Three quarters of Thai English teachers are only at elementary level - or worse

[rooster59]

Three quarters of Thai English teachers are only at elementary level - or worse

 

Image: Newswit

 

The Thai Ministry of Education are entering into a joint collaboration with the British Council after standards among Thais teaching English in the country's school were found to be appalling. 

 

On a European scale 75% of Thai English teachers rated only A2 that is elementary level or worse. A1 is described as "starter".

 

This is based on the CEFR or Common European Framework of Reference for languages. 

 

Level C2 is the highest - "mastery" but few got anywhere near that. 

 

Some 30 "master trainers" - Thais who have good ability in English - are being employed to train 17,000 of the nation's 40,000 English teachers at Primary and Secondary level. 

 

The course is being overseen by the British Council, the UK's international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities.

 

The aim - as reported by Newswit yesterday - is to promote real communication with less reliance on learning by rote.

 

Children will be taught how to actually speak English - rather then just learn vocabulary and grammar. 

 

But first comes the training of the teachers who will then go back to their schools to put it into practice. 

 

Source: Newswit

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2018-09-29

[bluesofa]

10 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

The Thai Ministry of Education are entering into a joint collaboration with the British Council after standards among Thais teaching English in the country's school were found to be appalling.

I saw the headline and my heart missed a beat. I thought for a minute it was a government spokesman saying this.

It's always said that the first step to solving a problem is to first admit it exists.

It seems a "foreign devils" report, but, having said that the Ministry of Education 'seem' to be doing something about it:

 

15 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

first comes the training of the teachers

It should be interesting to see how that works out.

 

[NCC1701A]

28 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

But first comes the training of the teachers who will then go back to their schools to put it into practice.

what a concept. groundbreaking.

[damascase]

That sounds like a good initiative! I have no personal experience with Thai English language teachers but I know a couple of Thais - one at University entrance level, the other one studying English at a university (3rd year) to become a teacher - who, after six and more years of English, still are not able to conduct a simple conversation. It is all about correct grammar etc., but nobody teaches them to actually speak the language.

[George Bowman]

30 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

after standards among Thais teaching English in the country's school were found to be appalling. 

My very first job in Thailand was at prestigious university in Bangkok. I lasted a year before I quit and here is why. Everybody passed and very few students or staff could speak passable English.

 

The first time I was introduced to my peers the conversation lasted just a few minutes. At that time, my Thai skills were non-existent and the Thai professors struggled with English. Initially, I put the lack of English conversational skills down to embarrassment, but sadly that was not the case.

 

Most of these teachers had gone through years of the Thai educational system and had graduated their respective universities with an advanced degree in English. And they couldn't carry on a conversation.

 

But they had all passed…

[trainman34014]

Training enough decent Teachers here will take years; then getting them positioned in the School's around the country will take more years and by then everyone will have forgotten what they were supposed to be doing anyway !

[damascase]

2 minutes ago, trainman34014 said:

Training enough decent Teachers here will take years; then getting them positioned in the School's around the country will take more years and by then everyone will have forgotten what they were supposed to be doing anyway !

So it is better to leave it as it is, is that your opinion?

[ozmeldo]

C2 lol that is a very high standard!! I've only had one C2 a and few C1 students. The gsp between B2 and C1 is enormous.

 

Oftenf or IELTS snd cefr the overall score gets dragged down by the writing component. I'd be happy if avg kids left school studying English standard as B1+-B2.

 

They need to grab fresh university grads, send them abroad for BA/MS in Education. Finland, Singapore, UK, US and Hong Kong. Let them loose to train newly minted education majors. Use competent foreign teachers as LS teachers and trainers.

 

Training a Thai teacher over 35 is a waste. Habits set and they are already burned out.

 

British council has nothing to offer, especially if it's like the last big training program which was nothing more than a bunch of tired TEFL games in a booklet. They are so out of touch it's not even funny. Their LinkedIn feed is so yesteryear. Snoredom.

[bluesofa]

3 minutes ago, damascase said:

That sounds like a good initiative! I have no personal experience with Thai English language teachers but I know a couple of Thais - one at University entrance level, the other one studying English at a university (3rd year) to become a teacher - who, after six and more years of English, still are not able to conduct a simple conversation. It is all about correct grammar etc., but nobody teaches them to actually speak the language.

Absolutely.

I was asked by our local school if I would be interested in having informal English conversational practice with the kids. I'd love to, but turned it down, as I don't want to be deported.

The over-heavy bureaucracy just can't see what it's missing - and for free too.

 

[from the home of CC]

If the students don't pass, it's a loss of face for the teachers which in turn becomes a loss of face to the people who hired the teachers. A circle of shame for everyone with the student that loses the most, 

[darksidedog]

The problem is that the country does not want to invest the money needed to really educate their children, or admit that they really need foreign staff to be able to do it properly.

[NCC1701A]

38 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

The course is being overseen by the British Council,

so Thais will sound like a BBC announcer like many people who learn English from a UK person or will they sound like this?

 

 

[PatOngo]

43 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

 Some 30 "master trainers" - Thais who have good ability in English - are being employed to train 17,000 of the nation's 40,000 English teachers at Primary and Secondary level. 

 

 

That equates to 566 teachers per "master trainer"...… no reason that won't work. ????

Nice to know 30 people in a population of 65.000.000 have a good ability in English.

[ozmeldo]

12 minutes ago, PatOngo said:

 

That equates to 566 teachers per "master trainer"...… no reason that won't work. ????

Nice to know 30 people in a population of 65.000.000 have a good ability in English.

 

I could train 600 teachers a year. Not certain Thais have the technical and time management skills even if they do aquire the education and training capacity.

 

 

[Spidey]

14 minutes ago, NCC1701A said:

so Thais will sound like a BBC announcer like many people who learn English from a UK person or will they sound like this?

 No, they'll sound like this:

 

 

[Gecko123]

I knew it was pretty bad, but didn't know it was that bad.

 

I've taught in a number of government schools, and one thing that always struck me was that rarely, if ever, would Thai English teachers ever show interest in practicing their English with me, sitting in on my classes, or picking my brain about grammar or vocabulary questions. The school administrators lacked the language skills to even evaluate English competency.

[ostyan]

If I am not mistaken exactly the same findings and plan were published three years ago... or four...

[thequietman]

Show of hands ........... anyone surprised? anyone?

 

Surely somebody must be surprised!

 

No? Anyone? Anywhere? No ?

 

That's a no, then.

[AlfonsV]

It is just ridiculous. Such amazing insights are published almost yearly. Some 2 years ago with almost the same words and with the same ideas how to tackle this desaster. And from my own observation I recognized the poor or not existing English skills since 3 decades. There brains suffer from alcohole, drugs and motorcycle accidents without helmets.

[My Thai Life]

This shouldn't surprise anyone. Actually it confirms the profile in my teacher training classes.

 

Sad too that most farang teachers here are not even at A1 level Thai, and most of those that claim to be fluent can't read or wite Thai at all. That's why they are usually so ineffective in Thailand.

 

[Irishrogue]

My 6 year old son had an English homework and the question was.

 

"in the following sentences indicate the grammatically incorrect words". He could not read the question and was therefore incapable of providing an answer. This same teacher deemed that my grammar was incorrect and I know she cannot determine the difference between a subjugated verb and a banana tree.

 

I agree with previous comments that they should teach how to speak the language before even attempting to teach grammar.

[baansgr]

When I was at school, our French teacher was French, our German teacher was German and our Italian teacher was Italian. Why oh why do they hire Flippers, Africans, Dutch and an assortment of unqualified oddball staff that have a crappy ology degree that is worthless, lets face it, most of these wouldnt get a job much better than a call centre op. There are thousands of well educated mature NES retired in this country that would be beneficial to teaching English, yet are cast aside. Simple solution with outstanding results within a few years. No WP required. easy peasy lemon squeasy

[DoctorG]

Just for comparison, I taught at 2 Chinese universities. My regular students were all good but my English Majors were brilliant, better in fact than most Westerners. Good conversations about literature and world affairs.

[Spidey]

2 minutes ago, baansgr said:

When I was at school, our French teacher was French, our German teacher was German and our Italian teacher was Italian. Why oh why do they hire Flippers, Africans, Dutch and an assortment of unqualified oddball staff that have a crappy ology degree that is worthless, lets face it, most of these wouldnt get a job much better than a call centre op. There are thousands of well educated mature NES retired in this country that would be beneficial to teaching English, yet are cast aside. Simple solution with outstanding results within a few years. No WP required. easy peasy lemon squeasy

 

When I was at school, my French teacher was Irish. Couldn't understand him when he spoke English or French. My father was a fluent French speaker and spoke to him in French at parents evening. Neither of them could understand a word the other was saying.

[Hayduke]

 

Are all these government drones issued their 'James Bond villain' outfits...or do they have to buy their own?

 

 

[Emster23]

Now someone needs to explain what "3/4" means....

Still think they should hire bar girls to teach English, poor speakers but often much better at the lingo than Uni grads. On the job trained, with lots of practice...

[OmarZaid]

2 hours ago, damascase said:

So it is better to leave it as it is, is that your opinion?

the answer is to train only those with an aptitude for the language --- trying to train everyone is just plain foolish

[baansgr]

15 minutes ago, Spidey said:

 

When I was at school, my French teacher was Irish. Couldn't understand him when he spoke English or French. My father was a fluent French speaker and spoke to him in French at parents evening. Neither of them could understand a word the other was saying.

Exactly my point. 

[Spidey]

Just now, baansgr said:

Exactly my point. 

 

French was the only "O" level I failed, but that was probably due to the fact that after my Father had caused him to lose "face" he found an excuse to ban me from his French lessons.

[Assurancetourix]

21 minutes ago, OmarZaid said:

the answer is to train only those with an aptitude for the language --- trying to train everyone is just plain foolish

 Would like to see the same about driving in Thailand ;

sure that 99,9 % of minibus and coaches drivers cannot have their driving licenses .