Surprising as it may seem, schools are struggling to cope with an influx of students from abroad, with many teachers facing classes in which a third of pupils do not speak English as their first language, teachers’ representatives told the Times Online. The number of pupils who did not have English as their mother tongue had risen by 66,000 in a year, the conference of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers was told.

Read the full story…

Switzerland: English seen as “most useful” foreign language

Not just British tourists, also a majority of, er, Swiss reckon that English is the most useful foreign language in the country, although it is not Switzerland’s “lingua franca” as commonly believed.

Read the full story…

United Kingdom: Not Enough Cash to Teach English

Whoooaaaa… you misread, the headline doesn’t in fact read not enough cash to teachers of English. Headteachers have said the £2-million spent on teaching English to immigrant children in North Lincolnshire is inadequate, according to the ever influential This is Scunthorpe website. Schools say they have less to spend, even though the number of students whose first language is not English has risen.

Read the full story…

Estonia fears English too dominant in its schools

Education authorities in Estonia Thursday warned that the hands-down dominance of English in its schools is depriving the Baltic state of the language specialists it will need in the future.

Read the full story…

Turkey: English Time Celebrates Its 10th Year

Scourge of English teachers throughout Istanbul, the English Time language school celebrated its 10th anniversary recently with a reception held at Istanbul’s Divan Kuruçesme. Speaking at the reception English Time founder Fethi Şimşek stated that when they established English Time 10 years ago their concern was to raise the quality level of English education in Turkey (no, really, that’s what he said). He said they have been achieving this aim without making any concessions since 1998.

Read the full story…

United Kingdom: £10m Bill to Teach Migrants English

Town halls in Greater Manchester are spending more than £10m a year teaching immigrants to speak English, the Manchester Evening News declares. The Department for Schools says a growing amount of taxpayers’ money is being spent on teaching English as a second language. Your point?

Read the full story …

Scotland: International Rescue for City School Pupils

Language specialists (and not the Thunderbirds) are helping non-native speakers improve English as different cultures get along: excited chatter fills the room as the pupils work on their science project. What isn’t immediately obvious is how many youngsters discussing a recent visit to a butterfly farm are not fluent in English. They are all reading the same books, but alongside some sits a specialist teacher – armed with flashcards picturing insects and their name in English – ready to prompt when necessary.

Read the full story …

United Kingdom: The Primary School Where Every Child Learns to Speak 40 Languages

Welcome to Newbury Park Primary School in Redbridge, north-east London, where its 850 pupils will have learnt phrases in 40 languages by the time they transfer to secondary school, notes the Independent. The school has adopted a policy of teaching each language spoken by the 40 ethnic groups among its pupils.

Read the full story …

Iceland: Bilingualism: Why Not?

Last week it was reported that the fabulously named Bifröst University in west Iceland would become the first university in the country to offer a Bachelor’s degree in business taught exclusively in English. While there is already a range of courses offered in English at several of Iceland’s universities, Bifröst says that by offering the degree in English, it is responding to the needs of students planning to work in the international arena.

Read the full story …

Russia: Language Learning Popular as Ever

In a statement that may well bemuse anyone who’s ever taught there, the St. Petersburg Times reports that the thirst for learning English and other foreign languages continues as Russians travel more and seek international business partners.

Read the full story …

Stick poking remains a national pastime in Russia

Belgium: Language director defends EU’s costly translations

A high official in the European Commission’s translation branch has said that despite discussions and fears in recent years about mushrooming costs for translations and interpretations in the EU, the principle of granting each citizen the right to communicate with Brussels in their own language should not be altered, no matter the number of member states in the future. Mmmm… there be money in that there Brussels.

Read the full story …

Ukraine: All in English

When foreigners visited Kyiv some ten years ago, language was the main problem in adapting to the local environment. The situation is now somewhat different, proclaims the Kyiv Post. Although not everyone can freely chat with you in English, the majority of citizens can understand you and will try to help you in any way possible. Apparently.

Read the full story …

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United Kingdom: The Struggle to Cope When Children Do Not Speak Any English

Surprising as it may seem, schools are struggling to cope with an influx of students from abroad, with many teachers facing classes in which a third of pupils do not speak English as their first language, teachers’ representatives told the Times Online. The number of pupils who did not have English as their mother tongue had risen by 66,000 in a year, the conference of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers was told.

Read the full story…

Switzerland: English seen as “most useful” foreign language

Not just British tourists, also a majority of, er, Swiss reckon that English is the most useful foreign language in the country, although it is not Switzerland’s “lingua franca” as commonly believed.

Read the full story…

United Kingdom: Not Enough Cash to Teach English

Whoooaaaa… you misread, the headline doesn’t in fact read not enough cash to teachers of English. Headteachers have said the £2-million spent on teaching English to immigrant children in North Lincolnshire is inadequate, according to the ever influential This is Scunthorpe website. Schools say they have less to spend, even though the number of students whose first language is not English has risen.

Read the full story…

Estonia fears English too dominant in its schools

Education authorities in Estonia Thursday warned that the hands-down dominance of English in its schools is depriving the Baltic state of the language specialists it will need in the future.

Read the full story…

Turkey: English Time Celebrates Its 10th Year

Scourge of English teachers throughout Istanbul, the English Time language school celebrated its 10th anniversary recently with a reception held at Istanbul’s Divan Kuruçesme. Speaking at the reception English Time founder Fethi Şimşek stated that when they established English Time 10 years ago their concern was to raise the quality level of English education in Turkey (no, really, that’s what he said). He said they have been achieving this aim without making any concessions since 1998.

Read the full story…

United Kingdom: £10m Bill to Teach Migrants English

Town halls in Greater Manchester are spending more than £10m a year teaching immigrants to speak English, the Manchester Evening News declares. The Department for Schools says a growing amount of taxpayers’ money is being spent on teaching English as a second language. Your point?

Read the full story …

Scotland: International Rescue for City School Pupils

Language specialists (and not the Thunderbirds) are helping non-native speakers improve English as different cultures get along: excited chatter fills the room as the pupils work on their science project. What isn’t immediately obvious is how many youngsters discussing a recent visit to a butterfly farm are not fluent in English. They are all reading the same books, but alongside some sits a specialist teacher – armed with flashcards picturing insects and their name in English – ready to prompt when necessary.

Read the full story …

United Kingdom: The Primary School Where Every Child Learns to Speak 40 Languages

Welcome to Newbury Park Primary School in Redbridge, north-east London, where its 850 pupils will have learnt phrases in 40 languages by the time they transfer to secondary school, notes the Independent. The school has adopted a policy of teaching each language spoken by the 40 ethnic groups among its pupils.

Read the full story …

Iceland: Bilingualism: Why Not?

Last week it was reported that the fabulously named Bifröst University in west Iceland would become the first university in the country to offer a Bachelor’s degree in business taught exclusively in English. While there is already a range of courses offered in English at several of Iceland’s universities, Bifröst says that by offering the degree in English, it is responding to the needs of students planning to work in the international arena.

Read the full story …

Russia: Language Learning Popular as Ever

In a statement that may well bemuse anyone who’s ever taught there, the St. Petersburg Times reports that the thirst for learning English and other foreign languages continues as Russians travel more and seek international business partners.

Read the full story …

Stick poking remains a national pastime in Russia

Belgium: Language director defends EU’s costly translations

A high official in the European Commission’s translation branch has said that despite discussions and fears in recent years about mushrooming costs for translations and interpretations in the EU, the principle of granting each citizen the right to communicate with Brussels in their own language should not be altered, no matter the number of member states in the future. Mmmm… there be money in that there Brussels.

Read the full story …

Ukraine: All in English

When foreigners visited Kyiv some ten years ago, language was the main problem in adapting to the local environment. The situation is now somewhat different, proclaims the Kyiv Post. Although not everyone can freely chat with you in English, the majority of citizens can understand you and will try to help you in any way possible. Apparently.

Read the full story …

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One area I really like are the teacher letters on their experiences. I featured a few on the blog before, but thought I’d give a more comprehensive list of their reports on teaching around the world:

Argentina: teaching English in a public school

The Republic of Argentina Republic is situated in South America. It has a population of 37 million: about 17 million of the people are poor. at the time of writing every day more people become poor.

While reading this, you may think that Argentina is a country without natural resources. You think wrong! It has 4 very well-differentiated climates. It has more cows than citizens. It can grow any type of agricultural produce. Argentina has rivers, lakes, beaches, a wide variety of animals, mountains, hills and what is more important, plains. You may wonder why we are suffering from famine or other diseases? The answer is that the government is more preoccupied with how to “steal” money from its citizens than how to solve these great social and economical problems… read on

Australia: juggling work, travel and play

I really enjoyed teaching English in Australia and found it a great way to experience a truly massive and amazing country. I’d recommend it to anyone who (like me) can’t afford to fund an extended trip around the place but is willing to juggle work and play over the course of a year.

Work can be found in private language schools, teaching a mix of Asian, European, South American, and occasionally African students. These schools are similar to those operating in other English speaking countries, and generally consist of young adult students hoping to improve their English whilst having a good time in Oz. This means that motivation levels can vary widely. Classes range from hard working Cambridge groups and IELTS/EAP students desperate to get into Australian colleges, right through to easy going general English groups with more interest in surf reports than reported speech… read on

Belgium: opportunities for teaching English

Chocolate I knew about, as well as fries and good beer but what about the teaching situation? “Brush up on your grammar and prepare to teach advanced learners…You’d better get an extra qualification to teach Business English. I would have thought Belgium’s quite a saturated market” was what my director of studies advised me before I left for Belgium. Not quite what I wanted to hear pre-departure.

A pre-intermediate Vietnamese clairvoyant; two upper intermediate French engineers, an elementary Italian MEP; two Greek teenagers; an intermediate group made up of Japanese housewives, a Libyan expert on water management and some Belgians, were on the menu for my first week of teaching – a far cry from what I had imagined. In actual fact, just the Belgian and European capital has so much teaching work available that you need never be without work regardless of your qualifications… read on

Bolivia: different types of English teaching

There appears to be a divide between the experiences of the other South American contributors to this section. On the one hand, native teachers having to contend with apathy in their public school classes due to poverty, and finding the need to instil motivation an integral part of teaching. On the other, TEFL teachers from overseas working in large private institutes where the only necessary motivation is results. My experiences in Bolivia come somewhere in the middle of this divide.

There is obviously a great deal of poverty in Bolivia, and for most, learning English is of minor importance. The poorest are the indigenous campesinos who number half the population and speak the native languages of Aymara and Quechua. When they come to the cities they settle on the outskirts and are generally employed in street trade. Learning Spanish is their main concern. English is of little use to the majority so they don’t learn it. In fact, many of the poorer children forego education entirely to earn a living on the streets… read on

Brazil: two experiences of teaching in public schools

Two very different experiences of teaching in Brazil. Letters from a Brazilian who was shocked to find out how different life was in the Public school system and below a letter from an Irishman working for a rich private school… read on

Cameroon: It’s Milla Time

When I first told people I was going to work in Cameroon, the most common reaction was: ‘Why?’. The second was: ‘It’s in Africa, you’ll die!’. The third: ‘Where is that?’

So let’s give some answers. I was offered a job that looked interesting in a part of the world I’d never been to before. I’d also long had an interest in Africa, if in a rather vague way, so decided it was time to find out the reality… read on

Chile: travelling halfway round the world to work

Why does any woman up and leave her family, friends and beloved country, to travel half way around the world? It could only be love. That is how I found myself arriving in Concepción, Chile two years ago. My inability to utter one word of Spanish left me with only one employment option: teaching English. I found a job at a language institute in town, and off I went.

As with most places in South America, the idea is to have only native speakers as teachers, and experience is essential. Unfortunately, not many people awake from the bite of the travel bug and yell out “I think I’ll try Chile”, so inevitably many teachers are not experienced and receive only minimal training from these institutes. The salaries offered are not the best, but the cost of living is also not very high… read on

The extracts from the excellent One Stop English will continue throughout this week.

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