Students in Thailand
Thai students are generally a well behaved lot and they look upon teachers as someone who can pep up their motivation levels. The schools are run in a militaristic way where students are marched around like soldiers. There is strict discipline all around and the troublemakers are not easily spared. The dress code is shirt with skirt/shorts. Boys need to have crew cuts and girls must sport a bob. International schools are more relaxed in nature.
When it comes to teaching Private Language Schools and adult students, it is a real mixed bag. These students come to learn English for varied reasons like – furthering their career prospects, to communicate effectively with foreigners, to enhance their vocational prospects or to brush up on the language before they leave for higher studies abroad.
The students have a ‘must do’ attitude while learning the language as they need a decent job. But they have a very low level knowledge of the language and hence depend entirely on their teacher to pull them through which is sometimes an impossible task. The Thais seem to miscalculate the time and energy required to learn a language. Ultimately they fall short of the required attitude and drive.
Thais tend to get very bored easily while learning the language. So the teachers should incorporate activity based learning. Grammar based lessons are the best way to put them to sleep. Another interesting fact is that Thai do not want anyone to fail! If they are studying in a group they take an extra effort monitor whether all of them have got more or less the same marks or not.
