English Mentors Tips
Why is English so Bad in Thailand?
My Observations
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From what I have seen as an English teacher working in government secondary schools here in Thailand over the last 10 years I must say that I’m not surprised and actually relieved that someone else is aware of how bad the situation here really is. But it begs the question: with all the emphasis and effort on employing native English speakers to teach English language lessons throughout Thailand, why then is Thailand so far down the ladder?
It’s interesting that at a time when we are inundated with messages about how Thailand is “Ready for ASEAN” every other ASEAN nation ranks above Thailand for English proficiency, even countries that Thai people look down their noses at, such as Myanmar and Laos
How can this be? Are these countries all achieving something superior to Thailand with their limited budgets? Are they attracting “better” English teachers by offering higher salaries and better ‘perks’? The answer, I believe, has more to do with how students learn in Thailand and not the teaching being offered by foreign teachers.
I am constantly amazed at how many year 12 students (Muttayom 6) find it almost impossible to speak even the simplest English sentences. These young people who have been ‘learning’ English for approximately 10 years are unable to even answer the simple question, “Where are you going?”
Obviously I am making an enormous generalisation here but it seems that the older a student is in Thailand, the worse their English language proficiency is. A stroll around any Thai government school will reveal why this is.
A Flawed System
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Thai students are not ‘taught’ by their Thai teachers. As an outsider it’s easy to come to this country and criticise aspects of Thai life that don’t ‘measure up’ to what we have back home. I don’t wish to sound rude, arrogant or even racist, but it is a fact that the government-funded education system in Thailand is totally teacher-centred and revolves around students copying ‘information’ from either a blackboard/whiteboard or from handouts.
Incredibly, the Thai teachers never question this, never wonder if this method is beneficial or effective and is used as a method of ‘teaching’ in every subject. When the students are eventually tested they are asked what they can remember, not what they know.
In Thailand there does not seem to be any understanding of the enormous difference between these two. English is, of course, no different. For example, students can remember what the phrasal verb “take off” means but are totally incapable of using it when speaking or writing. I have a couple of stories to illustrate how ‘teaching’ is done here.
My first school teaching position was in Phuket and there were children from primary and secondary levels being ‘taught’ there. I was teaching the secondary students and I was interested to see how Thai teachers taught the younger ones in the primary level.
One of the primary teachers was a lovely, friendly lady called khun Dang and I went and observed one of her classes when I had some free time. She was in charge of a room full of 50 grade 2 pupils who were totally out of control until khun Dang began copying a large section of text from the textbook that every pupil happened to already have on their desks.
Going through the Motions
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As soon as khun Dang stood up, the boys and girls all began to copy whatever she wrote into their notebooks. When khun Dang had finished she sat down at her tiny desk at the front corner of the room and simply sat there looking totally bored and disinterested.
One by one the students would finish their copying and bring their notebooks up to khun Dang’s desk where she would tick and sign their work with a red pen whilst not even looking at what the children had written. Then the students would go back to their desks and resume playing/fighting/dancing, etc.
With perfect timing the last student had their book ‘marked’ just as the lesson finished and khun Dang stood up and walked out of the room. Suffice to say, I was absolutely gobsmacked.
Recently I was teaching at a secondary school in Nonthaburi and I arrived to my classes to find that all my grade 11 (Muttayom 5) students were busily copying words into their notebooks. I was not overly concerned about this because (a) this happens in almost every class that I teach and (b) no matter what I say or what I do it is impossible to stop Thai students doing work from other subjects in my lessons without them resenting me.
On this occasion, however, it was the same information being copied for all of my grade 11 classes and even my best students were doing it. I was able to ask them what they were copying and this is what I discovered: every student was told by their science teacher to copy every word from a six-page handout (which contained information about health and nutrition) into their notebooks. If they did this then they would receive 6 points towards their end-of-semester score.
You Can’t Fool the Students
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I taught six grade 11 classes with an average of 45 students per class. That’s 270 students and a total of 1,620 pages copied into their notebooks. I asked my students (the ones who understood my questions and were able to answer me) if (a) they honestly thought that their teacher would sit down and read 1,620 pages of hand-copied notes to make sure they had been copied correctly and (b) if they thought they had learnt anything from this exercise at all.
They were honest enough to tell me that they did not even read what they were copying, merely transcribing letters and words and that they hated the exercise and had no respect for their teacher. The teacher had copied the text from the internet, printed it off and given the resultant 6 pages to each of her students.
If I had the temerity to do that for one of my classes, I would have quite deservedly been sacked, no question. I wondered what the teacher’s lesson plan must have looked like but that’s neither here nor there.
Obviously these are only two isolated incidents and I do not wish to appear that I am critical of every Thai teacher in Thailand. My point with these two stories is that from my experience it is the Thai education system and the way that Thai children are taught which is the biggest reason why their English language skills (and no doubt the skills that we take for granted in their other subjects) are so appallingly low.
Thai children are not encouraged to question anything in class. Walk past a Thai lesson in progress and you will rarely if ever see a student with their hand raised (unless they want to go to the toilet, which is often).
Thai children are not curious about the world around them, they do not wonder about things. They are aware, for example, that there are such things as British English and American English – but they never ask why. They accept everything they are told and that’s it.
By the time Thai students reach native English teachers in a classroom situation they have been programmed to sit on their hard, wooden chairs at their tiny wooden desks and to magically absorb whatever comes from their teacher.
When we present a model of English in the board the students are unable to process the information and use it in a way that we take for granted. They are only able to copy words without thinking and this, of course, is no way to master a foreign language.
Unless the authorities in Thailand seriously consider totally overhauling the way Thai children are educated in Thailand, encouraging inquisitive young minds and nurturing young talent the English proficiency in particular in Thailand will always be appallingly low and the country will be the laughing stock of ASEAN when it eventually joins it.
By Tony Mitchell – Ajarn.com
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From primary to high school and beyond, essay writing is a constant in the life of a student. Whether it’s an important exam or just another assignment, submitting an excellent essay is no small feat.
Writing an English essay paper is daunting for many people, but it doesn’t have to be.
Basically, all it takes is practice and a few helpful tips to get you on your way. English essay papers can be a fun and rewarding experience.
So, here are 7 tips to help you write an outstanding English essay paper!
8 Tips for Writing a Professional English Essay
The given tips are very useful while writing an English essay paper because these tips will help you to make it perfect.
Brainstorming
Before you start writing, take a few minutes to think about the topic and come up with ideas that you can use in your essay.
It also includes thinking about doing research from various sources and collecting information from them. It helps you to come up with a creative angle and makes the writing process much more manageable.
Planning and Outlining
Once you have your ideas, plan out the essay structure. This helps you organize your thoughts and ensure that your essay flows nicely.
Outlining helps you keep the structure of your essay in mind and makes it easier for you to write.
Develop an outline of the points and arguments you plan to include in your essay. It guides your writing process, ensuring you cover all the essential points.
Relevant Research
Gather as much evidence as possible to support your argument. Consider different sources such as books, journals, documentaries, and reliable websites. Sometimes you may need to include quotes from experts in the field.
Make sure you have a variety of sources and not just one type. Google Scholar is a great tool for finding quality evidence.
Organizing Your Ideas
After all your research, organize the information and decide which points will go in each part of the essay.
If you plan ahead, it’ll be much easier to write your essay when the time comes. You can use a visual aid such as a mind map to organize your ideas and plan out the structure of the essay.
Clarity in Writing
When it comes to writing your essay, make sure you express yourself clearly and concisely. Use simple language to get your point across.
Avoid unnecessary jargon and long-winded explanations. English essays should be written in a formal tone, and you should avoid informal language.
Thesis Statement
In English essays, the intro contains the thesis statement. The thesis statement should be clear and concise yet provide the reader with an idea of what you will be discussing in your essay.
Moreover, it should also be interesting enough to make the reader want to keep reading. It contains the main argument of your paper, so make sure it’s well-crafted.
Be Creative
The best English essays are creative and captivating. Try to think of interesting ways to present your ideas in the essay.
Be original, and don’t be afraid to take risks when it comes to your writing. Injecting some personality into your essay can make it more exciting and engaging for the reader.
Proofreading is a Must
In the end, after writing your essay, proofread it multiple times to catch any errors or typos you may have made. Also, check that your grammar, punctuation, and spelling are all correct. It’s best to have someone else read your essay and give you honest feedback. Moreover, if you can, get the opinion of a professional editor.
Is There a Need for Online Professional Help?
Yes, if you can’t complete your essay paper on time or if it’s too difficult for you, it’s best to get professional help. Expert writers have the experience and knowledge to write your essay according to the latest academic standards. They can also give you feedback and ensure your writing is free from errors.
Professional essay services can help you save time and energy, so consider getting professional help if you feel like you need it. Online paper-writing companies always strive for quality and deliver well-researched and well-written essays.
Wrapping Up!
Are these tips enough to help you write an amazing English essay paper? Definitely! All you need to do is be organized, use the right research material and resources, think of interesting ways to present your ideas, and always proofread your work.
Additionally, don’t forget to ask for help if you need it. Following these tips ensure you write a top-notch essay that receives high grades. So, don’t wait and get ready to write an amazing English essay paper.
Related CTN News:
English Mentors Tip of the Week – When the Word ‘House’ is used
Useful Tips For Teaching English as a Foreign Language in 2022
While showing English language students from everywhere over the world, you ought to utilize different showing techniques, games, and exercises to keep your understudies intrigued and participating in the growing experience.
Here are a few down-to-earth tips you can utilize on learning English:
Essential Qualifications for Teaching English
Teaching English as a foreign language, you should get the essential capabilities. You really want a Teacher of English as a Foreign Language, or TEFL, declaration for teaching English.
There are various ways of getting it, for example, taking an internet-based course or going to a preparation program. A CELTA, TEFL, or TESOL confirmation will make you an ensured ESL instructor, empowering you for English teaching certification and English teaching jobs abroad.
Of the three authentications, CELTA is the most generally acknowledged for teaching English.
Moreover, turning into a confirmed TEFL instructor will permit you to work with online English teaching jobs
which frequently require past showing experience and some sort of a showing permit or, if nothing else, a four-year certification from a college where English is the main language.
Obviously, an ideal way to turn into an ESL educator is to have a degree in schooling. It will prove to be useful to work in US government-funded schools or confidential establishments.
In spite of the fact that ESL educators are not expected to hold state accreditation, many schools demand they do.
A few schools even require a graduate degree, so you ought to check the important capabilities of the schools you’re applying to.
Likewise, on the off chance that you’re not a local speaker yourself, you can go to bilingual training to show English in two dialects to the people who communicate in your own language.
Here and there, it helps understudies when you make sense of things in a language they can comprehend.
Tolerance and Understanding
One of the main characteristics of a compelling ESL instructor is persistence. It is critical to show restraint toward your understudies, particularly speakers of different dialects who are battling with the material or experience language obstructions in the homeroom.
Recall that it requires investment for certain understudies to learn, and establishing a protected and strong climate where there is no disgrace in requesting help ought to be your first concern.
Likewise, being understanding is additionally significant. Numerous English language students come from various societies and foundations.
It is essential to know about social contrasts, be aware, and ensure that they grasp your illustrations.
Philosophy
There is a wide range of instructing techniques that you can use to really show your understudies.
While you’ll need to ensure your examples are consistent with school principles, you ought to attempt to utilize different methods to keep your understudies locked in.
Techniques that you might need to consider include:
- study hall conversations,
- games, tests, and different exercises,
- Visuals.
It is likewise essential to utilize different instructive materials, like course readings, science articles for students, worksheets, and online assets.
By utilizing various materials, you will actually want to connect every one of the various kinds of students in the homeroom.
Homeroom Management
When teaching English it is essential to be patient and understanding, you likewise should be predictable in keeping a useful homeroom when teaching English as a second language.
It is urgent to ensure that understudies follow your examples and get their work done. Disordered study halls can end the educational experience.
Legitimate study hall the executives is one of the most critical pieces of the growing experience, as it permits you to keep English language students connected with, coordinated, mindful, and scholastically useful.
Keep in mind that to successfully deal with a homeroom, you want to figure out the dynamic of the class. You can’t involve similar homeroom board methods for kids as you do grown-ups.
Plan and Prepare in Advance
When teaching English as a second language one of the keys to being a powerful educator is arranging and setting up your examples ahead of time.
This will guarantee that you can cover every one of the vital materials and that your classes run as expected.
You ought to likewise make different materials, like gifts, PowerPoint introductions, and games to use in your examples.
Attempt to make a harmony between various exercises, like talking, tuning in, perusing, and composing.
Some web-based language schools furnish their ESL educators with a set illustration to instruct, yet you ought to likewise survey examples ahead of time to continuously be ready.
Utilize a Lot of Visuals
Another supportive tip is to involve a lot of visuals in your examples. This can incorporate motions, pictures, graphs, outlines, and other visual guides.
Visuals are particularly useful while showing new jargon words. You can likewise utilize them to survey material shrouded in past examples.
Make Your Lessons Fun
When teaching English one method for keeping your understudies drawn in and spurred is to make your illustrations fun.
There are different ways of doing this, for example, integrating games and riddles into your illustrations. You can likewise utilize humor and narrating to make your illustrations more pleasant.
Set Classroom Rules and Enforce Consequences
It is likewise crucial to set some standard procedures for your study hall. This will assist with establishing a deferential and positive learning climate.
A few things you might need to remember for your standards might comprise:
- no talking while the instructor is talking,
- lifting your hand to talk,
- no interfering with one another,
- Continuously be considerate to other people.
On the off chance that rules are not kept, it is vital to uphold results, which can go from an advance notice to being conveyed to the study hall. This will assist with guaranteeing that your standards are treated in a serious way and that understudies understand how they need to follow them.
Utilize Interactive Activities
One more extraordinary method for teaching English as a subsequent language is to utilize intuitive exercises. These can incorporate gathering work, pretending, and different involved exercises.
Exercises that get understudies conversing with one another are an extraordinary method for getting them associated with the material and permit them to work on utilizing their new dialect abilities.
Energize Questions
At last, ESL educators must energize inquiries from their understudies. This shows that you are available to input and often think about their advancement.
Posing inquiries likewise permits understudies to explain anything they might be confounded about and manage any potential issues, whether it’s an intricate language unit or an absence of jargon, as they emerge.
Read: English Mentors Tip of the Week – When the Word ‘House’ is used
An English teacher uses their training in literature, writing, and reading to ensure their students are learning state educational standards. English is enjoying the worth of the international language and the majority of the countries are using this language as the second language. It is a mode of communication in many counties all over the world. English is being taught in several countries as a second language from childhood.
It is important to teach English in Thailand. Most of the children get irritated with the English language, especially when they are forced to speak in English in school, they take it hard and boring. They feel that talking English is less interesting and they get panic, actually, they need someone to help regarding their English Conversation, they often find it less interesting and difficult to understand.
How to be an English Teacher?
Well, you are going to teach the language that crosses the countries and cultures providing new opportunities for the students. Learn more about how to teach English in Thailand.
1. Create a positive classroom
It is important to focus on 4Cs when you are going to teach English in Korea. These 4Cs are critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and creativity. Make sure you communicate and collaborate with your students. Let your learners be creative and motivate them with your easy-to-understand teaching skills. You should motivate your students about developing crucial skills, and critical thinking, when they are learning a language.
2. Build relationships with your learners
If an English Teacher has a caring, and healthy relationship with students, then he will influence life quality, behavior and attitude. Moreover, your teaching skills are important to help children in learning English.
3. Start from basic
Teaching English should be started from the learning of tones or phoenix. Yes, you can teach English letters in a way of learning the pronunciation of tones. There are four types of tones are there: High but flat, rising tone, Dipping tone, lower tone. These tones should be learned; otherwise, it is no use of learning the word because pronunciation changes the meaning of a word.
4. Learn grammar
It is a common concept that English has no grammar, but it is wrong. Every language needs grammar skills to be an expert. Grammar helps in learning the true structure of the sentences, phrases, true pronunciation, and tones.
5. Don’t be harsh
It is a very difficult way to end it needs extensive attention in this regard. So, a person can get stressed due to continuous failure or hardness. There is no need to get harsh with your students.
6. Online teaching
Another effective way to be an English tutor is to prefer online teaching. It provides a solid platform for English teaching. It is really helpful for the students because they can get your videos and learn from them after the lecture.
Conclusion
In this age, it is when new technologies are introduced and new ways are used to make learning easier. Being an English Teacher, you need to motivate your students for English writing and reading. It will help you to be an ideal Teacher.
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