ELT World News

Many, ahem, ‘experts’ say that TOEIC (Test of English International Communication) will not be suitable to Vietnam, warning that the application of TOEIC on a large scale in Vietnam will repeat the bitter lessons of the A-B-C certificate-based English teaching movement several years ago. Sure that advice will be followed, then.

Look where you’re going for God’s sake

Mrs Whiston, co-managing director and chairman of Lorna Whiston Schools, has come a long way since setting up the school in 1980.The Lorna Whiston English as an Acquired Language (EAL) School received a Singapore Education Award for Best Enrichment Programme. The EAL school was formed in 2005 for foreign students who do not speak English as their first language and are seeking to get into schools here. Since it started, it has seen over 200students pass through its doors. For Mrs Whiston, the school was formed simply because there was a need for it. It was the same reason she had set up her first study centre 28 years ago. Good old Mrs Whiston, eh.

The happy sound of children in primary schools around Queenstown these days is beginning to resemble more of a United Nations assembly than a school one. About 30 percent of pupils at Queenstown’s 160-pupil St Joseph’s School do not speak English as their first language and at nearby Queenstown Primary School that figure is 77 out of 598 pupils.St Joseph’s School principal Phil O’Connell-Cooper said it was an increasing challenge to find the resources to help some of these children, who could arrive at the school speaking no English or a moderate amount. Welcome to the 21st century.

Taiwan has been awash with ‘English fever’, apparently. Sounds a bit painful if you ask me. Learning English as a foreign language (EFL) has been a national craze for years. Parents want their children to learn English as early as possible — preferably before elementary school — as evidenced by the ubiquity of language schools. More than 30 percent of all elementary school students study English at some form of language school.This phenomenon is largely based on the ‘assumption’ that kids naturally pick up languages more effortlessly than adults do. Although having children start to learn English at an early age seems to be the sole means of enhancing the nation’s English proficiency, many English teachers might still feel that younger learners do not necessarily perform better than others. Research has also shown no significant difference between the two groups in terms of final ability. I’m losing the will to live…