Thailand also uses the distinctive Thai six hour clock in addition to the 24 hour clock.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Vocabulary
compound words and words of foreign origin, most words are monosyllabic. Historically, words have most often been borrowed from Sanskrit and Pāli; Buddhist terminology is particularly indebted to these. Old Khmer has also contributed its share, especially in regard to royal court terminology. Since the beginning of the 20th century, however, the English language has had the greatest influence. Also, many Teochew Chinese words are used, some replacing existing Thai words.
Vowels
The basic vowels of the Thai language, from front to back and close to open, are given in the following table. The top entry in every cell is the symbol from the International Phonetic Alphabet, the second entry gives the spelling in the Thai alphabet, where a dash (–) indicates the position of the initial consonant after which the vowel is pronounced. A second dash indicates that a final consonant must follow.
| Front | Back | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | unrounded | rounded | ||||
| short | long | short | long | short | long | |
| Close | /i/ -ิ | /iː/ -ี | /ɯ/ -ึ | /ɯː/ -ื | /u/ -ุ | /uː/ -ู |
| Close-mid | /e/ เ-ะ | /eː/ เ- | /ɤ/ เ-อะ | /ɤː/ เ-อ | /o/ โ-ะ | /oː/ โ- |
| Open-mid | /ɛ/ แ-ะ | /ɛː/ แ- | /ɔ/ เ-าะ | /ɔː/ -อ | ||
| Open | /a/ -ะ, -ั | /aː/ -า | ||||
The vowels each exist in long-short pairs: these are distinct phonemes forming unrelated words in Thai,[1] but usually transliterated the same: เขา (khao) means he or she, while ขาว (khao) means white.
The long-short pairs are as follows:
| Long | Short | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thai script | IPA | Gloss | Thai script | IPA | Gloss | ||||
| –า | /aː/ | /fǎːn/ | 'to slice' | –ะ | /a/ | /fǎn/ | 'to dream' | ||
| –ี | /iː/ | /krìːt/ | 'to cut' | –ิ | /i/ | /krìt/ | 'dagger' | ||
| –ู | /uː/ | /sùːt/ | 'to inhale' | –ุ | /u/ | /sùt/ | 'rearmost' | ||
| เ– | /eː/ | /ʔēːn/ | 'to recline' | เ–ะ | /e/ | /ʔēn/ | 'ligament' | ||
| แ– | /ɛː/ | /pʰɛ́ː/ | 'to be defeated' | แ–ะ | /ɛ/ | /pʰɛ́ʔ/ | 'goat' | ||
| –ื | /ɯː/ | /kʰlɯ̂ːn/ | 'wave' | –ึ | /ɯ/ | /kʰɯ̂n/ | 'to go up' | ||
| เ–อ | /ɤː/ | /dɤ̄ːn/ | 'to walk' | เ–อะ | /ɤ/ | /ŋɤ̄n/ | 'silver' | ||
| โ– | /oː/ | /kʰôːn/ | 'to fell' | โ–ะ | /o/ | /kʰôn/ | 'thick (soup)' | ||
| –อ | /ɔː/ | /klɔːŋ/ | 'drum' | เ–าะ | /ɔ/ | /klɔ̀ŋ/ | 'box' | ||
The basic vowels can be combined into diphthongs. Tingsabadh & Abramson (1993) analyze those ending in high vocoids as underlyingly /Vj/ and /Vw/. For purposes of determining tone, those marked with an asterisk are also classified as long:
| Long | Short | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Thai | IPA | Thai | IPA |
| –าย | /aːj/ | ไ–*, ใ–*, ไ–ย | /aj/ |
| –าว | /aːw/ | เ–า* | /aw/ |
| เ–ีย | /iːa/ | เ–ียะ | /ia/ |
| – | – | –ิว | /iw/ |
| –ัว | /uːa/ | –ัวะ | /ua/ |
| –ูย | /uːj/ | –ุย | /uj/ |
| เ–ว | /eːw/ | เ–็ว | /ew/ |
| แ–ว | /ɛːw/ | – | – |
| เ–ือ | /ɯːa/ | – | – |
| เ–ย | /ɤːj/ | – | – |
| –อย | /ɔːj/ | – | – |
| โ–ย | /oːj/ | – | – |
Additionally, there are three triphthongs, all of which are long:
| Thai | IPA |
|---|---|
| เ–ียว | /iow/ |
| –วย | /uɛj/ |
| เ–ือย | /ɯɛj/ |
For a guide to written vowels, see the Thai alphabet page.
Consonants
Thai distinguishes among three voice/aspiration patterns for plosive consonants:
- unvoiced, unaspirated
- unvoiced, aspirated
- voiced, unaspirated
Where English has only a distinction between the voiced, unaspirated /b/ and the unvoiced, aspirated /p/, Thai distinguishes a third sound which is neither voiced nor aspirated, which occurs in English only as an allophone of /p/, approximately the sound of the p in "spin." There is similarly an alveolar /t/, /tʰ/, /d/ triplet. In the velar series there is a /k/, /kʰ/ pair and in the postalveolar series the /tɕ/, /tɕʰ/ pair.
In each cell below, the first line indicates International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), the second indicates the Thai characters in initial position (more letters appearing in the same box have identical pronunciation).
| Bilabial | Labio- dental | Alveolar | Post- alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | [ p ] ป | [ pʰ ] ผ,พ,ภ | [ b ] บ | [ t ] ฏ,ต | [ tʰ ] ฐ,ฑ*,ฒ,ถ,ท,ธ | [ d ] ฎ,ฑ*,ด | [ k ] ก | [ kʰ ] ข,ฃ,ค,ฅ,ฆ | [ ʔ ] อ** | |||||
| Nasal | [ m ] ม | [ n ] ณ,น | [ ŋ ] ง | |||||||||||
| Fricative | [ f ] ฝ,ฟ | [ s ] ซ,ศ,ษ,ส | [ h ] ห,ฮ | |||||||||||
| Affricate | [ tɕ ] จ | [ tɕʰ ] ฉ, ช, ฌ | ||||||||||||
| Trill | [ r ] ร | |||||||||||||
| Approximant | [ j ] ญ,ย | [ w ] ว | ||||||||||||
| Lateral approximant | [ l ] ล,ฬ | |||||||||||||
- * ฑ can be pronounced as [tʰ] or [d] depended on Thai words.
- ** The glottal plosive is implied after a short vowel without final, or the silent อ before a vowel.
Phonology, Tones
Phonology
Tones
There are five phonemic tones: middle, low, high, rising and falling. The table shows an example of both the phonemic tones and their phonetic realization, in the IPA.
| Tone | Thai | Phonemic | Phonetic | English |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| high | น้า | /náː/ | [naː˧˥] | aunt/uncle(younger than your parents) |
| mid | นา | /nāː/ | [naː˥˧] | a paddy |
| low | หน่า | /nàː/ | [naː˧˩] | (a nickname) |
| rising | หนา | /nǎː/ | [naː˨˩˧] | thick |
| falling | หน้า | /nâː/ | [naː˥˩] | face |
Particles
The particles are often untranslatable words added to the end of a sentence to indicate respect, a request, encouragement or other moods (similar to the use of intonation in English), as well as varying the level of formality. They are not used in elegant (written) Thai. The most common particles indicating respect are ครับ (khrap, IPA: [kʰráp], with a high tone) for a man, and ค่ะ (kha, [kʰâ], with a falling tone) for a woman; these can also be used to indicate an affirmative.
Other common particles are:
| word | RTGS | IPA | meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| จ๊ะ | cha | [tɕaʔ] | indicating a request |
| จ้ะ, จ้า or จ๋า | cha | [tɕaː] | indicating emphasis |
| ละ or ล่ะ | la | [laʔ] | indicating emphasis |
| สิ | si | [siʔ] | indicating emphasis or an imperative |
| นะ | na | [naʔ] | softening; indicating a request |
Nouns and pronouns
Nouns are uninflected and have no gender; there are no articles.
Nouns are neither singular nor plural. Some specific nouns are reduplicated to form collectives: เด็ก (dek, child) is often repeated as เด็กๆ (dek dek) to refer to a group of children. The word พวก (phuak, [pʰûak]) may be used as a prefix of a noun or pronoun as a collective to pluralize or emphasise the following word. (พวกผม, phuak phom, [pʰûak pʰǒm], we, masculine; พวกเรา phuak rao, [pʰûak raw], emphasised we; พวกหมา phuak ma, (the) dogs) Plurals are expressed by adding classifiers, used as measure words (ลักษณนาม), in the form of noun-number-classifier (ครูห้าคน, "teacher five person" for "five teachers"). While in English, such classifiers are usually absent ("four chairs") or optional ("two bottles of beer" or "two beers"), a classifier is almost always used in Thai (hence "chair four item" and "beer two bottle").
Subject pronouns are often omitted, while nicknames are often used where English would use a pronoun. There are specialised pronouns in the royal and sacred Thai languages. The following are appropriate for conversational use:
| word | RTGS | IPA | meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| ผม | phom | [pʰǒm] | I/me (masculine; formal) |
| ดิฉัน | dichan | [dìːtɕʰán]) | I/me (feminine; formal) |
| ฉัน | chan | [tɕʰǎn] | I/me (masculine or feminine; informal) |
| คุณ | khun | [kʰun] | you (polite) |
| ท่าน | thaan | [thâan] | you (polite to a person of high status) |
| เธอ | thoe | [tʰɤː] | you (informal), she/her (informal) |
| เรา | rao | [raw] | we/us, I/me (casual) |
| เขา | khao | [kʰǎw] | he/him, she/her |
| มัน | man | [mɑn] | it |
| พวกเขา | phuak khao | [pʰûak kʰǎw] | they/them |
| พี่ | phi | [pʰîː] | older brother, sister (also often used loosely for older cousins and non-relatives) |
| น้อง | nong | [nɔːŋ] | younger brother, sister (also often used loosely for younger cousins and non-relatives) |
| ลูกพี่ ลูกน้อง | luk phi luk nong | [luːk pʰiː luːk nɔːŋ] | cousin (male or female) |
Verbs
Verbs do not inflect (i.e. do not change with person, tense, voice, mood, or number) nor are there any participles. Duplication conveys the idea of doing the verb intensively.
The passive voice is indicated by the insertion of ถูก (thuk, IPA: [tʰuːk])) before the verb. For example:
- เขาถูกตี (khao thuk ti, IPA: [kʰǎw tʰuːk tiː]), He is hit. This describes an action that is out of the receiver's control and, thus, conveys suffering.
To convey the opposite sense, a sense of having an opportunity arrive, ได้ (dai, IPA: [daj], can) is used. For example:
- เขาจะได้ไปเที่ยวเมืองลาว (khao cha dai pai thiao mueang lao, IPA: [kʰǎw tɕaʔ dâj paj tʰîow mɯːaŋ laːw]), He gets to visit Laos.
Note, dai (IPA: [daj] and IPA: [daːj]), though both spelled ได้ , convey two separate meanings. The short vowel dai (IPA: [daj]) conveys an opportunity has arisen and is placed before the verb. The long vowel dai (IPA: [daːj]) is placed after the verb and conveys the idea that one has been given permission or one has the ability to do something. Also see the past tense below.
- เขาตีได้ (khao ti dai, IPA: [kʰǎw tiː dâːj]), He is/was allowed to hit or He is/was able to hit
Negation is indicated by placing ไม่ (mai, not) before the verb.
- เขาไม่ตี, (khao mai ti) He is not hitting. or He doesn't hit.
Tense is conveyed by tense markers before or after the verb.
- Present can be indicated by กำลัง (kamlang, IPA: [kamlaŋ], currently) before the verb for ongoing action (like English -ing form), by อยู่ (yu, IPA: [juː]) after the verb, or by both. For example:
- เขากำลังวิ่ง (khao kamlang wing, IPA: [kʰǎw kamlaŋ wiŋ]), or
- เขาวิ่งอยู่ (khao wing yu, IPA: [kʰǎw wiŋ juː]), or
- เขากำลังวิ่งอยู่ (khao kamlang wing yu, IPA: [kʰǎw kamlaŋ wiŋ juː]), He is running.
- Future can be indicated by จะ (cha, IPA: [tɕaʔ], will) before the verb or by a time expression indicating the future. For example:
- เขาจะวิ่ง (khao cha wing, IPA: [kʰǎw tɕaʔ wiŋ]), He will run or He is going to run
- Past can be indicated by ได้ (dai, IPA: [daːj]) before the verb or by a time expression indicating the past. However, แล้ว (laeo, :IPA: [lɛːw], already) is more often used to indicate the past tense by being placed behind the verb. Or, both ได้ and แล้ว are put together to form the past tense expression, i.e. Subject + ได้ + Verb + แล้ว. For example:
- เขาได้กิน (khao dai kin, IPA: [kʰǎw daːj kin]), He ate
- เขากินแล้ว (khao kin laeo, IPA: [kʰǎw kin lɛːw], He (already) ate or He's already eaten
- เขาได้กินแล้ว (khao dai kin laeo, IPA: [kʰǎw daːj kin lɛːw]), He (already) ate or He's already eaten
Grammar
From the perspective of linguistic typology, Thai can be considered to be an analytic language. The word order is Subject Verb Object, although the subject is often omitted. The Thai pronominal system varies according to the sex and relative status of speaker and audience.
Adjectives and adverbs
There is no morphological distinction between adverbs and adjectives. Many words can be used in either function. They follow the word they modify, which may be a noun, verb, or another adjective or adverb. Intensity can be expressed by a duplicated word, which is used to mean "very" (with the first occurrence at a higher pitch) or "rather" (with both at the same pitch) (Higbie 187-188). Usually, only one word is duplicated per clause.
- คนอ้วน (khon uan, IPA: [kʰon uan ]) a fat person
- คนอ้วนๆ (khon uan uan, IPA: [kʰon uan uan]) a very/rather fat person
- คนอ้วนไว (khon uan wai) a person who becomes/became fat quickly
- คนอ้วนไวๆ (khon uan wai wai) a person who becomes/became fat very/rather quickly
Comparatives take the form "A X กว่า B" (kwa, IPA: [kwaː]), A is more X than B. The superlative is expressed as "A X ที่สุด" (thi sut, IPA: [tʰiːsut]), A is most X.
- เขาอ้วนกว่าฉัน (kao uan kwa chan) S/he is fatter than I.
- เขาอ้วนที่สุด (kao uan thi sut) S/he is the fattest (of all).
Because adjectives can be used as complete predicates, many words used to indicate tense in verbs (see Verbs:Tense below) may be used to describe adjectives.
- ฉันหิว (chan hiw) I am hungry.
- ฉันจะหิว (chan ja hiw) I will be hungry.
- ฉันกำลังหิว (chan kamlang hiw) I am becoming hungry. or I am hungry right now.
- ฉันหิวแล้ว (chan hiw laeo) I am already hungry.
Transliteration
The ISO published an international standard for the transliteration of Thai into Roman script in September 2003 (ISO 11940) [2]. By adding diacritics to the Latin letters, it makes the transcription reversible, making it a true transliteration. This system is intended for academic use and is hardly ever used in Thailand for the common public.
Transcription
There is no universal standard for transcribing Thai into the Latin alphabet. For example, the name of King Rama IX, the present monarch, is transcribed variously as Bhumibol, Phumiphon, phuuM miH phohnM, or many other versions. Guide books, text books and dictionaries may each follow different systems. For this reason, most language courses recommend that learners master the Thai alphabet.
What comes closest to a standard is the Royal Thai General System of Transcription (RTGS), published by the Thai Royal Institute only in Thai at [1]. This system is increasingly used in Thailand by central and local governments, especially for road signs. Its main drawbacks are that it does not indicate tone or vowel length. It is not possible to reconstruct the Thai spelling from the RTGS transcriptions.
Script
The Thai alphabet is derived from the Khmer alphabet (อักขระเขมร), which is modeled after the Brahmic script from the Indic family. The language and its alphabet are closely related to the Lao language and alphabet. Most Laotians are able to read and understand Thai, as more than half of the Thai vocabulary, grammar, intonation, vowels and so forth are common with the Lao language. Much like the Burmese adopted the Mon script (which also has Indic origins), the Thais adopted and modified Khmer script to create their own writing system. While the oldest known inscription in the Khmer language dates from 611 CE, inscriptions in Thai writing began to appear around 1292 CE. Notable features include:
- It is an abugida script, in which the implicit vowel is a short /a/ in a syllable without final consonant and a short /o/ in a syllable with final consonant.
- Tone markers are placed above the consonant just before the vowel sound of the syllable.
- Vowels sounding after a consonant are nonsequential: they can be located before, after, above or below the consonant, or in a combination of these positions.
Languages and dialects
Standard Thai, also known as Central Thai or Siamese, is the official language of Thailand, spoken by about 65 million people (1990) including speakers of Bangkok Thai (although the latter is sometimes considered as a separate dialect). Khorat Thai is spoken by about 400,000 (1984) in Nakhon Ratchasima; it occupies a linguistic position somewhere between Central Thai and Isan on a dialect continuum, and may be considered a variant or dialect of either.
In addition to Standard Thai, Thailand is home to other related Tai languages, including:
- Isan (Northeastern Thai), the language of the Isan region of Thailand, considered by some to be a dialect of the Lao language, which it very closely resembles (although it is written in the Thai alphabet). It is spoken by about 15 million people (1983).
- Nyaw language, spoken mostly in Nakhon Phanom Province, Sakhon Nakhon Province, Udon Thani Province of Northeast Thailand.
- Galung language, spoken in Nakhon Phanom Province of Northeast Thailand.
- Lü (Tai Lue, Dai), spoken by about 78,000 (1993) in northern Thailand.
- Northern Thai (Lanna, Kam Meuang, or Thai Yuan), spoken by about 6 million (1983) in the formerly independent kingdom of Lanna (Chiang Mai).
- Phuan, spoken by an unknown number of people in central Thailand and Isan.
- Phu Thai, spoken by about 156,000 around Nakhon Phanom Province (1993).
- Shan (Thai Luang, Tai Long, Thai Yai), spoken by about 56,000 in north-west Thailand along the border with the Shan States of Burma (1993).
- Song, spoken by about 20,000 to 30,000 in central and northern Thailand (1982).
- Southern Thai (Pak Dtai), spoken about 5 million (1990).
- Thai Dam, spoken by about 20,000 (1991) in Isan and Saraburi Province.
Statistics are from Ethnologue 2003-10-4.
Many of these languages are spoken by larger numbers outside of Thailand. Most speakers of dialects and minority languages speak Central Thai as well, since it is the language used in schools and universities all across the kingdom.
Numerous languages not related to Thai are spoken within Thailand by ethnic minority hill tribespeople. These languages include Hmong-Mien (Yao), Karen, Lisu, and others.
Standard Thai is composed of several distinct registers, forms for different social contexts:
- Street Thai (ภาษาพูด, spoken Thai): informal, without polite terms of address, as used between close relatives and friends.
- Elegant Thai (ภาษาเขียน, written Thai): official and written version, includes respectful terms of address; used in simplified form in newspapers.
- Rhetorical Thai: used for public speaking.
- Religious Thai: (heavily influenced by Sanskrit and Pāli) used when discussing Buddhism or addressing monks.
- Royal Thai (ราชาศัพท์): (influenced by Khmer) used when addressing members of the royal family or describing their activities.
Many Thais can speak at only the first and second levels, though they will understand the others.
Thai language
Thai (ภาษาไทย, transcription: phasa thai, transliteration: p̣hās̄ʹāthịy; IPA: [pʰāːsǎːtʰāj]), is the national and official language of Thailand and the mother tongue of the Thai people, Thailand's dominant ethnic group. Thai is a member of the Tai group of the Tai-Kadai language family. The Tai-Kadai languages are thought to have originated in what is now southern China, and some linguists have proposed links to the Austroasiatic, Austronesian, or Sino-Tibetan language families. It is a tonal and analytic language. The combination of tonality, a complex orthography, relational markers and a distinctive phonology can make Thai difficult to learn for those who do not already speak a related language.
Education in Thailand part 5
English Language Education in Thailand
The use of English in Thailand while far from being as developed as in the Netherlands, Germany, the Scandinavian countries or the Philippines, is nevertheless rapidly increasing through the influence of the media and the Internet and is far greater, for example, than in France, the United Kingdom’s nearest neighbour.
The government has long realised the importance of the English language as a major core subject in schools, and it has been a compulsory subject at varying levels for several decades. Since 2005 schools are being encouraged to establish bilingual departments where the core subjects are taught in English, and to offer intensive English language programmes. Notwithstanding the extensive use of, and exposure to English in everyday life in Thailand, the standard of correct English in the schools is now the lowest in Southeast Asia. In 1997 Thailand was still in the forefront, but by 2001 Laos and Vietnam had caught up, and by mid 2004 were clearly in the lead. (SAMEO Conference, Singapore, April 2006).
Following the announcement of the University of Cambridge to launch a new course and qualification for non-native speaker teachers, a survey was carried out in February 2006, with the collaboration of the University of Cambridge as part of a field trial, by the country’s largest group of independent schools of its 400 or so teachers of English. The project reported that in over 60 percent of the teachers, the knowledge of the language and teaching methodology was well below that of the syllabus level which they were being expected to teach. Some teachers with a Grade 6 level - or lower - in the language were actually attempting to teach Grades 10, 11, and even 12. Of the remaining top 40 per cent, only 3 percent had a reasonable level of fluency and only 20 per cent were teaching grades for which they were correctly qualified and competent. For the most part, the level of spoken and written English was often incomprehensible to the native speaker designers and administrators of the project. Within the group of over 40 schools representing nearly 80,000 students in primary and secondary education, random parallel test groups of primary school pupils often scored higher in some tests than many of the teachers in other schools of the same group. The schools resisted the initiative of the central governing body to provide intensive upgrading programmes for the teachers. In spite of the evidence, the schools doubted the results, and to save face, argued that their teachers had qualified through their various universities and colleges and either had nothing more to learn or could not afford the time. In the government schools the situation is no better and many primary teachers freely admit that they are forced to teach English although they have little or no knowledge of the language whatsoever. A debate began in several circles as to whether teaching English badly during the most influential years is in fact better than not teaching it at all at primary level. The situation is further exacerbated by the ever-changing curriculum, which is frequently misinterpreted into syllabuses by the teachers themselves at levels often far too advanced for the cognitive development of the students.
Thousands of native English speakers are employed in public and private schools throughout the country, their existence being encouraged by the need to develop students’ oral expression and knowledge of foreign culture; much of their time however, is taken up with remedial teaching: putting right any grammar, orthography, pronunciation and cultural background that has been wrongly taught and which leads to great misunderstanding - they see this as a greater priority. The official version of English, although not always practical in its dispensation, is British. Qualified native teachers with a background in linguistics will ensure that students are exposed to both major variations of the language and understand them and their differences, whichever version the students choose to speak.
Language classes, sponsored by the governments of English speaking countries such as those provided by the British Council, enjoy an excellent reputation for quality, both for general English, and for the preparation for international exams such as the American English TOEFL and the British English IELTS, which are prerequisites for the entry into many professions, particularly aircrew and tourism. There is also no shortage of cramming schools, usually franchise chains, in the capital and larger cities, but although they are staffed mainly by highly motivated, qualified native speakers, and have excellent resources, they are often branded by cynics as ‘the McDonalds of English language’.
There has been a dramatic increase since 2000 in the number of Thailand based TEFL/TESOL (Teaching of English as a Foreign Language / Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages) teacher training institutions. Some dispense internationally recognised teaching certificates and diplomas which follow the courses of established universities, and some provide courses and certification franchised from other organisations and universities, still others dispense their own courses and certification. Whatever their claims, there is no single, internationally recognised accrediting body for the certificates. Currently, to teach English in established schools, public or private, the minimum academic qualification for native speakers to obtain the required government teacher licence is a bachelor degree - in any subject. However, the government is in the process of exercising greater control, particularly to combat the use of bogus certificates and degrees issued by diploma mills, and to prevent access to schools by persons with doubtful motives.
Education in Thailand part 4
Tertiary & Higher Education
The established universities in both the government and private sectors offer excellent programmes especially in the fields of Medicine, the Arts, Humanities, and Information Technology, although many students prefer to pursue studies of law and business in Western faculties abroad or in those which have created local facilities in Thailand. During the first years of the 21st century, the number of universities increased dramatically. This does not automatically reflect an increase in the number of institutions, but is largely due to the fact that many establishments of further, vocational, or higher education were allocated the right to rename themselves to include the word university. Neither does it reflect an automatic improvement in the level of the degrees they confer, many of which are not yet internationally recognised. It raises however, the county’s pride on an international scale, in the number of 12th Grade school-leavers following undergraduate programmes before embarking on their careers and certainly improves the education and prospects of those who will enter full-time employment. A glance at the classified job sections in the newspapers will show that there is now rarely a white-collar employment of any kind that does not stipulate a bachelor degree as a minimum requirement.
For a full list of universities and higer education institutions in Thailand see: List of universities in Thailand. Over half of the provinces have a government Rajabhat University, formerly Rajabhat Institute, traditionally a Teacher Training College.
Education in Thailand part 3
Overview & History
Education in state schools is free and compulsory from Grade 1 through Grade 9, with access to two years of pre-school (anuban). All children attend school, including minority and stateless ethnic groups which may however be excluded from government secondary or higher education until their personal documentation is resolved. The government is not able to cope with the entire number of students and the private sector, which is supervised by the government, provides a significant contribution. Private international schools are allowed to follow British or American curricula. The level of education in the private sector is generally, but not always, higher than that of the government schools. Expensive, exclusive private and international schools provide for an exceptionally high level of achievement and a large number of their students continue their education in renowned American and British universities. Caritative organisations (Christian religious and parochial schools) provide the backbone of non-government, low-fee, general education and some established universities, and the standard is relatively high. Cheaper, newer and individual private schools, are occasionally run more for profit and government subsidies, than for results, and are often indistinguishable from government schools in terms of quality of buildings, resources, teaching competency, and overcrowded classrooms; the only real benefit is the prestige afforded to the parents for schooling their children in the private sector - academic superiority is sometimes barely measurable.
Education in Thailand is generally well organised, if on the government’s own admission, of a low academic standard compared to the development and modernisation of the country as a whole: Dr. Kasam Wattanachai, Privy Councellor to the King, August 10, 2002 “Ability of students down to the level of Laos - other countries are taking the lead.” Structured education on the lines of education in developed countries was slow to evolve. Unlike other parts of south and southeast Asia particularly the Indian subcontinent, Myanmar (Burma), Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Malay Peninsula, Indonesia and the Philippines which had all benefited from the influence of countries with centuries of educational tradition, Thailand has never been colonised and had not featured heavily on trade routes or explorers' trails to Central and East Asia. Formal education has its early origins in the temple schools, available to boys only, which began when the King set up a Department of Education with the aid of foreign - mainly English - advisers in 1887. The first university, Chulalongkorn, was not established until 1917.
The revolution in 1932 that transferred absolute power from the king to democratic government encouraged further development and expansion of schools and tertiary institutions. In 1961, the government began a series of five-year plans, and many of the extant purpose-built school buildings, particularly the wooden village primary schools, and the early concrete secondary schools date from around this time. Almost all villages have a primary school, most sub-districts tambon have a school providing education from Grade 1 through Grade 9, and all districts amphoe have secondary schools of Grade 7 through 12, and many have vocational colleges for students from grade 10. In rural schools absenteeism of both students and teachers is high due to family and farming commitments -in fact some schools close down during the periods of rice planting and harvesting.
Most of the established universities in the 21st century have faculties of education, where the teacher training is now based on child centred learning, and the standard is high. However, those who graduate as teachers will invariably seek positions in the private sector. Many students enroll in the faculties of education not with the intention of pursuing a teaching career, but to benefit from the superior quality of foreign language instruction. The mainstay of the teacher output is provided by the government Rajaphat Universities (formerly Rajaphat Institutes), the traditional teacher training colleges in each province, where the acquired knowledge and competency at first degree level is often comparable to the level of an American senior High School graduation, a British A-level, a French Baccalauriat, or a German Abitur. Apart from the security of being a civil servant with guaranteed employment and a pension, and the extraordinary cultural respect for the profession, there is little incentive to choose a future as a teacher in a government school. As a result, most classes in secondary schools are overcrowded with often as many as sixty students in a classroom, a situation which continues to favour the rote system that is firmly anchored in Thai culture, as the only method possible.
Students, even those in primary schools, are becoming aware of the shortfalls in the quality of their state education, but their own culture prevents them from challenging the system. In total contrast to Chinese philosophy, students are not encouraged to develop analytical and critical thinking skills, which is clearly demonstrated by their inability to grasp the fundamentals of chess, grasp a notion through context, do a crossword puzzle, or follow the plot of a complex thriller or motion picture; indeed, to do so would be to expose their teachers to the embarrassment of losing face. Likewise, the teachers will avoid introducing dialogue into the classroom or eliciting response from the students - in spite of demonstrating enthusiasm, to give a wrong answer would be to lose face in the presence of one’s peers. Dr. Adith Cheosokul, Professor, Chulalongkorn University, September 1, 2002: “Thai kids have no courage to question their teachers… foreign students are very eager to communicate with their teachers. The Thais are usually silent in class. I think it’s the culture. Our students tend to uphold teachers as demi-gods.” As teaching by rote is also easy and requires little pedagogic skill, once qualified, - apart from weekend seminars which, being more fun than form, are considered to be part of the reward system - teachers tend to resist attempts to encourage them to engage in any forms of further training to improve their subject knowledge and to adopt new methodologies which will require them to use more initiative and to be more creative. Some teachers in secondary schools, particularly those in their 40's, consider the essential form of an English language lesson to be the delivery of a straight lecture, in Thai, on some obscure element of higher linguistics to a class of teenagers. Prime Minister Taksin Shinwatra, August 18, 2002: “Teachers must radically change their way of thinking - I’m not sure they can do this.” The essence of education therefore still hinges first and foremost on the traditional values of Buddhism, respect for the king, the monkhood, and the family, (in that order) through the rote method, and whilst indisputably very noble, these features are the main hurdle to the implementation of modern educational methodology and the development of a Western cultural approach to communication in order to strengthen the country’s credibility in the world’s cultural and political theatres, and to reinforce its position in the global market.
Primary and secondary school teachers do not enjoy the same long breaks as the students and are required to work through the vacations on administrative duties. Many of these tasks concern their familiarisation with the frequent changes in the National Curriculum, and preparing and submitting lesson plans for every lesson they will give in the forthcoming semester; indeed, changes occur faster than authors can write and publishers can print new textbooks - new batches of thousands of textbooks ordered at the end of the previous semester are already obsolete by the time they are delivered during the vacation and will gather dust in the store room. The teachers will be left to improvise the teaching of a new or modified syllabus, without support material, and have to design their own tests and exams - neither of which is conducive to an improvement in quality. The constant changes are considered by many to be ‘one step forward, two steps back’. Often one department of the Ministry of Education is not aware of the work of another, and the principals and the teachers in the schools are always at the end of the information chain.
The years from 2001 to 2006 showed some of the greatest improvements in education, such as computers in the schools and an increase in the number of qualified native speaker teachers for foreign languages. Experiments had also been tried with restructuring the administrative regions for education or partly decentralising the responsibility of education to the provinces. By 2008, however, little real change had been felt, and many experiments to establish a clear form of university entrance qualification had also failed due to combinations of political interference, attempts to confer independence (or to remove it) on the universities, huge administrative errors, and inappropriate or mismatched syllabuses in the schools. The debate over the setting of new requirements, subjects, exams and standards for university entrance has been raging since 2003 and by late 2007 had shown no signs of being resolved. On return to democracy in early 2008, after the December election, the newly formed coalition led by the People's Power Party (a party formed by the remnants of deposed Taksin Shinwatra’s Thai Rak Tai party) announced new allocations of funds for education, an increase in the number of teachers, and more changes to the national curriculum and university entrance system.
Education in Thailand part 2
School system
After 2001, the Ministry changed the system of education into 'Children Centre,' and the school structure was divided into four levels: the first three years in elementary school are the first level, Prathom 1 - 3, corresponding to American grades 1 through 3, the second level, Prathom 4 through 6 comprises grades 4 through 6, the third level which comprises the first three years in high school, Matthayom 1 - 3, and the upper level of high school consists of Matthayom 4 - 6. After each level, students need to pass the NET (National Educational Test)to graduate. Children are required only to attend six years of elementary school and at least the first three years of high school. But, if they have graduated the sixth year of high school, there are two important tests following: O-NET (Ordinary National Educational Test) and A-NET (Advanced National Educational Test). After graduating from high school, many students in the major cities will choose to continue their education to bachelor level, and will need to pass the CUAS (Central University Admission System) which contains 50% of O-NET and A-NET results and the other half of the fourth level GPA (Grade Point Average). Since 2001, Thai Education has changed its face. Lots of students in the major cities don't like the CUAS system and protest it, because there is no standard of GPA result from each school, but there is opposite situation in country area. So, some university boards decided to avoid the problems by receiving students before the CUAS.
There are public and private schools. Some local schools have only elementary school and 3 years of high school. Rural schools are generally less well equipped than the schools in the large towns and cities and the standard of instruction, particularly for the English language, is much lower.
Teachers have been criticized for looking the other way when students and colleagues plagiarize. Some believe that the allowance of plagiarism stifles learning and creativity in many Asian countries. The use of plagiarised material certainly does not demonstrate any understanding of its content, or that it has been retained in the memory of the student. It can be regarded as theft of intellectual property - which is commonplace and rife in Thai society, industry, and commerce, in spite of the government's efforts to combat it.
Education in Thailand
Education in Thailand
Education in Thailand is provided mainly by the Thai government through the Ministry of Education. A free basic education of twelve years is guaranteed by the constitution, and a minimum of nine years' school attendance is mandatory.
Formal education consists of at least twelve years of basic education, and higher education. Basic education is divided into six years of primary education and six years of secondary education, the latter being further divided into three years of lower- and upper-secondary levels. Kindergarten levels of pre-primary education, also part of the basic education level, spans 2-3 years depending on the locale, and is variably provided. Non-formal education is also supported by the state.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
