Extra teaching to high school students for O-Net Exam!

October 8, 2008

My colleagues and I were assigned to visit a high schoolin Nakhon Phrathom, out side of Bangkok, and give a terse lesson for the English subject in the O-Net and A-Net exams performed in Thailand to about 70 high school students . Many students came, mostly those who major in Science and some in Languages (such as Chinese and Japanese, and English). I hope they learned some thing from us...well only half a day won't do the trick, but at least they came here to learn...to pass the exam! And we promoted our university.

Learning for passing is something that does not buy me. I may seem negative with this a wee bit, since I do not wholeheartedly agree with testing much. They, as learners, don't seem to benefit from testing much compared to the practical outcome. Learners can receive 600 for TOEFL, but really they don't seem to be able to communicate effectively. However, many might disagree, testing is one of those keys to show whether or not the learners have made any progress. On another note, it possibly encourages the learners to learn and improve. Nevertheless,I would say that testing is the first step to further learners' knowledge (such as study abroad)or know where they are at in any fields. They are always pros and cons in almost everything.

Now, it reminds me of Lingua Franca! Many academia believe in this paradigm. They believe that learners should learn 2L for practical use. In other words, grammar and structure should be put aside and prioritise the use of the language per se--or I would say learning to practical use it in everyday situation. Learning English here might be more productive and perhaps could answer to the question as "Why can I not speak English after learning it for 12 years?!" Though, a question might have arisen here from the grammarians about its standard. Learners might be able to communicate only to get the message across--but with "broken English." This is interesting!

Anyway, back to the tutoring, we thought we did our best and hoped to make it better next time with the presentation. We were not quite organised and prepared due to short notice and preparation.