“Sawadee Krab…”
That’s how Thai students greet each other. Unlike in Indonesia, if we meet other people, we will say “Selamat pagi/siang/sore/malam” depends on the time. Meanwhile, in Thailand, people often say Sawadee Krab (for boys) / Ka (for girls) to say good morning, afternoon, or evening. So, whenever I meet my students, no matter it is in the morning or afternoon they will say Sawadee Krab/Ka to me. Anyway, in this good chance, I would like to tell you about my experiences during my teaching practice in Thailand. Yap, I teach English subject as a foreign language. Teaching English as a foreign language is not too difficult, but it becomes difficult when we teach English for foreign students, as what I have done in my teaching practice in Thailand school named Prince of Songkla Wittayanusorn Surathani School in Surat Thani province. Well, before I am going to share my experience during my teaching practice in there, it will be better if you know a little bit about the location of the school itself.
School Profile
Prince of Songkla University Wittayanusorn Suratthani School located in 31 Moo 6, Makham Tia Subdistrict, Mueang District, Surat Thani 84000 Fax. 077-278837 Mobile. 084-5579229. The outside of the school is 10.000 m2 with 26 classrooms. There are another building there such as swimming pool, badminton field, basketball filed, and footbal field which usually used by the students every friday. School in a clean and comfortable environment. The school is far from the highway because it is located in the center of Prince of Songkla University so the school conditions are not too noisy. In addition, the road to the school is wide enough, it fits to 3 cars wide so the transportation is easy to reach the school. The school is surrounded by several trees that add to the coolness of the school. There is a bus stop in front of the school which is usually used by students to wait for private pickups or existing public transportation. Besides, there are lot of facilities provided in PSU. Wittayanusorn Suratthani School, those are; Library, Language Lab, computer room, Physics Lab, Chemical Lab, Biology Lab, Counseling room, meeting room, etc. which supports the teaching and learning process. Further profile about the school can be read for more information about the school you can read it here http://psuwit.surat.psu.ac.th/history.html.
Teaching Practice
Well, during my teaching practice at PSU. Witt Surat School, I have to teach 6 Classes, those are Matayom 1-1 to 1-5 and Matayom 4-5. For your information, they used term Matayom 1, 2, and 3 to say first, second, and third-grade junior high school students, and Matayom 4, 5, and 6 for first, second, and third-grade students of senior high school. So, I have to teach 16-17x times in a week! ya, it is a hectic day for me, but as time goes I enjoy my teaching practice there. I also found some problem during my teaching practice. First, it was difficult to teach them at the beginning of my teaching practice, it is because they are allowed to bring their mobile phone inside the class, so when I teach them, some of them are busy with their mobile phone. Second, students often sleepy in the class and they bring a pillow to the class, omg!. Third, sometimes it is difficult to deliver the material when there are some students does not know some vocabularies due to they are learning English as a foreign language learner, and the worst is I cannot speak the Thai language to explain the material for them, hahaha.
But, those problem does not mean I cannot teach them well, there are some strategies which I got from my University as a solution that I have done for those problem. For the first problem, I was implementing what I got in the Media and Technology course, that is using Kahoot! as a media for teaching students. Kahoot! requires students to use their mobile phone in order to answer the quiz or questions given by the teacher with limited time, so by teaching English integrated with Kahoot! students will be more enthusiastic to learn and makes students use their mobile phone in more academic purpose, they also said that they enjoy the learning process by using Kahoot!. Second, when students are sleepy and bored in the class, I ask them to play games and yel-yel first before start teaching, we play Simmon says game, bingo, and yel-yel where they have to repeat after me loudly. This game and yel-yel works well to refresh the students’ mind so they are motivated to learn again, they also enjoy the game and participated well in yel-yel, so bye-bye sleepy!. The last strategy that I have done and require more effort when there are students who find difficulty to understand the material because they do not know the meaning of some vocabularies is by drawing the things that I mean in the whiteboard, using google translate, asking another student who understand the material, and by delivering it using another words or vocabulary. This is a challenge that I never get if I doing my teaching practice in Indonesia. If this happens in Indonesia, I can re-explain the material using the Indonesian language so they will understand, but, this is in Thailand in which they speak Thai language and I cannot speak Thai. Well, those are about the teaching practice, there also some activity which is different from Indonesian activity in the school. First is the flag ceremony, flag ceremony in Indonesia held every Monday or once a week in the morning, while the flag ceremony in Thailand held every morning from Monday to Friday, what a good nationalism!. Second is the break time for lunch, there is no class start from 11 a.m to 12 a.m. They still have their own break time, but every 11 a.m to 12 a.m there is no activity about teaching and learning in the school, all students and the staff of the school will go to U-Building. U-Building is a large canteen for all, so students and teacher gather there for lunch, I still remember that U-Building is the largest canteen that I have ever seen with many chairs and tables. Third, outside of the office where the teacher prepares everything before teaching, there is a cafe only for the teacher (including Undiksha students) to take a rest after teaching. There we can make coffee, tea, or cereal provided whenever we want, hahaha.
Anyway, the facilities at PSU. Wittayanusorn Suratthani School is amazing! the classroom has complete facilities which support the teaching and learning process, there are an air conditioner, wifi, whiteboard, LCD projector, computer, speaker, microphone, and I do not know what is the name for mall whiteboard with a camera which will display anything that I write there to the LCD projector, so I do not need to write anything directly to the whiteboard hahaha. Those are a good technology to support teaching and learning activity in the classroom. So, those are my teaching experience in Thailand which I will never get in Indonesia.
Measurement and Evaluation System
Students’ achievements are measured and evaluated using, daily assignment, unit test, midterm, and final test, and there is no homework in PSU. Wittayanusorn Suratthani School. In every meetings, students are given daily assignment for every materials that they have learn before. Unit test used to assess or measure students’ achievement on their daily assignment, midterm used to measure students’ achievement for particular unit, for example from unit 1 to 12, midterm used for measuring half of the unit, that is unit 1 to 6, and final test used for measuring students achievements for all unit in the students’ coursebook. Students with low score should follow the remedial to take the test again.
Pedagogical Contents (sources of learning and technology)
During teaching and learning activity, there are sources of learning and technology used in PSU. Wittayanusorn Suratthani School. The sources of learning materials used in Matayom 1 is students’ coursebook entitled Team Up in English 1. All of the materials of the lessons depends on the coursebook itself. Another sources of learning for the students is internet, students are allowed to find any information from the internet in order to clarify their understanding. This is in line with the use of Students’ Centered Learning principle that is students should be more active in the classroom to gain the information. For the technology used in PSU. Wittayanusorn Suratthani School are; LCD projector, Wi-Fi, computer, microphone and speaker. This technology available in each classroom that can be used both by the teachers and students.
Source: Kavanagh, F., Moore, C., Morris, C., Smith, A., & Cattunar, J. (2017). TEAM UP IN ENGLISH 1 : Student’s Book. Bangkok, Bangkok, Thailand: Aksorn Charoen Tat ACT. Co., Ltd
Teaching Plan
In general, based on observation in PSU. Wittayanusorn Suratthani School, both in Thailand and Indonesia implement the same teaching strategy. Teacher no longer explains all of the material in the classroom, but students must be more active in the class. PSU. Wittanayuson Suratthani School implementing Active Learning method in order to optimize students’ potential, so they will be able to achieve satisfying learning outcomes depends on their individual character and students alco can be more focus on the things being taught. By using Active Learning method, teachers also become more creative in teaching and make the classroom more effective. In terms of material, what is taught in Indonesia and in Thailand is not too different. In Thailand, English is categorized into two types, namely Fundamental English and Additional English. Fundamental English is an English language lesson that focuses more on grammar, while Additional English focuses on students’ listening and speaking skills. The material in the Additional English textbook is not as clear as the material contained in the Fundamental English textbook. Besides, English teacher in PSU. Wittayanusorn Suratthani School required to be creative and innovative in teaching in order to make students encouraged to learn English.
Lesson Plan
As well as teaching activity in Indonesia, teacher in Thailand also should prepare the lesson plan before teaching which will be used as guidance in teaching. But, the format of the lesson plan itself different with lesson plan used in Indonesia. Lesson plan used in Thailand simpler than lesson plan in Indonesia. This is because the teaching and learning activity is more flexible in classroom, so that teacher is not too fixated by the description of the steps in the lesson plan. In addition, other things such as opening the lesson, closing lesson, giving reinforcement, and giving questions are the same as well as in Indonesia. The format of the lesson plan can be downloaded here
Do not forget to leave any comments or questions if you want more information about teaching practicum in Thailand, Thank you for read this!
