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)"Quote:
I can't believe that you taught in Thailand for so many years, without knowing that Thai students are not allowed to ask their teachers any questions.
Neither Prathomsuksa ( primary), nor Matayom ( secondary) students are allowed to ask their teachers any questions, which is an unwritten law by the Ministry of Education.
The reason for it is incredible. It could be that the teacher doesn't know the answer. That's it. No more questioning.
It's again all about the "loss of face". Would a teacher not know the answer, he, or she'd immediately lose face.
It might sound weird for people who're not in this system, but it's also a big problem in a teacher/student relationship.
I've had students and discussed this "problem" with them, there's really nothing they could do. If the teacher tells them that a blackboard is white, they have to accept it.
Which of course also hinders the students' critical thinking skills in a way that the situation is so out of control.
The Thai teachers let them copy material that might contain words, meanings, sentence structures,theories, etc...but the teachers don't even understand their own lessons, because they printed it off the internet.
I have and had many students who're much better than their English teacher. It must be terrible to see all the mistakes and finally find out that the kid who's got absolutely zero English skills finally gets a higher grade at the end of the year.
With other words, it's the hell on earth for the clever students. I'm teaching English now for 11 years and still see and experience Thai teachers who're only good with a bamboo stick to hit them.
I held countless seminars for Thai English teachers, both, primary and secondary level, how to teach English mist effectively and came to the conclusion that most of them shouldn't be English teachers.
There're only a few who can have a simple conversation in English, which is a part of the explanation why the students' English is so poor. Then please add some "experienced NES teachers from Russia, sent by an agency, stir them well and you've got the situation at Thai schools how it is these days.
I feel very sorry for the students and truly hope that they wake up soon. But that might just be a dream in a face losing society.
My 16 year old son, who's currently attending a technical college to "study electronics" was always better than his teacher, considering the fact that they know that his daddy's teaching English he's got the credit that they ask him what certain words mean, or how to pronounce them.