To use Thai or English in Kindergarten?
Postbox letter from Kindy TEFL Teacher
I speak Thai constantly every day because I work at a bilingual kindergarten that leans much more towards Thai than English and I'm the only native English speaker.
When speaking Thai is discouraged
Postbox letter from Jonathon
Many schools will actively discourage or outright ban teachers from using so much as one word of Thai in the classroom and for good reason.
Speaking Thai in the classroom
It is not what foreign teachers are paid to do.
It wasn’t until moving to a language school, with proper management, that I saw the negative side of a foreign teacher speaking Thai in class. It was also at that job where I saw that some TEFL teachers are actually stuck in the routine of speaking Thai with students.
Is knowing and speaking Thai necessary?
Useful in everyday situations but what about in the school environment?
A knowledge of spoken Thai is always going to be invaluable, but how about speaking Thai in the classroom and within the school environment? Is it something that schools frown upon? What do some of the more experienced foreign teachers in Thailand say on the topic?
Adventures in rural Thailand
My first six months at a Thai government school
Over a typical week I see four hundred or more students, across Mathayom levels one to six, aged twelve to eighteen. Class sizes range from twenty to thirty students.
