Thai English Teachers fail the test....AGAIN!

[travelerjim]

It may come as no surprise to many of us who have visited and lived in Thailand,
But a recent test given to Thai Teachers of English nationwide...
found that .....

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/08 ... 045838.php (http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/08/21/national/national_30045838.php) .

Published on August 21, 2007

"English tutors failing the test"

Just one in 10 can score more than 60 per cent. Training is needed urgently to improve the standard of English teaching in Thailand,
senior government and private educationalists said after seeing the "highly unimpressive scores" in a recent test of English-language teachers.

Of the 14,189 teachers in 30 tourism-oriented provinces who took the test, 74.59 per cent scored less than 41 marks out of a possible 100,
according to an Office of Basic Education Commission (OBEC) report.

Only 9.94 per cent of the teachers scored between 60 and 100 marks, while 15.47 per cent managed to score between 42 and 60 marks.

The lowest score earned in the test - which allotted 30 marks for listening ability, 30 marks for reading, 20 marks
for writing and 20 marks for speaking - was two.

Among the 30 provinces from where the teachers who took the test came were Bangkok, Phuket, Chiang Mai, Sukhothai and Chon Buri.

The test was conducted jointly by OBEC and Ramkhamhaeng University as a follow-up to a previous one
conducted four years ago in which 90 per cent of English-language teachers also did poorly.

The OBEC report described English teaching in Thailand currently as a "failure", and cited the lack of
direct education in teaching English for local teachers as the main reason.

Asst Prof Chaleosri Phiboolchol, chairperson of the English-language Teachers' Association of Thailand, said most of the approximately 500,000 English teachers in government and private schools at primary and secondary level "were made to do their jobs" without basic qualifications or proper training. "

more.....

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This report comes as no surprise to me, as I have talked with too many Thais over the past 8 years...
and even though they have had English classes each year they were in school....
taught primarily by their Thai Teachers for 6 or 9 or 12 years (if they have completed high school - it is 12 years)...
most young Thais after they leave school can speak little English...
and most have ended their schooling early by family pressures...
put out into the "world of work" - "send money home" with little chance for getting other than minimum wage jobs.

So sad!

TravelerJim

most young Thais after they leave school can speak little English...
and most have ended their schooling early by family pressures...
put out into the "world of work" - "send money home" with little chance for getting other than minimum wage jobs.It's what someone's "sufficiency economy" idea is all about - keeping the peasants in their place

[Geezer]

..

[Hmmm]

Someone opined recently in the international press that Thailand had the worst English language proficiency in all of south-east Asia. It may or may not be true, but it's near enough to true.

Those of you with bf's, look on it as an opportunity. Get him an English language qualification*, equip him with a cheap car, and the world of 20,000+ baht/month (entry level) jobs opens up.

* Unfortunately most Thais don't know good English skills from bad ones, so he'll need a piece of paper to impress employers, that is, a degree. They can be got quite cheaply from the Ramkhamhaeng degree factory. But he will have to go to class and sit exams. At the end or 3 or 4 years of study, he'll have (very) basic English literacy.

Then give him (or lend him the money for) something else that most job applicants don't have - a car - and he'll actually be a rare commodity in the Thai job market - an English speaker with his own transport. Forget about low-end service jobs, look at something like import-export - that is, an industry that really has to deal with the outside world, not just bluff its way through.

The powers-that-be may be preaching the sufficiency economy, but they don't practice it. They want to sell their goods to the world outside Thailand, most of which speaks English. And they need Thais to do it. There will never be enough spoilt rich kids who were sent away to western (ie real) universities to do these jobs. He doesn't even have to be Bangkok middle class. Qualified Isaan boys get these jobs too.

Forget about low-end service jobs, look at something like import-export - that is, an industry that really has to deal with the outside world, not just bluff its way through.You can always send me a PM (I'm in that glamourless field) but we tend to check out people with Ramkangheng degrees rather closely

[Hmmm]

we tend to check out people with Ramkangheng degrees rather closely

If I can add a footnote to my above post ...

Thai employment law is almost non-existent, allowing disreputable employers to entice innocent young graduates with job adverts like the following:

"Young men wanted. Gay preferred but not vital. The ugly need not apply. Suitably qualified applicants should contact The Colonel."

And if a 'casting couch' is mentioned, run !

[allieb]

Someone opined recently in the international press that Thailand had the worst English language proficiency in all of south-east Asia. It may or may not be true, but it's near enough to true.

Those of you with bf's, look on it as an opportunity. Get him an English language qualification*, equip him with a cheap car, and the world of 20,000+ baht/month (entry level) jobs opens up.

* Unfortunately most Thais don't know good English skills from bad ones, so he'll need a piece of paper to impress employers, that is, a degree. They can be got quite cheaply from the Ramkhamhaeng degree factory. But he will have to go to class and sit exams. At the end or 3 or 4 years of study, he'll have (very) basic English literacy.

Then give him (or lend him the money for) something else that most job applicants don't have - a car - and he'll actually be a rare commodity in the Thai job market - an English speaker with his own transport. Forget about low-end service jobs, look at something like import-export - that is, an industry that really has to deal with the outside world, not just bluff its way through.

And if this fails then bf's can always go back to prostitution, that is assuming he completely gave it up in the first place. The car will come in handy to pull higher class tricks and get bigger tips.

[Hmmm]

And if this fails then bf's can always go back to prostitution, that is assuming he completely gave it up in the first place. The car will come in handy to pull higher class tricks and get bigger tips.

You're such a softie.

[Lunchtime O'Booze]

reports about his sudden demsie were greatly exagerated :

A fight in a London street

Late one night this week I got into a black cab. The car hadn't moved and the driver seemed to explode in his seat - "Right, now you've got it coming!" he raged - and he stepped out into the road. He was focussed on another cab driver just ahead already out of his car and squared up to his attacker. There followed an amazing fist fight in which the two combatants alternated in securing the other in a headlock while punching the skull and face. Drama queens on the pavements screeched at them to stop while I crossed my legs. I was fascinated; I wanted to study the moves of violence, and the quite reckless desire to cause injury. I became fascinated also in observing my own failure at shock at this unusual spectacle. It was a moment of voyeurism of primitive behaviour, but a voyeurism primitive in itself. After a short minute the two disengaged, as if a bell had been rung, and returned to their fares. "He called me a fat fucking bald bastard," explained my driver. "He had it coming." Indeed he did. I cross-examined him closely on his life on the journey home and learnt much. A career change - his - would be advisable.

..from the delicious Madame Arctari who should be read religiously

http://madamearcati.blogspot.com/

[Art]

http://learn-thai-podcast.com/gfx/translations.jpg

Thai teachers of Thai-English striving for survival should take note of a new concept.

http://i691.photobucket.com/albums/vv278/AdobeRGB/TOK/Arriflex.jpg

When Chuen was Prime Minister back in the early 1990's he was quoted as saying that Thai's didn't need to learn the English language as "they had never been colonised" Enough said!.........He was also quoted as making the same statement when asked why, in the then new airport at D.M. all the advertising signs were mostly written in Thai when it was a 'International Airport'.........

:cheers:

An old thread, but I still can't help wondering if many of the "native language" English teachers would do any better, as well as whether the standard of foreign languages spoken by those schooled in the West is any better than the standard of English achieved in Thai schools.

[dab69]

An old thread, but I still can't help wondering if many of the "native language" English teachers would do any better....

don't judge everyone by yourself?

[gumblebee]

An old thread, but I still can't help wondering if many of the "native language" English teachers would do any better, as well as whether the standard of foreign languages spoken by those schooled in the West is any better than the standard of English achieved in Thai schools.

Have you even spoken to some of these Thai teachers of English? Most barboys speak better English than some teachers I've met.
Now I just have to hope my own English isn't too bad.

Have you even spoken to some of these Thai teachers of English?

Only in my partner's home village, which is hardly either modern or representative (up until less than 20 years ago, for example, the village had no running water or electricity and it still has no land-line phones). Despite that, much to my surprise, the teachers in both his junior school and the high school he attended briefly, some of whom had taught him when he was there, spoke very good English.


...and dab69, I never judge anyone by myself - I find it avoids disappointment.