In MSP,T school teaching is not that easy. One would consider the fact that there is a minimum of ten students in every class, that there are a couple of projectors available, computers, some material... But what happens when the children’s level of English is almost non-existent, save for a ‘Good morning, teacher!’ here and a ‘Hello!’ there? How do you fill 80 minutes of teaching time when the projector is not somehow not working with your computer? The computers that should have been available to the students are out of order and no one has fixed them, all huddled together in the center of a classroom protected by a sheet that students love to lift to discover what lies beneath and tamper with it. Meanwhile, students have been provided with tablets, yet none have been sighted at school as of yet and it is doubtful that students would utilize them for the purposes of their education. What is more, the Wi-Fi at the school, when it does work, reaches the classes nearest the teachers’ meeting room.
Technical hurdles aside, there is no translator to facilitate the students’ learning process. On the one hand, that can be beneficial for the students’ development of problem-solving and guessing skills. However, that can only happen to a some extent. It is certain that they cannot understand everything, no matter the length to which a teacher might go regarding repeating, showing pictures or pantomiming. Some things seem to be hard to grasp without explicit explanation in Thai, since that is the language of instruction at school, as was the case with today’s class with ‘yesterday’, ‘today’, ‘tomorrow’, which was based on the ‘days of the week’ class of the previous day. It may be the case that all the excitement has subsided, since a class cannot be only games, but also writing, learning how to spell and trying to remember. It is virtually impossible to give students any sort of small exercise as homework, as students leave their books and notebooks at school, and play and fall asleep at 6 p.m. after school. Children are also divided into 3 levels in each class (one class per grade), namely the quite bright ones, the rather very slow learners, and those that fall in between. Have no illusions; it will be hard to reach the students with a slower rhythm. Especially considering how they do not know how to write, let alone spell or read simple words like ‘red’ - at a level they would be expected to know that. So, you can’t help but wonder... what do you start teaching -spelling, phonetics, chunks, individual words- without boring the ones who learn fast? Meanwhile, the books are of no help, because they are written entirely in English and basically address students in the cities, where exposure and instruction in English as a second language were more structured or regular. The students here had to be taught by the teachers, due to a lack of an English teacher, while English was clearly not a priority and the teachers themselves had a limited knowledge of English. What’s more, the accent older students have been used to and have been urged to practice via repetition in class, is difficult to change; with the younger ones, there is still hope to make them utter words with the correct pronunciation and make their English comprehensible.
On a more positive note, the teachers have been eager to improve their English by taking almost every opportunity to talk with you. The students will also be eager to learn and, as they are kids, they love it when you include some activities in your teaching routine. Bear in mind, though, that the main outcomes of the activities in this case are to ensure that children have fun, that the ‘fast ones’ will memorize better, and that the ‘slower ones’ will leave the classroom remembering at least a couple of things. The students’ level of English does not correspond to their age, their years of instruction they might have had in English and their capability to grasp the language (the latter is for the students of primary 1, who are too young to have that much time spent on English every week, and whose attention you cannot hold more than 30 minutes max.). There will be challenges, and you must face them. Patience, intrinsic or extrinsic motivation for what you are doing and perseverance are imperative. But... children always reward you in their way :)
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