Language schools offer various courses, from general English to test preparation courses like TEFL, IELTS and TOEFL. There might also be academic English courses offered as well as niche courses like English for a specific purpose.
Language schools open throughout the year. They usually close for a few days over the Songkran holiday period (April 12 – 14) and may also close for a few days at Chinese New Year (February). In the cases of smaller, single branch schools, especially those with Western owners, they may close over Christmas and New Year too.
Language institutes are open 7 days a week and with the weekends often the busiest time with classes scheduled from early morning through until late afternoon, teachers are usually required to work both Saturday and Sunday.
During week days, classes in language institutes may start as early as 8:00 or 8:30 AM, with the final class finishing as late as 9:00 PM. As such, the hours of work at language institutes may not be conducive to an active social life, at least if the people you like to socialise with work a regular Monday to Friday, or as is often the case in Thailand, a Monday to Saturday week. If your school is not careful with its scheduling, language institute teachers might find that they have split shifts some days, meaning they have to teach the first class of the day in the morning and the last class of the day, which may finish at8:30 or 9:00 PM. This shouldn’t happen, but often it does. During the school holiday periods of mid-March to mid-May as well as all of the month of October, language institutes may run courses targeting school-aged kids.
The contracts at language schools usually specify a maximum number of contact teaching hours per week with 24 or 25 being typical. This is not always the maximum however and you may be encouraged to teach more hours – which are paid at a higher, or overtime, rate. Generally speaking you won’t be asked to teach more than 25 hours per week although there is the odd employer which may specify a maximum number of 36 contact hours per week – which is way, way too much!
Contracts at the better language schools require teachers to work five days per week. If they request a 6 day week, I would simply suggest they are not one of the better schools. With the demand for teachers in Thailand being so great, I simply would not accept a position where you are asked to teach 6 days per week. It is just too much. Teaching can be quite draining and you “give a lot” in the classroom and it can really take it out of you. Arriving home after a day in the classroom you can feel quite drained and as such, six days is just too much, in my opinion. Don’t accept it.
A foreign TEFL teacher’s duties in a language institute are straightforward. You are required to prepare lessons and teach them. That’s usually about it. There might be some extra duties such as interviewing prospective students and placing them at the appropriate level. In test preparation courses there might be some testing involved, carrying out pre-course test and post-course tests to measure the improvement students should have made. But generally speaking, your duties are fairly straightforward. 25 hours contact per week in a language school is doable, because when you’re not teaching there is not a great deal of pressure on you, especially once you’re familiar with the courses you teach and already have existing lesson plans and activities.
The course fees charged by language schools are well beyond the means of many Thais. Course costs vary greatly but generally run anywhere from around 2,000 baht to upwards of 7,000 baht for a 30 hour course. These prices may or may not include a course book. If it is not included, a standard course book should cost no more than 500 baht. I mention these prices because they show how much it costs a Thai to study – and as such, why you should take the responsibility of teaching your students very seriously!
The main types of people studying English in language institutes in Thailand are:
1. School students i.e. those aged fro 5 – 18, whose parents send them along for extra tuition to give them a head start on their peers, or perhaps to catch up if they have fallen behind, or are doing poorly at school. As they are attending school during the day they tend to study at language schools at the weekend, with Saturday morning classes being particularly common. Some may be interested in studying, but many aren’t. Essentially they are only there because there parents have told them they have to go! Sometimes I feel that parents send their kids to language institutes as a sort of baby sitting service! Thai school students have a long school day and I have serious reservations that they often don’t have enough time to just be kids. They tend to be overloaded with homework which really is questionable. As such, don’t be surprised if young kids seem disinterested in class. It may not be because your lessons are a bore, but that they are tired!
2. Young adults / university students. They study to improve their English which in turn increases the chance of getting a good job, or a promotion if they are already employed. Some also cram to prepare themselves for study abroad. In a small number of cases, they may simply be studying English and biding time because they do not really know what they want to do with their life.
3. Employed adults. Already in employment, they may be studying to improve their English, to improve their chances of promotion or simply because they are interested in English. Language students in this group typically study in the evening and some may choose a Business English course – which may be paid for by their employer. I used to really enjoy teaching this bunch, probably because they were often of a similar age and it was easy to relate to them. After a long day at work, often they just wanted the chance to chat in English with a native English speaker and learn about that person’s thoughts on Thailand and the world.
The better private language institutes hire teachers with a specific teaching qualification like the CELTA or equivalent. Today most require candidates with a degree. There are a number of reasons for this, not least because that is what the Ministry of Education requires before they will issue a teacher’s licence but also because some of the older students will already have a degree and they will find it difficult to understand why their teacher may not have one! Some language institutes will hire you if you have sufficient experience but don’t have a degree and / or a TEFL certificate of some sort. They’ll often look for someone with teaching experience. It goes without saying that you should be cautious of language institutes happy to employ someone with no qualifications and / or experience! These tend to be unprofessional operations.
Classes in private language institutes can last anything from 1 – 3 hours, with around 2 hours the norm. There’s usually a short break in the middle. Teaching classes longer than 2 hours can be a challenge; Thais like to have fun and generally don’t have a very long attention span. I look back on my time as a language institute teacher and remember dreading 3-hour classes at the weekend. It’s an awful long time to keep a group of students interested, especially if you have a heavy or difficult grammar point to cover. I found shorter classes were much easier with Thai students. Weekend classes are often 3 hours in language institutes. In a worst-case scenario, a teacher may get 2 x 3-hour classes on each of Saturday and Sunday – which could make for a long and tiring weekend!
One of the big positives of teaching in a private language schools is the class size. Language learning is suited to small class sizes and I personally think about 8 students in a classroom would be ideal. Few language institutes would ever have more than 16 students in a class and more often than not they run courses with less than 10. I gather that at least one large chain of language schools nationwide, runs classes with 20 students which I feel is too many. You’ve got to remember that the students all want a chance to practice their English by speaking with the teacher - they seldom want to speak with one another in English – so in larger classes they have less chance to speak and can become frustrated.
In Thailand, Thai time prevails, one of my pet hates! Thais are absolutely not known for their punctuality and some students studying in language institutes seem to have the attitude that as they are paying to be there, they can turn up when they are good and ready. You will often find that at the time the class is supposed to commence you may only have a handful of students present, the rest drifting in within the next half hour or so, which is horribly disruptive to a teacher. Students may often cite a silly reason for being late such as bad traffic – which is every day in Bangkok – or bad weather. But more often than not they will not offer a reason for their tardiness. How you manage this issue is up to you. You cannot tell the students off for being late! It is a language school and they are the paying customers – and besides, Thais HATE being told off or dressed down by foreigners. It causes them to lose face and this is something you have to be very careful with. It can be a difficult situation to manage and often the best thing to do is to talk with the girls at the front desk and the centre manager about the best way to manage it.
Speaking of which, every language institute has a bunch of customer service girls at the front counter. Their job is to provide information to the students and to sell them the course. They also make sure the students are happy with the course while they are studying. In smaller language students where there is no DOS (director of studies), they will also provide the foreign teachers with various information such as when a new course starts, who the students are etc. It is very helpful to have a good relationship with these girls – which is usually very easy. They tend to be pretty Thai women fresh out of university who are sweet, hard-working and eager to please.