Shadow education: a survey of the teaching goals, methods and techniques of English tutors in mainstream schools

Shadow education refers to a supplementary class which happen concurrently with formal classes. In Thailand, there is a form of shadow education, tutor teaching in the mainstream school system. This supplementary class by tutors in a school system has been around for more than a century. This study aims to explore the English teaching goals, methods and techniques of the tutors in the mainstream schools. In this research, the focus is on English tutors who are experienced in teaching in the schools for more than ten years. Findings show that the main goal of tutors teaching English in the schools was not to enhance students’ English competency, but the performance of students in the exam is the focus. Tutors mentioned that it is impossible to assess actual writing, listening and speaking skills in the exam due to the nature of the multiple-choice exam. Grammar, vocabulary knowledge and reading skills are helpful to enable students to do well in the exam. The washback effect influences how tutors teach as they planned every class based on the exam. Teaching techniques mostly involve test-taking skills. One factor to be concerned about is the misalignment between standard-based curriculum which focus on communicative competency and university admission exams. This makes teacher finds it difficult to balance the class for their students. Tutors teaching in the mainstream schools seems to be an answer for this problem.