ELT World News

India ‘Cascades’ Skills to Close Language Gap

India: Parents across India recognise the importance of English to their children’s futures but the state education system is struggling to keep up with this new demand, notes Guardian Weekly. Those charitable rogues at the British Council are helping to set up cascade training programmes that it is hoped will improve English language teaching skills rapidly and restore faith in the state system.

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Newspapers: A powerful tool in English Language Teaching

Sri Lanka: The fact cannot be denied that today English has evolved, from its beginning to be the lingua franca of all fields of work. The need of having a major focus on English education is therefore of paramount importance. Now English education has become the main thrust in our education system. Newspapers provide an excellent opportunity for teachers to develop learners’ interest in reading and cultivate the reading habit of their learners.

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Rwanda: WDA Begins English Lessons for Vocational Instructors

Rwanda: AllAfrica.com notes that forty-four vocational instructors from four districts are currently undergoing a training course in English for vocational instruction at the Rwanda Workforce Development Authority (WDA) headquarters in Remera, Kigali.

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Dubai: Move to Introduce English in Arabic Nurseries Hailed

UAE: Children at a young age are more linguistically inclined in comparison to the later stages in their life, notes the Khaleej Times. Parents thus believe that if English is taught in state-run and Arabic nurseries and schools it will make their children more proficient when they make their transition into the English education system.

Recent media reports stated that state-run nurseries will introduce English to children as young as four as part of the educational reforms by the UAE Ministry of Education. The initiative that will begin as a pilot study is being welcomed by parents who consider English language skills an important part of their child’s education. “This is the right age to mould a child. In nursery, my son was taught only in Arabic. At the age of four children start learning how to communicate and express themselves. Therefore any number of languages taught at this age will come to them easily,” said Mamoun Khalifa, adding that when the child gets older, languages are harder to teach.

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Philippines: Invigorating basic education

Philippines: Dr. Jose V. Abueva, a founding trustee of the Foundation for Worldwide People Power (FWWPP) and a member of the Presidential Task Force for Education, says that “both Filipino and English are used as language of instruction from the earliest years of schooling but these can become obstacles to learning if the children are unfamiliar with either, and the teachers are not proficient in them. Thus some teachers use the mother tongue persistently although unofficially.”

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Universities urged to improve English language skills for students

Vietnam: Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Education and Training Banh Tien Long has asked universities to help students improve their English so that they can use it confidently and competently by 2015. Mr Long said that to improve the quality of teaching and English language skills, universities should attach more importance to upgrading infrastructure and English teaching facilities. In addition, teachers should improve their teaching methods and their knowledge to encourage students to get involved in studying English.

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Scotland: English course for immigrants to be expanded

Scotland: An English language project, using major European investment to provide training and employment opportunities to 250 immigrant workers living in the Highlands and islands, is to be expanded to more towns for another year.

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Tierney on Fulbright-funded English language project in Panama

Panama & Delaware, US: Suzanne Tierney, an instructor in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at the University of Delaware, has received a Fulbright scholar grant for a yearlong English language project at Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá (UTP) in Panama City, Panama. The project, “Enhancing the Instruction of English,” includes assessing the current state of English language instruction at different levels in the Panamanian education system.

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Just the TKT in Thailand

Thailand: The TKT tests “the candidates’ knowledge of concepts related to language, language use and background to and practice of language teaching and learning”, suggests the Bangkok Post. It does not test the teachers’ practical skills that they would need to have in the classroom. It is a theory test. More than three years ago, the idea of TKT was being bantered around the education community with a certain amount of scepticism. Now, in Thailand, it seems it is here to stay.

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Getting started in World of Warcaft Accounts

For the ‘dilettante’ among you, World of Warcraft (also known by the acronym WoW) is a massively popular online multiplayer role-playing game, played by English teachers all around the World. In April of this year, it was estimated that WoW held more than 60% of the massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) market. Furthermore, with somewhere in excess of 11 million monthly subscribers, World of Warcraft is currently the world’s largest massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) and is the current holder of the Guinness World Record for the most popular game of its sort. So, where can you go to get acquainted with purchasable World of warcraft accounts? The Buy MMO Accounts.com website should be the first place you look.

Located in Canada, Buy MMO Warcraft Accounts website is an online company retailing World of Warcraft accounts. A major aspect of the appeal of WoW is that its players have invested not only time but also money into this game, because it requires an account before you can get started playing. This is where BuyMMOACCOUNTS.com becomes invaluable; you can be assured you are making payment to a legitimate company and not from a private seller for your very own pre-leveled, high-end secured Warcraft accounts.

So, how exactly do you benefit from buying warcraft accounts from the Buy MMO Accounts website? First of all, your purchased account comes with a 100% lifetime guarantee, meaning that it can never be reclaimed by a former owner or disabled by the makers of WoW, Blizzard Entertainment. Additionally, customer support is available to you24/7 via email, phone and even live chat support. The Warcraft accounts are also reasonably priced, and the website both easy to navigate and use, as payment via paypal is an option.

Learn more at the Buy MMO Warcraft accounts website…