Teaching of English to be ramped up

[PeteC]

I applaud the effort but at the end of the day, or the year in this case, I doubt that we'll see any result statistics. The Thai teachers need to be taught first and that's a huge program in itself. I can't see most students receiving a great benefit from all this, especially if the standard Thai system of a pass grade of 55 will be touted as a success. Pete

Teaching of English to be ramped up
The Nation December 19, 2011 1:00 am

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/nationa ... 72151.html

Students will be encouraged to speak English every week as part of the English Speaking Year 2012 project.

"At least one day per week, teachers and students must use English in communications through various activities," Education Minister Woravat Auapinyakul said last week.

The project will kick off on December 26 with cooperation from foreign embassies and other institutions, said Sasithara Pichaicharnnarong, permanent secretary of the ministry.

Woravat said the project would prepare Thailand for the advent of the Asean Economic Community in 2015.

The English Speaking Year project would stimulate greater use of the international language by students in all public schools, he said.

"For example, there will be English corner or English village. Or students will be sent to receive training as guides," he said.

The permanent secretary has been assigned to consult with the other agencies to provide training for teachers in organising activities for promoting English speaking.

The teacher training will be provided by the Basic Education Commission, Vocational Education Commission and Private Education Commission.

Practising English speaking would be given priority before studying grammar.

Sasithara said the project would be launched nationwide with the training of teachers so that they could communicate in English.

Teachers would join activities of foreign embassies or foreign institutions as well as receive training from representatives of Englishlanguage institutions and international schools.

The ministry would persuade teachers to participate in the project by surveying schools' readiness and offering rewards for successful schools.

The schools would be classified by colour - blue representing schools not ready, green fairly ready and pink very ready.

Teachers at pink schools might be rewarded with training in other Asean countries or the chance to go on fieldtrips to the countries, she added.

[dtaai-maai]

Fluffy nonsense unfortunately.

Practising English speaking would be given priority before studying grammar.

This makes a lot of sense and I'd like to accept it at face value, but practising speaking requires someone competent to speak with.

Announcing an English Speaking Year (and I'm sure this is the first any teacher has heard of it) a week before it's supposed to be launched is symptomatic of the patchwork approach to education here.

It is broke. Fix it. Properly!

[Spitfire]

Yes, it also doesn't make any specific reference to your average foreign teacher, I suppose 'foreign language institutions' might mean the British Council and such like, and almost sounds as if it implies that the students will have a day a week with their Thai teacher speaking English which brings us back to DM's point about having someone competent to speak it with in the first place.

There is no quick fix to all the problems the education system obviously has here and these sudden ideas promoted like this, a week or two before the start date, are just farce.

Ministry of La La Land at it again by the sound of it...........well intentioned but hopelessly out-of-touch with reality.

[Vital Spark]

I totally agree with what both DM and Spitfire have written about the ability of most school teachers. Most of the primary and high-school Thai teachers I know are over-worked and underpaid (for the amount of hours they work). The government will never be able to upgrade the standard of English taught in schools unless they offer a competitive salary. The best English speakers are drawn to the private sector, and who can blame them?

I did like the last little paragraph about 'field trips' for the pinkies. I think it should read 'free jollies' for the schools who have friends in high places. I doubt if any teacher from a small rural school could get a sniff at this potentially wonderful opportunity.

VS