ELT World » czech republic

Czech Republic: English classes for the young masses

david — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 07:51:41 +0000

The Czech proverb “That which you learn while young, you’ll find readily when you are old” receives a new twist with Prague 10’s efforts to provide English-language education to all public preschools in the neighborhood.

Read the full story…

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ENGLISH FOR LIFE: The 6th International and 10th National ATECR Conference

david — Wed, 21 May 2008 08:47:00 +0000

The Sixth International and Tenth National ATECR Conference

The 6th International and 10th National Conference will be held in České Budějovice from 12 to 14 September, 2008 and promises to be an absolute belter. It will be hosted by the Department of English of the Pedagogical Faculty of the University of South Bohemia. This highlight of the Czech conference season promises to offer a varied programme of talks, workshops, demonstrations, research-oriented presentations and poster sessions intended for teachers in primary, secondary and tertiary education.

The main aim of the conference is to provide a forum for sharing experience and ideas, demonstrating teacher achievements and promoting networks of teachers. The ELT resources exhibition will be open to all for the length of the conference.

Registration Forms and Speaker Proposal Forms are available here.

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English for life: Czech Republic conference

david — Tue, 20 May 2008 12:10:28 +0000

The Sixth International and Tenth National ATECR Conference

The 6th International and 10th National Conference will be held in České Budějovice from 12 to 14 September, 2008 and promises to be an absolute belter. It will be hosted by the Department of English of the Pedagogical Faculty of the University of South Bohemia. This highlight of the Czech conference season promises to offer a varied programme of talks, workshops, demonstrations, research-oriented presentations and poster sessions intended for teachers in primary, secondary and tertiary education.

The aim of this conference is to provide a forum for the sharing of experiences and ideas, demonstrating teacher achievements and promoting teacher networks . The ELT resources exhibition will be open to all for the length of the conference.

Registration Forms and Speaker Proposal Forms are available here.

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English Tactics in the Czech Republic

david — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 09:56:32 +0000

English Tactics in the Czech Republic

Imagine walking into a workshop on teaching tactics for English-language learners and being greeted by the keynote speaker in Japanese. This is what a group of primary-school teachers can look forward to next month during an all-day event being held at a Žižkov hotel. Not only does Steve Watts plan to greet attendees in Japanese, he intends to conduct the first part of his presentation entirely in the Asian language, the bugger. This might seems a little strange given the fact that Watts, a British national, is considered an expert in the field of English-language teaching methods. Watts doesn’t intend on leaving his audience in the dark for the whole afternoon; just long enough to remind teachers what it feels like to learn a second language.Reminding language teachers what it’s like to learn a language, eh…

Read the full article here.

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English Tactics in the Czech Republic

david — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 09:30:00 +0000

English Tactics in the Czech Republic

Reminding language teachers what it’s like to learn a language, eh…

Read the full article here.

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Changes to Regulations in the Czech Republic

david — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 11:05:00 +0000

Mikey12 has started up an interesting thread over on the Czech Republic forum, noting how changes in employment law and visas might affect teachers of English in the future:

The Czech Republic will officially be a member of Europe’s burgeoning Schengen zone by the start of next year, a move that could potentially put dozens of foreigners working here illegally in a major bind. Over the past two decades, teaching English as a foreign language has become a booming business, funneling hundreds of eager, young travelers into the country each year. The profession is one of the easiest ways to earn cash for those without a visa or work permit. But that may be about to change in 2008.

Visit the the Czech Republic forum to read the full article. Please feel free to sign up and leave comments!

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Czech Republic: Small town Czechs

david — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 08:06:00 +0000

This article by Greg Kerry can be found in full at the One Stop English online Magazine:

Most people considering teaching in the Czech Republic (or Czechia as some are trying to say these days) would start with a list of the largest towns and cities. However, nothing is very large in this small middle-European country – except perhaps its people’s thirst for good beer and tall tales. Prague would top the list obviously, then maybe Pilzen and perhaps the city that gave the World War II British army the Bren gun: Brno. Then what?

Then what is where I spent a very comfortable five years in all: a small town nestling among limestone hills, conveniently stuck midway between Prague and Pilzen, named Horovice (actually pronounced something like Horzhavitsa – the devil of the Czech language is the r with a little v above it, to be said like a combination of rolled r and zh; even Vaclav Havel had problems with it).

For various reasons I opted to take a risk working in a state school way out in the country rather than a private language institution – and never (well, hardly ever) regretted a moment of it. The biggest problem with such schools is their lack of funding. The salary pretty much matches what you would get anywhere in the country but the schools are also obligated to find you somewhere to live – which can be extremely difficult for them. I was housed in a kind of students’ hostel (much better than it sounds), in a large room round the back with minimal cooking facilities and my own entrance.

Once they reach 14 and finally finish primary school, Czech teenagers can choose from two types of secondary school. For weaker students, or those with a very specific interest, there are vocational institutions. For the academically stronger who have only a vague intention of going to university to study something, there are the gymnasiums.

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Learn more at the Teaching English in the Czech Republic website.
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Horovice had one of the latter and a couple of the former. I was first engaged to work in the Secondary Business and Engineering School. Business students turned out to be mostly girls who expected to be either secretaries or small-time accountants. Engineering students were almost entirely boys with no expectations at all. They were a good-humored lot though. The engineers were hard-drinking, heavy metal obsessed characters impressed with my knowledge of old rock music and motorcycles.

At the time, all Czech secondary schools worked to an American kind of grade system. Students were given regular tests, grades were averaged at the end of the year and too low a grade in more than one subject meant a whole year’s schooling had to be repeated.

After four years they were given a final exam. This was oral only and involved fifteen minutes speaking on each of their main subjects. Topics for the English exam were decided by me. The exam preparation was done solely by me. The testing was performed by… me, plus the next senior local English teacher who actually did her best to help struggling students get more than the minimal 4 needed to pass. It was a farce really. No one wanted the trouble of teaching bad students for an extra year. The Headmistress didn’t want bad exam records. No surprise then that graduation failures were all but unheard of. All but. Examples had to be made from time to time. Sorry Honza.

To start with, Horovice had two of us foreign English teachers, the other guy working in the gymnasium up the hill. After one year he left and, since no replacement could be found, the two schools decided to share me: a few lessons here, a few there. A varied time this. The gymnasium students were clearly different: better behaved, more hard-working, more culturally aware – yet sometimes not so rewarding to teach oddly. Still, a nice contrast.

This article by Greg Kerry can be found in full at the One Stop English online Magazine.
(http://www.onestopenglish.com/section.asp?theme=mag&catid=58256&docid=154313)

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