"Contract" Teachers

[BugJackBaron]

No...I teach 'Gifted' also. Some classes are truly better and some just not. But having a NES or near NES with students whose proficiency level is low to start with does not really help....it's the method of increasing their vocabulary, helping them naturally construct sentences and build dialogues that really brings results.

I think it is important to have those students with low proficiency start with a NES or near NES. We wouldn't want to be filling young minds with bad pronunciation and bad grammar habits. Remember, what we learn first is what we remember the best. So if in the beginning we allow someone with a low proficiency of English to teach sa-poon(spoon), sa-cool(school), fie(five), tree(three), se-wen(seven), ta-welve(twelve), ta-wen-ty(twenty) or any other vocabulary incorrectly it becomes nearly impossible in the classroom setting to over come that. Not only is it difficult(nearly impossible) to over come bad pronunciation in a classroom setting, it also makes the student unable to understand when the word is spoken correctly, salad(sa-laud) or spaghetti(sa-pa-get-thee).

You are correct of course....but that can be challenged.

When people, who are not native speakers, are trying to learn the English language and they are been taught the language correctly and by the book, so to speak, with all the numerous details involved, most of them just give up while they feel the language is impossible to learn.....and... they are afraid to speak English because they worry people will laugh at their poor English skills.

They hear the teachers telling them they are wrong, wrong, wrong all the time it frustrates them .......because to them, there seems to be far too many details to remember.

Meantime, the beautiful thing about the English language is no matter how badly some one speaks the language, 9 times out of ten you can easily understand WHAT they are trying to say and figure out what it is they want or what it is they mean ...even with bad accents and poor grammar and words placed in the wrong order and garbled sounding words coming out of their mouths you quickly enough realize what they are saying....resulting in :

You understand them.

When I hear Thai people speaking English poorly I do not judge them or try to correct them per say as I still understand what they are trying to say or what they mean ...so, when I hear them say: "Seh-wen" instead of "Seven" or "Sa-poon" instead of "Spoon" and any number of words that they are speaking incorrectly, it does not matter to me as I can still communicate with them and understand them and what they are trying to say or the meaning of what they have said...even if poorly spoken.

When you learn Thai language, the most common complaint is how the Thai people you are speaking with all too often can not figure out what you are talking about because you are not speaking some or many of the Thai words correctly or using the words correctly or your accent is interfering with the sound of the words you are attempting to speak and the way they are used to hearing the words spoken all the time by other Thai people...including the mannerisms in which Thai people speak to one another.

When they hear a foreigner speaking, many of them completely do not understand what you have said and think you have just spoken a totally foreign language and they can not figure out what you are trying to say, as they are totally thrown off ...even if you pick up the glass, for example and show it to them and attempt to say the Thai word for glass, they are still dumbfounded because you did not say it correctly and they do not connect the meaning of what you are trying to say.

If a Thai person says: I ..I ....Gwass...Gwass ...and I hear that, I can quickly realize what they are trying to say .... and specifically if they pick up the glass and show it to me....... I get the connection...while it does not really matter that they say: "Gwass" ...."Gwass" ..instead of "Glass"..."Glass"...I understand...I figure it out quick enough.

But the Thai language, all too often, has to be spoken more or less precisely and near perfectly and if not spoken more or less precisely then you have lost them and often enough they do not recover ...so you have to try the English word and often enough they know that particular English word or you have to try using some other Thai words ( if you know enough of them ) that will result in them finally understanding what it is that you are trying to say ...but often enough they are sort of dumbstruck by your inability to say a particular word or several words precisely and the way they are used to hearing it spoken to them by Native Thai speakers all the time.

Point being...the easier communication aspect of the English language is a big part of why the English language is so widely spoken....even if spoken incorrectly...as most often they do speak it incorrectly ...but ....we understand what they are talking about.

Cheers

I kinda disagree. here. For all but the simplest things - like asking "how much", a poor accent and garbled words quickly leads to me just

going "uh huh" . In Malaysia, I asked how much for a drink and got TAEE

in a thick as a tree Malay(Indian?) accent. I had to think a couple of seconds to decode it as "three". I would have hated to ask him the time.

Obviously if they pick up something and show it to you it will help but that is hardly the level of English we want.

The perception that you have to be 100 percent accurate in Thai is also wrong, a purely subjective judgement made out of frustration. You can hear farang speaking with clear but noticeable foreign accents on Thai TV(like that guy on some sitcom). Tones are something many non-tonal language speakers simply won't get right.

There's no getting around it - second languages are difficult and being lazy in teaching accuracy of pronunciation is to do you students a great disservice.