Dear minister: Don't leave teachers in the dark

The strategy itself is exciting, announced out of the realisation that Thailand needs to play a bigger role in the global community. At a minimum, the Kingdom will become part of the single regional market, the Asean Economic Community. It is a great concern that if our students can’t speak English, how can they compete with others, chiefly Singaporeans, for a job?

In a country where English literacy is low, the strategy is like an injection of epinephrine into a patient suffering from a heart attack.

Yet, the medicine must be administered correctly for the desired result. Without clear procedures, the patient may be deprived of improvement. Likewise, on its own, a “weekly English speaking” strategy will never ensure better English literacy among Thai students.

A headmaster of a small remote school admitted that it’s a big headache. To get by, she invited a farang, who married someone in the village, to the class. In the class, he got acquainted with the students and made them familiar with his accent. Yet, after a few classes, he waved goodbye. She now has to brainstorm for a new means to fulfil her obligation.

“It’s a big headache. We’re a small school. Our English teacher doesn’t even hold a degree in English teaching,” she said. The teacher just worked from a book, following the manual without knowing anything about subject-verb agreement. Just don’t ask the teacher why “are” is used when “we” or “they” is the subject. 

Just like the PC tablet strategy, the English-speaking campaign apparently contains a big flaw – there is no clear implementation plan. The Education Ministry has not mentioned any plan to increase resources for schools to ensure that they can make their students speak English. How can schools – especially the small ones in rural areas – implement this policy?

The Education Ministry is ready to spend Bt1.6 billion on the handout of tablets – regardless of whether software is ready or not – but does not say it will give more budgets to schools for the purpose of bolstering children’s command of English.

In fact, the education minister should have provided better preparation for this new strategy if he really wants to create more English-speaking students. The implementation plan should also take into account the differences among schools.

Several schools in Bangkok now offer English programmes, where students are taught in English. What about schools in the far-flung corners of the provinces, where English is taught by teachers holding degrees in other subjects? If this strategy is to be successful, investment is necessary. For schools in tourist destinations, it may be wise and could be cheap to invite tourists to classrooms. In a world where many foreign students spend their “gap” year overseas, it should not be difficult to offer them a month-long free stay in return for a once-a-week appearance in classrooms. If familiarity with English and speaking with the correct accent are the goals here, those young foreigners could work magic in boosting our children’s command of English. 

The Education Ministry should realise that local teachers, even those who have majored in English, are struggling to speak the foreign language themselves, so the ministry cannot expect them to teach students to speak English well.

A university lecturer said he spent seven years taking extensive English courses at a famous tutorial school in his younger years only to find that his English did not improve much. In the end, he flew to the United States and discovered that he could speak English well after just three months there.

If the Education Ministry seriously hopes to equip children with good English-communication skills, it is necessary to expose them to native speakers, he said. 

An English teacher in Pathum Thani reckons that Woravat indeed has provided neither tangible procedures nor solid support. Yet, she expects the policy to at least encourage schools to do whatever they can for the sake of the children’s future regarding English literacy.

“At least, we’re going to give it a try and see how far we can go,” she said. 

Perhaps, it would be a good idea if schools coming up with innovative ideas for English teaching are eligible to win a special prize, which could be a small English lab. Members of society with excellent English should be invited to tape their voices while reading selected items to acquaint students with the right accent. While innovative schools earn prizes, those lagging behind deserve special care from the Education Ministry. 

No matter how good a policy is, no satisfactory results will be achieved if it is implemented without clear direction and proper planning. So, the Education Ministry should start doing more planning for its English-speaking policy now. 

Take it as a gift to teachers. That's why we celebrate the Teacher Day , isn't it ?

 

 

 

CHULARAT SAENGPASSA

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