Thai Education Min aims to make students proficient in everyday English within 3 yrs

[orchidlady]

The Education ministry spent many baht for British Council this summer to train teachers in intensive English and then they were supposed to go back and train the other teachers. Guess that didn't work out to their expectations.Maybe they forgot the one in front of the 3...13 years maybe.

[samjaidee]

The learning curve of my college students:

They have studied English sins first year in primary school but when they get to the college they can still not write their names in English and their hand writing looks like something you expect form a student in 1^st grade.

I asked/teached them "How are you?" everyday for 5 months and then after the 2 month break (April-May) they didn't remember the meaning of the question or how to answer it.

Then I'm supposed to teach them subjects like "Principals of Animal Husbandry", "Agricultural Industry" and "Poultry Raising" in English... there is now way in hell that they will be able to speak English in 3 years!!!

They have studied English sins first year in primary school...."

As long as they are the seven sins (PEGS LAW) https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_deadly_sins

You missed the other one.

"I asked/teached them"

Teached, really? Taught might be a better word to use.

[gandalf12]

It could be done in three years but the students would have to be immersed in it i.e. everything in the school would have to be taught in English

[nausea]

Perhaps funding a legitimate, independent study to identify the problems, and possible solutions, might be a good start. I mean, we all know what the problems are but the Thais don't seem to have a clue. They come out with ridiculous statements and waste funds on half-baked initiatives (naming no names) that go nowhere. I mean, this isn't a minor problem of little importance, it's a massive problem of great importance. Also, given the vested interests involved, I'd use reputable outside consultants.

[Benmart]

I wish them luck. I live in Thailand, but volunteer at a non-goverrnment funded, non-NGO funded, rural school in Cambodia, where I am welcomed and encouraged to share my native language and other skills.

The students, ranging in age from Kindergarten to adult, want to be there and are eager, motivated and thankful to have such a school. Indeed, it is humbling and exciting to hear a 5 year old come up to me in the morning and say "Good morning teacher, how are you?".

The university trained teachers built this school, live at the school, work for a pittance, are dedicated educators and are sincerely grateful for the support they have received.

Sadly for Thailand, prosperity seems to have highlighted instability, corruption, greed and stagnation in more than just the education system. Cambodia certainly has it's share of worldly problems, but the country and people seem to see education as a means out of poverty and ignorance.

Edited July 28, 2016 by Benmart

[robsamui]

Nothing will change until the very basis of Thai society changes. The top 2 or 3% of the population - the ruling classes - have no intention whatsoever of creating an aware, informed and intelligent workforce. That's the last thing they want. But of course they send their own children abroad to the USA ,UK and Europe to make sure they get the best.

And then the actual teaching itself in Thai schools. It's Dickensian. The teacher is not allowed to be question or challenged and everything's learned mindlessly by rote. There is a layer of pseudo-military discipline, with all students compelled to take part in marching bands and parade ground drills.

The curriculum contains nothing of world history or events and focuses solely on Thailand, its history and culture - it's as if the world outside of Thailand doesn't exist. There are no creative activities at all - no painting, drawing, sculpture or self-expression - only the mindless copying of temple art. The same with creative writing, poetry, dance and music - creativity is not permitted or even acknowledged, it's all copying and learning existing forms by means of endless repetition.

Individuality, creativity and problem solving are severely discouraged - producing apathetic students (and thus adults) who have no imagination or initiative and can only follow direct instructions, without the ability to innovate or improvise.

The teachers themselves have grown up in this cultural desert (in world terms) and can't imagine any other way of doing things. it isn't simply that it's difficult or impractical for them to teach English to their classes, it's completely impossible.

A couple of times every year one government spokesman or another stands up and declares something glorious about improving the state of the nation and makes impressive predictions, then sits down again, job done. Face maintained. This happens regularly with the subject of education.

But ask yourself - can you take seriously anything the government says about this, when they haven't even made it compulsory for all children up to a certain age to be in full-time education? When that very basic necessity becomes a reality - an enforced one with truant-catchers on the streets and parents being fined - then and only then will the effectiveness of any kind of education in Thailand begin to have any kind of hope at all.

And then it will have 200 years of catching up to do before it will be able to compare itself to anywhere else other than Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

[Junkyarddog]

Chalerm knows people and teachers that could pull this off. But he can't tell you who they are. Its a secret.

[Junkyarddog]

Chalerm knows people and teachers that could pull this off. But he can't tell you who they are. Its a secret.

[thai3]

Need to get rid of boring irrelevant obsession with grammar and get the kids actually speaking. Only problems are out of 46 thousand Thai English teachers almost none can speak it, and according to the govt own survey only 6, yes just six, are fluent. The other problem is far too many foreign ' teachers' with Micky mouse qualifications here for the wrong reasons. Better than nothing some will say, but being complicit in a bankrupt system of teaching is unethical in my opinion.

They should hire this woman!

Edited July 28, 2016 by thai3

[robsamui]

ps

Friend of mine has 2 children, a boy and a girl, a year apart. He wants them to have the benefit of a sound education (international school). But when the boy was five, it made financial sense to send him to the local government school then, when the girl got to five also, they'e both go to the international school together.

A year later, the boy has done a year at the government school, and now has started the international school together with his sister.

At the end of the first week he asks his father, with a puzzled frown, "Daddy, is it really true that Thailand is not the biggest country in the world?"

Sheesh.

[fire69water]

No point aiming with a 'wooden rifle'. The only way school students can be proficient in English is to teach them core subjects like Maths and Science in English, instead of Thai. But that will be the equivalent of a 'frozen hell'.

[robsamui]

Need to get rid of boring irrelevant obsession with grammar and get the kids actually speaking. Only problems are out of 46 thousand Thai English teachers almost none can speak it, and according to the govt own survey only 6, yes just six, are fluent. The other problem is far too many foreign ' teachers' with Micky mouse qualifications here for the wrong reasons. Better than nothing some will say, but being complicit in a bankrupt system of teaching is unethical in my opinion.

A point you raise - also raised by several other posters in passing - is the schools' preference for employing a foreign teacher.

It's an easy one to answer. Merely the presence of a foreign body (!) no matter how useless, means the school gets a useful endowment from the State. Twenty years ago is was 100,000 baht a year, but no idea what it is today.

Edited July 28, 2016 by robsamui

[nakhonandy]

Need to get rid of boring irrelevant obsession with grammar and get the kids actually speaking. Only problems are out of 46 thousand Thai English teachers almost none can speak it, and according to the govt own survey only 6, yes just six, are fluent. The other problem is far too many foreign ' teachers' with Micky mouse qualifications here for the wrong reasons. Better than nothing some will say, but being complicit in a bankrupt system of teaching is unethical in my opinion.

They should hire this woman!

Exactly, get them talking first, grammar can be sorted out later.

Unfortunately as you say very, very few Thai teachers can speak English to any reasonable standard.

As for the foreign teachers, well I have met a few and I was not exactly stunned by them either. Certainly cheap Filipinos are not the answer, other than a small minority of quality English speaking, well educated foreigners the teacher needs to be an educated native English speaker imho.

The major problem is, other than the existing education system, is they will not pay for qualified teachers. I know many extremely competent native English speakers who live here that are not qualified English teachers (highly educated in other subjects), they would gladly follow a course to teach English, but why bother when you will get paid a pittance with no work permit?

Unfortunately this is just hot air again and nothing will change.

[thai3]

Had a star pupil round the other day aged 10 for help with her English. One of those books with mutil answer questions in where they have to write the answers in the spaces, always get good marks, can hardly speak a word sadly. The whole system needs scrapping and most of the books need throwing in the bin. No matter if the teacher for once is very good, the system they are in is obviously not working.

[Lunchbob]

There are many Thai and foreign teachers who could teach English if the entrenched educational hierarchy would step aside.

[cardinalblue]

So why do they do Thai voice overs of English movies?

In all my years of living in USA, I have never seen a foreign movie eliminating the native language...question if they really want to learn English...

Kind of like driving with parking lights at dusk..no benefit gain by doing it....

[petedk]

Some of the replies here give the very reason why a lot of Thais are afraid to speak English.

Comments like "What is a Hime book?" "oh , so you teached?" and "sins I..." are the very reasons why Thais are afraid to speak or write. You all know damn well what the poster means but you like to pick on small mistakes that have no meaning. You understand very well what the poster is trying to say.

I am British and take a certain amount of criticism but Thai people can't.

I have been teaching here for 20 years and I feel the biggest reason that Thais can't speak English is lack of confidence.

When I teach I usually let the students speak freely for the first few lessons and I don't correct their grammar mistakes.

Anyway, back to the main topic. Yes, Thais need to be encouraged from a very young age to speak English.

They shoodn't lern all the complicated rooles of gramma (is this a noun phrase? What is the pronoun in this sentence? and so on) but be aloud to speek and have fun ( after all, this is the way we learnt to speak English when we very young.)

Edited July 28, 2016 by petedk

[trainman34014]

But....But, they said that three years ago.....and six years ago...et al !

[Redline]

That would be amazing. And yes, understanding course content is generally required to pass any class~oh, I forgot that everyone passes....no problem

[JAG]

It could be done in three years but the students would have to be immersed in it i.e. everything in the school would have to be taught in English

The students would have to be immersed in the language out of school as well - virtually 24/7.

That simply isn't going to happen unless they go to be educated in an English speaking country. It's how I learnt my French - I lived in Belgium (Mons) for a year in my early teens.

There are umpteen schools offering various variations on " English Programs" where children are taught in English. I stood outside one such classroom recently; 32 ten year olds being lectured on science in an almost incomprehensible accent, from a textbook, the subject being (as far as I could make out) soil characteristics.I don't suppose any of them had the faintest idea about what the teacher was banging on about. I was waiting to teach them how to describe a bus trip to Chiang Mai in English - a topic with which which half of the class struggled. It took two lessons and a lot of patience, before we got there.

If you are going to have a fighting chance of making students proficient in everyday English then you need to give them regular lessons in which they learn and practice speaking the language, with proficient speakers teaching them. There are nowhere near enough such speakers amongst the current generation of Thai teachers. The pool of Native English Speakers who are interested, prepared and able to teach here for the salaries available is necessarily restricted. You are inevitably going to have to rely on Filipinos to do much of the work as they are both readily available and affordable.

Stick to the basics, simple everyday language applied to familiar situations. In that way you could start to make headway towards that target - but just don't try to teach the national curriculum in what is, to the children, a foreign language!

Edited July 28, 2016 by JAG

[Artisi]

So to do this they import Filipino "English" teachers who speak and write some American dialect of what is supposed to be English.

Why do they do this? Because they are cheaper to employ and the school hierarchy gets a big kickback from the employment agency.

So much for improving students English and eliminating corruption.

Some time back I was given a report card of one of the cousins who attends a fairly expensive school with all teaching in English, the first page of the report was a written overview of the child's progress and general detail of their schooling, without being too pedantic about the language there was 15 basic errors in English, this didn't improve on further reading of the individual subjects - need I say that, all the "English" teachers are Pilipino.

Was the report written by one of the Pilipino (sic) English teachers?

Regardless, there are good and bad teachers in and from every country. Your post makes it seem that all Filipino English teachers are bad.

Yes, written by the class Filipino teacher.

Little personal involvement with school level Filipino teachers but a fair amount with university level, in all fairness I must say that many are reasonable to good teachers but the majority lack a lot in "native" level skills in English, in saying this I must also say that in the main they are ahead of the Thai teachers when it come to conversational and day to day language usage and application.

[Artisi]

It could be done in three years but the students would have to be immersed in it i.e. everything in the school would have to be taught in English

The students would have to be immersed in the language out of school as well - virtually 24/7.

That simply isn't going to happen unless they go to be educated in an English speaking country. (It's how I learnt French - I lived in Belgium for a year in my early teens).

There are umpteen schools offering various variations on " English Programs" where children are taught in English. I stood outside one such classroom recently; 32 ten year olds being lectured in an almost incomprehensible accent, from a textbook, the subject being (as far as I could make out) soil characteristics.I don't suppose any of them had the faintest idea about what the teacher was banging on about. I was waiting to teach them how to describe a bus trip to Chiang Mai in English - a topic with which which half of the class struggled. It took two lessons and a lot of patience, before we got there.

If you are going to have a fighting chance of making students proficient in everyday English then you need to give them regular lessons in which they learn and practice speaking the language, with proficient speakers teaching them. There are nowhere near enough such teachers amongst the current generation of Thai teachers. The pool of Native English Speakers who are interested, prepared and able to teach here for the salaries available is necessarily restricted. You are inevitably going to have to rely on Filipinos to do much of the work as they are both readily available and affordable.

Stick to the basics, simple everyday language applied to familiar situations. In that way you could start to make headway towards that target - but just don't try to teach the national curriculum in what is, to the children, a foreign language!

I agree entirely about teaching everyday useful spoken language, the national curriculum with its grammar / rules is a complete waste of time.

Native English speaking kids of 6/7/8

years of age in their home countries wouldn't have a clue about the English grammar rules - but most are fluent in the language and until such times the educaters in this country wake up to the fact, learning English is doomed to failure.

[Artisi]

Some of the replies here give the very reason why a lot of Thais are afraid to speak English.

Comments like "What is a Hime book?" "oh , so you teached?" and "sins I..." are the very reasons why Thais are afraid to speak or write. You all know damn well what the poster means but you like to pick on small mistakes that have no meaning. You understand very well what the poster is trying to say.

I am British and take a certain amount of criticism but Thai people can't.

I have been teaching here for 20 years and I feel the biggest reason that Thais can't speak English is lack of confidence.

When I teach I usually let the students speak freely for the first few lessons and I don't correct their grammar mistakes.

Anyway, back to the main topic. Yes, Thais need to be encouraged from a very young age to speak English.

They shoodn't lern all the complicated rooles of gramma (is this a noun phrase? What is the pronoun in this sentence? and so on) but be aloud to speek and have fun ( after all, this is the way we learnt to speak English when we very young.)

Yep, you learned good without all the rules didn't ya, the rules and corrections can come later as the kids gain confidence and can at least have a grammatically incorrect conversation.

[anotheruser]

Well people can laugh all they want but any progress would be great. If they got even 10% of the way there some members might even be able to speak to their children.

[Artisi]

" There are 6,570 teaching vacancies at the elementary, 1,180 at high schools and 662 at special education institutions. To address the teacher shortage, the ministry has detailed a five-year plan to establish provincial school boards, equip teachers with skills relevant to the 21st century, and revise the teacher training system."

Shortage of teachers...................yet if one retired farang sits down with some kids upcountry or in his moobaan in the urban areas to help them improve what English they know, he can be arrested.

Funny innit ?

About as funny as hitting your thumb with a hammer. Yes, there are plenty of reasonably competent native speakers out there who are probably more than willing to put some time into teaching young kids basic everyday English. I for one would be more than happy to put some time aside to assist even though I don't consider myself a great teacher of young kids, it would certainly be better than what they currently experience.

But unfortunately we farang know nothing.

[Wilsonandson]

The minister is on a high after his holiday in Japan. Japan pays good money for English teachers and get good English teachers. Thailand pays peanuts for English teachers and get..... Minister of education best start with geography first. Most primary school students know the names of the planets of our solar system, but don't know where India is?

"No, that's Africa, try again".

Edited July 28, 2016 by Wilsonandson

[Moti24]

The learning curve of my college students:

They have studied English sins first year in primary school but when they get to the college they can still not write their names in English and their hand writing looks like something you expect form a student in 1^st grade.

I asked/teached them "How are you?" everyday for 5 months and then after the 2 month break (April-May) they didn't remember the meaning of the question or how to answer it.

Then I'm supposed to teach them subjects like "Principals of Animal Husbandry", "Agricultural Industry" and "Poultry Raising" in English... there is now way in hell that they will be able to speak English in 3 years!!!

"They have studied English sins first year in primary school..." -

"I asked/teached them "How are you?" everyday for 5 months and then after the 2 month break (April-May) they didn't remember the meaning of the question or how to answer it."

It's not surprising the students couldn't remember, with your spelling and understanding of regular/irregular verbs. College students that have an English speaking ability of grade 1 students! Good job! Have you considered another career?

[rodknock]

just more dog and pony show. wishful thinking, but will never happen. Thais can not even read Thai.!!

gave taxi driver address written in Thai. could not read it.

[tuanku]

And in other news, a prominent Head Teacher has announced how he plans to reform the Army. His ministry says " We intend to make them mainly responsible for the defense of the country and get them out of politics within three years"

Generally, Generals are not the right people to put in charge of Education.

[nellyp]

Smaller classes, room to move and do activities, support from the system, good teachers training the bad, investment in appropriate materials, encouraging kids to learn for themselves, and getting rid of the older ciques that seem to have so mucxh power. That's a start I think.

Oh, they should also make all current teachers be up to a relevant standard, and all English teacher students should have to be married to a native speaker lol