How to plan for your first ESL class

Your first time teaching can be a stressful event; mine was almost enough to drive me from the teaching profession forever. I was stupid enough to believe people in Bangkok bars who told me that no preparation was needed and that you just had to keep the students entertained for fifty minutes. This was terrible advice, and I no longer accept any advice from people in bars; in fact I don’t even go to bars anymore. The truth is that if you do not plan your first lesson then it will be a nightmare. Anyone coming to teach in Thailand will most often be expected to give a demonstration lesson when they apply for their first job; for a lot of people this will be their first time teaching ever. Here are five tips to make it go easier on both you and the students.

1. Arrive to the class with a clear idea of what you want to teach. It is better to have too much material than not enough. If you are going to be monitored by interviewers then it is a good idea to have some teaching resources like handouts or flash cards. It is important to check with the school first to find out what will be available in the classroom when you come to give your sample lesson; it will be disappointing for everyone if you arrive with a well-made power-point presentation, but there is no computer and projector in the classroom.

2. Avoid giving a class which focuses on material which is too simplistic. If you want to bore students then a sure way is to devote an hour to introduction phrases like; “What is your name?” and “Where do you come from?”. The students have likely been taught these phrases ad nauseam, and even the most lowly English class in Thailand will have likely mastered this topic. You are unlikely to impress anyone with this type of class; believe me I tried. Don’t spend the hour playing games like hangman; these are lesson fillers and not lessons and should be avoided when you are trying to impress.

3. Focus your first class on a subject that will engage your students encourage them to participate. This will all depend on the age and language ability of the student, but one class which I enjoy is using English songs. If you plan to use this as the main subject of your class then you need to first ensure that the class will have the facility to play these songs; i.e. speakers. It is important to decide on your target vocabulary prior to class and arrive with a worksheet based on the song or songs. This worksheet will contain different exercises based on the lyrics of the song; such as fill in missing words from the lyrics or using single words from the songs to make new sentences.

4. Begin the class with an introduction and the goals you plan for the hour. Tell the students about the target vocabulary you will be focusing on and what you would like them to take away from the lesson. Finish the class with a review of all that you have covered during the class.

5. Do not overwhelm the students with too much information. Constantly monitor the class for signs that they are getting bored or getting lost in the content. Be prepared to change direction if you feel that you are losing the students. An important part of teaching is being able to adapt and change to conditions on the ground.

End of term

It is now the end of term for me here in Thailand; half the school year is gone. This term just finished has been a long one for me. I am starting to get itchy feet, and the ‘ways of doing things’ in the school that once niggled me have now grown to become irritations. There are things that I like about my current employment, and still have good days, but overall I’m more than ready to take my show on the road again.

Despite my urge to move again I have decided to stick it out until the end of the next term. It is seen as bad form to leave a school half way through the year and seeing as we have already lost one teacher to pregnancy it would be a bit unfair to leave now. As I am currently the only native English speaking teacher in the school any mid-year departure might not be well received; perhaps I’m overestimating my own importance here.

My reasons for wanting to leave are financial, my son’s future, and the school itself. I am receiving a low wage considering the fact that I have a Post-Graduate Certificate in Education; native speakers with this qualifications get the top-paying jobs in Thailand. My school seems to have no real understanding of this and pays me almost the same money as the non-native English speakers. One of the Filipino teachers is actually paid more than me despite the fact that his ability is English is poor ( some Filipinos have very good English, but this guy does not belong to that group). As far as my school is concerned the fact that I agreed to the original contract means that there is no reason for me to complain; maybe they have a point. In Thailand if you are prepared to agree to a low wage that is all you will get; there is no point complaining about it later.

Another reason for my wanderlust is my son’s future. Lopburi is a nice enough city, but the choice of schools seems a bit limited. I want a school with an English programme that starts in the early years. I want a school where my son is going to be challenged to develop and not just allowed to pass every subject because I have paid for him to attend there.

My final reason for wanting my next term to be my last at the school is the way the school is run. It all seems to be about appearances without substance. Students in our bilingual programme are not allowed to fail any subjects and disruptive students are not disciplined. During my first year in the school this niggled me, but now after a year and a half it irritates me greatly.

So I suspect that my next term will be the last at my current school. It has been an experience, and I don’t regret taking the job there in the first place. My current negative feelings though, tell me that it is time to move. I will miss the students, and there are some things that the school does very good.

Teaching illegally in Thailand

Many ESL teachers in Thailand are working illegally. For whatever reason they don’t have the documentation that would give them permission to work as a legal teacher. I would never judge these people, and realise that for some it is their only option. It does not mean that they are bad teachers in my opinion; although many of the less reliable teachers will be of this variety.

I previously worked as an teacher without the proper immigration documents. I was a volunteer teacher in my local school. I did this with the knowledge of the local police,village head, and a local man who worked for Thai immigration. They had no difficulty with me doing this unpaid work. The local school would not be able to afford the paperwork, and I wasn’t go to pay a lot of money to do volunteer work. Technically I could have been deported for doing this kind of work and not allowed to return to Thailand for eleven years. Apparently Thai immigration even view fixing your own car on the side of the road as work which you it would be illegal for foreigners to do.

I know that there are many more westerners who work as volunteer teachers without the proper paperwork. Some of these are retired and see at as a way to keep busy or put something back. Many of these retired guys probably wouldn’t be allowed to get a work permit on their current visa. They take the chance. Surprisingly, even the volunteer foreign police force which assists in tourist areas is full of people with no work-permits to do the task; the ultimate irony but this is Thailand.

Many illegal teachers are in paid work. They need to earn an income while staying under the radar of immigration. This is getting harder for them to do with immigration now asking more questions about how people are able to stay in Thailand with no obvious source of income. Visas are becoming increasingly more difficult to obtain. Illegal teachers do not usually get one year extensions so they need to do regular border runs or trips to Thai embassies in nearby countries; an expensive and time consuming hassle.

It seems that few of these western teachers get caught for working illegally, but they tend to only be able to get low paying jobs with little chance of advancement. Mind you, I’m in a low-paying job with little chance of advancement and I’m legal.

What is a qualified teacher?

What does the word qualified teacher mean in Thailand? For some it means the type of school you work in; for others it seems to mean the qualifications you have in your possession; and for others it just means having a job as a teacher. In Thailand there seems to be a lot of people looking down their nose at those who fall in a category that they view falls below them; thus those who work in International schools will look down their nose at those who work in Government schools, and those with degrees in education will look down there noses at the mere TEFL’er. I don’t think this feeling of elitism is unique to Thailand, but it can be a bit demeaning when one set of teachers constantly belittles another set of teachers.

It is my view that a good teacher is a good teacher no matter what qualifications they have or where they work. Some people might see this as me trying to defend my own lowly qualifications, but that is simply not the case. Not only do I have a degree, but I also have a Post Graduate Certificate in Education; I am a fully qualified teacher. I also don’t consider myself a particularly good teacher. There are plenty of people with less qualifications than mine who I believe are better teachers. You just can’t replace certificates with enthusiasm. It also seems to be the case that there are some teachers working in the international schools who are even less skilled at teaching than I am.

The idea that a good teacher will always find their way into an international school and into a higher paying job is simply wrong. Some people just prefer government schools. As well as being as qualified teacher, I am also a qualified nurse. I trained in England and choose to work in the public health sector because this is what I valued; I could have earned more money working in a private hospital that is not what I wanted. I am not saying that all the teachers working in government schools in Thailand are doing it for altruistic motives; that is not my point. People might choose to work for less pay in a government school for the simple reason that there is an impression that working in an international school involves far more work-commitments for the extra cash. Some of us value family time above our job and this is why we moved to Thailand in the first place.

I also think that the view that those working in International schools are somehow more respectable is another myth. Few people have ended up in Thailand as a means to advance their teaching career; even working in the international school will involve far less money than working in the richer western countries. Even if your decision was a purely professional one there are few will believe you. It is generally true that western male teachers have a bad reputation if they work in Thailand no matter what school they teach in; even though, this is incredibly unfair.

As I said, it is my view that you can find good and bad teachers in all types of school. You can also find them with different types of qualifications. It seems doubtful that things will change anytime soon. People seem to need to bolster their own ego’s by degrading those who they see as being lower on the food-chain - one of the less attractive human habits.

Should people do the TEFL course if they want to teach in ThailandShould people do the TEFL course if they want to teach in Thailand

This is another one of those questions that you frequently hear asked from those wishing to work in Thailand. It is actually two questions; the first is. do you need to have completed TEFL in order to work as a teacher in Thailand? the second question is, should you complete TEFL if you want to teach in Thailand. Let me deal with the first question first.

If you need a TEFL certificate to teach in Thailand is a much debated topic. In regards to the teaching license there seems to be no official requirement to have this certificate. It is most often the schools themselves that are most interested in their ESL teachers having this qualification. I personally only managed to finish half the certificate, but the fact that I have a Post Graduate Certificate in Education means that schools don’t tend to ask me for one. Most schools seem to treat the TEFL as an official requirement and are reluctant to employ people without it if their qualifications are not related to education. It would seem that that this piece of paper is well worth getting for anyone without the traditional qualifications.

The second question is, should you get a TEFL certificate if you want to teach in Thailand and that is a far easier question. If you have no teaching experience then it makes sense to complete a TEFL certificate. This will not make you a great teacher, but it will certainly give you an introduction to the area, and more importantly give you some some supervised teaching practice.

Education in Thailand and why I'm worried

The longer I stay in Thailand the more concerned I become about the Thai education system. This has become even more pressing as in a year or so my own son will likely need to become part of it. I can’t afford the high prices of the international schools, but even they attract the occasional bad press from disgruntled parents.

My main worry is the fact that the system here does not seem value quality, but instead seems dedicated to decoration and keeping people happy. For instance, my current school insists that all students be given at least 70% no matter how badly the students perform.

Cheating is rampant and not just confined to the students. Some of the teachers are studying for higher qualifications and just last week one of them just cut and pasted a whole English article from a web-site and submitted it as his own work without any qualms. He didn’t even bother to hide this blatant plagiarism because it is obviously something he has been doing all his life. This is not an isolated incident but a frequent occurrence. It is obvious that many have made it through academia without doing the work, and many of these people now teach for a living.

The people who suffer are the good students. The ones who work their asses off for nothing. Believe me there are quite a few of these. Thai kids are not dumb, they are just being failed by a dumb system that seems to be showing no signs of improving anytime soon. There is a public expectation that every student do well. There is no recognition that a percentage of students doing less well than others is a sign that the system is working and has merit. Not every student can be getting top marks in every subject - that is just silly and demeans the whole system.

The Thai education system is not all bad of course. The students are among the best in the world, and if given the chance more of these young people could do amazing things. The ones who go on to do great things at the moment seem to manage it despite the system and not because of it. The people of Thailand are not unaware of the problem either. Some fine students are just as baffled by the whole thing as every one else. An excellent article on the subject was written by this Thai student (http://n-natta.blogspot.com/2009/08/nation-of-cheaters.html)

I am sure that there are some schools in Thailand that get it right. The problem is that it only takes a few to tarnish the rest. That is just the way it is. When too many people are getting 70% it makes that mark mean practically nothing. When no attempt is made to control cheating it makes all marks mean less.

So I’m worried about my son’s future here in Thailand. The obvious answer would be to take him away from Thailand altogether. I don’t want to do this though, this is his home. Thailand has so many great things it its favour. He deserves to be part of its brighter future, and maybe things will improve in his lifetime.

Teaching is how you improve as a teacher

I frequently come to the conclusion that we can sometimes become better teachers despite ourselves. Even if we are not making any great effort to improve our pedagogy skills the mere fact of being in the classroom day after day can improve your ability to teach effectively; this has been my experience anyway. The students don’t make it possible to stagnate or should I say they don’t make it easy. If the students are not kept engaged they can make your life hell and you have to be constantly learning and refining ways to stay in control; much of this learning is not deliberate.

I remember a more experienced teacher telling me that it takes at least five years for a new teacher to find her or his feet; this makes sense to me. I firmly believe that the only real way that you can learn to teach is by actually doing it. Theories and research are important but are practically useless if you have nowhere to test them. All the most useful techniques in pedagogy are learnt through experience and what works for one person might not work for another.

I like the analogy of teachers acquiring a toolbox full of tools which can be applied to different situations. Each teaching situation is unique and so the more tools you have the better. Sometimes introducing a game might increase the energy of the group while other times slowing the tempo down might be what is required. The longer you stay in the job the more tools you will have in your toolbox.