Accompanied by his photographer and his personal assistant, Li Yang stepped into a Beijing classroom and shouted, “Hello, everyone!” The students applauded. Li, the founder, head teacher, and editor-in-chief of Li Yang Crazy English, wore a dove-gray turtleneck and a black car coat.

The classes were part of a campaign that is more ambitious than anything previous Olympic host cities have attempted. China intends to teach itself as much English as possible by the time the guests arrive, and Li has been brought in by the Beijing Organizing Committee to make that happen. He is China’s Elvis of English, perhaps the world’s only language teacher known to bring students to tears of excitement. He has built an empire out of his country’s deepening devotion to a language it once derided as the tongue of barbarians and capitalists. His philosophy, captured by one of his many slogans, is flamboyantly patriotic: “Conquer English to Make China Stronger!”

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India: How Good Are We in English?

Recent statistics have thrown up some surprises in the theory that the Indians’ mastery over the English language could give us an edge in the race towards globalisation. The National Index of Communication Skills (NI-CS) brought out early this year by MeritTrac, a skills assessment company, points out that only 20 per cent of the candidates evaluated met the overall English criteria required by the industry. The report also classifies skills index based on individual evaluation parameters with grammar emerging the lowest with a throughput of just 7.5 per cent.

“We were surprised at such low suitability numbers that we decided to launch an English assessment and learning programme in India,” says Mr Madan Padaki, co-founder and CEO, MeritTrac Services.

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Sri Lanka: Arming the People With a Weapon of Choice

It was in the 70s, around that time of the first JVP uprising that the term “kaduva” (sword) became fashionable among youth to refer to a knowledge of English, that was then, as it is now, the preserve of a very small minority of Sri Lankans, transcending all divisions of ethnicity, faith and caste and is bound by the benefits of high income and economic advantage.

They saw the knowledge of English as a weapon used by these segments of society to gain advantage over those who lacked knowledge of it due to the harsh realities of our system of education, and viewed both the “kaduva” and those who wielded it in day to day discourse with both envy and anger.

It is in this context that the Government launches this week its major initiative on English Language Skills, which seeks to rapidly alter the situation in the country and enable both the people and the country to benefit from the knowledge of English.

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Malaysia: English Language Project a Success

The Project to Improve English in Rural Schools (PIERS) programme is so well known among school teachers in Negri Sembilan that education services provider CfBT Education Malaysia, has had no problems recruiting volunteer teachers for its programme. The company’s executive director, Andrew Caie, said, the programme was making inroads with teachers, parents and students.

In fact, other states were “envious” of the improvements of those who had taken part in the programme, following the success of its two projects earlier, said Negeri Sembilan Royal Family Trusts chairman Tunku Laksamana Tunku Naquiyuddin Tuanku Ja’afar.

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Perspective on Bilingual Educational System in Brunei

Local children in primary schools who have little or no knowledge of the English Language and are forced to study subjects in the said language have been condemned to fail. This was the stance taken by Dr Hj Azmi Abdullah, as he presented his working paper in a public lecture yesterday afternoon at Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD).

A child’s language is closely associated with his cultural identity, he said, citing other works. Immersing a Malay child with no knowledge of the English Language except to the little that he is exposed to in school is detrimental to his or her educational progress, especially as most subjects in the primary school curriculum are conducted in English.

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Guam English Language Proficiency Standards Developed

We have a diverse community with an increasing population of students who are learning English as an additional language. To address the needs of our English Language Learners (ELLs), a cadre of educators, namely, GPSS ELL/ESL Standards Cadre 2008, are spearheading the development of Guam’s PreK-12 English Language Proficiency Standards.

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Malaysians Urged to Master English or Lose Out to World

Malaysians need to master the English language or risk becoming less competitive in the world, a government official said Tuesday. Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak said Malaysians’ proficiency in English — a legacy of British colonial rule — once used to be an asset to the nation, particularly in attracting foreign investors.

But he said Malaysians’ command of English is diminishing in rural areas and government-funded schools, and it could hurt the country. “The stark reality is that English is the primary language of commerce and science the world over today,” Najib was quoted as saying by the national news agency, Bernama.

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South Korea: Taps Into Global Talent Pool For English Teachers

South Korea will tap into an offshore talent pool to meet the rising demand for native English speakers at home, inviting college students of Korean descent to teach English on a government scholarship, officials said Wednesday. The Teach and Learn in Korea program is set to start in August, offering young Koreans overseas the chance to teach elementary school children for six months to one year and receive a scholarship certificate from the Korean government.

The move comes as part of President Lee Myung-bak’s English immersion drive to shift from the country’s traditional grammar-oriented method to practical learning, Yonhap news agency reported Wednesday.

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Philippines: English, Tagalog or Both?

Russ Sandlin, an American businessman in the Philippines, recently closed his call center in Manila because he said he could not find enough English proficient workers. “Not even 3 percent of the students who graduate college here are employable in call centers,” he complained.

Sandlin cited a Philippine Department of Education report disclosing that 80 percent of secondary school teachers in the Philippines failed an English proficiency test last year. “English is the only thing that can save the country,” he wrote, “and no one here cares or even understands that the Filipinos have a crisis.”

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