I’ve been able to have a job in a teaching overseas program where there is a teacher from the home country that can speak English in my class while I’m teaching. They are there to assist with any translations that the students don’t understand.
At least that’s how it’s supposed to go…
Recently I’ve felt like I’m in their class assisting them with English. The Thai-English teachers are either a hit or a miss. Sometimes they translate too much and other times they don’t offer any help when I actually need it. I’ve come up with a list of some positives and negatives of having a teacher assistant in an ESL classroom.
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Positives:
1. You don’t really have to do that much classroom management.
Usually, if something goes wrong in the class, the Thai teacher will take care of it. This can be anything from crying, running around, sleeping, not bringing the textbook, etc. Now, I’m not saying I don’t do any classroom management, but it’s definitely easier to have someone else manage the younger students in a teaching overseas program.
2. If the students don’t know how to say something to me in English the Thai-English teacher can translate for them.
The young students will usually just start talking to me in Thai because they don’t know enough English to communicate with me. It can also be hard for them to understand that I don’t understand them. I’m most likely the only person in their life that doesn’t speak the same language as them. The older students will try to tell me something but it might just be a few words and not a whole sentence. That’s when I send them over to the Thai teacher to translate.
3. You have extra help with monitoring the students during activities.
Thai students don’t like to sit down and work during my class. So they will randomly get up and go talk to their friend on the other side of the room. If I want to do an activity that requires movement in the classroom, don’t expect the students to stay where you told them to stand. Activities are the hardest part because Thai students don’t listen to the instructions. They are just happy they don’t have to write anything that day.
4. Teaching grammar becomes a lot easier.
Teaching grammar can be a nightmare because I can’t compare it to their language. If they don’t understand the basics like pronoun, verb, adjective, then teaching grammar is hopeless. It just becomes copying whatever I write on the board. The Thai teacher will usually explain these things in their class and then go over it again in my class.
Negatives of Teaching Overseas Programs:
1. Students can become too reliant on the translator and not try to understand you.
When the students know the translator will translate if they say they don’t understand, the student will learn to say they don’t understand even if they actually do understand. Sometimes I feel like the students ignore me and wait for the explanation from the translator.
2. You may feel like the Thai-English teacher is taking over your class with all the Thai they speak compared to the little bit of English you said.
When I say a few sentences in English and wait for the translation, sometimes I take a seat and wait because I never know how long the translation will be. And I’m definitely not exaggerating.
3. Sometimes that “take over” will take up the whole class period, and what you had planned gets pushed back to the next class which messes up your whole semester.
At my school, the students have two different English classes, one taught in Thai and one taught in English. I have the same requirements for my class as the Thai class. I need to get through the material in the textbook, give grades and tests. If a section or chapter in the textbook ends up taking a month to complete, that changes the rest of the semester. And cause a headache for me because I don’t want to rush through the material at the end of the year just to get through the whole book.
4. You’ll learn that planning a lesson never goes as planned because of all the translations, and you end up just winging it most of the time which doesn’t really improve your teaching abilities.
This goes along with number three. If I’m not actually teaching material, how does that help me improve my ability to teach? Yes, I want the students to understand what I’m teaching, but at the same time translation can be too time-consuming. In my opinion, if the topic is too difficult to understand then this topic should be taught by the Thai-English teacher. Or have the Thai-English teacher teach the topic first, and then I will teach the same thing but only in English.
All in all, it really just depends on the school and how the classes are set up between the Thai teacher and the English teacher. The student also plays a big part in it as well because if they are not motivated to learn English, the class becomes harder to teach and less motivating for me as well.
To see the exact program that I used to come to Thailand, check out the link below.
