Thailand embarks on program to ensure citizens speak English

[webfact]

Thailand embarks on program to ensure citizens speak English 
NATNICHA CHUWIRUCH, Associated Press

 

BANGKOK (AP) — With just one hour of English classes per week in primary schools, it's no surprise that most Thais have little to no ability to speak the language. The government wants to change that.

 

The Ministry of Education has embarked on a program to ensure that all primary schoolchildren are able to speak enough English to handle everyday situations within 10 years.

 

Deputy Education Minister Teerakiat Jareonsettasin unveiled a plan this week that calls for drastic changes to the English language curriculum in schools, including more classes, new textbooks and an intensive training program for top teachers who will become "master trainers" for other teachers.

 

A ministry official confirmed to The Associated Press the details of the plan, published in Thai media. The official cannot be identified under government rules. Teerakiat was not immediately available for comment.

 

"We picked 350 teachers who are considered to be the cream of the crop for English boot camp training," said the official.

 

From there, the best 28 teachers will be chosen as master trainers and will be spread out around the country to 18 English-teaching facilities where school administrators and educators in the nearby area can receive training from the centers.

 

The millions of tourists who visit Thailand each year usually face little difficulty in communicating because they mostly interact with hotel staff, salespeople in malls and markets, and other tourism-related staff who would have learned the language on the job. Some Thais who work for foreign companies also pick up English over the years. But the vast majority of Thais, especially in government offices, have virtually no English language skills.

 

Among 16 Asian countries surveyed, Thailand is ranked 14th in English abilities and 62nd out of 70 countries worldwide, according to the Education First Language Institute's 2015 English Proficiency Index.

 

This poses problems for Thailand as it seeks to achieve greater integration with the ASEAN Community, which was launched earlier this year and aims to increase business, social, cultural and employment opportunities among Southeast Asian countries.

 

Thai officials worry that Southeast Asian nations like the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Myanmar, which have better English language education, will have an edge when it comes to international business.

 

Under Teerakiat's program, Thailand's 18 training centers would be able to train 13,500 teachers. Eight of those centers would be set up by the end of 2016, and the remaining are slated to start next year.

 

The new standard for English teaching and learning will be based on the Common European Framework of Reference for Language, an international standard for language ability. The scale starts at A1 proficiency for beginners and ends at C2 for those who have mastered the language. Many Thai students have not even reached the A1 level, according to Teerakiat.

 

-- © Associated Press 2016-08-31

[orchidlady]

They were supposed to have done this last summer with British Council. What happened?

[ourmanflint]

this never gets old!

 

 

[colinneil]

When i saw this post i nearly spilt my glass of water

They are going to improve English speaking in schools !! joke of the week.

Most so called Thai English teachers cannot string a sentence together.

So what chance have the kids got????? NONE.

[z42]

How many times has this same nonsense been wheeled out in an ever so slightly (read negligibly) different banner?

It is seemingly a monthly thing at least. Empty rhetoric and little else

[ThaiRich]

 

[Pink Mist]

this talk has been going on for years, there have been a multitude of scams, the worst one I saw was the agencies coming into surin and a few other towns and that was a disaster.

the maximum age for an English teacher is to young, it stops retired teachers helping out

[Guest]

I'm curious how many hours do other non-English speaking countries teach English in primary and secondary schools? 

 

[ThaiRich]

 

[Cuchulainn]

Yawn. Here we go again!!

 

I sapeak Angrit litten but coming soon, I sapeak Angrit maak maak, loei.

Edited August 31, 2016 by Cuchulainn

[tonray]

4 minutes ago, oilinki said:

I'm curious how many hours do other non-English speaking countries teach English in primary and secondary schools? 

 

 

The article is incorrect. Students in government schools have at least 3 hours of English Instruction per week (Mattayom level). if they employ native English speakers, they provide 1 hour. There is usually 1 hour English Reading and 1 Hour English Grammar. Sometimes a writing class also. 

[Squeegee]

The stupid claim of "Within 10 years" shows how ridiculous these Thai tongue waggers are.

 

Hopefully most native English teachers have moved on from Thailand already so the Thais get a reality check.

[Gary A]

I have to agree that the government has a LONG way to go. Myself and a friend of mine are native English speakers. We met the head of the English teaching department and an English speaking Thai friend of ours. He asked us if we would be willing to help out his teacher friend by being in his class a couple times a week. I have no patience for kids and immediately declined. My friend was considering it. We were both shocked that the head teacher could no way speak intelligible English. My farang friend was given some sort of contract. It was in Thai. The teacher was not capable of telling my farang friend what the contract said. He then also declined. Without proper teachers, there is no chance for the kids.

[Mook23]

Sufficient english:

 

One hundred baht. 

You.  Pay.  Bill. 

Short time?

Suhtoopid farang. 

 

 

[DNPBC0]

"...... ensure that all primary schoolchildren are able to speak enough English to handle everyday situations within 10 years."

 

A little ambitious perhaps? Thais normally take rather longer than 10yrs to handle everyday situations, and many just give up  ... and that's in their language.

[freebyrd]

 

 

[soalbundy]

I read an article in an English newspaper that said 20% of British adults had the reading ability of 8 year old's, the worst in Europe, their inability was only surpassed by the USA so perhaps we shouldn't be too hard on the Thai's

[garyk]

Was on a Tuk-tuk the other day,  i speak a little Thai. I asked the driver what the route was. And a young girl that spoke perfect english answered me. I was floored. She told me she was an english teacher in Chiang Mai university and was just given a scholarship in linguistics. And was getting ready to leave the country. Needless to say a first for me. Ran across another english teacher in Lopburi that spoke extremely good english. Just saying some Thai's speak english very good.

[soalbundy]

1 minute ago, garyk said:

Was on a Tuk-tuk the other day,  i speak a little Thai. I asked the driver what the route was. And a young girl that spoke perfect english answered me. I was floored. She told me she was an english teacher in Chiang Mai university and was just given a scholarship in linguistics. And was getting ready to leave the country. Needless to say a first for me. Ran across another english teacher in Lopburi that spoke extremely good english. Just saying some Thai's speak english very good.

Same here with my step daughter's female English teacher, 40 years old, speaks excellent English and also visited a British teachers training college in Cambridge for 6 weeks ( they really are excellent,much better than ours, she said)

[Guest]

25 minutes ago, tonray said:

 

The article is incorrect. Students in government schools have at least 3 hours of English Instruction per week (Mattayom level). if they employ native English speakers, they provide 1 hour. There is usually 1 hour English Reading and 1 Hour English Grammar. Sometimes a writing class also. 

That is actually quite a lot. IIRC in Finland we had 2 hours English classes per week. Starting from 3rd or 7th grade, depending if we selected to learn Swedish as first or second extra language. 

 

Non-dubbed TV with subtitles helps a lot for kids to learn languages. 

[dhream]

Jing jing??? 5555555 and 555555555 s'more.

Shakespeare's ghost will be spotted drunk at Cascades in Nana before this ever gets off the freakin ground.

[PatOngo]

Well I guess the time has come for them to bite the bullet and learn English as the rest of the world is just to stupid to learn Thai....Khup Phum!

[Winniedapu]

Yup.

 

That'll work...

 

 

Winnie

[BuckBee]

You got to laugh lol .

Got a prime minister who had a privileged education (not my choice of words) yet a street hooker or smart arse in a tourist area 7/11 will be far more self educated in English.

We had huge problems employing thai uni deg staff with good english and our goals were quite low :-)

Should of started a decade ago, huge amount of free or cheap native speakers were available to assist teaching & conversation training & some where bloody good too, thai way as always messed it all up, awkward schools not wanting sort employment paperwork meant mainly undesirables stuck it out. Thai dislike of quality foreign teachers (higher standards & expect people learn something to get a degree) means progress will be slow if at all .

I learn't thai & I used a native thai teacher, thai's need do same with english, lets move forward,  not 'same same' before lol

 

[waldroj]

Thai officials worry that Southeast Asian nations like the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Myanmar, which have better English language education, will have an edge when it comes to international business.

 

Looks like they have a problem with the last few hundred years of history in the region too!

 

So, there now appears to be a positive side to British and Americian colonialism in SEA!

 

Trouble is, this will not equate to more NESTs here, unless we are talking about Ms Kabkorn's variety https://pkmngotrading.com/wiki/Onix_Nest_-_Sports_Authority_of_Thailand

[craigt3365]

22 minutes ago, oilinki said:

That is actually quite a lot. IIRC in Finland we had 2 hours English classes per week. Starting from 3rd or 7th grade, depending if we selected to learn Swedish as first or second extra language. 

 

Non-dubbed TV with subtitles helps a lot for kids to learn languages. 

I was in Sweden last year.  Front desk clerk spoke great English, with a British accent.  The other spoke great English with an American accent.  Why?  One watched British TV, the other American TV.  There are no English language shows on here that don't have subtitles.

 

I met a Thai English teacher several years ago.  I could barely understand her.  And she's teaching English!

[tbthailand]

as the largest ethnic group is Lao, I think they should all learn Isaan.

[lostinisaan]

"We picked 350 teachers who are considered to be the cream of the crop for English boot camp training," said the official.

 

From there, the best 28 teachers will be chosen as master trainers and will be spread out around the country to 18 English-teaching facilities where school administrators and educators in the nearby area can receive training from the centers.

 

The millions of tourists who visit Thailand each year usually face little difficulty in communicating because they mostly interact with hotel staff, salespeople in malls and markets, and other tourism-related staff who would have learned the language on the job

 

It's not just the lack of good English speaking Thai teachers that makes the whole system to a big joke.

 

  So, 28 Super teachers will finally change the whole system and will be "spread around" the country? 

 

   These people do not seem to know how it is to walk into a Thai classroom, even the grade one kids know that they can't fail.

 

   The two classes of grade six I've got for an hour a week, can't even write their names in English, they don't understand the easiest questions after "studying English" for more than five years......

 

 If there's a meeting at our school it's always conducted in Thai, nobody wants to lose face and that's where the problem is.

 

  How can teachers teach kids English if they can't even speak a few words in a meeting? 

 

  I know quite a lot of teachers who've got a Master's in English, but can't even understand very easy English. Our grade six teacher's using 95 % of Thai in her English lessons.

 

  After the CEFR dilemma where it turned out that most, or at least too many of them were under A 2 level, it was all in a sudden changed into successful and satisfying results? 

 

To understand what a CEFR A 2 level English is, it's about the level of a 6, or 7 year old native English speaking kid.

 

   Here's an article from last year where they thought it would "boost" the peoples' ability in English, but....

 

      https://asiancorrespondent.com/2015/04/thai-schools-adopt-european-framework-to-boost-english-language-proficiency/

 

    Even the little kids know that they'll come to the next grade and nobody fails. Would a foreign teacher really submit the grades the students deserve, the foreigner would be jobless.

 

     All students receive a minimum of at least 60 %, nobody fails and even students at high schools who never attended class, pass the final test.

 

    A classic example at a well -known high school in lower north east, when it turned out that too many grade 12 students failed their tests made by their foreign teachers and the ones from Bangkok.

 

    A one weekend "immersion camp" and all students had the right grades. I could go on and on and on, but that's not changing anything.

 

  Let the guys who want to become English teachers study abroad, they do come back and speak good English and they don't lose face anymore.

 

 Allow all students from grade one to 12 to ask their teachers questions if they don't understand a lesson. A teacher can't lose face by not knowing the right answer. 

 

Even Einstein made the statement : "I know that I know nothing.". Do Thais understand the meaning of the sentence? 

 

Let the students fail who think they can do what they want and let them repeat the school year and they'll change their attitude. 

 

  If  English teachers, including foreigners aren't able to score at least C 1 in a CEFR test, then don't let them teach English.

 

   If a flight attendant who usually speaks more than two languages has to have at least B +, how can a guy with a TOEIC under 600 be able to teach English? 

 

   But it seems that nobody really wants to know what's going on. Blame others for it. 

 

   

 

      

 

      

 

     

 

 

 

   

 

   

[fiddlehead]

I, for one,  am glad to hear they are going to make the effort.

I don't know if I feel more sorry for the kids that don't get good teachers, or the expats who make fun of it all.

 

 

[chainarong]

2 hours ago, colinneil said:

When i saw this post i nearly spilt my glass of water

They are going to improve English speaking in schools !! joke of the week.

Most so called Thai English teachers cannot string a sentence together.

So what chance have the kids got????? NONE.

Such dedication,  nuting wong wit tying