January 23, 2012

The Week in English Language Teaching: Fun Phonics, Teaching Workshops, Free Tests, Free Ads...

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Fun Phonics for Free
ELTBOOKS.com announced that while stocks last, their customers can get 1 free copy of Fun Phonics Readers for each 5 copies ordered. Greg Crawford's Fun Phonics Readers support the syllabus of Finding Out and other phonics-based courses.

Oxford Teaching Workshops
OUP Japan announced that its series of Teaching Workshops would begin on Sunday, February 5th in Sendai and invited teachers of children to pre-register. The Workshops will be held in 11 cities around the country.

Free English Tests for Some Students
The Japanese education ministry announced that it will pick up the tab for students at selected publich high schoools to take Eiken and other English proficiency tests. Japanese students have not done well on international tests with Japan ranking 27th out of 30 Asian countries on the TOEFL. The Daily Yomiuri has the full story. Any bets on how successful this new plan by those brilliant minds at the ministry will be?

English Camp Becomes God Camp in Mexico
The New York Times reported on American university students being duped into volunteering for what they thought was an English teaching camp in Mexico only to find themselves part of "a much different and larger agenda centered on the religious theories of Ock Soo Park, a Korean preacher and founder of Good News Corps, with 300 churches in Korea and 120 churches in 43 other countries. The gullibility of these teachers leads us to suspect they may well be signing up for some "TEFL Certificate" training courses soon...

Cambridge Boss to Step Down
Another big change at the top for CUP. Last week, Dr. Richard Ziemacki stepped down as managing director of its US operation after 37 years at the press. This week the Chief Executive, Stephen Bourne (pictured above), announced he's leaving at the end of April. Bourne, a Chartered Accountant, joined the Press in 1997, and became Chief Executive in 2002. The Press Syndicate, made up of 18 senior academics from the University of Cambridge has begun the process of selecting Bourne’s successor.

Bits and Bobs
Abax moved to bigger offices -- across the hall. iEnglish (sister company of ELT Services Japan, which owns ELTNEWS.com) annouced it would offer services to support those wishing to publish textbooks using Apple's iBook Author. We announced that our jobs page is now completely free to advertise on for schools and publishers in Japan. Lars Martinson released the third installment of his "Kameoka Diaries", his take on the life of JET in Japan.

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January 16, 2012

The Week in English Language Teaching: FT Reviews, Pearson, Newsweek, Grammar Comics...

From this week onwards, ELTNEWS.com will be rounding up notable news from the world of language learning and ELT and publishing them here. For more frequent updates, please check out our Facebook page.

FT on Language Books
The Financial Times rounded up and reviewed a selection of notable books on language, including David Crystal's The Story of English in 100 Words and David Bellos' Is That a Fish in Your Ear?

Big in China
Pearson-owned Wall Street English confirmed it will open 15 new English schools in China, taking its total to 70 whilst EF which has nearly 150 centres in more than 50 cities, plans to open 200 new premises. Disney now runs 30 schools in Japan, aimed at children.

Grammar Comics
We discovered a delightful series of comic strips that amusingly and effectively covered issues such "Ten Worlds You Need to Stop Misspelling" and "How to Use a Semi-Colon".

Signs and Apostrophes
Language Log covered some rather shocking "Sale!" signs in Japan and looked at how Japanese is also being misused in a similar way. LL also had some interesting comments on the Waterstone's / Waterstones rebranding and the debate that ensued on the apostrophe on Radio 4. Peter Viney updated an article of his on "Intelligent Apostrophes and Dumb Apostrophes" for his blog.

New CUP Head
Cambridge University Press said goodbye to Dr. Richard Ziemacki, the president of its US operations who worked for 37 years for the press. To replace him, Michael Peluse has joined the New York office as Managing Director and will also serve as global Managing Director for English Language Teaching, a division which accounts for over a third of Cambridge's publishing sales revenue.

Hilary Takes on British Council
The US state department announced it would be seeking to promote its ELT expertise more aggressively to help meet the growing demand for language learning. The department's partner for what is being seen as a shift in strategy will be the main US ELT professional association Tesol, which has 9,000 members in the US and a further 3,000 abroad. The new partnership is likely to be similar to the model created by the British Council, the UK government-sponsored cultural and education promotion organisation, which actively markets UK ELT goods and services internationally and sells its own language courses and tests. Tesol spokesman John Segota acknowledges that US ELT providers have lagged behind the UK's export efforts, in part because they have been occupied with the massive domestic ELT market.

Lexile for TOEIC
In Japan, MetaMetrics partnered with with the Institute for International Business Communication (IIBC). The Lexile English Reading Guide is now offered through IIBC and provides TOEIC test-takers in Japan with access to a personal library of targeted books and a limited number of daily recommended articles. To date, more than 3,600 Japanese TOEIC test takers have registered for this free service.

More Great JET Comics
Cartoonist Lars Martinson released the second of his "Kameoka Diaries". The author of the Tonoharu graphic novel is back teaching on the JET scheme.

ELTNEWS Partners with Newsweek
ELTNEWS.com teamed up with Newsweek to offer the cheapest subscription rates in Japan for the venerable weekly. Teachers and schools can now become "resellers" of Newsweek by providing their students with a special code that provides a special student discount for subscriptions ordered from ELTNEWS.com

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January 06, 2012

Free comics about teaching English from award-winning cartoonist

Lars Martinson, the award-winning author of Tonoharu is back teaching in Japan for the second time on the JET scheme. What has he been up to? Well, he's published a delightful little strip based on his experiences so far: The Kameoka Diaries which can be viewed on his website or downloaded for free.

Martinson,who hails from Minnesota in the US midwest, won a Xeric Foundation award to publish Tonoharu, the intricately-drawn graphic novel based on his first teaching stint in Japan. The book generated a large wave of publicity, being featured in Entertainment Weekly, The Wall Street Journal and Publishers Weekly, amongst others.

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January 05, 2012

Blowback from Lake Superior on irritating words

Lake Superior University has released its list of banished words for 2012, including "blowback", "occupy" and amazingly, "amazing". The small public university on the border with Canada releases an annual list based on nominations from word-watchers around the United States. The "List of Words and Phrases Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness" for 2012 is as follows:

• amazing
• baby bump
• shared sacrifice
• occupy
• blowback
• man cave
• the new normal
• pet parent
• win the future
• trickeration
• ginormous
• thank you in advance

CNN's Anderson Cooper received blowback as a ginormous user of the word "amazing". The Lake Superior website has more details on why we should make the shared sacrifice to win the future and make the avoidance of these words the new normal. The university thanks you in advance for visiting their site.

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December 22, 2011

Have a Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year

ELTNEWS.com is closing down for the holidays and we will be back posting news etc. from January 5th onwards.

Any major breaking news or events will be covered on our Facebook page, so if you haven't done so, please visit us there and "Like" the page.

Best wishes to all in ELT for a fabulous Xmas and a productive and educational new year.

(The cute reindeer is Elly, the star of our sister company's new "Elly the Reindeer" iPhone app. See the previous news item for more information.)

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December 21, 2011

eigoTown releases bi-lingual "Elly the Reindeer" iPhone app for children

eigoTown has published the first iOS app in a series of adventures based on the popular international children's character Elly. Russell Willis, president of eigoTown commented: "The Elly series is ideal as a parent and child reader. For parents looking to bring up bilingual children, the story can be read and listened to in both Japanese and English, simply by swiping the screen up and down. Children will love meeting Elly and all her cute friends, and will want to read the simple, fun, easy-to-follow story again and again."

Elly has already become a hit in over 30 countries around the world, and the new app sees the story translated into Japanese for the first time.

The app features a specially-designed dual-language function - when the child swipes up and down, the story switches between Japanese and English. Both modes come with story narration, sound effects, and illustrations.

Features include:
• 'Read it myself' function for children to read alone or with their parents
• 'Read to me' autoplay function with English and Japanese narration
• Large, colourful illustrations
• Sound effects in every scene
• A word list at the end of the story to help improve your child's vocabulary

Elly creator, Jon Higham, is a published author and illustrator who has created work for a wide range of children's publishers including the BBC, Macmillan, Methuen, and Walker Books. The app is available from Apple's iTunes store for both iPhone and iPad and costs ¥85 yen in Japan and $0.99 in the US.

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December 18, 2011

English teacher in Japan makes Independent's top 50 Britons list

The Independent on Sunday has published a list list of the 50 Britons who it thinks did most to lift the mood of the nation in difficult times. Amongst the list (which includes pop stars, politicians and authors) – is Robert Bailey from Lincolnshire who was hailed a hero after saving his class of 42 from the Japanese tsunami in March.

With only 8 minutes until the giant wave hit, Bailey led his class to safety as the coastal town of Ofunato was swept away around them. While other expats came home after the disaster, Bailey stayed behind to help find survivors.

The full list is on the Independent on Sunday's website.

The Daily Mail also featured Robert back in March this year, just after the earthquake and tsunami.

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