English Skills

[Nereus]

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/1 ... eive-boost

English skills receive boost

The government is urged to announce English as its second official language to spur students to achieve English proficiency and help the nation place itself on the road map to the Asean Community in 2015.

The announcement was made by a subcommittee on education standards development working under the committee on education reform.

The subcommittee hopes it will be a boost for English teaching and learning in schools, which is seen as falling short despite state efforts to encourage students to learn the language from as early as Prathom 1 level (Grade 1), chairman Warakorn Samakoses said.

The country only has Thai as its official language.

Mr Warakorn said the government needs to take a lead role in initiating change to help students get ahead in their language studies.

By making English another official language, he said, resources such as financial aid and extra personnel will be used in the development of teaching.

He said better skills in using English are also important to Thailand as a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which aims to bring its members together as one community in 2015.

Despite the growing importance of the Chinese language in the business sector, English is still considered the most influential language for international communication.

About 400 million people speak English as their mother tongue and 1.6 billion people use it as their second language, Mr Warakorn said.

In Asia, countries such as Malaysia, Vietnam, South Korea, Bhutan and China are eager to increase their development of English learning and teaching.

His group will discuss the proposal to make English an official language again before forwarding it to Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who chairs the committee on education reform, for further consideration.

[margaretcarnes]

The idea is sound - but Thailand would need to start taking the recruitment and conditions of native English speaking teachers much more seriously for it to work effectively across the board.

[Takiap]

The idea is sound - but Thailand would need to start taking the recruitment and conditions of native English speaking teachers much more seriously for it to work effectively across the board.

as if that will ever happen. If they did that, they would be admitting that native English teachers can teach English better than Thais, and we know that's just not true. How can anyone do anything better than a Thai would do it?

As I've said before, they're their own worst enemy. English teaching in LOS consists of, hello, goodbye, what is your name?, and where do you come from?

I remember reading once that in order to graduate from university in Thailand, you need to be able to speak English? Quite amazing then that so many doctors cannot speak a word of it.

Not having a dig, but.......

[Spitfire]

Thing is, that the government is only being 'urged' to do this by a subcommittee that is probably something to do with a thinktank submitting stuff to the 'Ministry of Speculative Ideas and Fortuitous Outcomes'.

Good idea really and would legitimize/recognize English teaching more so than now, but therein the problem is to be found, whether it'll be enacted upon is highly doubtful as it would be a 'tip-of-the-hat' towards foreign influence and workers, also highlighting the short comings of the Thais to teach it, giving the foreign teachers status etc which the dinosaurs don't want, maybe in 20-25 years.

The MoE is very resistant to change and it's a monster that protects/employs/speaks for/controls many, many Thai people that a large percentage of have life long contracts. They don't like change and are resistant to it, because it's their gig and like to run it how they see fit, which is one of the main problems here regarding the farcical situation that exists in so many schools or other facilities that are run as personal fiefdoms of the directors.

We all know how paranoid/xenophobic they are about westerners being given any recognition other than cash-cows to be taken advantage of and milked or extorted.

The modern Thai parent though does tend to like and want foreign teachers when it comes to certain subjects, hence to popularity of EP programs and teaching centers out of school hours, the likes of ECC and the like. Maybe it's inevitable in the future but the MoE etc will be dragged kicking and screaming into that reality, if it ever happens.

Don't hold your breath anyone.

[Korkenzieher]

As I've said before, they're their own worst enemy. English teaching in LOS consists of, hello, goodbye, what is your name?, and where do you come from?

You forgot the vast range of sentences of the form "Buffalo sick, send money", inclusive "mama sick send money", "papa sick send money" and "sister sick send money". They must learn them in school - where else? It appears to be a part of the standard curriculum!

[Spitfire]

Yeah Korky, and when it comes to teaching Thai, funny how every kid under 5 knows the Thai word for foreigner before they can count to 10 in their own language.

[richard]

Year guys it's pretty grim

My wife went to a local teaching place in HH to improve her English. " hours a day and 2 hours homework every night. Seemed good until I glanced through the text books. It was focused on bar,restaurants and hotel phrases.

Similarly when up in the village and waded through the wife's sons books it was all based on first contact with a farang.

Broached it with the local headmaster and his reply was 'that is what we are told to teach'

[Korkenzieher]

I have actually seen a book - slimline size, say 8 inch by 3 inch. Purple gloss cover. Title "English for Bar Girls". Not joking! May even have a (camera)photo of it some place.

[johnnyk]

Many bars have experienced teachers with many years of experience. They teach mainly oral English as well as a variety of other "hands-on" subjects.
A friend told me this.

[richard]

[Vital Spark]

My wife went to a local teaching place in HH to improve her English. " hours a day and 2 hours homework every night. Seemed good until I glanced through the text books. It was focused on bar,restaurants and hotel phrases. Similarly when up in the village and waded through the wife's sons books it was all based on first contact with a farang.

I can see where they're coming from. As far as your wife's concerned, they would presume that she needs English to travel abroad, that's why the focus is on those subjects. Young kids do need to know, primarily, how to make initial contact with a farang - then they can build on from there. It's far better than our next door neighbour's kids who peer through my gate shouting 'Farang, farang, farang'

VS

[richard]

Thanks VS

Never thought of it that way before. It makes sense

[tomosullivan]

sounds good

[margaretcarnes]

I have actually seen a book - slimline size, say 8 inch by 3 inch. Purple gloss cover. Title "English for Bar Girls". Not joking! May even have a (camera)photo of it some place.

That sounds like the book being sold around the bars a couple of years ago - there was a thread about it at the time.
The only 'serious' English for Thais textbook I've ever looked at was being used by a girl in Bangkok over 10 years ago. I don't know the title - but it used seriously dated English vocabulary of the 'pray accompany me to the opera Mr D'Arcy' style.
And if you think about it, it was the Victorian upper class style of English which Rama V considered to be so important for Thai people to learn. Times have changed, and so should the style of English teaching.

[Korkenzieher]

When I lived in Singapore (about 1993 for about 6 months) I was seeing an Indonesian girl and her English text books were exactly of that type - a hugely stylised form of English, and from an era where colonials were encouraged to view England as some kind of Nirvana - a privileged place beyond their reach. I think she got them from the British Council, though they might have been some age already by that time. Thank God that the teaching of English has moved on a bit, with the pretty much standardised form of TEFL being more or less universal now.

There are quite a few decent Thai to English books to be had in any reasonably sized SE-ED shop - I went looking on someones behalf, who actually wanted Thai to French. Languages other than English are very poorly provided for indeed, from what I saw.