May 07, 2012

TOEIC's popularity on the rise

The Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) is becoming popular as English is an essential skill for employees as companies expand overseas. The number of applicants in Japan for the TOEIC test, which measures English language skills necessary for international business, in fiscal 2011 increased by about 30 percent to 2.27 million from the previous fiscal year.

Read more at the Daily Yomiuri

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April 03, 2012

Free Guide to Extensive Reading on ELTBOOKS

ELTBOOKS.com, a discount online book service selling English teaching books, has added the Extensive Reading Foundation's free Guide to Extensive Reading to its catalogue, making it available for no charge at all to new and existing customers. Customers can order as many copies as they need, with ELTBOOKS paying for the shipping.

Currently, only the Japanese version is available as a brochure, whereas the English version can be downloaded as a PDF from ER Foundation. Matthias Reich, president of ELTBOOKS, commented: "The ER Foundation's Extensive Reading guide is an excellent introduction to the topic, and it's great to see this guide be made available in Japanese as well, so that every Japanese English teacher can easily get an idea of what Extensive Reading is about. In order to make this guide available to everyone, we are happy to cover the shipping fee. Every teacher is welcome to order copies for their fellow Japanese colleagues."

See also:
• Order Site for the Extensive Reading Guide (Japanese version)
• Download Extensive Reading Guide (PDF, English version)
• Extensive Reading Foundation Website
• ELTBOOKS

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March 19, 2012

JALT Sendai lectures on Extensive Reading

The Sendai chapter of JALT is organizing two presentations on Extensive/Graded Reading next Sunday (25 March 2012) in Sendai.
The presentations are sponsored by ELTBOOKS.com and will be held by our very own Russell Willis about Issues in the Design of Extensive Readers for the iPhone and by Ken Schmidt (Tohoku Fukushi University) about Building a Course in Extensive Reading for Non-English Majors.

These presentations are not limited to members but can be visited by everyone interested.
Pre-registered teachers are entitled to free admission and to a triple chance to win prizes.

See also:
• Pre-Registration form
• JALT Sendai site with further details about the venue, time, and presentation contents
• ELTBOOKS.com

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February 23, 2012

We're on Holiday...

We're on holiday until March 28th, when we'll be back with all the important news related to English teaching in Japan.

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February 14, 2012

The Week in English Language Teaching: TEDxTeachers • Japan Loves English • British School • Krashen

Speakers wanted for TEDxTeachers event on March 2nd
Many people will be familiar with the TED and TEDx (e.g. TEDxTokyo) events, where inspirational speakers give talks to remember and via Tom Sweeney at Pearson we hear that the world's first TEDxTeachers event is to be hosted at the Tokyo International School on March 2nd. There are a few slots left for speakers. There is no charge and the event includes food and drinks so is tough to pass up :) For more information visit the TEDxTeachers page here.

Japan Loves English on Valentine's Day
On this most romantic of days, English has captured the heart of Japan. After a 4-day special promotion by language-learning portal site eigoTown.com, the Oxford Bookworms-based Alice in Wonderland and Sherlock Holmes apps have taken the top positions in the iTunes charts, with Alice becoming the best-selling iOS application in Japan, topping both the iPhone and iPad charts on iTunes.

The apps are a collaboration between cutting-edge software developer iEnglish.com Limited and the venerable Oxford University Press, and feature specially written versions of classics such as Alice in Wonderland, Sherlock Holmes, Aladdin and Anne of Green Gables. iEnglish president Russell Willis -- a Brit -- devised a special Valentine's day promotion for the apps and commented: "We set out to play cupid on Valentine's Day, and bring English and Japan together, and it does seem that Japan loves English!" With thousands of English-learning iEnglish-developed apps now being bought each day in Japan, and Alice being the No.1 app in Japan, it looks like the matchmaking was a success.

British School in Tokyo rated "Excellent"
The British School in Tokyo (BST) is celebrating success after being confirmed as an “excellent” education facility, the highest mark possible, by a team of independent inspectors from the International Schools Inspectorate (ISI). The Japan School News site has the story. If only there were such a system to confirm the quality of English schools in Japan, students would get a much better deal.

Stephen Krashen to Speak at JALT Extensive Reading Seminar
The JALT Extensive Reading SIG has announced the Fifth Annual Extensive Reading in Japan Seminar. There will be a full day of speakers, including plenaries from Stephen Krashen and Junko Yamanaka, as well as a wide range of books on display. The SIG has also announced a call for papers. For more information visit the Extensive Reading Foundation website.

Kameoka Diaries Part 5
The fifth installment of award-winning cartoonist Lars Martinson's Kameoka Diaries is now online. Lars is the author behind Tonoharu an acclaimed graphic novel concerning the life a JET teacher in a small town in Japan.

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January 30, 2012

The Week in English Language Teaching: Cartoonist Feels Cold, Murphy Gets MA, Megan Fox Motivates

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Grammar Books Not Implements of Torture But Humanitarian Aids
Raymond Murphy, the author of the ubiquitous English Grammar in Use has received and honarary MA from Cambridge University. In a press release the University recognized Murphy's contribution to ELT but also honoured him for -- through his grammar books -- being "a quite exceptional humanitarian". The fourth edition of English Grammar in Use is out in February and you can read the ELTNEWS.com interview with Murphy from last year here

Week 4 of the Kameoka Diaries by Lars Martinson
Lars Martinson is still teaching in Japan on the JET scheme and is very cold. Follow the Japan teaching adventures of this award-winning graphic novelist on his site.

40% of Universities Mull Shifting Aademic Year
More than 40 percent of the national universities are warming to the University of Tokyo plan to shift the start of the undergraduate academic year from spring to fall, a survey found.

"Only" 11% of Japanese Middle School Students Want to Get a Job Using English
The Daily Yomiuri reports: "Seventy percent of middle school students think English ability would be useful for obtaining a job in the future, but only 11 percent want to get a job that requires English, according to an education ministry institute survey, with 43 percent asserting, "I don't want to get a job that requires English skills," up from 36 percent in the previous survey.Kenji Miyauchi, head of the research and development section at the institute's Curriculum Research Center, said, "[Students] are keenly aware of the importance of English in this age of globalization, but at the same time, they don't seem to want to study English or they think it's troublesome to do so."

Clearly the students haven't been made aware of the dire consequences of not speaking English as outlined in the following story...

Megan Fox and Mike Tyson selling English in Brazil
Transformers star Megan Fox, and boxing bad boy Mike Tyson team up to explain to the youth of Brazil the consequences of having the atttitudes of their Japanese counterparts in this interesting video sponsored by an English school chain.

Yes, English is Crazy
If you think English school ads are weird, then blame it on the language. A poem makes the rounds:

Let’s face it – English is a crazy language.
There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger;
Neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren’t invented in England.
We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes,
We find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square,
And a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

and much more...

TOEFL has YouTube Channel
If the Megan Fox/Mike Tyson video has your students desperate to learn, then they might be interested in the TOEFL YouTube site with hints and tips on how to pass the test.

English is an Optimistic Language
We'll leave on a positive note and see how English predisposes its speakers to be positive and pro-social. Or is that the other way around?

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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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