The end for red phone boxes in text books?
According to the Education Guardian, discerning students, influenced by economics, global terrorism and even the threat of avian flu, are choosing to study English in Australia, New Zealand and Malta, rather than the UK.
What’s more, fewer students overall are going abroad to study English, as the quality and availability of private schools and language education in state schools around the world continues to improve, and countries become more self-sufficient in providing English language education.
In fact, according to the report, non-native speaker English teachers now outnumber native speaker teachers globally.
As well as the cost of studying in the UK, another factor turning students away, according to the report, is the declining interest in British cultural references in teaching material. Is this the end for red phone boxes, London buses and fish and chips in our text books? What do you think? Post a comment below…
December 12th, 2006 at 5:27 pm
I think even though fewer students are going abroad to study English, there will always be those that want to immerse themselves in an English-speaking country. Being surrounded by the language every day and HAVING TO communicate in English is what will continue to attract students to the UK.
December 19th, 2006 at 8:20 am
I agree with Sarah. There’s no substitute for immersion in an English-speaking country. I have Spanish students who spend a year or two studying and make some progress, and then go to the UK for two weeks and learn more during that time than in the previous two years. But I think the article is arguing that although students may still want to be immersed, they may want to be imersed in other English speaking countries. I don’t know - I’m British so I’m biased, but I don’t think learning English in Malta would have quite the same appeal to my students…