ELT World » vietnam

The big Australasia TEFL news roundup

david — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 12:17:28 +0000

Here are some recent TEFL headlines from around the region.

South Korea: Language education ’starts in the womb’

Bilingual education starts from womb, a research team led by Krista Byers-Heinlein and Janet Werker from the University of British Columbia claims to have found. The researchers compared the reactions of newborn babies whose mothers are monolingual in English with those of mothers who are bilingual in English and Tagalog.

Read the full story here.

India: English radio lessons… Exit UNICEF, enter government

After the UNICEF decided to discontinue the implementation of “Interactive Learning Through Radio” programme in Uttar Pradesh from next academic year, the state government has decided to implement the unique scheme on its own.

Read more here.

Nepal: Unique school aims to be the ticket to equality

Beginning with 850 students in the 2001 and teaching up to Grade 3, the first Satama (“equality”) school now has over 3,500 students. The founder, Uttam Sanjel, said “I had no idea that it would be so popular.” The medium of instruction is English – considered a passport to success – because parents and guardians in Nepal prefer private English- medium schools over Nepali or other vernacular language schools. Satama schools have entrance fees that are much less than other private schools, allowing Nepalis–however poor they are–to send their children to private school.

Read on.

India: The road to English to begin with mother tongue

What is common between ‘pencil’, ‘railway station’, ‘programme’ and ‘machine’? These are English words used in Hindi, Punjabi and other languages. And a professor has found a novel way to use these words in teaching of the English language. Professor Anil Sarwal, linguistics expert and faculty member at DAV College, Sector 10, has identified 12,000 such words. The aim behind compiling these words, according to Professor Sarwal, was to use one’s mother tongue to teach the English language. “If encouraged to learn English by beginning with words that are known to them, the ice between learners and the English language will start thawing,” Professor Sarwal says.

Read the full story here.

India: Lend an ear, mind your languages

A recent report by the NGO Pratham shows that less that 50 per cent of children in Class I could even identify capital letters in English. Parents, especially from rural and semi-urban families, see English as a gateway to better opportunities for their children. They send their children to English-medium schools. In most of these schools, children learn Maths, Sciences and other subjects in English, without knowing English. This situation has led to an increasing number of educators advocating that schooling should be in the mother tongue only.

Read more here.

Vietnam and United Kingdom: British Council helps improve English teaching in Vietnam

The British Council and the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam (MoET) will inaugurate a bilingual website (www.teachingenglish.edu.vn) in early February. The website is part of the Access English project, which has been launched by the British Council in across South East Asia to support changes in English language teaching.

Read the story here…

Australia: 8 English schools won’t reopen

Voluntary administrators in eight English language schools say that the schools will not reopen because of the financial situation. They say they are working with the federal department of education and state government departments to find arrangements for the 2300 international students.

Read on…

Cambodia: Cambodia’s minority languages facing a bleak future

More than 20 languages are spoken in Cambodia, lathough most are minority languages and face extinction in the coming decades. For Jean-Michel Filippi, recording the language is one way to preserve a cultural view of the world.

Read more now.

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An Giang to build first bilingual English-Vietnamese school

david — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 06:47:10 +0000

Vietnam: According to VietnamNews, a school offering instruction in both Vietnamese and English will open next September in An Giang Province. The Provincial People’s Committee and Department of Education and Training have spent more VND4 billion (US$226,000) to build the first bilingual school in Long Xuyen City’s My Hoa District. Construction has begun on the Tinh Hoa bilingual school (Elite Bilingual School).

Read the full story…

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English teaching tries to get past ‘how are you?’

david — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 08:04:15 +0000

Vietnam: Low efficiency in teaching English at universities is a thorny issue (nothing to do with the students, obviously), especially since the State has invested money and resources in improving courses. A first-year student at the Ha Noi National University summarised his English learning process from the sixth grade to university as a stretch of road where he had to learn to say “How are you?” at every education level. He said the present curriculum did not interconnect these levels well, making teachers and students waste time.

Read the full story…

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Universities urged to improve English language skills for students

david — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 16:19:21 +0000

Vietnam: Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Education and Training Banh Tien Long has asked universities to help students improve their English so that they can use it confidently and competently by 2015. Mr Long said that to improve the quality of teaching and English language skills, universities should attach more importance to upgrading infrastructure and English teaching facilities. In addition, teachers should improve their teaching methods and their knowledge to encourage students to get involved in studying English.

Read the full story…

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Vietnam: English-language schools mushroom out of control

david — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 10:36:20 +0000

With English language centres seemingly on every street in HCM City, local educators and officials question the quality of instruction available at many of these schools. According to Nguyen Van Cuong, an official with the city’s Education and Training Department, many of these centres exist not to meet pedagogical requirements but to make big profits.

Read the full story…

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Vietnam: Teaching English to primary school students – nothing prepared

david — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 10:02:08 +0000

In 1996, The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) kicked off the trial programme on teaching English as an optional subject to primary school students, reports Vietnamnet. 12 years later, the ministry plans to teach English as a compulsory subject to primary school students throughout the country, though there still exist a lot of problems in English teaching.

Read the full story…

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Vietnam: English to Be Introduced in Primary Schools

david — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 11:17:16 +0000

English will be taught from the primary school onwards under a program that the Prime Minister has just approved, an official of the Ministry of Education and Training said Thursday.

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Vietnam: Students turn teachers for city voluntary campaign

david — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 08:53:57 +0000

Thousands of youth volunteers have been doing social work for the last three weeks under Ho Chi Minh City’s Green Summer campaign, with nearly 200 students teaching children and workers English and other languages in the city.

Read the full story…

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Vietnam: Billions VND for Children’s Education

david — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 06:00:26 +0000

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 speak Vietnamese fluently and understand Vietnamese culture.

Mr. Nam finally decided to send his son to Uniworld on Van Bao street where he can follow a bilingual syllabus (lessons are taught in English in the morning and Vietnamese in the afternoon).

Read the full story…

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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.

Read the full story…

In India, Dreams Unfold in English

India has something of a reputation as a nation of fluent English speakers, but according to many estimates this is a right load of garbage: only 5 percent of the population merits that description suggests the Washington Post. Now, a five-year-long economic boom has triggered a rush to bring the reality into line with the lore. Once the preserve of big-city elites, English is spreading to the hinterlands.

Pankaj Srivastava exemplifies the situation. Pankaj, a successful business manager, finds that the faster he rises, the more anxious he gets. “I am in the big league now, but everybody at this level speaks English, and I don’t,” he bemoans, in a mix of Hindi and broken English. “I stay in hotels where even the waiters speak English. At the conferences, I stay quiet because I don’t want them to laugh at my English.” Sounds like an opportunity for a private lesson if ever I heard one.

Read the full story…

Do a little dance, make a little love…

Vietnamese Kids Left Tongue-Tied by English

Vietnam Net website notes that the demand for English speaking graduates in the workplace is higher than ever in Vietnam, but the current education system is, shock horror, outdated and need of a major overhaul.

According to Nguyen Loc, the vice head of the National Institute for Education Strategy and Curriculum Development under the Ministry of Education and Training, Vietnamese pupils and students would find it difficult to master English studying at schools, typically, just three times a week for 45 minute periods. At universities English courses are taught on the side as students focus on their majors. This means students get the basics but fail to speak English “confidently or fluently” according to Loc. Strange, you’d think that three times a week at 45 minutes a time would be more than enough to master a language so drastically different from Vietnamese. No, hang on, wait a minute…

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California: Encinitas parents seek to expand innovative language program

Parent Jill Levan says that when she volunteers in her daughter’s bilingual, third-grade classroom at Paul Ecke Central Elementary School, she learns as much as the children do. “This has been the most amazing experience not only for our daughter, but for our whole family,” said Levan, who is gradually becoming fluent in Spanish as she helps her daughter and other children learn math and reading skills. There’s a tear forming in the corner of my eye. No, really.

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Science: The New ELL Testing Frontier

Testing ‘experts’ in the U.S are creating a pool of test items they hope that some states will eventually use to assess English-language learners in science to comply with the No Child Allowed to Progress (AKA No Child Left Behind) Act. I’m starting to hate the acronym ELL, I really am.

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The United States: Make English The National Language

Senator Lamar Alexander has cosponsored the National Language Act of 2008 that would establish English as the national language of the United States. I’m not making this up. “One of America’s greatest accomplishments is the manner in which we unite our magnificent diversity, and one way we have done that is by speaking a common language, English,” said Alexander, who in March led a successful effort to pass legislation in the Senate aimed at increasing funding to a grant program that supports English language teaching. Now, am I missing something or is it a bit bloody stupid to be trying to establish English as national language? What language do these buggers speak? OK, I suppose it could have helped the president to improve his English, but come on…

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Keeping immigrant kids in school: Canada Style

Canada: like the U.S but good.

Never mind special programs for struggling students of different cultures, declares The Star, Canadian schools can do more to help troubled immigrant children by how they teach in regular classrooms, by providing almost twice as much help in English and by requiring all teachers be trained in how to work with these complex learners, say two leading researchers. Yeah, it’s THAT easy, folks. How much did they get paid for that research, I wonder?

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Ridiculous Indian ‘Caring about Students’ Fantasy TV Show Shocker

In an exclusive tete a tete with Vidhya Krishnan, Shernaz Patel talks about her journey from ‘Buniyaad’ to ‘Black’. She is one of the best-known faces of Indo-English theatre and has been a part of the English theatre movement in India for the past 20 years. Shernaz plays a teacher in her new show, who is – wait for it – a warm and understanding mentor (!). She not only motivates (!) her students with the correct use of the language but also explains situations to them (!) from their point of view, so that they can truly absorb the lesson (!). Don’t you just hate it when there’s not even the slightest attempt at realism?

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