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

[clockman]

An empty bucket, makes the most noise!

[MartinL]

I have a young trainee English teacher living next door. I've known her 7 years and our families get on well - she's related to my wife in some way. I've told her many times that, if she wants to practise her English, she's welcome to come to our house at any time. So far, she hasn't bothered. Maybe I should have spoken to her in Thai.

My teacher wife - not (officially) a teacher of English - has a number of friends who are English teachers. With one or two exceptions, they're reluctant to speak English with me beyond "Hello. How are you? Where do you come from?" type of questions. Discussion of anything beyond the mundane is impossible. The sole English teacher at my wife's small rural school refuses to teach English - luckily for the students IMO - so that my wife, who has no English teacher training but uses English every day even if she's by no means fluent, has been nominated as the school's English teacher now. She's enthusiastic about English and tries hard but realises she's just a stop-gap and is really only introducing the subject to the kids with no long-term possibility of any more for them - she retires in 2 months and there won't be a replacement teacher of any sort when she goes because of falling pupil numbers.

A childhood friend of my wife trained in Thailand as an English teacher, went to Canada and lived there for about 30 years, raising 2 Canadian children and working in Canadian schools as a teacher. As you might imagine, her English was great with what sounded to me like a good North American accent. Her husband died & she returned to Thailand to seek work as an English teacher. She'd become Canadian to the extent that she preferred speaking English to me rather than Thai with her friends from her youth. She's back in Canada now because no school would hire her to teach English - they wanted a foreigner apparently, not a fluent Thai. When she returned to Canada, she told me she had no intention of returning to Thailand.

One of the best potential English teacher I've met here was my former Thai teacher. Early 20s, she taught herself good, colloquial English after being thrown out of school for getting pregnant so no leaving certificate - and therefore no chance of getting a job teaching English no matter how well she spoke - although she was working on that with a view to studying English at University. She found jobs that involved her dealing with foreigners - no, not in bars - and used that to improve her language skills. She was (is?) a very intelligent girl and eager for knowledge (a rare thing among country girls, IME) and would have walked through an English degree. I often wonder where she went with her studies.

I thought about teaching English - didn't get beyond 'thinking about it' - at a local Catholic school when I first came to Thailand. One of the English teachers I met there had taught my stepson English when he attended the school 25+ years ago. She couldn't put two words together in English and make it sound sensible. The Head of English didn't speak any English at all!!

I've helped two undergraduate engineering students (my uni. subject at Masters level) & a veterinary student with their English - wouldn't dream of teaching them, of course - by just sitting and talking about their subject on a one-to-one basis. Really enjoyed that and there was a lot of enthusiasm from all of them but teaching schoolkids? No thank you!! BTW, all of those uni. students were girls - a significant factor in their eagerness to learn, I think.

Edited July 28, 2016 by MartinL

[akampa]

I must say and I am not disagreeing with what has been written here but the school my daughter attends (a government school)has a program that has teachers from the Philippines and also Thai that only speak English through out the day starting with assembly in the morning. You do have to pay for this privilege, but not so much as to exclude even the low wage earners. So there is still a chance for kids to speak and write English but in 3 years I`m not so sure ,probably 5 to 10 years is more realistic .I

[Gweiloman]

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!!!

No disrespect meant but I hope that you were not teaching them English as such.

[Gweiloman]

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.

You exhibit the same degree of narrow mindedness as some of the Thai schools that poster MartinL pointed out.

Are you saying that only native English speakers can teach English effectively? I'll wager that there are a lot more non-native English speakers who speaks English better than the world's combined population of native English speakers and they sure as hell were not necessarily taught by native speakers.

[Hawk]

" the ministry aims to make students proficient in everyday English within three years."

It will never be achieved even in 30 years.

[JAG]

As usual they get the cart before the horse.The first thing that needs to be done is do an official translation of Thai to English then everyone can teach English as it relates to Thai.

Need to have English subtitles on all T.V. programs so students can relate what they have learned back to Thai. I would think most students don't have anyone in the home who speaks English to help them learn.

There is many expats here teaching English but they are all from different countries so they teach a version which applies to them not English English!

Most important everyone needs to be singing from the same Hyme Book.

Hyme Book? Is that a pornographic text or the religious book of the Jews??

"Sins primary school", " hyme book", I wonder if someone has invented a predictive text app for Philippine English?

[dageurreotype]

As usual they get the cart before the horse.The first thing that needs to be done is do an official translation of Thai to English then everyone can teach English as it relates to Thai.

Need to have English subtitles on all T.V. programs so students can relate what they have learned back to Thai. I would think most students don't have anyone in the home who speaks English to help them learn.

There is many expats here teaching English but they are all from different countries so they teach a version which applies to them not English English!

Most important everyone needs to be singing from the same Hyme Book.

Agree with you - no dubbing but only Thai subtitles on any program is an easy start.

The difficult part is to change the dinosaur that is Thai education system.

They might also equalize the price of English language books, or at least substantially lower the disparity in cost AND make them more readily available. From memory, my country doesn't charge a premium for books in foreign languages.

[greenchair]

Oh no, I just wet myself ???

[WhizBang]

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

Oh please. Get real.

[WhizBang]

I'm seem to remember that last year questions were raised about the standard of English ahead of the start of the AEC and it was claimed if would be sorted out in a year.

Sorry I can't be more specific.

At least LoS is consistent as they make unrealistic claims and set unrealistic deadlines then make no attempt to achieve them.

You got that right.

All talk and no action.

[NCC1701A]

learning a second language is difficult for most people.

you have to teach the kids from birth. not starting at 10 years old.

[Thaddeus]

There goes another flying pig!

Carrying a fake LV handbag.

[BaldPlumber]

What your name?

Where you stay?

How long you here?

You buy me one dink?

I go which you

Job done.

[cockatoowho]

They have a never ending supply of oxymorons' spewing out a continuous stream of propaganda of which lazy, inept media organisations are only to happy to publish.

[evadgib]

[bluebluewater]

Stupid Alert! Thai guy with a microphone in front of his face!

[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 Philipino.

Edited July 28, 2016 by Artisi

[mtls2005]

The absolute last thing the amart want is an educated phrai. Next thing you know they'll be reading things in English they shouldn't.

[superfletch]

learning a second language is difficult for most people.

you have to teach the kids from birth. not starting at 10 years old.

Good point, especially if you take into account the so-called 'Critical Period' which hypothesizes that as second language acquisition is reliant on the brain's neuroplasticity, the cut-off age for effective language acquisition is around puberty (Lenneberg, 1967).

Nonetheless even if you don't subscribe that hypothesis, as the Thai sound system has so many differences to English, transference inevitably takes place whereby English sounds are substituted for the nearest sounding Thai phoneme - resulting in a very Thai sounding version of the language.

To remedy this, exposure to native English speakers (and non-native speakers who are able to model the sounds effectively) is essential from early years learners upwards, with an ongoing focus on phonology, so that by adulthood, the mouth has had a chance to become accustomed to making these foreign sounds.

However, as Thailand expects its own teachers to be effective language teachers, then one can suppose that it will never improve on its 14th position out of the 16 Asian countries of the EF English Proficency Index (2015).

[Gweiloman]

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.

[ratcatcher]

" 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 ?

[zyphodb]

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.

You exhibit the same degree of narrow mindedness as some of the Thai schools that poster MartinL pointed out.

Are you saying that only native English speakers can teach English effectively? I'll wager that there are a lot more non-native English speakers who speaks English better than the world's combined population of native English speakers and they sure as hell were not necessarily taught by native speakers.

While I agree with you that there are some good Filipino & fillipina teachers Gweiloman, & some good Non Native speaking English teachers in general, I'll take your wager about there being more good NN speakers than the combined Native speakers in the world as it is ridiculous...

​ And all you have to do to prove my point is look at the bad grammar you, yourself have used in your reply above...

[zyphodb]

Double post deleted....

Edited July 28, 2016 by zyphodb

[zyphodb]

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.

You exhibit the same degree of narrow mindedness as some of the Thai schools that poster MartinL pointed out.

Are you saying that only native English speakers can teach English effectively? I'll wager that there are a lot more non-native English speakers who speaks English better than the world's combined population of native English speakers and they sure as hell were not necessarily taught by native speakers.

While I agree with you that there are some good Filipino & fillipina teachers Gweiloman, & some good Non Native speaking English teachers in general, I'll take your wager about there being more good NN speakers than the combined Native speakers in the world as it is ridiculous...

​ And all you have to do to prove my point is look at the bad grammar you, yourself have used in your reply above...

[Squigy]

Maybe the World should learn to speak Thai. Problem solved.

[Jimbo2014]

Sounds like he's been clicking on too many of those 'learn English in two week' links on pornhub. He would struggle with that objective in England let alone thailand. ???

[Jimbo2014]

Sounds like he's been clicking on too many of those 'learn English in two week' links on pornhub. He would struggle with that objective in England let alone thailand. ???

[Gweiloman]

Double post deleted....

You actually posted thrice.......

[Gweiloman]

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.

You exhibit the same degree of narrow mindedness as some of the Thai schools that poster MartinL pointed out.

Are you saying that only native English speakers can teach English effectively? I'll wager that there are a lot more non-native English speakers who speaks English better than the world's combined population of native English speakers and they sure as hell were not necessarily taught by native speakers.

While I agree with you that there are some good Filipino & fillipina teachers Gweiloman, & some good Non Native speaking English teachers in general, I'll take your wager about there being more good NN speakers than the combined Native speakers in the world as it is ridiculous...

​ And all you have to do to prove my point is look at the bad grammar you, yourself have used in your reply above...

What's the population of native English speakers in the world? Half a billion? Not all of whom actually speaks good English either. What's the world's population? 7.4 billion, give or take. I reckon my odds are fairly good.