Native English Teachers To Be Given Thai Fluency Tests

[GLCQuantum]

There is a lot of talk right now that the government are preparing a new requirement for a teacher's license being...after 3 years of stay in the Kingdom, native English teachers must be proficient in the Thai language (enough to pass their test).

The way they are putting it across is...

"If you don't have the ability to learn a language, how can you teach one?"

For myself, I think it's fair game. What do you think?

[TingTongJohn]

I think it is fair and I think they should be checking how fluent the teachers are in English at the same time.

[Bamboo Grove]

I am not a native English speaker but I did teach English in the fair land of Thailand in 1990-98. In those days we were required to take the grade six test in Thai language in order to get the work permit.

What I really think: it doesn't matter if you are a native speaker nor does it matter if you can master the Thai language. What matters is are you qualified to teach. Sometimes the schools hire teachers who are not teachers and no not how to teach. Being a native doesn't give anyone any qualifications.

[PeteC]

In an ESL class in my opinion not one word of Thai should be spoken....ever. How many teaching stories have we heard on here where little Somsak couldn't or wouldn't learn and the conversation had to revert to Thai. I think this new requirement may be because parents are complaining that their kids aren't learning any English, because teacher can't speak Thai!

How many of us have taken a foreign language class in our lives at high school or university level where nothing but the taught language is spoken. I have a few times.

Perhaps my approach is too tough. I could never teach anyway, I'd have them all tied to a post standing in a bucket ice water. Pete

EDIT: Forgot to note that daughter takes a TSL class at her IS and no English is spoken at all....ever.

[dtaai-maai]

"A lot of talk" usually means "yet another totally unfounded rumour". I suspect this is as likely to happen as every student in Thailand is to get a free 'tablet'.

Of course, its an excellent idea if they give the teacher a year off with pay to study Thai.

Pete's right, there should be no need to speak Thai in an English class. If you know Thai, it helps to understand the mistakes students make in English, but if they know you speak Thai, however poorly, they won't feel obliged to try to speak in English.

It would be more in the interests of the students to focus on how well Thai teachers of English speak English.

The idea that someone's ability to speak Thai could reflect how well they can teach English is such blatant nonsense that it would be funny if it wasn't quite dangerous. The only effect of such a requirement would be to increase the number of poorly qualified 'backpacker teachers' who stay for a year or two and then drift off elsewhere.

[TingTongJohn]

"A lot of talk" usually means "yet another totally unfounded rumour". I suspect this is as likely to happen as every student in Thailand is to get a free 'tablet'.

Of course, its an excellent idea if they give the teacher a year off with pay to study Thai.

Pete's right, there should be no need to speak Thai in an English class. If you know Thai, it helps to understand the mistakes students make in English, but if they know you speak Thai, however poorly, they won't feel obliged to try to speak in English.

It would be more in the interests of the students to focus on how well Thai teachers of English speak English.

The idea that someone's ability to speak Thai could reflect how well they can teach English is such blatant nonsense that it would be funny if it wasn't quite dangerous. The only effect of such a requirement would be to increase the number of poorly qualified 'backpacker teachers' who stay for a year or two and then drift off elsewhere.

But really is it a surprise if true as in many things it makes little sense in Thailand? Next will be you have to cook a Thai meal while singing the Thai national anthem.

[Dannie Boy]

I disagree about the comments about not speaking a word of Thai in an English lesson - when students are beginning to speak English and their vocabulary is virtually non-existent, the teacher will often need to explain certain meanings in Thai to be able to get the students to understand the meaning - they will never learn if all they can do is repeat like a parrot. Fair enough, as the learning increases, the need to revert to native language should reduce, but there may still be the occasional need to clarify understandings to ensure the subject matter is properly understood.

[dtaai-maai]

I understand what you mean DB, but, as usual, it depends.

Okay, we're talking about teaching English in Thai schools, so you are presumably talking about teaching young children.

Not my area of expertise at all. I would tentatively suggest that even GLCQ might know more about this topic than I do...

But how do you start with youngsters? To a degree all language learning is 'parrot fashion' - explanations come once the student has learned the basics. The problem in Thailand (I suspect) is that when kids are learning their basic vocabulary, they are only learning the individual words. They might know the meaning of 'cat', 'see' and 'can', but they don't know how to say "I can see a cat". We all hear this every day in shops and restaurants (and at home in many cases... ) - e.g. "I go market now/already/tomorrow/yesterday". You don't 'explain' this to 6-year-olds, you introduce it, a sort of 'dripfeed'. At least, I assume that's how it should work!

By the time we get these kids, when they have already completed primary and secondary education and are 18+, we spend most of our time trying to undo the ingrained errors of more than a decade of poor teaching. Those comparatively few students that have had a native English speaker in school (who is also a good teacher) stick out like a sore thumb, as do those very few that have lived abroad or come from Indian families. At this level, I'm inclined to agree that the lower quality (for want of a better word) students (the majority) get little or no benefit from a farang teacher - they don't understand and they don't give a toss.


EDIT: I'd add that unless a teacher is a natural linguist, he/she is unlikely to learn good enough Thai in a year or two of part-time study (while working as a full-time teacher) to be able to explain English grammar in Thai! And once you start, where do you stop? "Okay kids, no more Thai for the next 20 minutes, only English!" Yeah right...

[STEVE G]

I'm very poorly qualified to comment on the teaching of languages but it occurs to me that if someone tried to teach me Thai who had no English, it wouldn't be very productive. I can imagine that we might manage the words for blackboard, chalk, desk and chair but after that it might get a bit boring.

[dtaai-maai]

I'm very poorly qualified to comment on the teaching of languages but it occurs to me that if someone tried to teach me Thai who had no English, it wouldn't be very productive. I can imagine that we might manage the words for blackboard, chalk, desk and chair but after that it might get a bit boring.

A Russian, a German, an Italian, a Korean and a Frenchman walk into a language school and want Thai lessons. Should they all have to have English lessons first?

[STEVE G]

I presumed that native English teachers were teaching English to Thais, is that not always the case?

[dtaai-maai]

You're talking about learning Thai. Presumably an English teacher would have to go to a language school like anyone else.

EDIT: If you're a TEFL/TESOL teacher in the UK teaching English to students from different countries, you can't speak to them in their own language, regardless of where they come from, and there could be a dozen or more different nationalities and languages all in the same class. That was my only point.

[Nereus]

Sometimes the schools hire teachers who are not teachers and no not how to teach. .

Erm,
.......................................................
But you are otherwise correct. It is no different to teaching anything else, except that with English language people from different backgrounds and upbringing, introduce their own accents and pronunciations. Being a "teacher" of anything is part natural ability and part training, something that is sadly lacking in all fields in this country.

[HHTel]

When my Thai step-daughter went to school in England, she couldn't speak a word of English. Within 3 to 6 months she was speaking English almost as well as her classmates and surprise, surprise, there was no-one in the school that could speak Thai. She's been back in Thailand for some years now but speaks English like a native.

My English daughters, when moving to Thailand, entered school with no Thai knowledge and as expected, they were speaking Thai in a few months.

Do you need one language to teach another .,,,,,NO!

[dozer]

If we are talking about teaching at primary and secondary level, then yes I would say there is no need to use Thai in class.
I think that many who teach English here take advantage and focus more on learning Thai than teaching English.