Native Literacy Goes a Long Way

I have to briefly interrupt my travel transcriptions to write about my more recent concerns. Teaching this week has been more difficult than usual, due to a multitude of reasons. One source of my frustration has been the institutionalized behaviors of teachers with regards to their students, more specifically their troublesome priorities. At one of my schools, the teachers prefer office work (no doubt these things must be accomplished, but must they be attended to during class hours?) to actual teaching. Consequently, the students have learned to exercise their free reign in the classroom, have become comatose to any discipline/structure, and have placed little importance on learning because, let's face it, there's no one to encourage and emphasize the important of their education.

I have been struggling in my head, for the longest time, what other issues these students face with regards to learning besides being unintelligible to classroom structure. Compared to my students from the other school, these particular students need more time and repetition to really digest the material and commit lessons to memory. Aside from the frequency of which I see them and a lackadaisical attitude towards accountability with their own work (this is a learned behavior though, that stems from the teacher's emphasis on perfection over learning), I realized, what other decisive factor it was that enabled my students from the other school to learn English much more adeptly. It had come to me right as I was praising one of my teacher-colleagues for doing such a good job teaching Thai. Like a sudden jolt from thunder, it reminded me of those moments in college when I talked myself into discovering what my thesis was for a particular paper.

My trouble students find it difficult learning and retaining English because they aren't even literate in their own native language. Often times, even my students will have trouble reaching a consensus on particular letters when I translate words into Thai. This propels me to conclude that less exposure to local literature, an inadequate proficiency in their own native language, and a lack of proper and positive encouragement from educators put students at a disadvantage in learning a foreign language. I'm not sure if these students even know how to study with a critical understanding of lessons, rote memorization aside. Their brains aren't exercised enough to master their own native tongue, even less a foreign language.

With that knowledge in mind, I spent my Friday abandoning my original lesson plan and encouraged my students to read books in pasa thai for the entire hour, and they seemed to really enjoy it. I figure that if I can spark, and inculcate a desire and habit of reading that curiosity will prevail and my students will be more open and become even more proficient at digesting new information and exercising critical thinking. Here's to hoping anyway!