Teachers blame social networking websites for low grades, poor concentration

November 18, 2010—Teachers believe social networking sites are to blame for pupil's poor grades, a study has revealed.

According to the report, children who spend much of their time online find it harder to concentrate in class, are permanently distracted and have shorter attention spans.
Teachers also put the dip in the quality of childrens’ homework down to their willingness to spend their evenings on Facebook and Twitter instead of studying.

A study has revealed that teachers believe social networking sites are to blame for pupil’s poor grades. And many are unhappy at the increase in the number of children who are using text-speak or social networking chat—such as “2mor,” “msg,” “lol” and “bk”—in place of English grammar.

The worrying stats emerged in a study of 500 teachers conducted by leading school trips provider JCA, which motivates personal and social development outside the classroom. A spokeswoman for JCA Janie Burt said: “This research clearly demonstrates that students up and down the country are spending more and more time using social media.”

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Textbooks face obsolescence due to rising computer use in classrooms

NOVEMBER 12, 2010—Nearly seven in 10 teachers claim that having state-of-the art IT equipment in classrooms is more important than investing in traditional textbooks.

A study also found that more than half of teachers believe pupils are “seriously disadvantaged” if they do not have access to the Internet at home. Thirty per cent of those polled predicted that textbooks will become obsolete in the future due to the rising use of gadgets in classrooms.

The findings, in a joint survey by the e-Learning Foundation charity and the Times Educational Supplement, follow moves by the Department for Education to slash support for IT in schools.

Michael Gove, the education secretary, has twice raided schools’ IT budgets since taking office, plundering £100 million from a grant to local authorities to pay for new computers and broadband schemes.

Valerie Thompson, chief executive of the E-Learning Foundation, said: “If we are serious about improving the life chances of the most disadvantaged, we have to tackle the digital divide, otherwise the poorest children will be left even further behind.”

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Celebrity bemoans poor use of English language
By Roya Nikkhah, Telegraph.co.uk

November 14, 2010—Penelope Keith, the star of The Good Life, has expressed her exasperation about the poor use of the English language in modern Britain.

The actress believes our lives are diminished by poor elocution and grammar; real conversation has been replaced by text messages and social networking websites; and television pampers to our thirst for public humiliation.

Keith—who became a household name in the 1970s sitcom playing Margot Leadbetter, the suburban social climber with the plummy accent—worries that, with the decline of “old-fashioned” things such as grammar and elocution, good manners are disappearing, too.

The misunderstanding of everyday words, the creeping Americanisation of our “wonderful” language, which she says has now affected the once-impervious BBC, and the popularity of social networking websites such as Twitter has, she concludes, contributed to the growing “misuse” of English.

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Evolving English: One language, many voices illuminate British Library
By Ben Miller, Culture24.org

November 16, 2010—Above the British Library’s central exhibition space, words and phrases including “sex up,” “chav,” and “wags” glow in the darkness.

Part of a chronological list of new additions to the English language from the beginning of the 20th century onwards, they end with “vuvuzela,” the blaring plastic horn used to drown out the World Cup in South Africa earlier this year.

Below, there’s a fire-ravaged, 1,000-year-old version of Anglo-Saxon war poem “Beowulf,” maps of the first English settlements in the world, early 18th century newspapers reporting the lottery results, and first editions of the works of Shakespeare.

The vast majority of the items are taken from the institution’s vaults, but it’s the interpretation given to them which brings the show to life.

Exploring the pros and cons of text messaging within minutes of examining the script of Richard III can feel disconcerting, but it’s also tremendous fun in a diverse display of staggeringly impressive exhibits.

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Companies going all-out in English
By Keisuke Okada, The Japan Times

Enhancing employee English-language skills has become a high-priority management challenge for Japanese corporations, regardless of their size and industry.

This is especially true for companies whose survival hinges on developing new customers or clients in foreign markets. They are focusing in particular on fast-growing Asian economies, where English is becoming the common means of communication.

“We can no longer depend solely on domestic demand, which continues to shrink, reflecting the eroding competitiveness of the Japanese manufacturing sector,” said Keiji Nosaka, a senior executive of Nosaka Denki Co., a small metal plating factory in Ota Ward, Tokyo. “To stay afloat, we are looking for new customers in Southeast Asia.”

Nosaka’s firm specializes in the production and installation of highly advanced plating and surface-treatment equipment. For many years, the domestic market made up the vast bulk of its sales. Only occasionally were its machines exported for installation at Japanese client plants in Southeast Asia.

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Use of English stirs fear of job loss for Japanese

TOKYO, November 21, 2010—In the cafeteria at the headquarters of Japan’s top online retailer Rakuten, employees with furrowed brows can often be seen trying to comprehend the company’s strictly English language menus.

The online giant is swapping Japanese for English as its official language company-wide in preparation for an overseas expansion, a move “crucial for us to survive in this competitive industry,” said spokesman Hirotoshi Kato.

It is not the only Japanese firm to eschew its native tongue as it searches for overseas growth beyond a moribund, shrinking domestic market.

As the population shrinks and a stronger yen boosts companies’ power for overseas acquisitions, the need for better international communication is growing in Japan as firms pin their survival on emerging markets.

Fast Retailing, which operates the cheap-chic Uniqlo brand, also plans to evolve into a more global company, looking to increase its overseas sales ratio to more than 50 per cent in five years from about 10 per cent now.

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Boston schools to expand vacation classes to hone English, math skills

November 23, 2010—Boston Public Schools will increase efforts to bolster student proficiency in English and math next year by adding six schools to a program that teaches extra classes over February and April vacations.

In 2011, the number of schools participating in the Acceleration Academies program will increase from nine to 15, Matthew Wilder, school district spokesman, said today.

Last February, week-long workshops matched about 100 teachers with more than 1,200 students from grades three through eight, focusing on English Language Arts. In April, the students received math instruction, according to the school district.

In a statement today, the district said the program has already seen positive results, boasting a 20 point gain in Student Growth Percentile in English and a 17 point gain in math among participating students. SGP measures students' improvement by comparing their MCAS results from one year to the next.

“These results prove that for our most vulnerable students, additional time with a great teacher can make a huge difference,” Superintendent Carol Johnson said in the statement.

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Court: Defendants with limited English have right to interpreter
 
ATLANTA, November 22, 2010 (CNN)—Defendants with limited English-language skills have a constitutional right to court interpreters in criminal trials, the Supreme Court of Georgia ruled Monday.

The ruling came in a case involving a Mandarin Chinese speaker who was sentenced to 10 years in prison on two counts of cruelty to a child. Annie Ling, who had limited English language skills, did not understand that she had the option to plead guilty instead of going to trial and possibly facing a longer sentence, said the American Civil Liberties Union, one of two groups that filed a friend-of-the-court brief stating that denying a defendant an interpreter violates the U.S. Constitution and civil rights laws.

“The court acknowledged that we don’t have two systems of justice in this country—one  for English speakers and another for everyone else,” said Azadeh Shahshahani, director of the National Security/Immigrants’ Rights Project at the ACLU of Georgia. “The constitutional guarantee of due process applies to everyone in this country, not just fluent English speakers.”

Ling was arrested and charged with two counts of cruelty to a child. Her children were removed from the home and placed in foster care, according to court documents. After a 2008 trial, Ling was convicted of one count of cruelty to a child, and sentenced to 15 years, with 10 to serve in prison. The conviction was appealed to the Georgia Supreme Court.

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Binding ties
By Derrick Vinesh, TheStar.com.my

November 21, 2010—One day, as singer Justin Bieber drove around town in his Ferrari, he picked up his mobile phone and asked his girlfriend out on a romantic date.

After she agreed, he picked her up from her house. She seemed very happy, as it was their first date.

They went to a restaurant and had pizza. They had huge appetites, so they ate many slices of pizza.

Suddenly, “Boom!” and Justin turned into a cute pink rabbit, while his girlfriend turned into a tortoise.

“So, what is the moral of the story? Do not eat too much pizza?” asked Star-NiE (Newspaper-in-Education) trainer Lynn D’Cruz, to laughter from students gathered in the Abdullah Badawi Hall at Bukit Mertajam High School, Penang.

D’Cruz was reading out an essay that was jointly written by a few Form Three students from the school together with visiting students from the Dechapattanayanukul High School in Pattani, Thailand, who took part in a special Star-NiE workshop in the school recently.

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An innovative path to English language fluency
By James Enright, ThePost.IE

November 21, 2010—As an English teacher with more than 20 years’ experience, John Ryan identified what he saw as flaws in the methods used to teach his favourite subject.

His business partner, Darren Orr, agreed, and the pair set about devising a new method which focused on teaching both the written word and the idiomatics of the language.

“English teaching hasn’t really developed in the last ten years. Teachers are reliant on the same old materials. We believe that there is a better way to teach the English language to non-native speakers,” said Ryan.

Located on Dublin’s Lower Abbey Street, it is an innovative language school which preaches that there are two sides of the English language.

“Firstly, there is the formal side of the language, which is basically the Latin side," said Ryan. “This is the language of the broadsheets, books and writing in general. The other side is informal - the language we see in the tabloids, pubs and on the street. We have devised a fun and interesting method of teaching English. While the classes are intense, the idea is that students will learn quicker if they are challenged to speak in class.”

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With English made mandatory, more English teachers are needed
               
November 22, 2010—Slovakia’s governing coalition says it wants to better prepare Slovak kids for their future jobs by making English a mandatory subject, as it promised before the parliamentary election in June. While some parents and teachers welcome this initiative, others say this resembles past times when learning another language, Russian, was obligatory – forcing young students to learn what was called the language of Slovakia’s ‘eternal’ friend. Others are raising a more pragmatic question – will there be enough quality English language teachers?

In mid-October, parliament advanced the legislative proposal requiring mandatory English language classes to its next legislative step. If adopted, students will begin attending English classes starting from the third grade level in September 2011.
“World trends unambiguously show that the English language has been becoming the compulsory language learned in an increasing number of countries,” said Education Minister Eugen Jurzyca, as quoted by the SITA newswire in September.

“Lacking knowledge of English prevents Slovaks from establishing themselves in the labour market not only abroad but also in Slovakia. Abroad, graduates of our universities often must accept less-paid, unqualified jobs and in Slovakia the lack of English knowledge prevents them from climbing into higher managerial positions,” he said.

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50,000 teachers undergo English language training

November 23, 2010—Over 50,000 teachers from Primary and Secondary schools around the country yesterday started a five-week English language training course.

The official launch of the programme, presided over by Dr. Mathias Harebamungu, the State Minister in charge of Primary and Secondary Education, was held at College APAPE in Gikondo, Kicukiro District, where part of about 1, 300 teachers from the district converged.

The training, supported by the British Council and United States Agency for International Development (USAID), is the second of its kind, and aims at equipping teachers with communication skills.

A total of 1,022 facilitators, 500 from neighbouring countries, were hired to conduct the training.

Harebamungu observed that about 84 percent of the teachers turned up for the training on the first day, but warned that those who will not attend the training risk losing their jobs.

“We will not tolerate such teachers and all departments we work with were informed on this issue. We cannot continue working with teachers who fail to attend such an essential training which the government has spent huge sums of money,” Harebamungu warned.

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Call centers alone can’t advance the Philippine economy, says ADB
By Likha Cuevas-Miel, The Manila Times

November 17, 2010—Despite the employment and the dollars that business process outsourcing (BPO) generates, the sector may not be the answer to the country’s need to advance its economy, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said.

In a recent policy note, the Manila-based lender said that the BPO sector is helpful in boosting the service-led growth by employing a big number of Filipinos and spurring domestic consumption.

“However, it is not realistic to believe that the BPO industry can allow the economy to leapfrog the process of industrialization,” ADB added.

One reason was that the service-led growth in the Philippines did not create enough jobs for the country’s labor force, which is estimated to increase by over 14 million in the next two decades.

Despite the mushrooming of BPO call centers nationwide, the sector was only able to employ 1 percent of the total labor force and will only be able to recruit another 1 percent in the next few years.

ADB said that the impact of BPO’s job generation is limited given that only one-fourth of the total labor force is utilized, and that majority of jobless workers are unskilled and equipped with only primary or secondary education.

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New programs in 5 courses disallowed by Higher Education Commission

MANILA, November 12, 2010—Public and private universities and colleges will not be allowed to offer new programs in five fields of study starting next year under the moratorium ordered by the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) on new course offerings because of the decline in the quality of graduates in those fields.

Under CHEd’s Memorandum Order 32, no new undergraduate and graduate programs will be allowed in these more popular college courses: business administration, nursing, teacher education, hotel and restaurant management, and information technology. The moratorium applies only to schools planning on opening courses in the affected programs, and will not affect those that currently offer these courses.

“There is already a proliferation of higher education institutions offering undergraduate and graduate programs [in these fields] which, if allowed to continue unabated, would result in the deterioration of the quality of graduates of these five higher education programs,” CHEd Chair Patricia Licuanan said in the order that she signed last Sept. 30.

Licuanan said tertiary institutions that were able to submit their applications for new courses under these programs by June 30, or before the moratorium was issued, would still have their papers processed. Applications under appeal as of Sept. 30 will also still be processed.

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BPO industry to benefit from Education Department’s K+12 program

MANILA, November 3 (PNA)—The business process outsourcing (BPOs) industry will directly benefit once the planned Kindergarten Plus 12 (K+12) program of the Department of Education (DepEd) will be implemented.

“We’ll improve the quality of supply in the BPOs or the call center industry," Alfredo Ayala, president of the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP), said.

“We fully support the 12-year (K+12) initiative,” Ayala added, stressing that “the world has recognized the supply of talented professionals” and that there is a need of larger supply and the industry can draw from the graduates who undergone the 12–year high school.

He stressed that at present, the BPO industry is having a hard time hiring applicants for call center agents due to inadequate communication skills. This, he said, is attributable to the applicants’ lack of educational training.  

With the adoption of the K+12, Ayala noted that while addressing the problem on age limit, the new system will give a better chance to the graduates of K+12 to land a job in the call centers.

Earlier, the BPAP, together with other representatives from other business sector, signed a memorandum of agreement with DepEd supporting the K+12 program, which will increase the basic education curriculum from 10 to 12 years. The K+12 is expected to be fully implemented on 2012.

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Education Department vows to improve textbook quality

PASIG CITY, November 6, 2010—In an effort to personally reach out to textbook crusader Mr. Antonio Calipjo-Go, Education Chief Armin Luistro went to Marian School of Quezon City today, where Go works as an academic supervisor. Luistro’s objective was to discuss concerns on error-ridden books in response to Go's call for DepEd to pay attention to the issue.

“This issue should be taken seriously especially that these textbooks are the readily available source of information our students have particularly in areas where internet connection is not available,” said Luistro.

Luistro narrated how the meeting went, saying he is quite happy with how things turned out. “I had a very cordial meeting with Mr Go. He showed me his notes on errors in the English textbook series used currently in DepEd elementary schools. We discussed ways of correcting those via supplemental notes as these textbooks were only printed in 2008. He also volunteered to continue to help DepEd in future textbook projects. I appreciate Mr. Go’s efforts to address textbook quality and I expressed my desire to work more closely with him and other independent reviewers and experts.”

DepEd welcomed this positive development on improving the quality of textbooks especially now that Go committed his support to the department.

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