ELT World » central america

English learning program excelling

david — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 13:36:50 +0000

United States: Talking to 10-year-old Dayki Diaz today, you’d never know the self-possessed fourth-grader didn’t know a word of English when she started the third grade last year at Jamaica Elementary School. “She speaks so well — she’s just amazing,” her principal, Paula Levensailor, said last week at the school. Diaz, who immigrated to the United States from Costa Rica with her parents, achieved “intermediate” status after just seven months of English-language instruction. She’s expected to be reclassified as proficient in English when testing takes place in the spring. Diaz personifies the progress of the Lake Havasu Unified School District’s English-language learning program, which recently passed a hard-won milestone by achieving and exceeding state requirements for Annual Measurable Academic Objectives, or AMAOs.

Mexico launches effort to teach its students English

david — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 20:43:20 +0000

Mexico: With its economy increasingly hitched to the United States, Mexico’s government has launched an ambitious plan to teach English to every schoolchild, even those in kindergarten. Currently, educators in 21 states and the Federal District are offering the language in a smattering of elementary schools and experimenting with teaching methods. Beginning next fall, 5,000 schools will begin a pilot project with federal textbooks and funds. And within just six years, federal officials hope to have all 12 million public elementary school students learning English.

Read the full story…

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Graduates to teach English in Costa Rica

david — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 07:30:26 +0000

Thanks to grant money from an organization in Cleveland, four volunteers will teach English in Costa Rica. The Office of International Affairs bid farewell to Director Mary Anne Saunders and four volunteers this morning. Saunders is accompanying the volunteers, two of whom are Kent State graduates, to Costa Rica to initiate a project awarded by the Cleveland Foundation with a $40,000 grant. The Costa Rica English as a Second Language program will provide language training to current and potential employees in Costa Rica’s expanding hospitality and tourism industries.

Tierney on Fulbright-funded English language project in Panama

david — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 09:05:09 +0000

Panama & Delaware, US: Suzanne Tierney, an instructor in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at the University of Delaware, has received a Fulbright scholar grant for a yearlong English language project at Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá (UTP) in Panama City, Panama. The project, “Enhancing the Instruction of English,” includes assessing the current state of English language instruction at different levels in the Panamanian education system.

Read on…

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Costa Rica: Government’s Goal Is For Costa Rica Soon To Become Bilingual

david — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 06:17:28 +0000

Costa Rica has taken on the challenge of converting English as a common language for the majority of the population. One of the objectives is that 75% of high school students are proficient in English by 2017. Good luck to ‘em.

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Trinidad: ALTA – teaching adults to read

david — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 08:27:37 +0000

In the Adult Literacy Tutors Association (ALTA) classroom, trained volunteer tutors and students work together to overcome the problems that stymied their childhood learning. To both these groups literacy represents power — the tutor holds the power to change and improve someone else’s life while the student gains the power to control his or her life in a society that depends upon the written words. In this “Age of Information” where the printed word has replaced the spoken word, you cannot get by without reading.

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Mexican bilingual teachers head for Chicago

david — Fri, 30 May 2008 07:21:45 +0000

Texas: Grant Brings iPods to ESL Classes

Ray High School students Jamira Baniqued and Danae Uria, both 15, appeared to breeze through their first language lesson using an iPod. Uria already has one she uses for music and videos. This one will be for learning. “It’s going to be good,” said the native of Cuba, after doing a practice exercise where she recorded an interview with Jamira. “We’ll be able to listen to the way other people speak.”

Corpus Christi Independent School District officials want to tap into the younger generation’s grasp of technology with 50 iPods, made possible with an AT&T $25,000 grant to the Corpus Christi Education Foundation. The iPods, devices that download video and audio from computers, will be used in the district’s English as a Second Language classrooms. Officials announced the grant on Thursday at Ray High School.

Read the full podtastic story…

Illinois & Mexico: District 202 Heads to Mexico to Hire Bilingual Teachers

Plainfield School District 202 will take advantage of a special state program to recruit and hire bilingual teachers. The school board at its April 28 meeting approved the district participating in a partnership with the Illinois State Board of Education that is designed to help districts with growing minority populations to find and hire more teachers for students who do not speak English.

The program is also intended to enhance understanding between the United States and other countries through cultural exchanges. A small group of District 202 administrators will travel this month to Mexico City, along with officials from the Waukegan, Chicago, Elgin and Cicero school districts.

The district plans to hire about 20 English Language Learner teachers this year, but even after doing so, it is anticipated that several positions will remain unfilled, District 202 officials said. It is difficult, though, to fill all of the open positions because of the district’s rapid growth, they said, neatly dodging the issue.

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This Guy is Teaching Abroad: Teaching in Mexico

david — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 05:24:00 +0000

You may have noticed a new addition to the moderator team over at the forums: Guy Courchesne. Guy also has a very interesting blog in which he chronicles the many experiences he’s had teaching English in Mexico. In fact, the blog goes far beyond detailing get togethers such as the one in the picture below, Guy also reflects on the day-to-day aspects of living in Mexico, as well as covering many topics that we as English teachers should be more aware of. Examples of recent topics on Guy’s blog include:

Appreciating Spanish:

As an English speaker, learning a new language can be both a difficult and enlightening experience. So tied up in culture is language that it is next to impossible to arm-chair learn the language of a foreign land and a foreign people…

Guide to English TeachTeaching in Mexico – A State by State Look:

A state-by-state look at Mexico – a work in progress…

What to expect when seeking a TEFL job abroad:

For the newly minted TEFLer, one of the first questions that often comes up is what about the job? What should you expect for a job interview and what are schools looking for?

Fear not…here are your answers…

Photo from Guy’s blog.

Expect to see more from Guy’s blog in my regular columns section and, more importantly, take the opportunity to chat to him yourself over on the ELT World forums.

Guy Courchesne is the moderator for the Americas section of the ELT World forums.

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