English teachers: Communication focus of British training

Communication & the communicative approach focus of new 'bootcamp' approach to training Thai teachers under British Council guidance, soon to go nationwide.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION

English teachers: Communication focus of British training

Plans to increase the amount of time which primary school  students spend in English classes may have to go on hold because of a shortage of qualified English teachers and resources,

Recently, many schools were found not to have proper educational aids in the classroom, while some schools still do not have sufficient qualified English teachers.

This is according to the current Education Minister Dr. Teerakiat Jareonsettasin.

The Education Ministry may need to suspend its plans for a period of time, he added.

Dr Teerakiat said the ministry will keep the plans flexible, adding schools which do have adequate personnel and resources can proceed with the plan.

He was speaking recently as he accompanied executives of the Office of the Basic Education Commission (Obec) to observe the so-called "Boot Camp" teacher development project at Chalermkwansatree School in Phitsanulok.

ENGLISH BOOTCAMP WITH THE BRITISH COUNCIL

Earlier, the ministry ordered primary schools across the country under Obec's administration to increase the amount of time spent which Grade 1 and 3 students spend in English classes from 40 to 200 hours per year.

The plan is aimed at increasing student’s engagement in classrooms and improving their language proficiency. 

The ministry in partnership with the British Council launched the Boot Camp programme recently, to develop so-called "communicative" teaching skills and methodological practices for Thai state-school English teachers and to improve their English proficiency. 

In the lower northern provinces, a total of 75 English teachers from primary schools and secondary schools have been attending the programme, he said.

WHAT IS COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING?

The so-called communicative approach to language teaching is based on having students interact in the classroom with other students to communicate real meaning through speaking, listening, reading and writing.

For example, practising forms for asking questions by having students ask other students questions to find out personal information about their fellow students is an example of communicative language teaching. 

The videos on this page give you a taste of what the communicative approach is about.

The Teaching Knowledge Test (TKT) offered by the British Council is a flexible set of learning modules and tests which can be used by teachers to improve their teaching skills, especially communicative teaching techniques (see here & here).

Also see the free British Council English teaching program (a MOOC) at Future Learn here.   

NATIONWIDE EXPANSION OF BOOTCAMP PROGRAM

Dr Teerakiat said the ministry plans to expand the programme which will involve more than 50,000 teachers nationwide in the next few years.

Teachers from private and vocational schools would be urged to join the programme, he added. This year, he said about 15,000 state-school English teachers have been involved.

Under the programme, teachers from primary and secondary educational service areas nationwide are selected to participate.

The ministry launched the boot camp for Thais teaching English or the so-called "train-the-trainer" programme in March last year.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/1206605/private-schools-at-risk-of-closure

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communicative_language_teaching
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/communicative-approach

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Krashen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_approach

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