ELT World » canada

Canada: ‘Sports kept me going… It made me come to school more’

david — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 15:04:15 +0000

The Ottowa Citizen notes that when Awo Farah arrived in Canada from Djibouti in 2001 to seek a better education, the nine-year-old Grade 5 student couldn’t speak English. Eight years later, it’s amazing how her life has developed … all for the positive.

Farah would substitute the word “crazy” for “amazing” to describe her early months in her new country as she used her outgoing personality to learn to speak English with her friends, became a strong academic student and was a highly recruited basketball player by several universities.Rideau athletic director Sherri Tanner understands why Farah has succeeded. “Her social personality allowed her to pick up conversational English and her involvement in sport gave her confidence and a place to work on her communication skills.”

Read the full story…

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Almost one-third of UBC medical students are learning ESL

david — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 10:47:08 +0000

Canada: Nearly 60 per cent of first- and second-year University of B.C. medical students speak at least one other language besides English, and nearly a third speak English as a second language. Nearly one-quarter of students are able to speak French, but the four most common first languages are Cantonese, Mandarin, Farsi and Punjabi.

Making Change: Although nearly 60 per cent of students speak one or more languages other than English at a moderate to advanced level, only a quarter of those feel they are proficient enough to communicate with patients in such languages.

Foreign student to serve 17 days in jail for faking visa documents

david — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 11:25:50 +0000

VANCOUVER, CANADA: The B.C. Court of Appeal has found that a two-month jail sentence was unfit after it imposed on a foreign student who faked records to stay in Canada. The B.C. Court of Appeal substituted a sentence of 17 days of “time served” for international student Shihao Hupang, now 20. “In my view, the sentencing judge erred in viewing the circumstances of this case.

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Certified Management Accountants of Ontario Launches ESL program on Thinkpass

david — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 11:38:36 +0000

Certified Management Accountants of Ontario (CMA Ontario) announced that internationally trained professionals pursuing the CMA designation will now have the opportunity to evaluate their English language skills. “Internationally trained professionals comprise a significant proportion of CMA graduates, and that number is on the rise,” said Merv Hillier, President and CEO of CMA Ontario.

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Teen ESL results better than ever in canada

david — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 12:06:16 +0000

Canada: Teen ESL Results Better Than Ever, Province Says

Teens learning English as a second language are passing the provincial literacy test at higher rates than ever. The test, written in March and graded only as pass or fail, determines if students have the reading and writing skills they’re supposed to have gained by the end of Grade 9. Passing the test or a literacy course considered equivalent is required for graduation.

The biggest success story has been among English-language learners. In 2003, the first year the test was administered, only 23 per cent passed, with 40 per cent deferring it for a year. The deferral rate has now dropped to 33 per cent, while the pass rate has shot up to 38 per cent.

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2nd IEEE International Workshop on Digital Game and Intelligent Toy Enhanced Learning

david — Thu, 01 May 2008 11:34:00 +0000

The 2nd IEEE International Workshop on Digital Game and Intelligent Toy Enhanced Learning November 17th-19th, 2008 Banff, Canada

This is all a bit freaky for me so I’ve just copied and pasted the blurb from the conference website:

‘There’s a rapidly growing interest in exploring design and technology of digital games and intelligent toys for learning, apparently. While digital games, especially online games, exploit advanced multimedia and Internet technology, intelligent toys embedded with chips and sensors utilize wireless, mobile, and ubiquitous computing technologies. Digital games and intelligent toys are potential new genres of advanced learning technology.

Despite the surging interest in this emerging research, there are plenty challenging research issues to be investigated. For example, can one really learn meaningfully and deeply from games? Will there be new theories that explain phenomena of learning with fun? What constitute game pedagogies? How this genre of technology enhanced learning can be adopted to formal and informal learning settings? What are the possible dark sides of game and toyed education and how to prevent them? The Second IEEE International Conference on Digital Games and Intelligent Toys Based Education (DIGITEL 2008) provides a forum for researchers various disciplines and practitioners to share and exchange of this emerging research area.’

Check out the conference website for more info.

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The 2nd IEEE International Workshop on Digital Game and Intelligent Toy Enhanced Learning

david — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 11:52:39 +0000

The 2nd IEEE International Workshop on Digital Game and Intelligent Toy Enhanced Learning November 17th-19th, 2008 Banff, Canada

This is all a bit freaky for me so I’ve just copied and pasted the blurb from the conference website:

The gaming strategies and toy design that incorporate both individual and social activities will offer a significant opportunity for researchers to investigate the long-running research issues of technology enhanced learning such as attention, motivation, and emotion. It’ll not be a surprise that in the distant future when this emerging research is proved to be fruitful, most technology enhanced learning will incorporate some elements of digital games.Despite the surging interest in this emerging research, there are plenty challenging research issues to be investigated. For example, can one really learn meaningfully and deeply from games? Will there be new theories that explain phenomena of learning with fun? What constitute game pedagogies? How this genre of technology enhanced learning can be adopted to formal and informal learning settings? What are the possible dark sides of game and toyed education and how to prevent them? The Second IEEE International Conference on Digital Games and Intelligent Toys Based Education (DIGITEL 2008) provides a forum for researchers various disciplines and practitioners to share and exchange of this emerging research area.’

Check out the conference website for more info.

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The (TEFL) World has gone Mad

david — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 06:39:00 +0000

Every time I present one of my ELT news roundups, it really sinks in how little the buggers in power know about language teaching. No matter where you are in the world, it seems there’s some moron beating on about some new initiative absolutely guaranteed to strike fear into the hearts of any self-respecting TEFLer. Warning, sarcasm included in these reports:

Korea: Academic Standards Easing for Foreign English Teachers

Wonderful news; the South Korean government is considering loosening academic requirements for native-English speaking teachers as a means to meet growing demand in rural areas that are shunned by foreign teachers, the Korea Times reports.

Currently, the jobs are only open to those with bachelor degrees at four-year universities. As education authorities in rural areas have had difficulty hiring native-English speaking teachers, they are now calling on the central government to ease the qualifications for English-teaching or E-2 visas to those who have completed 2-year courses at universities or colleges. That’s just the solution… bring in more under-qualified hacks and drag our profession in further into the dirt. Nice one.

ELT World » canada

Canada: ‘Sports kept me going… It made me come to school more’

Almost one-third of UBC medical students are learning ESL

Foreign student to serve 17 days in jail for faking visa documents

Certified Management Accountants of Ontario Launches ESL program on Thinkpass

Teen ESL results better than ever in canada

2nd IEEE International Workshop on Digital Game and Intelligent Toy Enhanced Learning

The 2nd IEEE International Workshop on Digital Game and Intelligent Toy Enhanced Learning

The (TEFL) World has gone Mad

The World of TEFL has gone Crazy

Manitoba TEFLer Found Dead in Philippines