Bilingual schooling planned to boost English proficiency

[snoop1130 9,795]

Bilingual schooling planned to boost English proficiency

By The Nation

 

Nataphol Teepsuwan

 

Education Minister Nataphol Teepsuwan said on Friday (November 8 ) that a bilingual curriculum – in Thai and English – would be in place from kindergarten up at more than 2,000 district schools starting in academic year 2020.

 

The aim is to develop children’s language skills so the country can be more competitive in international fields, he said.

 

Nataphol noted that representatives of other nations and the International Monetary Fund at the just-ended Asean Summit in Bangkok said Thailand had the potential to develop further substantially, but it needed, among other improvements, better education management.

 

“The ministry is currently developing a plan to resolve the issue and hopes it will be able to meet the needs of the labour market, while the country has to prepare for the rise in investment resulting from opening up in the future,” said Nataphol.

 

He said 2,000 district schools initially would have to provide bilingual lessons in the first semester of 2020.

 

“We have already prepared the budget to support the programme through to 2021,” he said.

 

The Office of the Vocational Education Commission will meanwhile establish a centre where students can be trained to global standards in specific fields.

 

The English Proficiency Index puts Thailand 74th in the world following declines for three consecutive years. It’s marked as having “very low proficiency”.

 

The compilers of the index found Thais in the North and Central region have better English skills than those in the Northeast and South. 

 

Bangkokians ranked highest for English proficiency, followed by residents of Nonthaburi, Chiang Mai, Chon Buri and Khon Kaen.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30378184

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2019-11-08

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[cmarshall 1,982]

Where will they get the teachers?

[taichiplanet 3,615]

too late, better off teaching Chinese or Hindi,

[Fred white 1,179]

Hope they do better than some of these private schools I've got grand kids that go to a school that advertises English in all classes and there's a sign when you drive in that says English only . They can barely hold a conversation

[Momofarang 1,168]

14 minutes ago, cmarshall said:

Where will they get the teachers?

On the Subcontinent obviously, there there are as many English speakers as in the rest of the World.

[Slip 3,150]

34 minutes ago, cmarshall said:

Where will they get the teachers?

From non-native speaking countries, just as, for the most part, they do now.

[Mango Bob 6,508]

49 minutes ago, cmarshall said:

Where will they get the teachers?

They can't afford it if they have to pay health insurance.

[cmarshall 1,982]

33 minutes ago, Slip said:

From non-native speaking countries, just as, for the most part, they do now.

Which has, so far, proved so successful.

[jaltsc 9,223]

 "...a bilingual curriculum – in Thai and English – would be in place from kindergarten up at more than 2,000 district schools starting in academic year 2020."

 

If this prediction is as accurate as the decline in road fatalities, the students' English vocabulary will now be doubled by adding "gooooodbye" to "hallo". Perhaps they should combine English with sex education, since the most proficient English speakers appear to be school dropouts working in bars. 

Edited November 8, 2019 by jaltsc

[Slip 3,150]

4 minutes ago, cmarshall said:

Which has, so far, proved so successful.

In fairness it is only in the last 5-10 years that the the native speakers have been squeezed out.  I'm not sure it was working that well back then either.  Those were the days that any Tom, Dick or Harry could work as a teacher just because they were white.  SSDD.

[cmarshall 1,982]

2 minutes ago, Slip said:

In fairness it is only in the last 5-10 years that the the native speakers have been squeezed out.  I'm not sure it was working that well back then either.  Those were the days that any Tom, Dick or Harry could work as a teacher just because they were white.  SSDD.

I am not making the assumption that the poor results to date have been due to the quality of the teachers, but an expansion of the English teaching program of this size is going to require a lot of additional manpower.  The first step would be to devise a recruitment plan.  Perhaps they have one, but since the article didn't mention it, I have my doubts.

[mok199 11,335]

If it were only that simple....

[Slip 3,150]

54 minutes ago, cmarshall said:

I am not making the assumption that the poor results to date have been due to the quality of the teachers, but an expansion of the English teaching program of this size is going to require a lot of additional manpower.  The first step would be to devise a recruitment plan.  Perhaps they have one, but since the article didn't mention it, I have my doubts.

I am suggesting that as the country is already awash with Filipino teachers it could be achieved with a little extra investment.

 

I agree entirely that the chances of such a plan existing are less than high.

EDIT: And apologies cmarshall.  I had not specifically mentioned that example, which was kind of central to my point.

 

Edited November 8, 2019 by Slip

[Orton Rd 15,717]

 

Pretty sure I read about 4 years ago the govt did a survey of all Thais teaching English and found only a handful were actually fluent in it, many cannot actually speak it at all. Just a guess but that might be a bit of the problem.

[EricTh 2,530]

8 minutes ago, Orton Rd said:

 

Pretty sure I read about 4 years ago the govt did a survey of all Thais teaching English and found only a handful were actually fluent in it, many cannot actually speak it at all. Just a guess but that might be a bit of the problem.

 

Not true. My classmates competed with native English teachers who had years of experience teaching English in Thailand.

 

One position had many applications. There is an oversupply of native English speakers, most of them doing those short TEFL courses.

Edited November 8, 2019 by EricTh