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US: Researchers advise race to top applicants on ELLs while ‘Common Core State Standards Initiative’ takes effect

david — Sun, 23 May 2010 14:03:49 +0000

States need to give test developers explicit instructions on how to avoid unnecessary linguistic complexity when designing content tests, reports Education Week. They need to provide detailed guidelines to school districts on how to select and use testing accommodations for students. Those are two of the recommendations in a new research brief on how to include ELLs appropriately in academic content assessments.

Brunei: Poor Malay not due to the bilingual education policy

david — Sat, 22 May 2010 13:58:39 +0000

The Deputy Minister of Religious Affairs yesterday defended Brunei’s bilingual education system which uses English language in majority of school subjects, saying that it has been operating well and past generations have succeeded due to their good command of English.

According to Brudirect, Pehin Udana Khatib Dato Paduka Seri Setia Ustaz Hj Badaruddin Pengarah Dato Paduka Hj Othman said that the bilingual education system should not be blamed for poor Malay proficiency, but authorities should take proper steps to improve students’ Malay language instead.

Read the full story here.

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Educators to keep an eye on Ning’s move to ‘pay’ model

david — Tue, 11 May 2010 04:12:55 +0000

Ning, the popular social networking site that educators have been using to trade information on boosting their skills and to interact in a closed environment with students, has announced a new overall pricing structure for its services. The company announced that their new Mini Networks will each cost $2.95 a month to maintain, or $19.95 a year.

Read the full story here.

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South Asia: English in Action Across Bangladesh

david — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 11:01:05 +0000

English in Action is a nine-year-old programme that helps 25 million people in Bangladesh improve their ability to use English language for social and economic purposes. This project creates resources for the classroom and for teacher professional development using mobile technologies, which are then deployed by primary and secondary school teachers.

Currently, however, there is a critical shortage of English language skills, both throughout Bangladeshi society and within the teaching profession.

United States: Teaching science to ELLs

david — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 10:04:35 +0000

The United States, notes the NSTA, has long been called a melting pot, a place where diverse people mixing and mingling. Learning the dominant language is a challenging part of the process, particularly when a student is trying to learn a new language and expand their content knowledge.

Read the full story here.

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Japan: Why do English teachers have to be native speakers?

david — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 09:09:42 +0000

In Japan, non-native English-language instructors from South Asian countries are challenging cultural stereotypes and putting a new face on the industry, exclaims the Japan Times. It hasn’t been any easy task, but is this a good thing?

Read the full story if you dare…

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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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English language learners making gains in the US

david — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 15:54:14 +0000

An associated press story notes that schoolchildren who are still learning English have made progress in state tests over the last three years, according to a report that may indicate tougher accountability standards have resulted in positive gains among a growing segment of the U.S. public school population.

Read the full story here.

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Debunking myths on US immigrant education

david — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 08:50:09 +0000

United States: Skirmishes over immigration often take place in the schoolyard, exclaims Rosemary Salomone in the Washington Post. Those opposed to immigration claim that bilingual school programs impair a child’s academic success and that school children who retain their foreign language are threatening the future of English in America.

New ‘lip’ research sheds light on foreign language learning

david — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 08:43:57 +0000

United States: Lip movements may play a key role in the learning of second language speech sounds, while hand gestures may not be beneficial, suggest two Colgate University professors:

For Japanese learners of English, there is difficulty producing distinct “r” and “l” sounds, as in “rake” and “lake.” In fact, these learners cannot even hear that these two words are different.

In turn, English speakers, to great comic effect, often mistake the short vowel sound in the Japanese word “shujin” [my husband] with the long vowel sound in “shuujin” [prisoner]. Native English speakers can confuse these two words and others because unlike Japanese, length of a vowel does not change a word’s meaning in English.

Read the full story here.

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