Asia Pacific TEFL Headlines

I myself have never had the dubious pleasure of teaching English in Asia. For those of you who have, or are, or will, here’s the latest lowdown on TEFL in the Asia Pacific region:

Vietnam: Teaching English: TOEIC Suitable to Vietnam?

Many, ahem, ‘experts’ say that TOEIC (Test of English International Communication) will not be suitable to Vietnam, warning that the application of TOEIC on a large scale in Vietnam will repeat the bitter lessons of the A-B-C certificate-based English teaching movement several years ago. Sure that advice will be followed, then.

Read the full story…

Look where you’re going for God’s sake

Singapore: She Puts the Fun in English Lessons

Mrs Whiston, co-managing director and chairman of Lorna Whiston Schools, has come a long way since setting up the school in 1980.The Lorna Whiston English as an Acquired Language (EAL) School received a Singapore Education Award for Best Enrichment Programme. The EAL school was formed in 2005 for foreign students who do not speak English as their first language and are seeking to get into schools here. Since it started, it has seen over 200students pass through its doors. For Mrs Whiston, the school was formed simply because there was a need for it. It was the same reason she had set up her first study centre 28 years ago. Good old Mrs Whiston, eh.

Read the full story…



New Zealand: School Highlights Language Barriers

The happy sound of children in primary schools around Queenstown these days is beginning to resemble more of a United Nations assembly than a school one. About 30 percent of pupils at Queenstown's 160-pupil St Joseph's School do not speak English as their first language and at nearby Queenstown Primary School that figure is 77 out of 598 pupils.

St Joseph's School principal Phil O'Connell-Cooper said it was an increasing challenge to find the resources to help some of these children, who could arrive at the school speaking no English or a moderate amount. Welcome to the 21st century.

Read the full story…



Taiwan: The Best Time for Learning English

Taiwan has been awash with ‘English fever’, apparently. Sounds a bit painful if you ask me. Learning English as a foreign language (EFL) has been a national craze for years. Parents want their children to learn English as early as possible -- preferably before elementary school -- as evidenced by the ubiquity of language schools. More than 30 percent of all elementary school students study English at some form of language school.

This phenomenon is largely based on the ‘assumption’ that kids naturally pick up languages more effortlessly than adults do. Although having children start to learn English at an early age seems to be the sole means of enhancing the nation's English proficiency, many English teachers might still feel that younger learners do not necessarily perform better than others. Research has also shown no significant difference between the two groups in terms of final ability. I’m losing the will to live…

Read the full story…

Great Grammar Teaching Tips: Would Rather

In my teaching environment I’m blessed with great Access to IT and my students have constant Access to the internet, consequently I use this as a teaching tool regularly in my classes. One thing I often do is a quick bit of googling to find a topic relevant to the grammar point my students are failing to grasp.

This week I was left with the conundrum of bringing the would rather to show preference structure to life. What joy. Naturally, I wanted to avoid production of sentences such as ‘I’d rather not be here’ or ‘I’d rather I weren’t here.’ After literally seconds of searching I found this post on a website: Movies the US government would prefer people not watch. Mmmm… interest piqued. Would my students like to discuss such an issue? Now this instantly appeared to me to be a topic that would generate discussion, so what the hell, I went for it. The link basically lists 10 films that, er, the American government probably would rather their citizens didn’t see, and a jolly fine list it is, too. Along with the title of the film is a very brief synopsis and a link to IMDB.

What I did (after presentation of the structure):

• Ask students to go to the site and read through the list.
  
• 
  
• Get them to discuss in groups why these films could cause controversy.
  
• 
  
• Feed back to rest of class, ‘the US government would rather people didn’t watch this film because…’
  

Reasons to be careful:

• How comfortable are your group of students with such a topic?
  
• 
  
• Do they have the background knowledge to be able to discuss this issue?
  

• 
  

Visit the Skeleton Project blog to view the list of films.

Teaching English in Africa

After yesterday's Euro news marathon, it's high time I turned my attention to the TEFL scene in Africa:


South Africa: Speaking the Language of Hope by Teaching English

Through training the Themba women in English, Neilson Young Consulting (NYC) hopes to do more than teach them the basics of a new language. Rather, through building communication ability and confidence, the company seeks to further the Themba mission of instilling hope and dignity. It brings a tear to the eye, it really does.

Read the full story…




In Nigeria's Ornate Brand of English, Victorian Words Dance With African Grammar

Nigerian English melds Victorian-era vocabulary inherited from long-gone British colonialists with the grammatical structures and syntax that underpin indigenous languages in Africa's most populous nation. The results can be ornate, oddly understated, or remarkably apt. But in a rapidly globalizing world, some worry that Nigerians will be handicapped by an English that differs from the language of board rooms and Internet bulletin boards. Get rid of the bloody chat rooms if you ask me.

Read the full story…




Uganda: Teaching in Local Languages Good Policy

The idea of teaching in local languages in lower primary school classes followed recommendations from a number of researchers. The 2004 Tony Reed report on the review of primary curriculum pointed out that “generally children learn faster if early education is conducted in a familiar language”.Er, perhaps I am missing something here, or is someone getting paid for stating the bleeding obvious?

Read the full story…




Ghana: New English Teaching Techniques Out

A new methodology (ooooh, I’m foaming at the mouth with excitement) for the teaching and learning of the English language has been launched in Accra by the International English Language Teaching Commission. The commission seeks to replace the present methodology which it considers cumbersome and full of technicalities (with another equally cumbersome and full of technicalities, if my experience is anything to go by).

Read the full story…



Yemen: Curriculum Reform Project to train English language teachers

Graduation ceremonies for English language teachers participating in the Curriculum Reform Project was (sic) held on Tuesday afternoon at the headquarters of the Ministry of Education. Participants in the project received certificates of qualification for the first and second stages of teaching English language to students at the elementary, preparatory and secondary levels of education. Very proud we are of them, too.

Read the full story…

More Euro TEFL News than you can Shake a Stick at

Just in case you're short of something to do today, take a look at this lot. Is it really possible that all these people around the world are having to deal with our language? It just doesn't seem right, does it?


United Kingdom: The Struggle to Cope When Children Do Not Speak Any English

Surprising as it may seem, schools are struggling to cope with an influx of students from abroad, with many teachers facing classes in which a third of pupils do not speak English as their first language, teachers’ representatives told the Times Online. The number of pupils who did not have English as their mother tongue had risen by 66,000 in a year, the conference of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers was told.

Read the full story…



Switzerland: English seen as "most useful" foreign language

Not just British tourists, also a majority of, er, Swiss reckon that English is the most useful foreign language in the country, although it is not Switzerland's "lingua franca" as commonly believed.

Read the full story…



United Kingdom: Not Enough Cash to Teach English

Whoooaaaa… you misread, the headline doesn’t in fact read not enough cash to teachers of English. Headteachers have said the £2-million spent on teaching English to immigrant children in North Lincolnshire is inadequate, according to the ever influential This is Scunthorpe website. Schools say they have less to spend, even though the number of students whose first language is not English has risen.

Read the full story…



Estonia fears English too dominant in its schools

Education authorities in Estonia Thursday warned that the hands-down dominance of English in its schools is depriving the Baltic state of the language specialists it will need in the future.

Read the full story…



Turkey: English Time Celebrates Its 10th Year

Scourge of English teachers throughout Istanbul, the English Time language school celebrated its 10th anniversary recently with a reception held at Istanbul's Divan Kuruçesme. Speaking at the reception English Time founder Fethi Şimşek stated that when they established English Time 10 years ago their concern was to raise the quality level of English education in Turkey (no, really, that’s what he said). He said they have been achieving this aim without making any concessions since 1998.

Read the full story…



United Kingdom: £10m Bill to Teach Migrants English

Town halls in Greater Manchester are spending more than £10m a year teaching immigrants to speak English, the Manchester Evening News declares. The Department for Schools says a growing amount of taxpayers' money is being spent on teaching English as a second language. Your point?

Read the full story …



Scotland: International Rescue for City School Pupils

Language specialists (and not the Thunderbirds) are helping non-native speakers improve English as different cultures get along: excited chatter fills the room as the pupils work on their science project. What isn't immediately obvious is how many youngsters discussing a recent visit to a butterfly farm are not fluent in English. They are all reading the same books, but alongside some sits a specialist teacher – armed with flashcards picturing insects and their name in English – ready to prompt when necessary.

Read the full story …



United Kingdom: The Primary School Where Every Child Learns to Speak 40 Languages

Welcome to Newbury Park Primary School in Redbridge, north-east London, where its 850 pupils will have learnt phrases in 40 languages by the time they transfer to secondary school, notes the Independent. The school has adopted a policy of teaching each language spoken by the 40 ethnic groups among its pupils.

Read the full story …



Iceland: Bilingualism: Why Not?

Last week it was reported that the fabulously named Bifröst University in west Iceland would become the first university in the country to offer a Bachelor’s degree in business taught exclusively in English. While there is already a range of courses offered in English at several of Iceland’s universities, Bifröst says that by offering the degree in English, it is responding to the needs of students planning to work in the international arena.

Read the full story …



Russia: Language Learning Popular as Ever

In a statement that may well bemuse anyone who’s ever taught there, the St. Petersburg Times reports that the thirst for learning English and other foreign languages continues as Russians travel more and seek international business partners.

Read the full story …

Stick poking remains a national pastime in Russia

Belgium: Language director defends EU's costly translations

A high official in the European Commission's translation branch has said that despite discussions and fears in recent years about mushrooming costs for translations and interpretations in the EU, the principle of granting each citizen the right to communicate with Brussels in their own language should not be altered, no matter the number of member states in the future. Mmmm… there be money in that there Brussels.

Read the full story …


Ukraine: All in English

When foreigners visited Kyiv some ten years ago, language was the main problem in adapting to the local environment. The situation is now somewhat different, proclaims the Kyiv Post. Although not everyone can freely chat with you in English, the majority of citizens can understand you and will try to help you in any way possible. Apparently.

Read the full story …

Arkansas Teachers 'Discover' Word Lists

Word List to Improve Readiness

Arkansas: In a move that can hardly be considered revolutionary, Northwest Arkansas teachers have created a targeted vocabulary list this year to help students with limited English skills score better on state mandated Benchmark exams. The list shows specific words that students must understand to meet the state’s learning objectives.

The vocabulary was identified after teachers realized that students designated as English-language learners were using words (shock, horror) without fully understanding their meanings, said Buddy Auman, director of the cooperative and newly emerged from the dark ages, one would presume.

I don’t know whether such a story should be newsworthy in the 21st century, but, hey, if you really must, read the full story here.

Korean President Takes TEFL Bull by Horns

A couple of recent articles mentioning initiatives of President Lee Myung-bak. First up… well, don’t you just love it when politicians try to introduce competitiveness into education!

Lee Urges Teachers to Compete With Each Other

President Lee Myung-bak on Thursday said students were engaging in fierce competition and so should teachers. “No schools have ever competed with each other, and teachers have had no need to participate in competition, either,” he said. He made the remarks in a policy briefing by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology in Daejeon. "We can't boost quality of education if we go on like this." He emphasized that education will develop under competition principles if Korea allows schools and teachers autonomy, while simultaneously letting them engage in appropriate competition.

Read the full story…


Second up… anyone who sees total immersion as a surefire way to get fluent quickly should go and sit in a dark room for a while. Of course, that’s just my opinion and no reflection on the undoubted excellence of the Korean system.

No English Immersion: President Lee Scraps English-Only Class Plan

The recent flop over English education only shows how difficult it is to initiate language immersion in classrooms here in South Korea. Considering the stark reality of English teaching, most teachers, parents and students are relieved after the government virtually gave up its plan to teach English only in English.

Read the full story…

If this hasn't put you off for life, learn more about ELT in South Korea here.

Finding a Web Host for your TEFL Website

Have you ever thought about starting your own TEFL website? I spent many years thinking about it and postponing my best laid plans again and again until one day I bit the bullet and got started with the ELT World project. Anyone who’s done the same will tell you what hard work it can be, but an endlessly rewarding and educational process nonetheless.

If you’re pondering taking the plunge, the first thing you’ll be thinking about is, ‘how the hell do I even get started?’ and a close second will be, ‘how much is it going to cost me to get things started?’

Once you’ve given your web project a lot of thought, the first thing you need to do is to find the best web hosting company for your needs. Put simply, a web hosting service is an internet hosting service that enables individuals and organisations to provide their own website accessible via the World Wide Web. Depending on your needs, be it cost or functionality, you’ll be looking for a web host that meets your requirements; the best web hosting for you.

Kaushal Sheth’s website is probably best known for his templates for wordpress blogs. However, he has recently put together a list of the best web hosting companies. If like me, you’re no computer geek, you’d probably be advised to think about a web host with Cpanel, athough Kaushal’s best web hosting list also explains other options too.

Stop thinking about the day when you have your own site and get to work! Good luck to all those TEFLers about to embark on their website journey…

India Update

Uttar Pradesh Government May Begin Teaching English From Class I

India: After exploring various methods to improve English language skills among government school students across the state, the Uttar Pradesh government is now planning to introduce English in the curriculum of students right from Class I. At present, English as a subject is introduced in Class III.

Read the full story…

Learn more about ELT in India

British High Commissioner Calls on Punjab CM

India, United Kingdom: Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal asked the visiting British High Commissioner Sir Richard Stagg to help the State Government through sending a delegation of UK based English language teachers to train our school teachers in English language to enable our students to have proper command over the foreign language.

Read the full story…

Life in mid Volga Russia

Larry Paradine offers the following information on the mid Volga region over on the Russia and Ukraine forum:


I've lived and worked in Russia for most of the last ten years but, although I've spent short periods of time in the capital and the western Urals, my stamping ground is the riverine area from Nizhny Novgorod (the city of Gorky, after whose suspicious death, Stalin named it in 1935 and notorious as Andrei Zakharov's place of exile in the Brezhnev era) to Samara (known in communist times as Kuibishchev after a local alcoholic who led the local bolsheviks in 1917-18, and which has the distinction of being the only big city in Russia to elect a mayor who was opposed by the whole political establishment including "Putin's Party" in 2006), taking in the cities of Cheboksary (my wife's hometown and my adoptive радной город), Novocheboksarsk (now a satellite town with it's own distinctive character, but soon to be merged with Cheboksary if our Chuvash President Fyodorov gets the "yes" vote he wanted in the referendum that he craftily tacked on to the ballot in Sunday's Federal presidential elections), Kazan (where the recently erected great Mosque dominates the visitor's view of the city's Kremlin, almost eclipsing the churches that Ivan Grozny and his successors built on the ruins of the razed mosques of the Kazan Khanate), Ulyanovsk-Simbirsk (the archietypal compromise in the flurry of town naming referendums in the 1990s, combining Lenin's real surname with the tsarist era name, and one of the most unpleasant cities I've had the misfortune to be mugged in), and, of course, Togliatti (named after the long -time Italian communist leader who achieved distinction by surviving Stalin's decimation of European communist parties and being photographed among the grieving, or subtly dissembling, nomenklatura at Stalin's funeral wearing a broad smile, and whose compromise with capitalism presented the city named after him with a giant automobile factory churning out second rate copies of the Fiat car).

Learn more about ELT in Russia and Ukraine.

Does the World Need a TEFL Wiki?

As those of you unfortunate enough to wade through my blog posts on a farily regular basis may well know, I set up a Wiki devoted to the fine profession of TEFL awhile ago. This appears to be a growing phenomenon, with none less than Jeremy Harmer, the TEFL legend, addressed the issue of Wikis in a recent edition of the ever popular HLT Magazine, when describing why publishing overlords Pearson Longman had created their TEFL Wiki. It parallels so well what I want to achieve with the ELT Wiki that I thought I’d steal his words:

__________


Wouldn’t it be useful, we thought, if there was a wiki devoted to ELT terminology? That way anyone, teacher, trainer or trainee could have access to a useful glossary – and (and this is the BIG THING about Wikis) they could amend or change what they find there if they don’t think the explanation they are presented with is ‘quite right’.

Our reasoning is that with a free resource like this we could end up with an incredibly useful, democratic resource which could be really helpful for anyone who has one of those jargon ‘blackouts’ that affect us all from time to time. All they would have to do is go to the wiki and check out how other people (how the profession) had defined the piece of jargon that had confused them.

Wikis, by the way, are easy to navigate. All you need to do is go to any page, any entry, and use the edit button. If you can’t find an entry there, you go to the letter, open up the list of terms for that letter and then edit it in order to add your new term. Or whatever. Like all effective software, wikis get easier the more you use them!
__________

Words of wisdom from the big man. Now, I’ve checked out the Pearson Longman Wiki and it hasn’t really expanded, in fact, I feel that the ELT Wiki has already gone further in creating a useful resource for us TEFLers, for which I already have to thank those who’ve contributed. Please don’t be shy in wading in and adding your contributions. Together, we really can maket he world of TEFL a better place.

Asia TEFL Headlines

Korea: Korean Students Undaunted by Body English Brouhaha

Koreans studying here find the conditions ideal for them to learn English as a second language, said a top official of the Bureau of Immigration. “The country’s cost of quality education and its foreigner-friendly immigration policies are attracting more Koreans to visit and enroll in Philippine schools,” Commissioner Marcelino Libanan said yesterday, amid the furor involving a beauty pageant winner caught on television recently over a slip of the tongue.

Read the full story…



Taiwan: MOE denies endorsing any English certification system

The Ministry of Education (MOE) denied yesterday that it has endorsed any particular language learning and certification programs in Taiwan. The officials made the statements in response to advertisements placed in local newspapers by an institution claiming its "global English certification program" has the recognition and endorsement of the MOE.

Read the full story…




India: Agra moving to English via Hinglish


People are queuing up to enrol their children in English medium schools and Hinglish tabloids are flying off the newsstands in the city of the Taj as society here - like in much of India's cities - undergoes a transition from having a minority of English speakers to a large number of those keen on learning the world's most spoken language.

Read the full story…



Japan: Making English Work:Study a 'Hobby' for Shin-Idemitsu Boss

This column features interviews with professionals who use English in their jobs, experts and others interested in the language in the hope of offering insights into learning the language. Company Chairman Yutaka Idemitsu starts his day by studying English for an hour after rising at 5 a.m.--a practice that he has maintained for nearly two decades.

Read the full story…

A Plea for Help

Alex Case has made an impassioned plea to all TEFLers over on the general discussion forum. the person in question has something of a reputation for threatening lawsuits against anyone who dares mention his name, so I'll let you take a look for yourselves...

How to be a Good Online Tutor

Are you thinking about hosting an online course for the first time? Maybe you've already taught online but are looking for some tips to help you become more effective? As TEFL teachers, this is an increasingly good opportunity for us to generate income. Here are a few points for you to think about...

One thing is for certain, the world of online learning is expanding at an incredible pace. More courses are being offered and more students are enrolling every semester. Of course, teaching an online course can be done while sitting at your computer in your undies, but becoming an effective online instructor requires a good deal of practice and preparation.

Of course, teaching online does take away the face-to-face involvement with students. Nothing can replace seeing a student smile after finally understanding a difficult language point, but online teaching can be even more rewarding than traditional teaching, when you do it well.

So, what makes an effective online instructor? While I would say that good teaching involves an incredibly large number of different qualities and techniques, effective online teaching focuses on three main points:

1) You really must be clear about your expectations. Because your student(s) aren’t sitting right in front of you, it’s extremely important to be very clear. How do you know if you are clear enough when you can’t see the students sitting with a puzzled look while nodding their head in apparent agreement? Well… ask the students. Carefully evaluate the quality of their work and how close the finished product matches the aims and objectives. Another good idea is to have a colleague read your material before the course begins. If student evaluations are distributed at the end of the semester, you can use the feedback to help you improve your course and teaching techniques but keep in mind that by then you can no longer help the students learn what you want them to learn!

2) You must communicate frequently AND effectively. Most students will expect you to be sitting at your computer – waiting feverishly - whenever they send you a question by email. Of course, that is not practicable, nor is it in any way reasonable. Therefore, it’s a good idea to give students a time frame in which you plan to respond, with 24 to 48 hours being fairly reasonable. Also, it’s not enough just to communicate frequently. You must also communicate effectively. While some students (especially new online students) will want you to lead them by the hand through each step, if you already have clearly written instructions, you can direct them to these instructions. Bear in mind that most students are not usually going to be asking you questions to annoy you, they just want to make sure they are doing what you want them to do. So, be understanding, even when you get questions that seem nonsenical. If you get the same questions frequently, it’s a good idea to save the questions and your responses to create an FAQ list.

3) You must let your personality shine through. If students just wanted to read a book, they wouldn’t need you to read it for them. So, when teaching online, avoid taking the easy way out by simply posting a few readings and having students answer the questions: Add a little of your personality to your assignments and communication (bear in mind when using humor that it is difficult to convey online). Give them real-life examples that you have learned from being the subject matter expert. Create interesting and interactive assignments to help students really learn the material.

Good teaching, like being good at anything, takes practice. If you are clear - if you stay in close contact with your students - and if you create an interesting learning experience, you will be the online instructor that students want to learn from. Sermon over!

Latest TEFL Articles in the Guardian

Here are a selection of the latest stories from the Education Guardian:


UAE college teacher wins innovation award for English course

A "ground breaking" vocabulary course for female students in the United Arab Emirates was named the winner of the new international category of this year's British Council English language teaching innovation awards.

Learn more about ELT in the United Arab Emirates

Emma Pathare, who works at the Dubai Women's College, won her "Elton" for developing the vocabulary course, which helps elementary English language students with Arabic as their first language get a better understanding of targeted words.

Read on…


What will 'free' conversation cost?

Students have been enthusiastic adopters of technology that offers cheap and easy online language practice, but teachers are still to be convinced about its commercial promise.

In January the British Council went on to YouTube, the popular video sharing website, to announce its plans to develop a web-based English language teaching site for young people that will harness "VoIP" technology.

Few of the council's target audience will need VoIP explained to them, but for those who are less computer-literate "voice over internet protocol" is the technology that allows users to communicate simultaneously - or synchronously - by voice and video via the internet.

Read on…

Language school run by Italian fascist leader

A popular language college in London is controlled by the leader of an Italian neo-fascist party who has links to the British National party, the Guardian has learned.

Learn about ELT in Italy

CL English Language, a college in west London that teaches hundreds of foreign students each year, is controlled by Roberto Fiore, leader of Forza Nuova, an extreme right-wing party.

Fiore, who once said he was happy to be described as a neo-fascist and who is an old friend and mentor of Nick Griffin, leader of the BNP, was appointed as a director of the college more than two years ago and became sole director in August last year. 

Read on…

Shock education tactics split South Korea

The incoming president wants all school subjects to be taught in English and to bring back emigrants to help take a nation to fluency by 2013.

A far-reaching overhaul of South Korea's English education system announced last week by Lee Myung-bak, the country's newly elected president, has caused consternation among teachers and provoked a major political challenge even before his official inauguration.

Find out more about ELT in South Korea

The five-year plan to radically change the way English is taught in schools, including a call for all subjects to be taught in English, is being backed by a $4.2bn budget. But even the offer to shift the cost of teaching children from increasingly burdened families to the state-school system has been met with scepticism from parents who see it as increasing competitiveness in the education system.


Read on…

TEFL Conferences in Turkey: 2008

Listed below are the forthcoming English Language Learning and Teaching Seminars and Conferences in Turkey. Please click on the links for further information.

FLORYA COLLEGE- ELT CONFERENCE- PARTNERSHIP FOR PROSPEROUS PERFORMANCE- MARCH 22, 2008

Florya College is organizing an ELT Conference which will take place on March 22, 2008. The topic of the conference is “Maximizing Learner Performance”. Deadline for registration is March 10, 2008. The deadline for proposals has expired. Please contact Belgin Öğrek for more information.


BEYKENT SCHOOLS- THE ELT CONFERENCE- 29 MARCH 2008

The English Language Department of Beykent Schools is organizing an ELT Conference on March 29, 2008. Details about the content and the deadline of the conference will be coming soon. Please click here for more information.


KULTUR PRIMARY SCHOOL- EXPLORING ELT TRENDS II- RESPONDING TO INNOVATIONS- 5 APRIL 2008

The English Department of Kultur Primary School would like to invite you to the 12th ELT Conference which will take place on April 5, 2008. Deadline for registration and proposal is March 5, 2008. Please click here for more information.


ATILIM UNIVERSITY - 2ND ELT CONFERENCE- 19 APRIL 2008

The Preparatory School and Departmental English Language Studies Unit of Atilim University would like to invite you to the 2nd ELT Conference "Golden Implementations to Enable Learners'' Productive Skills to Flourish: Speaking and Writing" which will take place in Atilim University Campus on Saturday April 19, 2008. Deadline for registration is by the end of February 2008. Please click here for more information.


EDIRNE COLLEGE- ELT IN GLOBALIZED WORLD- 19 APRIL 2008

Edirne College is organizing an ELT Conference “ELT in Globalized World” on April 19, 2008. The Conference aims at reaching teachers around Marmara Region. For more information please contact Deniz Bozkurtlu.


MEV PRIVATE BASINKOY SCHOOLS 6TH ELT CONFERENCE - "HEY TEACHER! KEEP YOURSELF UP-TO-DATE" - 12 APRIL 2008

The English Department of MEV Private Basinkoy Schools’ 6th ELT Conference will take place in MEV private Basinkoy Schools Conference Hall on April 12, 2008. Deadline for registration is March 21, 2008. Please contact Oksan Yagar for more information.


MIMAR SINAN SCHOOLS- 3. SCHOOL-HOME COOPERATION CONFERENCE: "LANGUAGE THOUGHT"- 26 APRIL 2008

Mimar Sinan Schools’ “3. School-Home Cooperation Conference” will take place on April 26, 2008. The conference will question "Is language a reflection of thought, or is thought a product of language?”. The theme of the Conference is “Developing Children's Language and Thinking Skills". The deadline for registration is February 29, 2008. Please contact Selda Mansur for more information.


CANAKKALE ON SEKIZ MART UNIVERSITY 5TH INTERNATIONAL ELT RESEARCH CONFERENCE- BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN THEORY AND PRACTICE IN ELT- 23-25 MAY 2008


COMU’s 5th International ELT Research Conference will take place on May 23- 25, 2008. The theme of the conference this year is "Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Practice in ELT". The registration deadline is April 29, 2008. Deadline for proposals is February 22, 2008. Please click here for more information.


THE 12TH INTERNATIONAL INGED ELT CONFERENCE- PUTTING THE BEST FOOT FORWARD, OCTOBER 23-25, 2008

The 12th International INGED ELT Conference named “Putting the Best Foot Forward” will take place in Eskisehir on October 23-25, 2008. For more information please click here.

Is Dave's ESL Cafe to Blame for Unsavory Schools?

 
Katie, the lamentably retired TEFL Logue blogger, discussed the issue of whether or not TEFL job sites contribute to the proliferation of the poor conditions that exist to such a large degree in our industry/profession. As I’m going to add my thoughts on this matter, I’ve pasted the blog entry below:

___________________________


The topic of ESL or EFL job sites as the cause of the tefl world’s woes comes up every now and again. Should job sites take responsibility for screening job ads? Should they remove them if there are complaints? And are they responsible for the proliferation of “lemon” EFL jobs if they don’t?

Well, no, to the last one.

These are hard questions to answer – to the first one, given the global nature of EFL work, I think it would be impossible in practical terms to screen jobs well enough to make any difference, and if it could be done, would leave us only with a small selection of schools that could provide whatever the site required.

And it wouldn’t solve the problem of bad employers anyway, as school staff – not just teachers – come and go. I think the fact that a variety of ads are available for comparison is a huge benefit to EFL teachers, and the existence of multiple sites is much better than the existence of one all-powerful one.

Should job ads be removed or refused if there are complaints? I think there is a fair enough argument for this, if the complaints are well-documented and presented, and especially if they are from different sources. One difficulty is obviously that it is hard to ensure the veracity of a complaint (i.e. that the teacher is telling the truth): in a field so based on Internet exchange of information, there are plenty of reasons which a dishonest person might manufacture a story (to get back at someone, to hurt a competitor). Another problem is that a truly “bad” school can just lie to get around whatever restriction there is…advertise with a different name (or no name) and alternate contact information. I don’t think this happens frequently, but a school bad enough to merit a serious complaint is exactly the kind of school that would lie to get around a given restriction. Claiming that jobs are screened could very well lull people into a false sense of security.

The moral of this post, I suppose, is that I don’t agree that job sites somehow play an accomplice role to schools from the dark side – keep your wits about you when searching and use more than one site. Think hard about accepting a job in any form other than in person, and check out the questions to ask at an interview while you’re at it.
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Given the recent tragic events in Korea, I felt this was a pertinent time to revisit this issue. A lot of you who read the blog also frequent the forums and are therefore are familiar with the reasons why I set up the forums. Basically, I was disgusted with the way that another forum, Dave’s ESL Cafe, conducted its business. Let me explain…

While I agree with certain points that Katie raised, namely that 1) it’s impossible to screen schools effectively if you‘re accepting paid adverts from all around the world, and 2) any complaints made by teachers are always going to be purely subjective (yes, sometimes teachers ARE in the wrong) and not entirely reliable, I believe that TEFL jobs sites could raise the bar significantly and easily and indeed become more profitable in the process.

Let me return to the dear old ESL Cafe; the main culprit in this sorry business. Dave’s ESL Cafe remains an incredibly popular resource among the TEFL community, indeed, it was suggested to me as a source for finding job openings way back when I did my CELTA. The number of job openings advertised on the site is remarkable and a huge source of income for those running the site (I’ve heard rumours that Dave Sperling no longer runs things – please confirm). What disgusted me, eventually causing me to set up ELT World, was (and continues to be) the practice of censoring any information about bad schools that were paying advertisers. Katie made a good point about bad schools merely slithering around attempts to name and shame them, but when you’re actively promoting a policy of denying people who use your website access to information that would enable them to make a better decision about whether or not to take a job, you’re effectively working in partnership with the cowboys: by condoning their practices, you are to blame for their behaviour. Are other sites as shoddy in their approach as the ESL Café? Maybe. What’s for sure is that this isn’t helping to improve our industry/profession and is, sadly as we’ve recently seen, may be putting people’s lives at risk.

I don’t know the details of Bill Kapoun’s contract, who arranged his accommodation or how he got his job, but this case highlights the fact that too many places are not treating TEFL teachers with the respect that should be accorded to any human being.

So, are ESL job sites to blame for unsavory schools? No, these places wil exist as long as human greed remains. However, the blatant, greed-fueled encouragement that unscrupulous businesses receive from the likes of Dave’s ESL café definitely ain’t helping matters.

Pronunciation Tool

This could be a nice pronunciation tool to use in class or for self study.

TEFL Breaking News

India and China: Great wall of opportunity

More than 1,000 Indians have moved to China to teach English. A one-month crash course on the internet is all it takes. Read the full story…


United Kingdom: Museum for English

English is the first language of 350-400 million people, and an effective second language for maybe 500 million more. By some counts, a grand total of 2 billion people do or can use it. That requires some heroic use of the word can. But the first-ever global language it certainly is, and rapidly spreading. And now —by 2012, if all goes well — it is to have its own museum. Read the full story…


Australia: Teach English as a Foreign Language in Indigenous Schools: Education Union

Professor Helen Hughes from the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney says 10,000 Indigenous students across the Territory can't read or write. But the Territory's Education Minister Marion Scrymgour says the professor is mistaken. Read the full story…

Korea: Parents Support English-Only Classes

More than half of parents surveyed said they supported English classes being conducted only in English, but believe that a public education too focused on English is unnecessary. Read the full story…


Sri Lanka: The Importance of English

A few days ago the CIMA Leaders Forum had a guest speaker who made a valuable presentation on Human Resource Management. In the panel discussion which followed, thanks to a rather impassioned speech given by Presidential Adviser, Sunimal Fernando, on the need for English education and the need for the business community to lend a hand; by and large, the whole discussion centred around the issue of English. Read the full story…


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In memory of Bill Kapoun

The terribly tragic case of Bill Kapoun has affected me and many others greatly. I'll not go into great details here, as I'd prefer you to visit the website and blog for yourselves, in the hope that it will convince to help out his poor family however you can in these awful times.

His unfortunate passing leads me to ask the question, how well would you or your family be able to cope financially were such an awful situation to arise? The compassion of many in contributing to the fund to help out with hospital fees is worthy of mention, to say the least. While it's no consolation for the passing away of their son, I'm sure this gesture means a lot to his parents, upon whom the tragedy has been compounded by a huge and desperately unwanted financial burden.

This sad event should make all of us reflect on how we are covered in terms of medical insurance. Most of us take to this profession during our twenties and this isn’t really an age when many of us, thankfully, have cause to think too much about what would happen should we require urgent medical assistance. I certainly didn’t, not until I had reason to spend some time in hospital and was fortunate enough to work for a university that included good medical insurance as part of the benefits package. I know that many of my friends don’t share this ‘luxury’ and really just hope for the best.

Think right now about these questions…

• Does your employer provide medical insurance for you?
  
• 
  
• Do you know what you’re entitled to?
  
• 
  
• Where will you go should a medical emergency arise?
  
• 
  
• Was this something you even thought to ask for when you negotiated your contract?
  
• 
  
• If you’re not legally employed, do you have rights even to go to a state funded medical facility?
  

You never know when a time might come that you need to know the answers to these questions in a hurry. Please bear this in mind and help out Bill’s family.

20 Reasons not to Live in Dubai

Way back in September of last year, Das Sheikh started up a lively thread over on the UAE forum: 20 reasons not to live in Dubai. From shopping, to nightlife and dangerous driving, the thread covered some interesting aspects of life in Dubai, and at the time caused some heated debate. As this post has remained one of the most popular during the life of the blog and the forum, I thought I'd repost it so more people could enjoy the discussion.


Take a look at the UAE forum and sign up to leave your own comments on this subject and many others.

Inspiration

Thought for the weekend:

It's all in the way you present information or never underestimate the worth of a highlighter pen!

TEFL News from around the World

South Korea: The Korea Times - English Education Needs to Start at Earlier Ages

The English frenzy in Korea has produced many popular teachers who are good at helping students get higher scores in English tests. A famous former English instructor says some of these ``star teachers'' are misleading English learners. Read the full story…


China: Livemint - Beijing Games: English on a winning streak

Come August, and all eyes will turn towards Beijing, the venue of the 2008 Olympics. The question we ask ourselves will be whether the US will retain its supremacy in the medal tally, or make way for China, which is competing on home ground. Whoever wins the most laurels, there will be one champion who will come out victorious: the English language. Read the full story…


New Zealand: The New Zealand Times - Teachers in a tizz: is texting destroying the English language?

EAST Auckland teachers are divided over whether texting is changing the younger generation’s approach to English. Read the full story…


South Korea: The Dong-a - Native English Teachers Speak Out on Education Plan

What do native English speakers who teach their language in Korea think about the incoming government’s plan to bolster English education, including the proposed introduction of English immersion classes? Read the full story…

Issue 3 of Horizons: Available for Download

Here are highlights of what you'll find in the new, action packed edition of Horizons:

What Would Motivate you to Take a New Job?

What do we want from our jobs? There must surely be a reason for us to move on to bigger and better things at one time or another. So, what are our motivations? What are those bigger and better things? Why do we make the decision to up and move to a new school? The poll that ran on the blog and the forum during December shed some light on to why we move from one job to the next… read on

Interview: Teacher Reflections, Global Connections

Last month on the ELT World Blog I highlighted the excellent Teaching without Borders blog: Teacher Reflections, Global Connections, explaining what a great idea I thought it was to reflect on the different teaching experiences of the different countries of the contributors. I’m delighted that Jennifer Uhler and Jeff Mattison have taken the time and considerable effort to tell Horizons about their blog… read on

Teaching Collocations

Whilst learners often focus on the acquisition of new grammatical structures as a guideline to their progress in learning English, the same cannot always be said of an English learner’s regard for the importance of progressive vocabulary acquisition. Whilst it is true that language structures form the basic skeleton of a language , vocabulary provides the flesh to these bones. Without words, what do we have?… read on

Was your Initial Training Course Worth it?

The four-week TEFL course, a starting point for so many of us in our careers as English teachers. But is it really worth it? What do we really gain from these short, intensive courses that can’t possibly hope to adequately prepare us for a career in teaching? A great deal, it would seem, according to the poll that ran on the blog and the forum… read on

The EnglishUK Teachers Conference

Anyone who’s ever attended a TEFL conference will tell you it can be something of a mixed experience in terms of what you gain from it. It’s not unlike gold mining: you have to sift through a lot of stuff to get to anything even remotely of use to you. Presenting at a conference is, on the other hand, a whole different experience. Anyone thinking of venturing into the conference circuit would be well advised to read the following article… read on

Academicus Electronicus

For this edition of the journal, I offer you, my dear friends, two websites dedicated to the development of TEFL professionals… read on

Teaching English in New Zealand

The situation regarding English language teaching in New Zealand is pretty similar to Australia and not so different from the UK in many respects. As in those countries, there is a private language school sector in addition to state provision through various ESOL programmes… read on

My Favourite Waste of Time

At a certain point, we all get fed up with certain aspects of living in another country. The little things suddenly become big problems in your life. Some of these things, however, bug everyone, and not just us poor expat teachers. Facebook, for all its sins, seems to be becoming a way in which we are able to find kindred sufferers, as M. le Prof d’Anglais explains… read on

Politically Correct Revisited

Last issue’s article on political correctness was well received by many of you, who were able to relate to the ideas being explored. Luckily for Horizons, Istanbul’s Stranger has decided to follow up on the previous article, exploring further the linguistic barriers to the cross-culturalization of the notion of political correctness… read on

The Ideal English Teacher through the Eyes of ELT Trainees

Do you remember what you thought about teachers when you started out as a trainee? How much have your perceptions changed? This article explores the way that trainee teachers in Argentina perceive those already in the profession… read on

Interview: The Latin America Job list and TEFL Tips

Sharon de Hinojosa, whom members of the ELT World forums know better as Naturegirl321, has been kind enough to answer a few of my questions about her internet projects. After years of gathering information about teaching on the South American continent, she has decided to make this knowledge available to others via her excellent websites… read on

English's Bleak Future

So, we think English will be the all-dominant language forever, do we? Not bloody likely, if Nicholas Ostler is to be believed in his recent article for Forbes:

The status of English as an international language appears unassailable. It is simultaneously pre-eminent in science, politics, business and entertainment. And unlike any of its lingua franca predecessors, it has all this on a truly worldwide scale. There is no challenger comparable to it: Chinese has more native speakers, but every schoolchild in China now studies English. And India, set to overtake China in population by 2050, is avidly trading on its English expertise.

But English is not thereby immune to the principles of language survival. Above all, it is notable that beyond the 330 million or so native speakers, perhaps twice as many more use it as a second language. And this community of over 600 million second-language speakers, who make English pre-eminent as a world language, also make it vulnerable in the long term.

'If you want to call me baby...just go ahead now'

In 5,000 years of recorded language history, a few dozen languages have achieved the status of lingua franca, a language of wider communication among people whose mother tongues may be quite different. Spanish, French, Hindi, Russian and English have been lingua francas in the present age, as have been Latin, Quechua, Persian and Aramaic in the past. But this status does not come about by some utilitarian reckoning, or democratic selection. There is always a reason, be it conquest, trade, religious mission or social aspiration, which has selected a language to have this wider role, and that reason is hard to forget - and ultimately often hard to forgive.

This is seldom clear - at first - to native speakers. They naturally see their mother tongue as a simple blessing for the wider world. Pliny the Elder, writing in the 1st century AD of the then widespread use of Latin, boasted that it almost made the sky brighter; French author Anatole France (1844-1924) thought the French language was such a charming mistress that no one was ever tempted to be unfaithful to her. But neither language would have spread across Western Europe if their use had not once upon a time been imposed - by forces other than lucidity and charm...


Get working on those 'transferable skills' and preparing for an alternative career boys and girls! Read the rest of the article here.

U.S. Universities Rush to Set Up Outposts Abroad

A worrying trend or a chance for good jobs in the future?

The American system of higher education has long been the envy of the world. It is now becoming an important export as more universities take their programs overseas, according to the New York Times.


'In a kind of educational gold rush, American universities are competing to set up outposts in countries with limited higher education opportunities. American universities — not to mention Australian and British ones, which also offer instruction in English, the lingua franca of academia — are starting, or expanding, hundreds of programs and partnerships in booming markets like China, India and Singapore.'


Read the full story here.