Jose Carillo's Forum

NEWS AND COMMENTARY


Philippines:

Senators seek better student loan system for the Philippines

MANILA, March 11 (PNA) -– Senator Edgardo Angara seeks to overhaul the student loan system in the country even as colleague Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. asked Malacañang to execute a student-friendly repayment scheme to ensure success of "study now-pay later" programs of the government.

Angara stated that one of the main priorities of the Senate committee on education, arts and culture is to overhaul the student loan system to help more students enrolled in the private schools.

Angara explained: “Right now, around 85 percent of college students are enrolled in private schools—only 15 percent are being supported by the state. The government must find a way to somehow give aid to the Filipino college students going into private tertiary institutions.

“For a private school, each year would ring up almost Php100,000 from tuitions, other fees and expenses which would be shouldered by the families. Few households in the Philippines can afford that, which is why it is so important for the government to assist them.”

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House of Representatives moves to increase pay of public school teachers

MANILA, March 1, 2011 (PNA)—The move to increase the salary of public school teachers to address the brain drain in the field of education is gaining ground at the House of Representatives as another lawmaker filed a bill upgrading the minimum salary grade level of public school teachers in elementary and secondary levels -- from Salary Grade 11 to Salary Grade 15 -- to encourage highly qualified teachers to stay in the country.

"We want to encourage all government teachers to stay in the country, give what’s due them, and not push them to seek better pay and working conditions overseas," said ACT Teachers party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio in filing House Bill 2142.

Tinio cited Republic Act No. 4670 or the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers, which sets the criteria for salaries of public school mentors to make these at par with those in other occupations requiring equivalent qualifications, training and abilities.

He said the current pay scheme for teachers is not competitive with most other positions in government.

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Workers get to whet English skills before going abroad
By Frinston Lim, Inquirer Mindanao

TAGUM CITY, February 26, 2011—Butchers and electricians trained by the city government for jobs in Australia and Canada are being given an additional edge to beat competition: Enhanced oral and written skills in English.

For at least eight Saturdays, graduates of the city’s various community-based skills training will undergo module-based lectures on basic English to help improve their listening, speaking and writing abilities prior to their deployment abroad, according to Darwin Suyat, head of the city’s special programs division.

In partnership with the Department of Education, Technical Skills Development Authority (Tesda) and the University of Mindanao-Tagum College, the city government on Feb. 5 launched its Skilled Workers English Enhancement Program (Sweep) to boost the global competitiveness of its future overseas workers, Suyat says.

“We want to equip our local workers not only the hands-on skills related to their respective fields but also the basic ability to communicate using the language of their employers and their workplace,” he tells the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

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Education department steps up foreign-language program

MANILA, February 23, 2011—Soon, public high-school graduates would be greeting their teachers a hearty “good morning”—in six languages.

The Department of Education (DepEd) is stepping up its foreign-language program in the coming school year, adding two widely spoken Asian languages to a list that already includes Spanish, French, Japanese and German.

Arabic and Mandarin, both emerging business languages, will be introduced to select classes in public high schools, DepEd said Wednesday.

This is in addition to basic classes in Spanish, Japanese and French, which all debuted in DepEd schools in school year 2009-2010, and German classes that started in the current school year.

“Studies have shown that facility in just one foreign language is now perceived as a disadvantage in a global market that is culturally and linguistically diverse,” said Lolita Andrada, DepEd Bureau of Secondary Education chief.

DepEd's foreign language classes are taught in 3rd and 4th year high school classes with speech laboratories and where students are already proficient in English. English has long been traditionally taught in Philippine schools.

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Educators strive to make farming more appealing to the youth

MANILA, February 20, 2011—At a time when college students would rather become nurses, chefs and seafarers, the Commission on Higher Education and the antipoverty NGO Gawad Kalinga have partnered to give agriculture a makeover and attract more students to the rather unpopular course.

The CHEd and GK on Friday launched the Agricultural Productivity Enhancement Project, a five-year program that aims to establish “village universities” as the new breeding ground for agri-entrepreneurs and empower communities through additional income generation.

The project will “establish a model agri-ecological tourism farm that will showcase appropriate and viable agricultural technologies” and also provide a livelihood for family beneficiaries, the CHEd and GK said in an agreement signed Friday.

In essence, the project hopes for students to learn by doing—a school experience that “translates classroom theories into real businesses.”

“This agreement with GK, they're trying to make agriculture attractive to students through a certain amount of entrepreneurship. So you work with the land, in agriculture, but you develop a business,” CHEd chair Pat Licuanan told the Inquirer.

“Students will be studying and earning, because they'll be doing things in the field that are earning them money,” she said.

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Japan:

Japan launches primary push to teach English

March 8, 2011—Compulsory foreign language lessons start next month for all 10- to 12-year-olds, raising hopes among educators and industry leaders of ending a decades-long 'English deficit'

With just weeks to go before English becomes a compulsory subject at Japan's primary schools, doubts surround the boldest attempt in decades to improve the country's language skills, and its ability to compete overseas with rival Asian economies.

The new curriculum is to be introduced after intense lobbying from the business community, amid fears that Japan's competitive edge could be blunted unless it takes English communication as seriously as China and South Korea.

The new classes, which start in April, will be aimed at fifth- and sixth-grade pupils, aged 10-12, at all of Japan's public primary schools. The lessons will be held only once a week – or 35 times a year – with each lasting 45 minutes.

By the time they leave primary school, children should know 285 English words and 50 expressions, although the education ministry is reluctant to talk of targets.

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Japan rattled over online exam leaks

TOKYO,  February 27, 2011 (AFP)—Japan's elite universities have had their entrance exams – the most important hurdle in any Japanese student's life – compromised by efforts to seek online help during the tests, they admitted Sunday.

Maths and English questions from the entrance examinations for the prestigious Kyoto University were placed on Yahoo! Japan's question-and-answer service web page on Friday and Saturday.

The postings were made under the same user name, "aicezuki", which does not seem to relate to any common Japanese term, and online answers were soon offered for his or her appeal.

A Kyoto University official confirmed that the postings matched questions from their tests.

Other top institutions, including the private Waseda and Keio universities, faced similar problems, Japanese media reported Sunday as the Kyoto incident made front-page headlines.

The top-selling Yomiuri Shimbun suspected that candidates took pictures of questions on their mobile phones and sent them to an outside associate who placed the queries online.

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Worried Japanese teachers fear they lack sufficient training, confidence

TOKYO, February 26, 2011—Come April, English classes will become mandatory for fifth- and sixth-graders, but a 29-year-old elementary school teacher in Tokyo has heard the concerns of her overwhelmed colleagues, especially the older ones, who have neither taught the language nor studied it since their university years decades ago.

Preparing for the English classes is a new burden for teachers. Some believe they must teach detailed rules of grammar and demonstrate proper pronunciation, even though this isn't required.

"Many teachers are considerably repulsed. They feel they can't make mistakes and fear they may speak incorrect English" during the lessons, said the Tokyo teacher, who did not want her name used.

Starting with fiscal 2011, the government will require all elementary schools to introduce compulsory foreign-language lessons — basically English — for fifth- and sixth-graders. All kids in this age group will have at least one lesson per week.

While many parents and other Japanese welcome the government's move to provide English education at an early age, some experts are concerned that most teachers are being forced to venture into uncharted waters with little preparation…

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Taiwan:

Chinese language could rival English, says Taiwan national university president

March 6, 2011—Dr. Si-chen Lee, president of National Taiwan University (NTU), said yesterday morning that the concept “globalization means Englishization” has changed along with the rapid rise of China, and Chinese and English may become two major common international languages in the next five to 10 years.

Lee made the remarks when inaugurating the 2011 NTU Azalea Festival, an event designed for senior high school students to know more about the NTU.

Lee also announced that the NTU will invest NT$50 billion in the coming five years in programs to upgrade and globalize its operations, in a bid to achieve the goal of ranking among the world's top 50 universities.

The president said that at the moment, one tenth of NTU students come from abroad, and one third of freshmen joining the university in the second half of the year will have the chance to take short-term studies or serve as exchange students at foreign universities.

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South Korea:

South Korean students learn English from robot teacher

DAEGU, March 9, 2011—Many South Korean families spend thousands of dollars a year on English language education for their children. Students attend private academies often until late at night every day. Most such schools hire teachers from abroad, but a team of engineers has created a robot that they hope will eventually replace foreign instructors.

Engkey wheels around the front of a classroom at the Hagjeong Primary School in Daegu.

The egg-shaped robot asks the class—six fourth-grade students—to repeat English phrases and teaches them children’s songs in English.

But Engkey’s voice is not its own. It is connected via teleconference to the Philippines, where a teacher conducts the class through a monitor. An image of a Caucasian woman appears on Engkey’s LCD panel head, although she is not the teacher in the Philippines.

But Engkey’s creators say this robot is much more than a video screen on wheels.

Kim Mun-sang is director of the Intelligent Robotics Program at the government-funded Korea Institute for Science and Technology in Seoul. He explains how the robot works.

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United States:

“Gap year” a fulfilling time for high school graduates
By Kevin Simpson, The Denver Post

March 1, 2011—To Mandy Fyola, it seemed like everyone at Eaton High School had the same advice for departing seniors: Go straight to college—otherwise, life gets in the way, and you may never get your degree.

Like most of her peers, she judged it sound counsel. But as Fyola realized that she had no idea what she wanted to study after graduation, she hatched another plan.

Instead of applying immediately to the University of Denver, she decided—after long talks with her mom—to fill the gap between high school and college by working in the family business and figuring out where her interests lie.

"High school is its own little world," says Fyola, 19, who helps out at Rotors of the Rockies, a helicopter flight school in Broomfield. "You get out into the adult world, and it's different. This year has opened my eyes to the world around me."

That's the central philosophy behind the gap year, a decades-old concept that more recently has spawned a small industry of counselors and program providers. The idea also has won big fans in college-admissions offices.

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Guilt trips even afflict English kings
By By Phil Pfuehler, Hudson Star-Observer

March 4, 2011—Local stuttering expert Jerry Halvorson agrees that “The King’s Speech” deserved best-picture Oscar for exposing a condition that brings humiliation and is stigmatized, misunderstood and mistreated.

Like the stammering King George VI in the movie, the problem begins early in life, usually before a child starts school. Repressed guilt and shame fan the speech impediments.

However, Halvorson claims that stuttering is not a problem. It’s only made a problem by the reactions and attempts to help those who are close to the young stutterer.

“In real simple terms, stuttering doesn’t exist,” Halvorson says. “It’s almost a figment of our imagination. The harder parents and others try to correct a child’s speech, and the harder that child tries to spit the words out, the worse it all becomes. Correction leads to digging a deeper hole.”

The simplest solution to youthful stuttering, Halvorson asserts, is to ignore it.

“You’ve got to have a ‘I don’t give a (rip)’ attitude,” he said, using an unprintable word for this newspaper. “That casual approach will do more help than anything.”

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New Bible updates language; 'booty' falls by wayside
By Bill Chappell, Associated Press

March 2, 2011 (AP)—A pair of Christmas booties. Using the word "booty" to mean "plunder" has become impractical, as other connotations have overtaken its original meaning, religious scholars say.

The Old Testament will have a new look in the next edition of the New American Bible, one of the most popular English-language Bibles. And it'll also have some big changes — in many cases, words like "booty" and "virgin" are removed in the new translation.

Scholars translating from ancient Hebrew and Greek for the new Bible decided that the meaning of those words had shifted in the 40 years since the Old Testament was last updated in the New American Bible.

Here are some of the swaps included in the new Bible:

"booty" is now "spoils of war" — for presumably obvious reasons.
"virgin" becomes "young woman" — especially where the original uses the Hebrew word "almah."
"holocaust" will become "burnt offerings" - scholars say that was closer to the original meaning, before "holocaust" came to be identified with the genocide of World War II.
"cereal"— now co-opted by General Mills and Post, becomes "grain."

Scholars sometimes clashed as they sought to refine the Bible's language…

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Language patterns are a roller-coaster ride during childhood development

February 25, 2011—Why, and when, do we learn to speak the way that we do? Research from North Carolina State University on African-American children presents an unexpected finding: language use can go on a roller-coaster ride during childhood as kids adopt and abandon vernacular language patterns.

“We found that there is a ‘roller-coaster effect,’ featuring an ebb and flow in a child’s use of vernacular English over the course of his or her language development,” says Dr. Walt Wolfram, William C. Friday Distinguished University Professor of English Linguistics at NC State and co-author of several recent papers describing the research. “This was totally unanticipated.”

Vernacular English is defined here as culturally specific speech patterns that are distinct from standard English; in this case, the vernacular is African-American English (AAE).

One implication of the finding involves education, since teachers often advocate teaching standard English early in a childhood education…

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United Kingdom:

Warning made over reading standards as children shun tough books
By Graeme Paton, The Telegraph.co.uk

Reading standards among children are in sharp decline as pupils increasingly opt for easy books in school and the home, according to a report published today.

Children are more likely to read relatively tough books in primary school, according to the report.

By the end of primary education, pupils start to shun relatively difficult texts in favour of more straightforward alternatives suitable for younger children, research found.

Academics from Dundee University analysed children’s reading habits throughout primary and secondary education and found the difficulty of books “declined steadily” from the age of 10 onwards.

It emerged that The Very Hungry Caterpillar, a classic picture book by Eric Carle which charts a caterpillar’s week-long transformation into a butterfly, was one of the most popular books among 14- to 16-year-old girls in England.

The disclosure came as a separate study revealed classics such as Wuthering Heights and To Kill a Mockingbird had dropped out of a list of the top 10 most popular books for teenagers in a generation.

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An innovative scheme is helping primary teachers brush up their language skills
By Dorothy Lepkowska, The Independent UK

March 3, 2011—Linda Gordon's last serious brush with the French language was when she passed her O-level while at school in the 1960s. So to be asked to teach it to her primary class more than 40 years on was a little daunting, to say the least.

"Actually, it was quite scary at first, because I wasn't sure how much I would remember, or even if my recall was correct," she says. "But when the English department was asked to contribute to the teaching of French I knew I had to give it a go, as I had some prior knowledge.

"However, I was lacking in confidence and wanted some reassurance that I was teaching it right."

Ms Gordon, who teaches years 5 and 6 at St Bede's Middle School in Redditch, Worcestershire, is far from alone. As of this year, every key stage 2 pupil is entitled to learn a modern foreign language, yet studies suggest that more than half of staff delivering the subject in primary schools have limited knowledge and skills of the language they are teaching.

In response to the need to prepare teachers to take on this challenge, the University of Worcester has launched a course to "up-skill" those, like Linda Gordon, who already have some knowledge…

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Assessment program improves literacy, numeracy and English skills

IRELAND, February 25, 2011 (PressZoom)—Improvement in English language literacy and numeracy skills is an essential requirement for food businesses within Ireland and the UK. Many staff working in this sector originates from outside the UK—often from countries where English is not widely spoken. Many employees in this sector also left school early, maybe without taking any formal qualifications, and lack confidence in their writing skills. What many companies found a problem with was determining how they could select those individuals within their workforce that lacks skills in literacy and numeracy.

A simple and affordable solution for the assessment and benchmarking of employees in terms of their English language and numeracy skills is Nvolve’s Literacy Assessor program. It allows users to bring together groups of trainees (up to 100 at a time) and assess their English language and numerously skills. The group is presented with a series of questions (covering listening, reading and numeracy) via a single data projector screen and then each individual uses their own unique keypad to answer the questions that are posed to them. This then creates an assessment record which is stored so users can generate benchmark reports at the click of a button.

There are various methods being adopted for increasing productivity of staff and encouraging them in terms of efficiency…

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Canada:

Levesque defends English schools
 
MONTREAL, March 1, 2011—Parti Quebecois leader Rene Levesque put his job on the line yesterday to defend the preservation of English-language education rights in a separate Quebec.

The fiery 48-year-old leader vehemently opposed a resolution calling for an end of government-financed English schools if and when Quebec drops out of Confederation.

Levesque also easily won re-election as party leader.

Mr. Levesque was jeered and booed by a number of party militants but 60 per cent of the voting delegates supported him in rejecting the resolution.

The final vote was 541 against, 346 for.

After the resolution was drafted by a workshop committee Saturday afternoon. Mr. Levesque described it as having "racist coloration" and said it was probably inspired by motives of revenge towards the English.

"As chief salesman for the PQ" said the visibly-annoyed leader, "I don't see how I could go on selling the party if, such on a resolution is adopted."

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Jury selected for English-language awards of excellence for youth

March 9, 2011—The Youth Media Alliance (YMA) has announced the jury for its 2011 English-Language Awards of Excellence, to be held in Toronto on June 2.

For more than 35 years, YMA has been recognizing the importance of quality screen-based content for Canadian kids, and the organization says it is proud this year to have unparalleled representation by children's & youth TV professionals…

The juries will judge the quality of the entries based on various components of production, including concept, writing, overall direction and direction of actors, art direction, research, technical aspects, performance, audience targeting, music and interactivity.

YMA is also very pleased to be partnering with a leading game designer) and game producer to evaluate interactive mobile and Web content. These juries will look at various areas of production, like content, structure and browsing, interactivity, concept originality and content philosophy, to assess projects submitted by Canadian producers of interactive youth content.

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India:

Furor erupts over English as language for information technology exam

March 4, 2011—Uproar over use of English as medium of examination in IITs led to a brief adjournment of the Rajya Sabha today.

The trouble started when HRD Minister Kapil Sibal said that Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are autonomous bodies which are free to decide on the language for examination and curriculum.

"The Government does not impose decisions on IITs," he said, replying to supplementaries on National Testing Agency for IITs.

"It is for IITs governing council to decide what language to use for conducting the examination," he said.

This evoked sharp reaction from both ruling and opposition parties.

As opposition members took potshots at Sibal for using English to reply, the minister retorted saying they should ensure that the Leader of the Opposition Arun Jaitley also speaks in Hindi all the time.

Jaitley, who was present at that time, only smiled at the remark.

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English in new light

Learning and teaching English is not the same any more. Noted linguists Dr. Fiona English and Dr. Tim Marr say that English is on new ground

Children who come to school speaking English differently from the majority of children are often stigmatised and sometimes even assigned to remedial language tracks. This usually happens when the child is multi-lingual, speaking in ways that vary from those of the school.

This is but natural. But teaching and learning English very often does not take this into consideration. Forgotten is the fact that there are two different languages – the first language (native language) and second or foreign language. The former is the language into which one is born into, one that is spoken at home, the earliest one learns and that grows through life's experiences. The second is the language that is formally taught in class by a teacher. This is the result of a structured learning process and not one that a child imbibes naturally.

Understanding the difference between the two languages is important in both teaching and learning. This makes the process challenging. This challenge is what teachers of English face when they teach English as a foreign language.

This was what both Dr. Fiona English and Dr. Tim Marr, who run the renowned MA programmes in Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) and in Applied Language Studies at the London Metropolitan University, talked about…

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Education minister urges stronger emphasis on English-language education

MUMBAI, February 22, 2011—Notwithstanding the ‘Me Marathi’ agenda raked by Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navniman Sena (MNS), the state has received 5,000 proposals for new English medium schools for 2010-11. With this development, the state reckons that such new schools will lead to a growing demand for English language teachers which are in short supply in the state.

Minister for school education Rajendra Darda said: “The demand for English medium schools is a reality. If we don’t provide English language education to students at the primary level, we will never be able to produce good teachers from our own state. It will lead to dependence on teachers from other states and it will become an insider-outsider debate.”

He emphasized on improving education at the primary level. Stating there is no point raking up a debate on the role of the private sector in school education, he said, “I have no hesitation to grant permission to the corporate sector that wants to open schools. It promises high standards of education and is to our advantage.”

The proposals from retired principals and educationists will also be considered, he added. The state has outlined major reforms in school education beginning with providing lessons to teachers to improve their quality.

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Romanized Sindhi script to be launched to keep the language alive

AMRITSAR, February 22, 2011—Launching of Romanized Sindhi script is likely to bring new hope for the revival of Sindhi language and script among the globally scattered Sindhi community since there are minimal facilities to teach Sindhi across the world. In India, Sindhi schools teaching the language in Devanagari script are gradually converting to English, as teaching Sindhi in the latter script was not viable for the global Sindhi community.

A dedicated team of experts including Sindhi professors and scholars from India, along with officials of the Indian institute of Sindhology, Adipur, Kutch, 86-year-old Singapore based Arjan Daswani who is the chief coordinator of the project for Romanized Sindhi, and Col (ret.) Ram Gulrajani from Chennai, a veteran of three wars have played a major role in finalizing the project of Romanized Sindhi script, informed Devendra Kodwani, one of the active members of the project and professor, MBA programme at Business School of Open University, London, while talking to TOI on Sunday.

As against 10 to 12 schools teaching Sindhi in Ahmedabad a couple of years ago, now only three to four are left, he rued. Following the launch of Romanized Sindhi script, a Sindhi Trust run Mahatama Gandhi International School, Jakarta, Indonesia and Dada JP Vaswani of Holy Mission of Sadhu Vaswani, Pune have announced to teach the language in the school and the mission respectively, Devendra said.

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United Arab Emirates:

Al Jazeera to air Children's Channel in English

QATAR, March 7, 2011—The Al Jazeera Children's Channel (JCC) plans to launch an English-language station for broadcast outside the Arab world.

International versions of the station in English and Arabic will be available by the end of next year, said Mahmoud Bouneb, the executive general manager of JCC.

"We have an ambition to create an international feed for JCC that will benefit other markets, [such as] Asia and North America," said Mr Bouneb.

JCC, which is majority-owned by the Qatar Foundation, also broadcasts a pre-school station called Baraem TV. The Arabic-language stations are available via the Arabsat, Nilesat and Hot Bird satellites across the Middle East and parts of Europe.

The Qatar Foundation owns a 90 per cent stake in JCC, with the news broadcaster Al Jazeera holding a small stake. The Qatar Foundation owns 100 per cent of Baraem TV.

An international feed is intended to use content from JCC and Baraem TV in Arabic and English, Mr Bouneb said.

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English proficiency comes at a cost
By Amelia Naidoo, Gulf News

February 27, 2011—While universities in the UAE and the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research are determined to have its graduates proficient in English, at what price does it come?

Research studies recently conducted by the American University of Sharjah (AUS) and UAE University show that using English as a medium of instruction is a threat to the Arabic language and Arab students' identity.

In a paper titled English in the Arab Gulf published in the Asian Journal of University Education, Dr Khawlah Ahmad from the Department of English at AUS explores the challenges of teaching in English, which is done from the primary school to the tertiary level.

"The language issue is causing a great deal of concern and posing many challenges because the official language of all Arab countries is Arabic. An important matter of concern here is Arab-Islamic identity, which many believe is at stake," Dr Khawlah says.

There is an ongoing debate worldwide on the teaching of English (where English is not the native language) around whether teaching English means teaching the culture that comes with it or including the culture of the students involved, Dr Khawlah adds.

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Malaysia:

English language access
By Alycia Lim, TheStar.com.my

March 6, 2011—About a year ago, G. Moganathasan could not even string a proper sentence in English, but today he stands proud speaking the language clearly and confidently, after attending a language propgramme.

Sharing his experience, the 16-year-old said that English was never spoken at home as he only spoke to his parents and siblings in Tamil, his mother tongue, or occasionally in Malay, when he had to speak with the neighbours.

“My social skills have really improved, and now I am more than willing to hold a conversation in English with anyone,” he said at the end of his testimonial which was received with thunderous applause from the floor.

Moganathasan, whose father works as a storekeeper, is one of 80 underprivileged secondary school students in the country who was selected last year to be part of the pioneer batch under the ACCESS Microscholarship Programme (ACCESS).

The programme is jointly organised by ELS Language Centres Malaysia and the United States Embassy to promote English language learning among Malaysian youth.

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Learning science, maths in English doesn't make one less patriotic, says former PM

PETALING JAYA, February 28, 2011 (Bernama)—Mastering the English language will not make one less patriotic as English is currently the language of knowledge, says former prime minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad.

"This is the reality that we have to face if we want to understand Science and Mathematics for the betterment of our lives, and to build the nation towards becoming a developed nation, we have to understand foreign languages.

"If today, we decide to learn Science and Mathematics in English, it does not mean we are less patriotic," he said in his keynote address at the Biotechnology Forum 2011 titled, "Past Wisdom For Future Direction", at a hotel in Subang Jaya, near here, today.

"Both Science and Mathematics are not static subjects but expanded through time with numerous research and inventions, producing hundreds of research papers which are all in English.

"Without the ability to translate all these new knowledge, the Malays will be left behind in some of the most important fields," Dr Mahathir said.

He said those who understood the subjects and could translate them would not be interested to be translators their entire life, adding science would still progress after their deaths and newer works would need translation.

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Rwanda:

Government to intensify English training for teachers
   
March 6, 2011—Education Minister, Dr. Charles Murigande, yesterday revealed that his ministry is going to strengthen training of teachers in English language proficiency.

Addressing the press at the Prime Minister's offices, Murigande said the Ministry is going to look for mentors for the teachers to improve their English.

"We carried out training for the teachers in December, now we will give them mentors who will follow their progress in schools, helping them in the language," he added.

Murigande emphasised that training teachers during holidays was not enough and that is why they had opted for mentors.

He underscored that if they fail to get enough mentors in the country, they will get them from other countries in the region.

English language training for teachers aims at equipping them with skills in the language following a resolution by cabinet in 2008 to adopt it as the language of instruction in schools.

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France:

New English language radio chat show debuts in France

Saint Blancard, February 27, 2011(PR.com)—The Flattery Show is the first English language radio chat show aired in the south west of France and a flagship Sunday evening programme broadcast on Radio Coteaux in the Gascony region. The show is presented by American Patricia McKinnes and Irishman John Slattery, who take over the airwaves at 5pm and finish at 7pm.

The Flattery Show is a music based programme that includes light-hearted banter and whimsical jokes by the co-hosts. Listeners' views and comments are discussed and there are rotating segments such as "Song of The Week", "Ask a Frenchie," and "Life in the South-West". To keep listeners on their toes, random topics are picked from a big "Bag O Topics."

The Flattery Show, still in its infancy, has received very favourable feedback from listeners and businesses alike. John and Patricia, who launched the project themselves, say that they are enjoying the adventure of producing a groundbreaking radio show, first of its type in France. “Nearly 500,000 Britons, and at least 3 Irish and 3 Americans that we know of in this area, now have a light entertainment radio program in English,” says John. “It's very exciting to create this show and we see this regular broadcast not only as fun entertainment for the expatriates living in France, but also as a bridge between the English speakers and the French.”

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Africa:

Invest in adolescents' education and training, urges UNICEF

NAIROBI, February 25, 2011—With the majority (88 percent) of the world's 1.2 billion adolescents living in developing countries, investing in their education and training could break entrenched cycles of poverty and inequality, says the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) 2011 State of the World's Children report.

"We need to focus more attention now on reaching adolescents - especially adolescent girls - investing in education, health and other measures to engage them in the process of improving their own lives," Anthony Lake, UNICEF executive director, said in a statement issued at the launch of the report, Adolescence: An Age of Opportunity, on 25 February.

Lake said: "Adolescence is a pivot point - an opportunity to consolidate the gains we have made in early childhood or risk seeing those gains wiped out."

In Nairobi, UNICEF's regional director for eastern and southern Africa, Elhadj As Sy, told IRIN: "Africa has the largest proportion of children, adolescents and young people in the world. Almost half its population is younger than 18 years and almost two-thirds are younger than 25 years.

"As the gap between rich and poor, men and women, urban and rural keeps widening, and inequality generates a 'nothing to lose' generation, paying more attention to adolescents and young people is especially critical for the African nations. ."

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The loss of mother tongue?
By Gothataone Moeng, MmegiOnline

February 25, 2011—"Young people nowadays ke makgoa, they speak English only, if you ask them a question, they respond in English, they don't understand Setswana," says Freddy 'Rra-Lindiwe' Molebatsi.

 Molebatsi is a 79-year-old father of two brought up in Maitengwe who has been a long time resident of Tlokweng.He speaks Setswana with both a sprinkle of South African Tswana accent and a slight Ikalanga accent, the former a result of 27 years spent in South Africa as a construction worker, where he says he first learnt Setswana along with Sotho, Zulu, Venda and Afrikaans. Despite the languages he learnt later in his life, the traces of his formative years in Maitengwe, where he spoke Ikalanga exclusively - "the language I suckled from my mother" - are evident.

Molebatsi shares his concern about young people's predilection - at the expense of indigenous languages - for English with his 68-year-old wife Gertrude Gini 'Mma-Lindiwe' Molebatsi who, originally from Standerton, South Africa, grew up speaking Sotho and  Zulu. Their concern, however, is microcosmic of how the older generation feel about what has been described in some quarters as a crisis of Botswana's mother tongue languages.

Languages spoken in Botswana are estimated at around 23, many of which are under threat of extinction… 

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Belgium:

EU to offer “one-off” English-language-only entrance exam to attract more British

BRUSSELS, February 21, 2011—In a bid to attract more bright British candidates to apply for jobs in European Union institutions, officials in Brussels are considering an unusual step by offering a special 'one-off', English language only entrance examination.

Last week the European Commission president, José Manuel Barroso, lamented the shrinking number of Brits putting in applications to work in Brussels.

The 54-year-old Portuguese, who has been in charge since 2004, called the figure 'shockingly low' and believes that the main reason is because many top candidates are not proficient in any other language than their mother tongue.

Barroso has spoken with Prime Minister David Cameron and his Foreign Secretary, William Hague, about the problem, and they all agree that in order to boost numbers again, this 'one-off' English language exam is the answer.

“It's one of the options,” said one aide to Barroso, according to the Financial Times. “There is clearly a specific problem with the UK and it seems that language is the real issue.”

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Zambia:

Children’s use of too much English detrimental to mother languages

February 21, 2011—The use of English at an early age of a child has been described as detrimental to the preservation of mother languages.

In some urban areas in Lusaka, there is a growing trend among educated parents to teach their children English before they learn their original language.

To make matters worse, most gadgets that children play with use English for instructions of operations.

With this realization, the world is today commemorating International Mother Language day with focus on information communication technologies.

A linguistic expert, Dr. Nkolola Wakumelo, says there should be a provision for gadgets to be written in local languages for young people to use their indigenous languages.

Meanwhile, a linguistic doctor has expressed concern over the use of English in parliament.

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