English teaching in Primary and Secondary Schools ( Bangkok , Chiang Mai)

Project Summary

Thai students have a notable passion for learning English. With the surrounding and growing economy, the trend of learning English is developing everyday. In this project, volunteers will teach English to the students of primary and lower secondary schools for five days a week - Monday to Friday. Additionally, English-teaching volunteers will also encourage the students to take part in extracurricular activities as well as possibly organize sports.

Both primary and secondary schools in Thailand are struggling to meet the growing demand of English education. In Thailand , the primary schools provide education to the children between the ages of 5-12 years, grades 1-6. The class sizes range from 10-40 students, depending upon the size of the community as well as the quality of the school. Meanwhile, the secondary schools are located in larger communities, towns or cities. These schools are comprised of children/young adults between the ages of 12-19 and are usually quite large with approximately 1000-4000 students. Almost all of these schools are co-educational and have a foreign language department. English is the main language offered, yet some of these schools offer French, German, and Italian as well.

Skills/Qualifications

Though no teaching experience or skill is needed, volunteers joining English-teaching projects should have a mastery of the English language as well as speak properly. Volunteers are expected to be flexible and patient as well as possess a passion and love for children

Volunteers' Responsibilities

Volunteers will teach English to the students of primary and lower secondary schools for five (5) days a week, Monday to Friday. Apart from this, volunteers will also encourage the students to take part in extracurricular activities and organize sport-related activities. Volunteers will teach practical, conversational English by telling stories, playing games, performing plays, etc. Volunteers will also teach specific vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. A supervisor at each school will be assigned to help develop teaching lessons

Volunteers working in secondary schools can also teach other languages in addition to English depending upon the school. There are sometimes approximately 10 teachers in the foreign language department. However, only 1-2 teachers may speak English well or properly. Others simply translate the stories, and teach grammar/structural English. Therefore, there is a lack of conversational English. The presence of native, English-speaking volunteers will create an environment where the children will learn and speak English. In Thailand , teachers hold very respectable positions often resulting in an overwhelming receipt of the love by the students and their parents.

Room/Food

IFRE arranges room, food, and supervision for volunteer for the entire duration of the program. During the first week's program of language and cultural immersion, volunteers will stay in IFRE's hostel and/or with a host family. IFRE's hostel in Bangkok is located in the outskirts of the city, granting easy access to all parts of Bangkok . During the language program, volunteers eat out in different restaurants. Our local staff members supply volunteers a coupon or make dining arrangements directly with restaurants. IFRE does not offer expensive meals, but offer local food three (3) times a day.

During the assigned work period, volunteers stay in a hostel or with host families. IFRE manages a separate room along with a shared bath for volunteers both in host families and hostel. In host families, volunteers' "host moms" cook food. But for volunteers living in the hostel, our local staff members arrange food in local restaurants or provide a coupon. The details pertaining to room/food will be furnished in volunteers' final placement details prior to departure to Thailand .