with.

Students who learn English in a regular (Thai based) program will have at the max 4 to 6 hours English education per week.
This is not enough to teach them how to speak English.

Sure, most of them know the English grammar better than I do.
But in a conversation they fail miserably.

Conclusion: Wetter the students are teach'd by a native English speaker or not make little or no difference at the end as long as these students can not practice the (spoken) English language on a daily base.

(Just my 2 cents in this thread.)

[mcsam]

Having worked on 2 education reform projects in different countries, one was in Malaysia, I do not understand what the government is thinking. Both of the projects I worked on lasted for years. Reforming education is a very slow process. The first project, in the UAE, lasted nearly 6 years and the Malaysia project was 5 years. This looks like a nod to reform but it will not show any results.

If they are serious and want to improve the level of English in Thailand they need to employ well qualified people, regardless of nationality, to go in to schools and work with the teachers on a 1-2-1 basis to improve their level of English and to change their practice. This takes time and money.

I suspect that the British Council will deliver the CELTA course to the 500, this will take 4 weeks and the last 2 weeks they will train them how to deliver the course to others. However, in order to complete the CELTA successfully the participants need a good level of English - C1 or upper intermediate (in old money), and Thailand does not appear, from my experience to have enough teachers of this level.

Can Thai teachers deliver successful English instruction? Yes, but not at the moment. There would need to be a monumental shift in the attitude towards English, and education in general, for it to be successful.

[DavisH]

The main problem is the huge gulf in english skills between the have's and the have-nots. You can walk into my school and have a decent conversation with just about every student, including grade one, as many have already learned english for three years in kindergarten. They all have a mix of foreign teachers. Poorer schools can generally not afford foreign teachers. The government should make it easier for foreigners to work in such schools, and not harder as the case is now. Provided the teachers are adequately screened, I'd ave no problems with retirees teaching conversation in these schools, or anyone who wants to help out. This isn't Singapore, where english is an official language, and can be taught by local teachers. There just isn't enough local Thai teachers who are competent in the language and who are willing to work in schools for the current pay and working conditions. Such people earn lots more money / have more rewarding careers in other fields.

[xerostar]

I have met Thais who speak almost perfect English but they were not working as teachers.

They were sons and daughters of the wealthy and privileged. Most likely ex-students of private schools who went to university, got a masters degree and now work as successful Doctors, Lawyers, Architects or Engineers.

The salary for teachers is too low to attract this sort of talent, especially in the provinces.

[tigermoth]

No, this will not work.

They may as well give up teaching English.

Most Thai English teachers do not know the language well themselves!

The current system of hireing anyone who can speak English to teach the languaage, is a poor system as well.

To teach English, they need to spend the money needed to hire qualified English teachers who are actually teachers.

If you only offer $1000 USD a month for teaching, you will only get unqualified "backpackers" and retired people who need a little extra money.

Most teachers in the world are underpaid as it is.

Why would any come to Thailand to work for a fraction of the low pay they earn now?

This is true. I know 3 farangs who are english teachers here, all Americans. They have never taught in their life before and two of of them cannot even speak correct English, let alone write it.

[mr jim]

I agree with most of the posts here. Less English teachers is the opposit of what I would advocate. The problem, in my eyes stems from the top. Khurusapha,the proffs. at the unis. Many of us here will know that Thai English teachers are well versed in grammar but the majority are poor in conversation skills.I can see the problem of testing conversational skills for their Ba, Ma. etc.so what do they do? they test them in grammar. "present perfect"",present continous" Kiss my fat a@@e

[abrahamzvi]

Resentment of English Teacher's being paid double what a Thai teacher receives is coming to head.

I am not saying, English foreign teachers are unnecessary. It'll take some time, beforeThailand can do away with ALL foreign teachers. But, what is happening now is absolutely wrong, particularly in private International and bi lingual schools, where anybody who is not a native speaker can hardly get a teaching position( there are highly qualified Thai English teachers - I know of a lady who has a teaching masters degree from a well known English university, who had difficulties getting a position in Chiang Mai with any international school and was lucky to get a reasonably paid position with a bi lingual school, where she is doing so well that after 6 months she was promoted and her salary increased by 50%!). It is high noon that schools and parents accept the fact that there are well qualified good Thai English teachers ( and other Asian like Philippinos and Indians), and if that happens more Thai students will be encouraged to seriously consider taking the right teaching qualifications, either at 1st class Thai Universities (like Chula and Mahidol), or go overseas to get the right degrees. The present situation is such that no Thai student considers it's worthwhile taking a masters degree in teaching English as a second language, as it may turrn out to be useless. This situation has to change and the sooner the government does something about it the better!!!

[natway09]

I agree that thailand will need foreign english teachers for some time,

but have to say some of the ones teaching at the moment I have met,,, they may be better off without

[freebyrd]

Having worked in Hong Kong, Thailand, China, Vietnam, Philippines and Cambodia, the only country where I had to learn the local language to be able to do my job efficiently was Thailand. Q.E.D.

[poohy]

I know many excellent Thai english speakers sadly none of them are or would be teachers!

Actually some bargirls Speak much better English than Thai English teachers... so I am reliably told

[sawadee1947]

a friend of mine is an English teacher in BBK since 5 years already. So far so good. The point is that she was ORDERED by her superior to teach English language, because......................she got a farang boyfriend. So she was able to "speak" English. Hurrah!

[elgordo38]

Speaking a language is one thing understanding it is another. I have spoken to many Thai's and the same in Mexico to Mexicans who speak/spoke really good English. I thought this was great until I asked them a question and their eyes got that funny glazed look and they asked me to repeat the question. If find this with my g/f as well she speaks good English now but the understanding part is the battle.

[Assurancetourix]

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

Wrong answer;

Do english people need thai language for working ?

NO ;

Do thai people need english language for working in international mills which are in Thailand ?

YES ;;

But I'm sure there are more english people who can read, write and speak fluently thai than thai people who can do the same in english ; even these english people aren't teachers;

I met many thai who are english teachers ; it's a huge catastrophe ; ask them something in english, they need 5 minutes to understand the question and more minutes to try to answer ...

I'm french and not a teacher but I know I'm better in english than 95% of thai english teachers .

[toybits]

But but but.... you no Thai! How you know we can't do. Of course we can do!

[SoilSpoil]

A lot of vainglorious posts here about the over exaggerated importance of perfect BBC-like English. This discussion is not about the language , it's about instruction. Get off your high horses.

[Artisi]

Prepared to but incapable.

[kurtgruen]

I'm not sure about other areas like Bangkok, but judging from the North, Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai Province, I have yet to meet a Thai English teacher, who can speak proper English. The ones I have met either screw up the sentence structure or the tenses. They also use the wrong word in a sentence quite often.

I think, the combination of a Thai English teacher and a English speaking native, conversational English teacher works best here.

That being said, I think they need to get rid of some of the foreign loosers posing as English teachers here in Thailand. Some of them look worse than some of our homeless people back home. Thai students need to show up in a clean uniform and be polite, foreign English teachers should show the example, not walk around like bums in school and be seen drunk and doing stupid things in public.

In return, Thai schools need to start providing their foreign teachers with proper paperwork, so they can get a proper visa.

As for pay, it seems to be fairly decent, for the little education a foreign teacher needs in a normal Thai school.