Thread: Great email sent to me on the topic of teachers and degrees

With regard to Mr Phil Williams' contribution to the Learning Post of 2nd August, 2005, I wish to express my solid agreement with nearly everything he said regarding the issue of EFL teachers and their degrees (or lack thereof), and would like only to add a little from my own observations and experience.

There are a number of misconceptions on the part of the Thai Ministry of Education, and one is that EFL teachers with degrees are both available and capable.

First, capability. Frankly speaking, to expect an English native-speaking university graduate (even one with a degree in education) to possess the ability to stand before a class of Thai students, either children or adults, and teach ESL or EFL users successfully can be likened to assigning an accountant the task of performing heart surgery. It just doesn't work. For years, the MOE has held onto this misconception, granting teacher licenses and then work permits to foreign degree holders while abroad to pave their way to come here and work. There have been few takers, for the reasons I will discuss in a moment; and the few takers there have been have rarely worked out, owing principally to their lack of EFL/ESL teacher training and, along with that, their nearly total ignorance of the Thai people, culture and language, resulting in conflicts with Thai school directors, other teachers and government officials.

Thus, if the MOE had had its way all along, Thai people generally would be using English (with our apologies to the following) as poorly as people generally do in Taiwan, Japan or Korea, for example, where, also, the only essential hiring requirement has been a degree. (Yes, the Thai people DO generally use English better than people in those countries, though that is beginning to change, with the realization that teachers there also need to be trained in order to make language courses successful.) Luckily, in practice, the Thai people up to now have had the benefit of being taught, in large part at least, by trained English teachers without (systematic) regard to whether they were degreed or not.

Second, availability. People with degrees, particularly if they are concerned about their earnings, go to teach in countries where earnings are high and work permits facilitated, such as Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, etc. They do not, for the most part, come to Thailand where earnings are low. Thus, though the Thai MOE would like to have degreed English teachers, their society is not prepared to compete salary-wise with other countries. Furthermore, with regard to degreed persons who enter the country prior to deciding to teach here, these are often discouraged by the difficulties of acquiring work permits and other documents to legalize them.

So who does teach in Thailand? Almost nobody plans to! With or without degrees, people come to the gentle nation of Thailand for a holiday, maybe once, or maybe three or four times, fall in love with the Thais and the Thai nation and resolve to dispense with whatever life plans they might have made up to that point and set forth on an English teaching career here.

The advantages of using such teachers are several. First, they love, respect and largely understand the Thai people and their culture and thus know what English learning problems must be dealt with on a priority basis. Second, they recognize the need for attending an appropriate teacher training course wherein they learn how both to make an effective lesson plan, and, at the same time, make learning fun for their students. What a contrast to the attitudes of degreed persons assigned to teach without having earned qualifications!

This leads to the question, how valuable is a degree? Very much so, in terms of self-discipline and the satisfaction of having taken on a lengthy (generally 4-year) project and seen it through to a successful conclusion. It does not, however, qualify one to teach English in Thailand. This leads, nonetheless, to the follow-up question, how can a short course in teaching EFL or ESL aid a person with no degree to teach English successfully here? The answer is a simple one. Though there is an enormous amount of knowledge, as well as observed teaching practice, that must be learned within such a course, this can be fully adequate for persons who successfully complete the program. This is because, though it takes years and years to train to be an accountant, doctor, engineer or lawyer, it only takes a short time along with (you may be sure) a lot of hard, dedicated effort, to learn to teach English effectively, especially in a course taught in Thailand whose trainers are knowledgeable of all, or nearly all, Thai learning needs.

Thus it is that educators experienced in Thailand are themselves happy to employ trained, effective teachers, loved by their students, without regard to where a "degree" supposedly earned by such teachers actually came from! This is the reality of the situation, bared and exposed down to the bone. A further area of exposure, and one which differs from the opinion of Mr Williams, is that fully 70% of the foreign English teachers in Thailand lack real degrees, though the overwhelming majority are qualified through a valid teacher training program.

If the MOE wishes to continue cutting off its nose to spite its face, as it were, these teachers could supposedly be identified and deported, with the result, in my opinion, that the entire educational system in Thailand could collapse, or at least suffer enormously. Is this what anyone would like to see happen? I, for one, sincerely hope not! However, now that the MOE is requiring transcripts, as well as degrees, before issuing teacher licences, one wonders just how far certain unthinking bureaucrats might really be willing to take this issue?

Finally, discussing the matter of teachers who are teaching without real degrees may not be as constructive as it might be, taken out of the context of the manner in which teacher licences and work permits are issued. Nearly all English (external) training done in Thai companies and schools is provided by language school teachers. However, teacher licences are issued to language schools solely for teaching in the employing school only. Thus, there is no way that companies and children's schools can legally use these teachers (nor the language schools legally send them) because there is either no work permit at all for the teachers, or it is issued for teaching elsewhere. How, then, can companies and children's schools acquire properly trained part-time teachers if their teachers can't get (actual authorizing) work permits. If this is not bad enough, the number of teachers a language school can hire and get teacher licences and work permits for is limited to the physical number of classrooms! Thus, if a school needs to provide training in 30 companies and 18 children's schools, it cannot acquire a work permit for most of these teachers at all, even one not actually authorizing, with respect to the teaching location.

What should be done? Background checks should be required for all teachers, to the extent that this is possible. Teacher licences and work permits should be issued to teachers teaching both full- and part-time. These should be issued to allow them to teach for, rather than in, their employing schools. These should also be issued on the basis of need, rather than the number of classrooms available in the employing school. Teachers could be required to study online, part-time, in pursuit of a degree. Last, and most importantly of all, persons seeking a teacher licence should be given a book from which to make a lesson plan, and this lesson should be performed with a class of MOE staff who need English training, along with an MOE decision-maker prized away from his or her regular job long enough to observe a 30-minute lesson to determine if this person is a good teacher or not.

One can only hope that these small changes would not be too much to ask, to ensure proper and professional English language training for all Thai people.

a caring educator

Background checks??

Considering the time differences between Thailand and, say, the US--coupled with (possibly) poor English speaking skills, I don't think anyone at the MoE is going to be ringing up any universities or police departments. They probably lack the staff to do it anyway.

I think it is true that Thailand would lose a high number of EFL teachers if the MoE did question every degree and found the majority (the article writer says "70%") to be fake. But I seriously doubt it would collapse! (it already has )

Last, and most importantly of all, persons seeking a teacher licence should be given a book from which to make a lesson plan, and this lesson should be performed with a class of MOE staff who need English training, along with an MOE decision-maker prized away from his or her regular job long enough to observe a 30-minute lesson to determine if this person is a good teacher or not.

Oh, great idea- let the monkeys at the ministry decide who schools are allowed to hire.

^ Don't they already???

They never came and sniffed me.

This leads, nonetheless, to the follow-up question, how can a short course in teaching EFL or ESL aid a person with no degree to teach English successfully here? The answer is a simple one. Though there is an enormous amount of knowledge, as well as observed teaching practice, that must be learned within such a course, this can be fully adequate for persons who successfully complete the program. This is because, though it takes years and years to train to be an accountant, doctor, engineer or lawyer, it only takes a short time along with (you may be sure) a lot of hard, dedicated effort, to learn to teach English effectively, especially in a course taught in Thailand whose trainers are knowledgeable of all, or nearly all, Thai learning needs.

I think this is overstating the value of a TEFL certificate. I am not saying that TEFL certificates have no value, but they are the foundation on which a good teacher is built. They do not make a good teacher per se. I think after someone has completed a TEFL certificate they need to spend 6-12 months in the classroom before they can start to claim to be a good teacher and teach really effectively.

If the MOE wishes to continue cutting off its nose to spite its face, as it were, these teachers could supposedly be identified and deported, with the result, in my opinion, that the entire educational system in Thailand could collapse, or at least suffer enormously.

It is hard to see how something that is already in such a shambles could collapse.

Yes, but your school still needed their 'approval'?

When I did mine I actually had to go to the MoE and chat with them etc. It was quite nerve wracking to be honest. Newbie that I was!

Not so far as I know. They don't know anything about me except that I have a passport, claim to have a degree, and can afford a WP.

So you don't have a TL???

From Geo's link:

The centre was trying to solve the problem by drafting English proficiency improvement curriculums for personnel in six important industries _ tourism, fashion, health science, food, automobile and information technology, she said.

The centre already had similar curriculums for staff in 23 professions, including physicians, dentists and nurses, bus drivers, maids and hotel security guards.

These curriculums were free of charge to workplaces, including handbooks and other education material, but the employers must find instructors and run the courses themselves.

LOL!!!!