Archive for the ‘asia’ Category

July 1st, 2008

Filipinos Relearn English from Peace Corps Volunteers

Using songs she herself had written, a 25-year-old American Peace Corps volunteer is teaching high school students how to speak good English.
The Peace Corps volunteers in the Philippines say they are simply serving as “catalysts” in the combined effort by the government, the private sector and international agencies to improve an ailing public education system. […]

June 30th, 2008

Japan:Professor sets high goals for business English

For Japanese businesspeople to carry out their duties in English, they should ultimately aim for English skills equivalent to at least 900 points out of 990 on the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC)–a near-native speakers’ level–a group of researchers has proposed, based on a survey of more than 7,300 businesspeople.
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June 28th, 2008

India: English Medium Classes Begin Amid Outcry

The government on Thursday commenced English medium from class VI with Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) syllabus in 6,500 high schools in rural areas as a new experiment amid criticism against launching the scheme without proper trained teaching staff.
At a press conference here on Thursday, School Education Minister C. Damodar Rajanarsimha and Principal Secretary […]

June 26th, 2008

Hong Kong:The Cat Got Your Mother Tongue?

It was an admission of cultural defeat; but then Hong Kong is nothing if not pragmatic about such things. On June 6th its education minister, Michael Suen Ming-yeung, lifted restrictions that forced four-fifths of the territory’s more than 500 secondary schools to teach in the “mother tongue”, ie, Cantonese, the main language of its residents […]

June 25th, 2008

Brunei Darussalam: Teaching Reading Workshop Receives Positive Feedback

The Department of Schools at the Ministry of Education yesterday organised a Teaching Reading Workshop, where 30 Form 1 teachers from schools in the Brunei-Muara District learnt various strategies, tools and techniques that could be used in the classroom to enhance reading in the English language.
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June 22nd, 2008

Korea: For English Studies, Koreans Say Goodbye to Dad

On a sunny afternoon recently, half a dozen South Korean mothers came to pick up their children at the Remuera Primary School here, greeting one another warmly in a schoolyard filled with New Zealanders. The mothers, members of the largest group of foreigners at the public school, were part of what are known in South […]

June 20th, 2008

Vietnam: Billions VND for Children’s Education

Nguyen Ky Nam, PhD, of Australian nationality, has noted that when he returned to Vietnam in 2006, he spent a lot of time choosing a school for his son, Ky Anh, who had finished the first class in Australia. Nam wanted his son not only to speak English fluently and understand foreign cultures, but also […]

June 15th, 2008

Sri Lanka: Taking English to far-flung places

Sri Lanka: Taking English to far-flung places
It is a lazy Sunday morning but a diverse group from all over the country is gathered in Colombo intently listening to senior trainers going through the paces of how to teach English. This is just one of the numerous workshops and training programmes for teachers and would-be […]

June 5th, 2008

Malaysian students exposed to literature

Pakistan: 37 English Language Teachers Trained
The Federal College of Education of the Ministry of Education has trained as many as 37 (!) English language teachers of Islamabad Capital Territory. The programme focused on techniques and principles of language teaching, study skills, teaching of English language through computers, development of lesson plans to make them more […]

June 3rd, 2008

South Korea to hire unqualified hacks, Taiwan to blame teachers for failures

South Korea: Hagwon Seek to Block Unqualified Foreign Teachers
In a move that makes a frightening amount of sense, the association of foreign language institutes (hagwon) said recently that the government should block the inflow of unqualified native English teachers, making clear its opposition to a policy to increase the number of “questionable instructors.”
The Korea Association […]