INTRODUCTION:
The mainstream English- as a second language has been situated in its differential prestige. English maintains its stardom in language teaching/learning world and it is not yet resting it laurels. Hitherto, the world considers that proficiency in this particular language entails immense progress, the lingua franca of globalization – trumpeting its most quantitative compensation. But it is important for both teachers and learners to be cognizant on the manifestations of SLT work and the realization of its outcomes – the insight of linguistic revolutionary tendency that is now pervading for a greater or more imperative reform. Considering SLT from the vantage point of the nature of its practices on how English as a second language infiltrates historically, the socio-cultural boundary of its users. Noticeably enough, that SLT constitutes the hierarchical relationship among people. Predominantly inside the learning instructions where it has become an imaginary yet ostensible, demarcation line between those who are privileged and not – showing the politically-driven practice of SLT. This is evidently political in a sense that, there is a fundamental class division, principally represented by what and whose culture dictates and whose and what culture is taken as passive and inert. Politically, speaking, SLT is discriminatory in nature. This is because how the “native” speakers of the language hold the ultimate allocation on providing the possibility of acquiring the language proficiently with regards on the race, socio-economic status, and gender of the users.
Because of the immediate and current importance of English,
Thailand
engages in the effectiveness of communicative learning purposely of magnetizing multinational corporations and for potent tourism back-ups. Consequently, language and bilingual schools sprouted like mushrooms (Thus, giving sufficient space for Filipino teachers of English here in
Thailand
.) Samroiyod Wittayakhom is a school subsidized by the Thailand government, with undergraduate population of more than 1,000 students where 10% of the general student population embraces the English Program enrollees. The school has been operating the program for 4 flourishing consecutive years. Moreover, due to the fact that tuition fee is relatively high, 30, 000 Baht/year (40,000 Pesos, based on an exchange rate of 0.76B per peso) weigh against the regular program expense of 2000 Baht/ year (2,600 Pesos). This practically represents that most of the enrollees come from well-to-do families whose annual capital income ranges from 300,000-500,000 Baht. The program operates from Matthayom 1 – 3, whose ages ranging from 12-14 years old. (This would be freshmen –juniors in the Philippine set-up) All the students are compel to take a 20 hours/week of schooling which includes; English (5 –Fundamental English 3 and Communicative English 2), Mathematics (3), Science (3) and Health (1), Computer (2) in which all of the identified subjects use English as the medium of instruction the rest of the units are in Thai. The teaching staff consists of 5 foreigners; three are Filipinos, an Australian, and a British and all these teachers have their co- Thai teachers to assist the foreigner in any circumstance that students need further explanation of the course or topic in the students’ vernacular language.
EN 33101 – English for Communication is specifically designed to meet the students’ and teachers’ needs and the pragmatic approach –“easy to learn from and easy to teach from” (Manuel dos
Santos
, Mc Graw Hill). From Thai –English curriculum, this course should be taken by junior high school students, in which meetings are done thrice a week. This course integrates the four skills of speaking, listening, reading, and writing. The earlier levels emphasize speaking and listening, but reading and writing are increasingly emphasized as students progress through the series. This course puts emphasize on grammar particularly using grammar in communicative activities. It has an average of 80 to 120 hours classroom instruction. The said course is handled by our Australian teacher, Mr. Callum Anderson, he has been teaching English here in
Thailand
for more than 5 years, from different parts of the gulf. He obtained his TEFL certificate, in one of the international institutions in Thailand
EXHIBIT A:
UNIT 6
Functions: Listening and Pronunciation:
Talk about different places Listening to the description of the places
Talking about completed past actions Linking /j/, /w/, /r/
Asking and giving information about
vacations
Grammar:
Reading
and writing:
Simple Past Tense Read about a reality TV shows’ characters
Regular and Irregular Verbs
Infinitive of purpose
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Here in
Thailand
, various politics of SLT are very evident. Problems of social class for the most part, as I have told you in the previous discussion: In microscopic perspective, the fundamental class division. Students, specifically, in our program, where class division is clearly manifested, that produces lenient tension between the regular program and English program students. Unlike in United States, Australia, and Canada there is a little opportunity for the immigrants to practice their English and obtain that degree of language competency best opportunities for language learning as what Norton tries to reason out, regarding how we must focus on the investment of the learners in language learning. ( Investment – as politically driven term, which refers to the amount of time, energy, effort, emotional, and physical sacrifice, and so on, that is needed in successful. (Page 253 Module 7) Once Thai students were enrolled in the program; there is a notion that he/she is from affluent family and the community is expecting him/her to be competent enough in this field. Plain and uncomplicated dispute between the students of both programs may seem a petty and irrelevant squabble for Thai teachers. Thinking critically, since that I have been here in this school for more than 2 years, these continual unfavorable circumstances, are simply manifestation of resentment of one over the other. Thus making the tension logical- a problem of social class and this is also significantly noticeable outside the language instruction setting where richer and highly educated individuals can speak fluent English. In regards with gender problem or race I haven’t seen more concrete evidence to support this political issue.
I would like to use J. Keith Chick’s investigation to the current situation of our program. From Exhibit B – it openly points that in the above room exchange, the teacher ignites the discussion by initiating an interrogative statement to the students, right after the warm up activity. Then students respond. But from the teacher’s facial expression it seems that the learners respond ineffectively. At that moment too, the teacher evaluates the learner’s response by suggesting or making face that he is expecting for a more reasonable answer.
In Thailand society, teachers and the classroom are highly respected and categorically centralized, this classroom talk demonstrates the prevailing active position on the teacher and how this figure makes the students passive and inert (33) Given that the learners have a very minimal knowledge of the language (Some of them barely understand the teacher, some of them cannot even spell their first name in English), even though, the teacher try to illicit ideas from the students (as clearly represented in lines 13, 16, and 20). Since that the students are not allowed to speak their vernacular language, the teacher still tries to provide a venue of active classroom talk that will encourages the learners’ imagination and creativity. But it fails, due to the simple fact that the students cannot express themselves in English (or intrinsically, unmotivated, afraid that their teacher might chide them for using wrong grammar or even be a laughingstock of the class. The nearest possible rationale why Thai students are intrinsically unmotivated because of the concrete application of the target language is restricted and can only exercise inside the target language class and because most learners will not actually use English in most of their daily activities. Moreover, the exchange given in Exhibit B represents how the teacher resorts on formulating questions that are simply answerable by yes or no or basically textbook-based, factual answer (Line 14, 16m and 18 – it is already given in the text book) this might be a crucial transition that is indicative of the tendency of simply having an exchange and oral participation of the learners.
CONCLUSION:
It is an incontestable fact that SLT works hand in hand with culture and the politics that underline it. As Hinkel (1999) points out the importance of developing cultural competence when teaching and learning a second language, mentioning that given cultural assumptions significantly influence concrete practicality of the all the aspects of language use. This is of course not obvious to our “native” English speakers, since that they assume that they are the best culture. To a great extent, in the milieu of SLT, though its essential concern is for the learners to attain linguistic proficiency, but it must be noted too that this particular linguistic proficiency is inadequate, holistically, we must consider, the teachers and the learners to achieve second language cultural competence, in both part. Since that SLT has many facets, fields and political manifestations, it would be practical for teachers and learners to prepare themselves for this kind of environment by providing awareness and the devices that will consent both party to achieve academic, social and political goals and become more successful in the daily basis of the execution of the second language. In
Thailand
, scholars and administrators are blind on the fallacies concerning English as mainstream language.
Exhibit C (in some cases – some schools posted NO FILIPINOS PLEASE)
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Featured Job
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Native English Speakers only
Speak EZ(
Bangkok
) - 7th Sep 2007
Native English Speakers only (This would literally means the one I mentioned above)
30,000-35,000 Baht/month
Native English speakers required to teach children using songs and games. Training, lesson plans, and Thai assistant teacher provided.
Excellent bonus holiday package.
School/Company Type: private
Province:
Bangkok
Pay Rate: At least 30,000 Baht/month
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This is obvious enough how local Thais are completely trapped in this tenet. “The ideal teachers of English are native speakers” They are unconsciously breeding themselves as inferior among its users. In this particular case, the language imperialists are successful on sloganeering of their ‘genuine’ assistance. It is unquestionable why the presence of British Council in the Ministry of Education of
Thailand
is very visible propagating every single project.
EXHIBIT D
A Chulalongkorn University (CU) survey shows that Thai graduates have the lowest levels of English proficiency in Southeast Asia, alongside neighbouring
Laos
.
Thailand
’s TOEFL average was grouped with
Laos
below 500.
"I was startled when the results came out," said Professor Kanchana Prapphal, director of CU ATC. The survey was first undertaken to determine the effectiveness of CU’s own Test of English Proficiency.
English Proficiency: TOEFL score shocker
Natee Vichitsorasatra, & Jesada Paisalpichitsodsai - The Nation
AS a result of this,
EXHIBIT E:
Due to the limited number of English teachers in
Thailand
, we, language teachers, have to find new ways to help our students to achieve their goals. A Chapter in the Educational Reform Act states that Thai learners should have global literacy. That is, they must know English, be able to use the Internet, and understand cultures of other countries to be qualified as world citizens. For higher education, they should be able to exchange knowledge, have interactive networking, and collaborate in international research projects (UNESCO). From the stakeholders
’ point of view, they expect to have graduates who have communication skills in English and
Thai.
Kanchana Prapphal (Chulalongkorn University Language Institute
Thailand
will never realize how to counteract this linguistic imperialism unless they will realize the potential of Thai- English teachers without comparing to any nationalities. But given such favorable mix, diverse forms of collaborations are feasible. And only learners can gain from this. Thai students are on the verge of that realization.
Thai student A: “Teacher, gamlang ja pai nai where? ( Teacher, where are you going?
By this time, this Thai student had already taken the language into her own hands, by understanding such Thai- English collaboration, to a larger extent, unconsciously moving its way to a realization of linguistic revolution. Linguistically, sociolinguistically, and politically Thai English is positive product of decolonization.
In the Philippine context, Filipinos have gone that far, as creative and critical thinking is concern, to struggle politically and sociolinguistically, for the fall of linguistic imperialist. Such creative fabrication of Philippine English is a big leap for us. This will distinguished us from the rest of the world. The next task is, to alleviate our economic problem, the continuing deterioration of this domain reflects the inefficiency of the government we have. Critically enough, this assemblage of educators and intellectual few must recognize the vast importance of their respective responsibility on advancing not only linguistically.
