TEFL blog

Carpentersville, a suburb of Chicago with 37,000 residents, voted this week to make English the only official language, despite the fact that 40% of the residents are Latino.

According to Trustee Judy Sigwalt, quoted in the Chicago Tribune, multiple languages are responsible for tearing her community – and country – apart.

Village President Bill Sarto, however, thinks that the measure will only succeed in painting Carpentersville as an unwelcoming community.

So who’s right? Should multilingual communities be encouraged or suppressed? Do they help to unite or divide? Have a look at the article and decide for yourself…

Two different views “from the field” today.

Firstly, have a look at T’s blog for her fascinating account of the highs and lows of volunteering as an English teacher and Development Instructor in Mozambique.

Secondly, a more lighthearted look at one blogger’s first teaching experience (in Switzerland) since securing a two-month TEFL certificate by correspondence.

Finally, and on a totally unrelated note, teaching English abroad has made it to the top of this list on CNN of the top five jobs that let you see the world. The others, incidentally, are Chef, Massage Therapist, Au Pair and Caterer.

That’s the view of the Simplified Spelling Society, who protested outside the National Spelling Bee in Washington D.C. This month.

The aim of the Society is to replace what they consider the nonsensical system of English spelling, which they see as being responsible for illiteracy and problems for kids at school, with a logical, phonetic system.

Steve Shives, however, disagrees with the idea, pointing to differences in pronunciation in different places. Who is to decide, he argues, the correct phonetic spelling of his home state, Maryland, which he has variously heard pronounced MARE-a-lund, MARE-lund and MARY-land. Is a British or an American pronunciation of “drawing”, or neither for that matter, the “correct” pronunciation. He also points to the embodiment of language and cultural history in the spelling of many words.

The solution, Steve suggests, is not to simplify spelling and “rob the language of its historical and cultural heritage”, despite the Simplified Spelling Society’s argument that this could free educators from spending large amounts of class time teaching spelling (and, incidentally, make competitions such as the National Spelling Bee redundant).

Steve instead sees a solution in spending more time on the essential skills of reading, writing and spelling: “Children…should be taught [these skills] …not as a chore, not as work, but as necessary and wonderful skills that will serve them the rest of their lives.”

What do you think?

First of all, our apologies to all our readers for the long absence. But the TEFL blog is back…

The phrase “you know” is the 57^th most frequently used word or phrase in English. In fact, 60% of all use of the word “know” is in this phrase. That’s according to Professor Ronald Carter of Nottingham University, speaking at a session of the 5^th Asia TEFL Conference, which took place last week in Malaysia.

Another talk to make an impact, reports the Malaysia Star Online, was “Learning English with a Mobile Phone”. Dr Timothy Collins said that “a mobile phone can support many kinds of learning… where learners can see, hear and touch as they press buttons to express their understanding”.

Do you agree with Dr Collins? Or do you see mobile phones as a menace to English language classrooms, with teenage students spending whole lessons texting their friends under the table?

If you attended the 5^th Asia TEFL Conference this year, tell us what you thought. Next year’s conference will be in August in Bali, Indonesia, with the theme “Globalising Asia: The Role of ELT”.

Idaho has become the 29th US state to adopt English as its official language. 13 more states have legislation pending to do the same.

But isn’t English the official language everywhere in the US, I hear you ask? Have a look at this post to find out.

In this post in January we debated whether there is a place in writing today for abbreviated English of the type found in emails, text messages and chat rooms, or whether this is just a menace to ESL students and teachers.

Well, according to the Jamaica Observer, this type of English is becoming a problem in Jamaican schools, as it creeps into students’ essay writing. One teacher, quoted in the article, blames the problem on a lack of reading: “If you ask students to read a novel, the first thing they ask is ‘how many pages, Miss? Is it long?’ Everything is about instant gratification.”

What do you think? Would students use less chat room slang at school if they read more and watched less TV? Have a look at the article and post a comment below…

Here are some more conference dates for your diary:

April 18-22, IATEFL Annual Conference and Exhibition
The IATEFL Conference attracts 1500 ELT professionals from over 70 countries, and includes a programme of over 300 talks, workshops and symposiums. This year’s conference is being held in the Scottish city of Aberdeen.

June 8-10, Asia TEFL International Conference
Billed as the “biggest and most widely participated English Language Teaching Event in Asia”, the Asia TEFL International Conference is this year being held in Malaysia.

October 27-28, Korea TESOL International Conference
The theme of the 15th Korea TESOL Conference is “Energizing ELT: Challenging Ourselves, Motivating Our Students”, and is being held at Sookmyung Women’s University in Seoul.

The teaching of core subjects such as Maths and Science in English in Vietnam’s primary schools is causing some concern for education experts and members of the public, according to this article.

The concern is the effect it will have on the Vietnamese language. One primary school teacher is quoted as saying “Currently, many young people cannot write a grammatically-correct sentence in Vietnamese… there should be careful consideration when deciding on what language to teach subjects at schools”.

Nguyen Gia Phong, an expert with the Education Science Institute is also concerned that teaching core subjects in English may spread to higher education, which could accelerate the Vietnamese language’s deterioration.

The importance of teaching foreign languages in Vietnam is not underestimated, but, as another primary school teacher points out, “the teaching of foreign languages, and using foreign languages to teach other subjects in the official curriculum, are two entirely different things.”

What do you think about this issue? Post your comments below…

Best Practices in English Language Teaching is the theme of this year’s TESOL Arabia Conference, which gets underway tomorrow in Dubai. The conference features 250 speakers and over 200 sessions, including “Students’ Attention Span- Where Has It Gone?”, “The Learner as “Customer”, What’s to Know?” and “A Bag of Tricks for Vocabulary Teaching”.

Have a look at the TESOL Arabia website for more.

Japan is the focus of today’s post. First, an article from the Japan Times discusses the pros and cons of working for large and small schools in Japan, with the article Bigger is not always better for Japan’s English teachers.

Salaries, the article points out, do not differ that much between large and small schools, but there are some other points worth considering.

According to the article, job and income security are higher in larger schools and chains such as Nova, ECC and GEOS. If a branch of a large chain closes down for financial reasons, teachers can be transferred to another branch - not so in smaller, family-run schools.

On the other hand, teachers may be more likely to face contractual problems with larger schools. According to Louis Carlet, deputy general secretary of the National Union of General Workers, quoted in the article, larger schools are “particularly adept at writing contracts which protect themselves”.

Teachers may also feel that they are working for a faceless company, rather than experiencing the family atmosphere of a smaller school. But this can have its downside too, with more pressure on teachers: “If a tiny cog in a huge machine breaks down it’s unlikely the whole thing will come to a shuddering halt. That’s not the case when the teacher is the machine.”

If you’ve had experience working for a small school or a large chain in Japan, or both, have a look at the full article and post a comment below - do you agree with the points raised?

The second article asks Why do the Japanese struggle with English?

The author, Steve Kaufmann, writes that most Japanese people he meets in business struggle with their English, compared to, say, Swedes. One of the main reasons for this, he says, is the “language or cultural ego”, the belief that Japanese language and culture is so unique that to become fluent in another language would cause a learner to lose that uniqueness. In part 2 of the article, the author points to other factors, including the differences in sentence structure, vocabulary and pronunciation, the Kana writing system and less exposure to English-speaking culture.

Do you agree with Steve? Post a comment below…