Elementary Students to Study English Every Day

[lostinisaan]

If that's true, a great idea. But not really good for schools with an EP. If you get five hours of English- of course taught by a great teacher- for free, why should you pay a lot of money for some useless EP programs?

And I know that there're a lot of wannabe programs. One well known school employed an Asian teacher who can't even have a simple conversation with a NES teacher.

But their excuse is that he's only teaching subjects? And the guy's teaching science...how do you teach science in English, if you can't even have an easy conversation with somebody who can speak an understandable English?

[chowny77]

I think it is time for TCT "Krusapa" of Thailand to be fully investigated. They have been stealing money for years from the government which was meant to help schools and also cheat foreigners who had to take their "Thai culture courses" . I am not talking about the schools with a "mini-English" program or "Bilingual" schools as these can fund themselves, they are quite good at robbing the parents already. I am talking about the small village schools that are just left to fend for themselves. Let individual schools hire and who they want. Let them run a curriculum they want for the students. When I think of the Krusapa I can not stop thinking about Pink Floyds, "Another brick in the wall". So sad

[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?

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?

One simple typo error, whilst out of my tree on pain killers at the moment , ooops!!! So sorry. Will do better next time OK? How many words how many mistakes?

[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?

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?

One typo error made in how many words, whilst high as a kite on painkillers???? Don't you have something better to say, or does the actual content escape you whilst you are looking for a single error. Get a life, for all our sakes.

[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?

One typo error made in how many words, whilst high as a kite on painkillers???? Don't you have something better to say, or does the actual content escape you whilst you are looking for a single error. Get a life, for all our sakes.

Sorry.

[muzmurray]

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.

Nope, the Thai would ask " where is friend you?".

[puffy]

They can learn for eight hours a day, and if the teaching of it is still the same it will not improve.

The only reason they teach so much grammar is they don't know how to teach anything else effectively.

Unless the route language is the same second language learners do need to learn grammar, however the

grammar should be relevant to their daily lives. The best way to learn grammar, syntax, and vocabulary

is through extensive reading. They would be far better off reading a book for an hour a day, rather than

listening to the difference between the perfect and the perfect continuous tense.

[thai3]

we all learned to speak English without knowing any grammar, grammar is boring and not necessary, I still know next to nothing about English grammar, you don't need it to speak it.

[Scott]

They can learn for eight hours a day, and if the teaching of it is still the same it will not improve.

The only reason they teach so much grammar is they don't know how to teach anything else effectively.

Unless the route language is the same second language learners do need to learn grammar, however the

grammar should be relevant to their daily lives. The best way to learn grammar, syntax, and vocabulary

is through extensive reading. They would be far better off reading a book for an hour a day, rather than

listening to the difference between the perfect and the perfect continuous tense.

I think that one of the main reasons they teach grammar is because grammar is something on which they can base an exam and Thailand loves to give exams. Exams are the end all and be all of their education system. You don't need to know anything, you just need to know the answer to the exams. You can do that with grammar. It's much more difficult to give an exam on writing or speaking -- especially for a Thai teacher who has limited functional use of the language.

[KhaoNiaw]

A huge priority should be raising the level of Thai teachers, as this will always be the main source of English teachers. There are plenty of young Thais with bachelor's and master's degrees, many from universities abroad, with the language skills to do a great job as English teachers. For the most part, university English departments have excellent Thai English teachers and this is the standard of teacher they need at all levels of the education system. However, there is absolutely no incentive to attract these kind of young people into the teaching profession, even in Bangkok, and they generally go into the corporate world or some into the university system.

They need to make the teaching profession an attractive option to young professional Thais and initiate proper effective teacher training programs and should be looking to the long-term for this. But it won't happen because they want instant solutions without investing anything - like designating an hour a day to show a huge increase in study hours.