ELT World » Europe

Georgia: Saakashvili speaks of the ‘Linguistic Computer Revolution’

david — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 18:58:45 +0000

Georgian President Saakashvili said that English language classes would become compulsory from the first grade in schools, and that every first-grade schoolchild would be given an XO mini-laptop from next year as part of the “linguistic and computer revolution” plan.

Georgian website Civil notes that the president, speaking at a televised meeting of government in Kutaisi on April 6th, said the current practice of starting teaching children English language in schools from fifth and sixth grade was an ‘anachronism’.

Read more.

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Ireland and Saudi Arabia: Saudi language school plan sparks ‘ghetto’ row

david — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:25:53 +0000

Rock that shit homies. A plan to house 750 Saudi students on a live-in English language school outside Dublin has raised concerns in government departments, notes the Irish Independent. Government sources have expressed concern that it conflicts with integration policy and could lead to ghettoisation.

Read the full story here.

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The ‘clown prince’ of junk food to teach English to young Swedes

david — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 11:30:13 +0000

It’s headlines like this that make you feel like you’re fighting a losing battle. English-language worksheets featuring bloody Ronald McDonald, extolling the virtues of fast food, is being used by some Swedish schools, ‘to the chagrin of educators, outraging some parents, and apparently ‘unbeknownst’ to the company‘ according to newspaper Svenska Dagsbladet.

The paper, as reported by the digital journal, has reported that several schools have been using these worksheets as homework assignments. The concerns are not so much about the brief history of McDonald’s in Britain, rather that it addresses health concerns by suggesting students can take a side order of carrots instead of French fries with their Big Mac.

That’s right, folks. People are complaining about McDonald’s trying to get kids to eat vegetablez.

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United Kingdom: Mind your slanguage!

david — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:18:39 +0000

Cor blimey, guvnor:

“Young people are growing up with a new form of composite language. It’s a bit cockney, a bit West Indian, a bit West African, with some Bangladeshi and Kuwaiti – and it seems to be replacing traditional cockney.”

This is the flabbergasted view of Paul Kerswill, professor of sociolinguistics at Lancaster University, who has been studying street language in London. He claims an entirely new dialect is emerging.

Here are some examples of neo-cockney:

Nang/nanging – excellent
Hard, greezy - excellent
Allow it - let it go, stop
What’s good – hello
I’m ghost – goodbye
Chung, peng – attractive
Long – boring
Bare – lots of, very
Sik – cool
Moist or dry – awful, terrible

Read more about this debacle here, innit.

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Germany: Non-traditional names linked to teacher ‘discrimination’

david — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:51:55 +0000

Halten sie kinder. Wie heissen sie? Apologies for my crap German, but if the answer is Charlotte or Chantal, you could be in trouble. From the moment they first read the school register, exclaims The Local (Germany’s news – in English!) teachers could already be unfairly prejudiced against certain children, a new study from the University of Oldenberg revealed this week.

Read the full story here.

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Hungary: Government to remove support for bilingual education

david — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 09:02:11 +0000

Hungary: In the kind of news that, to use a Turkish phrase, makes you want to eat your head, support for bilingual education in Hungary will be discontinued next year under the current draft budget, despite schools saying this would pull the rug from under students,

A recent Daily Nepszabadsag aticle noted that the head of the governing Socialist party’s education working team, Andras Toth Tatai, told the paper that bilingual education is ‘not a basic education task. Bilingual education is not planned to be discontinued but financing needs to be resolved from alternative sources, such as local councils or parents,’ he declared. What joy.

Read the full story here.

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The ‘ELTons’ Award making its debut in the Middle East

david — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 07:10:55 +0000

Middle East & United Kingdom: Aspiring creative writers in the Middle East are being given the opportunity to make their first break into the English language publishing industry (the poor Buggers don’t know what they’re getting in to) through a new award: the British Council’s ‘prestigious’ ELTons Awards.

The ELTons, inconceivably now in their eighth year, are a celebration of excellence in English Language Teaching, apparently recognising significant and innovative advances in the theory of ELT learning, teaching and research. This new ELTons award category joins the long-established group of British Council Innovation Awards. You can tell how excited I am, can’t you?

Russia: Kicked out of school?

david — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:03:56 +0000

Moscow’s City Duma has suggested an amendment to a new law that would require all teachers to apply for work permits… in addition to the work visas which currently allow them to teach here. Also, according to the amendment’s author, Tatyana Potyayeva, the deputy head of the City Duma’s Science and Education committee, the move is necessary after some foreign teachers were responsible for “inciting ethnic and religious strife” in educational centres.

In practical terms, notes NM Weekly, the proposal means that schools and colleges have to spend up to three months processing the paperwork for new recruits, compared with about one month at present. English language schools, which have enjoyed years of growth, often recruit staff with either the Cambridge Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA) or the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) certificate, which might now become insufficient for would-be teachers in Russia.

Read the full story…

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United Kingdom: Hounslow Council language service struck ‘dumb’ by job threat

david — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 15:08:22 +0000

United Kingdom: The jobs of up to 80 staff at Hounslow Language Service are under threat after councillors agreed they should withdraw almost 20% of its funding.

YourLocalGuardian notes that the service – which provides specialist support for over 7,000 schoolchildren from ethnic minorities in developing their English – has 105 teaching and management staff, of which 86 are qualified teachers and 19 are language assistants employed by the council.

Read on…

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Spain: 25 Murcia schools to become bilingual next school year

david — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:57:01 +0000

Pupils at 25 infant and primary schools throughout Murcia will be offered the chance of bilingual education in the next academic year under a programme which will offer a third of the schools’ classes in English, notes the Typically Spanish website.

This regional government programme will benefit more than one thousand children, and begins, in a first phase, with the first year of primary education, to be extended gradually to all other years at the schools involved.