English in Thailand

Be warned, this is a VERY long post, so read it when you have time. If you never have time, then make some, lol!

Working in the school here has been an interesting learning experience for me and I am sure for the kids too. What I have to say, I hope is not taken as too critical but as an assessment from an outsider. As I talk with other English speaking foreigners that volunteer in schools, our assessment is the same. The Thai educational system is hurting. They truly need an overhaul form the top down. Clearly, my experience has been only in the English class, but it is indicative of what takes place in every class. I do want to say though, that I am sure the education in the major cities is better than in the country side, but the teaching and learning style is the same. I cannot speak for all Asian countries, but I think it is true, that the major form of learning is rote memorization. They are not taught to engage, think critically, or question. The teacher speaks, they repeat and memorize. I think a major part of not questioning is cultural, as it is seen as rude and intrusive to ask questions. In the classroom, the children operate as a collective. No one is singled out and when things are repeated it is done so as a group. This makes it hard to assess who knows what in those moments. The teachers do not ask questions and have children raise their hands to give an answer. I found that when children were singled out, they just about had a heart attack and I for the life of me could not figure out why! So you call on an individual, their immediate response is pure and absolute embarrassment, then they look to all of their classmates to give them the answer, which they gladly do. They do not allow one another the chance to figure anything out for themselves. They do not think for themselves, ever. There is the occasional student who is willing to stand out or think for themselves, but the majority do not, and this is reinforced or even taught by the educational system here.

Another major problem that I find in English as a second language is most of the teachers do not actually speak English! Yes, you read correctly, they do not speak English. So how then can they teach it? Good question, the answer, they can’t! People have graduated with bachelors and master’s degrees in English and do not speak it. They know grammar and spelling, but cannot communicate well. Could you imagine taking a foreign language in high school or college and the teacher cannot actually speak the language? I do not understand how these people even graduate without the ability to speak the language. It is clear that the requirements and standard are not set very high.  The curriculum is really bad too. Students are required to take English from 1^st grade through 12^th. However, the books that they are given from 1^st grade are written totally in English…OK, how are they supposed to understand anything in the book, including directions for activities? They don’t.

I see that there is a major disconnect with the students. They are not taught and do not realize that they can learn how to read English, instead of memorize words. The way you learn to read any language is to learn their alphabet and the sounds of each letter. All of the sounds together make a word. They have to do it for Thai, which is not easy at all, but they do not realize they need to do the same with English. If I were to learn all of the Thai symbols and their sounds I would be able to read. Now I may not know what I am saying, but I would be able to read anything, they do not get that. It is impossible to memorize the entire English language, but they are trying.

English camps….to sum it up I will call it an exercise in futility that they (teachers) feel good about in the end. In my opinion, the camp should be to reinforce what they have already been exposed to, but that is not considered when material for the camp is chosen. I will give you an example from the last one that we did. I already explained the format in a previous post. This camp was for grades 4-6. Now understand that the students were all mixed, meaning 4^th, 5^th and 6^th graders were in the same group with each other. First problem encountered, the material being used then needs to be at the level of the least educated in English, which would be the 4^th graders. So they should have chosen at least the 4^th grade level, but wait, school just began 1 month ago, so the material really needs to be on a 3^rd grade level, since they just entered the 4^th grade. That was not done. Let me interject this, I have asked the teachers who are responsible for teaching English to grades 1-3 and 4-6, what the curriculum is for each year and what they expect the students to know at the end of each year….no one can tell me. If there is no aim, how are the students being taught? I had the listening section. So I was to speak in English and they were to follow my instruction. Herein lies the second problem, they do not understand English. The material I was given to teach was foreign to the students. I had a sheet of paper with shapes on it. I was to say a shape and assign it a number they were to put that number on their paper next to that shape. This was the third problem. So I had to teach them the shapes for about ½ hour then test them on it. How is that fair? Some kids were able to memorize it quickly enough but most weren’t. I asked the teachers what grade the kids learn shapes….they didn’t know and they are the ones who are to teach them shapes. The material that they use is generally generated from the internet, which is not the problem, the problem is that most of it comes from English websites. This means that it is assumed there is a certain level of English understanding. Understanding that a native speaker would have. When these questions are posed they have no answers and do not seem to be phased by them. There is no interest in actually improving the system. The students take a pre and post test. How do you pre test listening by having students answer questions on paper? Then that is not testing their listening skills is it? I asked about that too, but to no avail.

What I have noticed is they are happy with the way things are and have no real interest in improving things. I have a friend who volunteers in the Jr. high and high school and he notices the same things. As long as it looks good, who cares whether anything is actually effective. That is very frustrating to me, but I did not come here to revamp their educational system.

This is one of the longest posts I have written and I am opting to leave out more because I think you get the point by now. To anyone who has actually gotten through this whole thing, thank you for taking the time.