Elementary Students to Study English Every Day

[webfact]

Elementary Students to Study English Every Day
By Sasiwan Mokkhasen
Staff Reporter


Primary students at a Ratchaburi school in a February 2011 file photo. Photo: Office of the Prime Minister

BANGKOK — From late 2016 all students from grade one to three will spend one hour every day learning English, the Minister of Education announced.

Gen.Daphong Rattasuwan, the Minister of Education said during his visit to a training course for English teachers Tuesday that he intended to greatly increase the hours of English learning for grade one to three students. The plan will quintuple the yearly study time from 40 hours per year at present to 200 hours.

Full story: http://www.khaosodenglish.com/detail.php?newsid=1459424513

-- Khaosod English 2016-04-01

[Pattaya28]

But will the English Teachers be native Brits, Australian or American ?

That is the "all important" factor.

A Thai teacher using "Google-Translate" is worthless.

And as for the present 1 hour a week. What on earth could be achieved ?

[thesetat2013]

But will the English Teachers be native Brits, Australian or American ?

That is the "all important" factor.

A Thai teacher using "Google-Translate" is worthless.

And as for the present 1 hour a week. What on earth could be achieved ?

Your question was answered months ago when they said they would utilize more non-native teachers and attempt to teach more Thai teachers better English skills so they don't need to pay so much for native speaking teachers. They also commented months ago about reducing the amount of money given to schools for their English programs which would aid a schools decision in hiring a Philippine teacher over a native speaking teacher.

Then of course, they made it more difficult by cancelling their teachers licencing tests.

No matter what this article says: 1 hour a week or 5, will not make any difference if they are taught by non natives using incorrect grammar and pronunciation.

[canuckamuck]

They need to do it, and they need to accept some oversight. A lot of English taught is nonsense and just leaves the kids confused.

[thai3]

Far too much emphasis on grammar, you don't need to know that English has 5 future tenses to learn to speak it. Kids get bored with the way it is mis taught and some of the School books they use are full of mistakes, added to that teacher can probably not speak it either!

[maoro2013]

My kids have brought home questions in English as part of their English course. The questions in some cases are unintelligible. Obviously a teacher teaching English who cannot understand English herself/himself.

What do the kids get out of this, total confusion?

[SOTIRIOS]

....a long time coming....

[oztaurus]

Last week I met the Philippine English teacher from the school where my wife teaches Kindergarten. The missus always complains that she can't understand what this other teacher is saying and assumes that it her own lack of English which is the problem.

After meeting the teacher, we ended up chatting in Thai because her Thai was easier to understand than her English.

[muzmurray]

Far too much emphasis on grammar, you don't need to know that English has 5 future tenses to learn to speak it. Kids get bored with the way it is mis taught and some of the School books they use are full of mistakes, added to that teacher can probably not speak it either!

There are four future verb tenses in English.

• Simple future tense
• Future continuous tense
• Future perfect tense
• Future perfect continuous tense

[JGV]

One hour a day with Thai teacher will be writing English as most teachers can't speak English

Worthless

[oxo1947]

Can Thailand do anything to the satisfaction of most TV moaners...........??

I went to an English school in the 50s we had 2 lessons a week in French--They didn't fly someone in from France to teach us, it was just basic French--my sister was quite interested in learning further, took a school trip to France where she stayed with a family for a week, & we then had a exchange student stay with us. She went on to study more & could speak French quite well. When it wasn't compulsory I dropped out of it....(The teacher came from Birmingham)

All this talk about 4-5 stages of present perfect..verbs etc is nonsense. You just try to start to teach some conversational English, (Welcome to Thailand----what would you like to eat--where is the toilet.....what is your name ?) some students will want to go further and study in more detail, Some even mastering the 5 stages of present & past Verbs, (why I don't know) .......but they will be the next generation that will teach.

If a young girl from the rice fields of Issan with hardly any schooling can come & work in a bar & with the help of her friends there, start to talk basic English with with a mixture of races that sometimes don't even understand each other---(put a Scot & a Southern Yank together) Then even if the Thai teacher is not so good----this is a step forward.

[robsamui]

I had occasion, a few years back, to get into email correspondence with the Head of English Studies at a major BKK university. On the phone she was articulate and charming. But her written English was atrocious. I was a secondary school (ages 11 - 18) teacher in England for all of my working life. And this woman's English skills were not even good enough to gain her a pass at the UK GCSE exams that all kids take when they are 15. But over here - in the land of the blind . . .

[robsamui]

Can Thailand do anything to the satisfaction of most TV moaners...........??

I went to an English school in the 50s we had 2 lessons a week in French--They didn't fly someone in from France to teach us, it was just basic French--my sister was quite interested in learning further, took a school trip to France where she stayed with a family for a week, & we then had a exchange student stay with us. She went on to study more & could speak French quite well. When it wasn't compulsory I dropped out of it....(The teacher came from Birmingham)

All this talk about 4-5 stages of present perfect..verbs etc is nonsense. You just try to start to teach some conversational English, (Welcome to Thailand----what would you like to eat--where is the toilet.....what is your name ?) some students will want to go further and study in more detail, Some even mastering the 5 stages of present & past Verbs, (why I don't know) .......but they will be the next generation that will teach.

If a young girl from the rice fields of Issan with hardly any schooling can come & work in a bar & with the help of her friends there, start to talk basic English with with a mixture of races that sometimes don't even understand each other---(put a Scot & a Southern Yank together) Then even if the Thai teacher is not so good----this is a step forward.

OXO - you are spot-on with the conversational English approach.

But where this system breaks down is that most Thai's instinctively transliterate their own language into English to do this. Thai language is admirably simple - and thus far too simple to attempt this sort of word-substitution in another language. (Such as, for example, a Thai saying "Where is my friend you?" when she means "Where is your friend?")

Learning phrases ad-lib from books fails, because it immediately evokes a conversation - and the confused student just hasn't got the breadth of vocabulary or depth of understanding of the language to assemble a reply.

Yes, please, absolutely use conversational English to teach in the schools, backed up by ENFORCED homeworks - memorising sets of words and phrases in readiness for the next lesson. But it has to be led by a teacher who can speak English well enough, and correctly enough to be fluent conversationally.

Edited April 1, 2016 by robsamui

[Denim]

They will have to employ a native English speaker in every family and house before they hope to see any minor improvement in English language skills here. Thais are unmotivated by the concept of hard work leading to a reward. They want the rewards with out the work.

The whole idea of employing native English speakers in the hope of improving English skills is like believing that the laying on of hands can transmit knowledge. It can't......end of story.

[HerbalEd]

Given the very poor quality of Thai English teachers, I think they often do more harm than good when it comes to their students learning English.

I had a Thai girlfriend who spoke mid-level English and she said she could barely understand the English spoken by he university English teacher.

[how241]

It's a good move and hopefully will get the kids interested.

[Speedo1968]

Speak grammar - no speak English !

Don't speak as she is wrote, speak as she is spoke !

I have seen various set books for leaning English ( e.g Let's Go / English Express etc. ), they are often a mixture of English English and American English. In a school in Chon Buri province the book even included Hispanic English - good if you like to watch Cheech and Chong ! Top this up with lessons from some English Language franchise schools that use books translated from Japanese in to English, what chance to the children have ? The general standard of English spoken across all business areas has declined markedably since 1996. Although not an Australian ( I'm English English - no offence meant ) I have lived there and notice that their pronunciation is similar to Thai in that the stress on a word seems to be placed on the end of the word e.g Banphai ( Thai ) and Balmain ( a Sydney suburb ).

Good luck to all the children out there.

[Speedo1968]

sorry me write 'leaning English' - guess I meant 'learning English' - fingers faster than my brain

[freebyrd]

"You!" point.

"Falang!" point.

"Tuk Tuk massage", step in your way.

"You like laydeee", step in your way.

"Falang too much money".

I wonder what other useful phrases they will be taught?

[rkidlad]

It's all down the individual teacher. I can only speak from my experience, but the Filipino teachers at my old school were awful.

The pronunciation was awful and the grammar was wrong in 9 out of 10 sentences. I could see the kids looking confused when they heard this poor grammar because they'd been taught correctly by their native-English speaking teachers.

The Filipino teachers weren't teaching English per se, but they were teaching their specialist subjects in English. It really was a huge waste of time.

As for 'some' of the native-English speakers, they were bad too. Nothing to do with their grammar or pronunciation - more that they just didn't know how to teach and were never given any help or guidance.

It's easy to just blame 'bad' teachers all the time but who's employing them? The schools are. And not only are they employing them, they're not even bothering to improve them. Yes, it's all about the bottom line.

When it comes to poor education and teachers, the buck should always stop with the schools. But who'd have thunk that looking a teacher from head to toe wouldn't be a good enough interview process. Poor schools were duped by their looks.

Edited April 1, 2016 by rkidlad

[chowny77]

For any language people need to learn the vocab first, after that they can start to learn how to make a sentence with tenses and pronouns then practice it. Anything else is a waste of time.

[Varangkul]

I had five young students approach me in the market place, asking if they could practice their English skills. I was delighted to help. They all brought out note books in which were written standard English phrases, such as, "what is your name?" "Do you like Thailand?" "Do you like Tai food?" You can imagine the others, I guess. I replied to each question, then noticed that each was carrying either a mobile phone or mini-recorder, on which my answers were being recorded. I stopped the "game" and started to ask them simple questions - none of them could answer! I was later told that my recorded answers would be taken back to their classrooms for the "English" teacher to translate for them!

[canuckamuck]

I had five young students approach me in the market place, asking if they could practice their English skills. I was delighted to help. They all brought out note books in which were written standard English phrases, such as, "what is your name?" "Do you like Thailand?" "Do you like Tai food?" You can imagine the others, I guess. I replied to each question, then noticed that each was carrying either a mobile phone or mini-recorder, on which my answers were being recorded. I stopped the "game" and started to ask them simple questions - none of them could answer! I was later told that my recorded answers would be taken back to their classrooms for the "English" teacher to translate for them!

Yes I have done that. I am the token guava in my village. I even let them do a couple of takes so they can look like they did it right. Also because the first time through, I am usually guessing at what they said.

[daiwill60]

Far too much emphasis on grammar, you don't need to know that English has 5 future tenses to learn to speak it. Kids get bored with the way it is mis taught and some of the School books they use are full of mistakes, added to that teacher can probably not speak it either!

There are four future verb tenses in English.

• Simple future tense
• Future continuous tense
• Future perfect tense
• Future perfect continuous tense

Edited April 1, 2016 by daiwill60

[oldsailor35]

I am sure that there are many English speaking farang living here who would be quite happy to do some volunteer work helping the English teachers giving lessons, i know i would as i have plenty of time to spare, being retired.

[daiwill60]

Mmmm , I wonder when successive Thai Gov'ts will ever make up their minds about the English languge albatross around their necks?

i have recently been involved in one of the programs to teach Thai teachers some English or demonstrate to them how to teach English.

Last year there was quite a lot of work aviailable doing this on weekends in various locations. Teachers were coming from BKK to do this in Rayong, I was seconded by a Thai Dr of English who I work with in a university to do this in a school in Puttamonthon in Buriram, travelling from Rayong to Buriram to do so, another friend has been more lucky and doing it near his home in Chonburi, but last years work seems to have dried up for us all at the moment due to changes in policies and funding.

Then of course the Gov't recently announced it was going to use the British Council to teach a selection of Thai teachers how to teach English on a 6 week course, the BC would select 500 teachers from many thousands across Thailand to be selected based on there English language abilities, only a small handful were good enough , I am led to believe.

Anyway, this week I will be attending another course to teach the teachers again, the topic of the course will be ( you will never guess) basic ASEAN based topics, what flag , what currency, what capital city etc etc. ( Jeez I am so sick of this ASEAN stuff, even my university students are being given future board projects to do on it at the moment), any way I digressed there.

​What has now happened is that the 2 day seminar for the teachers has now been cut again, to a 1 day event, something to do with reduced funding I am told.

Who knows, maybe the cut day of funding has found a deeper pocket to line ??

Anyway, the point I am trying to make is that unless someone has the guts to commit to a fully fledged acceptance of English as being a second language in Thailand for the benefit of getting as much out of ASEAN as they can for the future of Thai kids and the prosperity of the many, rather than the few, then this story will be repeated again and again.

Sad isn't it?

Edited April 1, 2016 by daiwill60

[oldsailor35]

Can Thailand do anything to the satisfaction of most TV moaners...........??

I went to an English school in the 50s we had 2 lessons a week in French--They didn't fly someone in from France to teach us, it was just basic French--my sister was quite interested in learning further, took a school trip to France where she stayed with a family for a week, & we then had a exchange student stay with us. She went on to study more & could speak French quite well. When it wasn't compulsory I dropped out of it....(The teacher came from Birmingham)

All this talk about 4-5 stages of present perfect..verbs etc is nonsense. You just try to start to teach some conversational English, (Welcome to Thailand----what would you like to eat--where is the toilet.....what is your name ?) some students will want to go further and study in more detail, Some even mastering the 5 stages of present & past Verbs, (why I don't know) .......but they will be the next generation that will teach.

If a young girl from the rice fields of Issan with hardly any schooling can come & work in a bar & with the help of her friends there, start to talk basic English with with a mixture of races that sometimes don't even understand each other---(put a Scot & a Southern Yank together) Then even if the Thai teacher is not so good----this is a step forward.

Yes i agree. Conversational English is what is needed, pay little attention to grammar as it only confuses them.

Many Isaan bar girls can speak reasonable English and i bet they were not taught grammar, that can come later.

[daiwill60]

Mmmm , I wonder when successive Thai Gov'ts will ever make up their minds about the English languge albatross around their necks?

i have recently been involved in one of the programs to teach Thai teachers some English or demonstrate to them how to teach English.

Last year there was quite a lot of work aviailable doing this on weekends in various locations. Teachers were coming from BKK to do this in Rayong, I was seconded by a Thai Dr of English who I work with in a university to do this in a school in Puttamonthon in Buriram, travelling from Rayong to Buriram to do so, another friend has been more lucky and doing it near his home in Chonburi, but last years work seems to have dried up for us all at the moment due to changes in policies and funding.

Then of course the Gov't recently announced it was going to use the British Council to teach a selection of Thai teachers how to teach English on a 6 week course, the BC would select 500 teachers from many thousands across Thailand to be selected based on there English language abilities, only a small handful were good enough , I am led to believe.

Anyway, this week I will be attending another course to teach the teachers again, the topic of the course will be ( you will never guess) basic ASEAN based topics, what flag , what currency, what capital city etc etc. ( Jeez I am so sick of this ASEAN stuff, even my university students are being given future board projects to do on it at the moment), any way I digressed there.

​What has now happened is that the 2 day seminar for the teachers has now been cut again, to a 1 day event, something to do with reduced funding I am told.

Who knows, maybe the cut day of funding has found a deeper pocket to line ??

Anyway, the point I am trying to make is that unless someone has the guts to commit to a fully fledged acceptance of English as being a second language in Thailand for the benefit of getting as much out of ASEAN as they can for the future of Thai kids and the prosperity of the many, rather than the few, then this story will be repeated again and again.

Sad isn't it?

Actually when you come to think of it and all the information to the contrary being experienced by the likes of me and others , this report may be some sort of April fools joke , EH????

[lostinisaan]

My kids have brought home questions in English as part of their English course. The questions in some cases are unintelligible. Obviously a teacher teaching English who cannot understand English herself/himself.

What do the kids get out of this, total confusion?

Confusion, pure.

[lostinisaan]

Mmmm , I wonder when successive Thai Gov'ts will ever make up their minds about the English languge albatross around their necks?

i have recently been involved in one of the programs to teach Thai teachers some English or demonstrate to them how to teach English.

Last year there was quite a lot of work aviailable doing this on weekends in various locations. Teachers were coming from BKK to do this in Rayong, I was seconded by a Thai Dr of English who I work with in a university to do this in a school in Puttamonthon in Buriram, travelling from Rayong to Buriram to do so, another friend has been more lucky and doing it near his home in Chonburi, but last years work seems to have dried up for us all at the moment due to changes in policies and funding.

Then of course the Gov't recently announced it was going to use the British Council to teach a selection of Thai teachers how to teach English on a 6 week course, the BC would select 500 teachers from many thousands across Thailand to be selected based on there English language abilities, only a small handful were good enough , I am led to believe.

Anyway, this week I will be attending another course to teach the teachers again, the topic of the course will be ( you will never guess) basic ASEAN based topics, what flag , what currency, what capital city etc etc. ( Jeez I am so sick of this ASEAN stuff, even my university students are being given future board projects to do on it at the moment), any way I digressed there.

​What has now happened is that the 2 day seminar for the teachers has now been cut again, to a 1 day event, something to do with reduced funding I am told.

Who knows, maybe the cut day of funding has found a deeper pocket to line ??

Anyway, the point I am trying to make is that unless someone has the guts to commit to a fully fledged acceptance of English as being a second language in Thailand for the benefit of getting as much out of ASEAN as they can for the future of Thai kids and the prosperity of the many, rather than the few, then this story will be repeated again and again.

Sad isn't it?

Then of course the Gov't recently announced it was going to use the British Council to teach a selection of Thai teachers how to teach English on a 6 week course, the BC would select 500 teachers from many thousands across Thailand to be selected based on there English language abilities, only a small handful were good enough , I am led to believe.

There, or their English language abilities? Sad, isn't it?