TEFL blog

Our site review this week is Ask About English, where ESL students can ask questions about English language or British culture and see their answers posted online by Matt Ford.

Recent questions which Matt has answered include “Let me know the meanings of To kick up a row and its use” and “What’s the difference between as far as and as long as”.

The site also has extensive sections about British culture and humour, with information about everything from pubs to football, chips to the Royal Family, as well as some classic Monty Python sketches…

There are also speaking tips, phrases of the day and info about accents and dialects, including some cockney rhyming slang.

As well as providing some useful and informative ESL answers, this is a very useful resource for students – and teachers – interested in all things British.

A couple of interesting articles for you today.

Here’s one about teaching ESL in Colombia, where teaching English is a government priority, resulting in many job opportunities, according to the author. If you like this, you might also be interested in Larry Lynch’s article, Teach English in Colombia: Grappling with Grammar, Gold, Guns, and Guayaba

The second is a take on the current situation in Thailand, where the bureaucratic confusion over permits and qualifications for English teachers could, according to one source quoted in the article, lead to “fewer and fewer foreign teachers in Thailand”.

Should Asian women be required to speak English before being granted a UK visa?

Jack Straw thinks so. He is calling for a debate on the issue, focusing the discussion on Asian women because many stay at home and so do not get the chance to learn English in the workplace. Straw’s suggestion comes not long after government plans to restrict free English classes to the unemployed and those on income support.

This led Anjum Anwar, leader of the Lancashire Council of Mosques, to say “Of course Jack wants everyone to learn English but the government is about to demolish funding for ESOL classes. It’s all very well demanding something from the public but not supporting them”.

What do you think about this issue? Have a look at the article and post a comment below…

In December we posted about a job opportunity at the University of Kurdistan Hawler in Iraq. The vacancy met with mixed reactions about the security issues involved in teaching in Iraq, despite the university being in the relatively safe north.

Well, further teaching opportunities will soon become available as a new American University is planned in the Kurdish-controlled region, on the outskirts of the city of Suleimaniah. The university aims to specialise in IT and engineering, but, according to this article from the Kurdistan Regional Government website, will open with “a small intake for intensive foundation English courses.”

There is a shortage of teachers in the region, at both school and university level, despite the scholarships now being offered by the Education Ministry to teachers arriving from Baghdad. According to the Minister for Primary and Secondary Education, quoted in the article, 10 teachers arrive every day, seeking refuge from Baghdad. The problem is that they cannot use these teachers because they cannot teach in the Kurdish language.

Is it time to look beyond “specific designer” teaching methods to a more eclectic approach? The Language Works Online thinks so, arguing for language teaching to be an “adaptive process rather than the application of an ideal method or approach”.

The “post-communicative” approach calls for variety, in the extent to which students engage in their learning process, in the way lessons are delivered, and in the choice of teaching materials.

Have a look at the article (ed: link no longer working) and tell us what you think…

TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages Inc.) is planning its 41st annual convention in Seattle, Washington, from March 21-24, 2007.

The theme of this year’s convention is “Spanning the Globe: Tides of Change”.

To register or for more information, visit the TESOL convention website.

Ten Americans have left Belarus after allegedly “singing religious songs and reading spiritual literature” in what was supposed to be an English conversation class. The volunteers had arrived in the country in early February to work for a humanitarian aid organisation. They were given $14 fines for teaching without a license and violating the country’s laws which forbid the promotion of religion by an NGO, according to eCanada Now…

The Brazzil Mag is reporting that the poor English skills of Brazilian air traffic controllers were to blame for the country’s worst ever air accident in September 2006, in which 154 people died.

According to the former head of the Brazilian Air Traffic Controllers Association, Ulisses Fontenele, quoted in the article, less than 10% of Brazilian controllers speak fluent English, and those that do learnt “on their own initiative”. He says that controllers have only a 6 month basic English course as part of their training, and only “typical and basic flight control phrases for when everything is normal in the air.”

Whether or not this helped cause the crash in this case, it does highlight the responsibilities that organisations have when their employees are charged with the safety of other people. Should there be stricter controls over English language requirements? Have a look at the article (the comments at the bottom make for interesting reading too) and tell us what you think…

If you have made a customer service call in the last few years from the UK or the US, your call may have been answered in one of the many call centres in Indian cities such as Bangalore and Mumbai, which handle customer service enquiries for a large number of UK and US companies.

Bangalore has gained a reputation as the “world’s back office”, an “information-technology outsourcing champion”, says the Toronto Star. But it is a reputation which could be in jeopardy if state government plans to close schools which continue to teach in English, rather than the local language Kannada, go ahead.

You only have to look at the changing names of Indian cities (Calcutta to Kolkata, Bombay to Mumbai) to see the success of movements to promote indigenous languages and shake off colonial-era legacies. But the move to change the language of education in Karnataka state (of which Bangalore is the capital) has sparked criticism from educators, parents and, of course business leaders who say that Bangalore could”lose its competitive edge if it shuns one of its greatest assets”.

What do you think? Is English indispensable for India to continue its economic rise? Or should the trend to promote indigenous languages over English continue? Post a comment below…

We posted a while ago about the £110 million that the British government spends on translation services for immigrants every year.

Well, it seems that the argument that this money could be better spent on English lessons is winning, as the government is proposing to cut benefits to claimants who do not take English lessons.

This is an important step by the government in recognising that English language skills are important both for work and for social integration. Brendan Barber, writing in the Guardian Online, however, highlights the other side of the coin, a catch-22 where many low-paid immigrants will suffer simply because ESOL classes are not available for them to take in the first place.

What do you think about this paradox? Have a look at the article and post a comment below…