The Latest News in ELT

January 2003

Assessing Japan's English Strategy
The Education section of yesterday's Guardian newspaper assessed the chances of success for reforms in Japan's official approach to English-language teaching. It mentioned the English Strategy Initiative released by the education ministry last summer. Including 30 "action programmes" designed to raise English standards in schools, the plan calls for more testing of speaking and listening abilities, for both students and teachers. However, as ELT News contributor Rob Waring was quoted as observing, "they still haven't addressed the structural problems. The programme has to be introduced in tandem with teachers and textbook writers, and that's a huge wagon to have to drag along." The article gave a broad overview of the changes currently afoot and the obstacles ahead.

The Guardian also carried several stories about ELT in Asia. According to research commissioned by the South Korean education ministry, teaching English to infants may result in stress rather than learning, and a lack of proper training means that the 64% of Korean children studying English at kindergarten are receiving "ineffectual" lessons; Thailand TESOL, which recently held its annual conference, "has been commended for being a low-cost, dynamic organisation and for having developed 'organically', in the annual awards for assisting sustainable growth run by the charity Worldaware;" and the Hong Kong government has announced plans for the testing of primary and secondary-school students, to assess biliterate and trilingual ability at five key stages, that education advisers claim will enable people to "face up to the reality of their language skills." (January 31, 2003 )

Teachers Reject New Guidelines
A survey by Kyodo News of elementary and junior school teachers shows that a majority are unhappy with the new educational guidelines introduced by the education ministry last April. They say the reduced curriculum is lowering children's academic abilities and making them lose interest in classes. Most said they were in favor of the five-day week but many commented that it increased the burden on both teachers and students. The survey of 100 teachers was carried out before the Japan Teachers Union national meeting on educational research held in Nara Prefecture last weekend. 2,700 teachers took part in the meeting, whose main theme was "What is Academic Ability?" (January 30, 2003 )

English Teacher Nabbed for Naughty Snaps
Yesterday's Daily Yomiuri reported that an American English teacher was arrested in Tokyo last weekend for possession of drugs and posting nude photos of an ex-girlfriend on the Internet. Keefe Douglas (39) is alleged to have posted 44 photos online and e-mailed one of the 28-year old woman's colleagues with the page address when she broke up with him last summer after finding out he was married. He was also found to have 0.4 grams of amphetamines at his home in Itabashi Ward. (January 29, 2003 )

Fair Use of Copyright Material to be Encouraged
The Cultural Affairs Agency is to introduce a new system next month that will encourage the "fair use" of copyright material on the Internet. There will be three labels, one of which indicates that materials can be copied from the Internet for use in schools. The other labels will be for material which can be used freely as long as it is not altered, or which can be used by those with disabilities. Details will be posted on the agency's Web site early in February. (January 28, 2003 )

Abductee Turns English Teacher
Hitomi Soga, one of the five abductees recently returned after two and a half decades in North Korea, recently assisted an English-language class in her hometown of Manomachi on Sado Island, Niigata Prefecture. Soga and a Canadian teacher taught a class of about 40 children at a childcare center where she is hoping to work. She attended the center as a child. She is married to an American, Charles Jenkins who remained behind in Pyongyang with their two daughters. (January 27, 2003 )

Big Fat Cat a Big Hit
With titles such as "Big Fat Cat and the Mustard Pie", a series of English study books whose core idea is to avoid anything resembling a grammatical approach have become a huge hit in Japan. With over 1.5 million copies sold in 2002, the books made the No.2 spot on the year's bestsellers list, topped only by the Harry Potter books. Editor Shoji Nagashima wanted to do something about the fact that, like himself, after years of study most Japanese have poor English ability. But he was shocked by the complexity of popular lectures that drilled students on participles and modal verbs. He decided to take a storybook approach with large, colorful illustrations. The hero is a guy called Ed but the main character is an overweight, blueberry pie-eating cat. The result is a series that bills itself as the world's easiest English books. "Big Fat Cat Goes to Town" is available now from BFC Books. (January 24, 2003 )

Creating "Presentable" Scientists
Today's Daily Yomiuri carries an article on moves by Japan's top universities to foster greater English ability among future scientists. This year Tokyo, Keio and Waseda Universities will all have post-graduate courses that focus on ensuring that scientists and engineers can present their research findings to the world in English. Keio will offer a new scientific technology course entirely in English in several fields such as electrical and mechanical engineering and communication technology. The subject received a lot of media attention with the recent popularity of Nobel laureate Koichi Tanaka and his struggles with English. Daily Yomiuri Web site. (January 23, 2003 )

Thai TESOL Opens Today
The 23rd Thailand TESOL annual international conference opens today. This year's theme is "ELT 2003: Culture, Content and Competency" and the conference will run from January 23-25 at the Imperial Queen's Park Hotel in Bangkok. Plenary Speaker is past president of TESOL Donald Freeman and featured speakers include Denise Murray (Macquarie University) and Andrew Littlejohn (London University). See the official Web site. ()

BBC/BC Provide Free Web Site for Teachers
Teaching English is a free Web site run by the British Council and BBC World Service. Launched last November, the site is aimed at non-native speaker teachers. It provides downloadable resources and teaching tips. According to an online producer, "The strength of the site is that much of the content is created by teachers for teachers." teachingenglish.org.uk. (January 22, 2003 )

NTT Developing "Flawless" Translation Program
NTT has announced that it is developing translation software for use on the Internet that will be more reliable and accurate than existing products. The fee-based service, starting with English to Japanese translation, is set to be launched sometime this year. The goal is to create software that can translate an English newspaper into "nearly flawless" Japanese. A team of engineers is working at the company's Science and Core Technology Laboratory Group and its Cyber Space Laboratories. The project is also utilizing the expertise of native-speaking linguists and researchers. (January 21, 2003 )

Win a Seiko Electronic Dictionary
The circulation of our free weekly newsletter recently reached the 20,000 level. To mark the occasion, we are giving readers a chance to win a Seiko Electronic Dictionary. The flagship SR-9200 model incorporates seven separate reference materials, including The Concise Oxford Dictionary, Thesaurus and E-J and J-E dictionaries. Five runners-up will receive a copy of the award-winning Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners. See here for more details. (January 20, 2003 )

English First Aid
We were delighted to hear from regular ELT News contributor Marc Helgesen that the percentage from royalties of the current edition of "English Firsthand" that goes to the CARE organization recently reached 1 million yen. The money goes to the Basic and Girls' Education Fund. During the 1990s, CARE secretly set up homeschools for girls in Afghanistan under the noses of the then ruling Taliban. For info on CARE, go to www.care.org. To find out about English Firsthand, visit www.efcafe.com. (January 17, 2003 )

RIC Seeks Book Proposals
New kid on the Japanese ELT block, RIC Publications, is looking for book proposals from teachers in Japan. Prospective authors should contact John Moore elt@ricpublications.com. More information about RIC can be found at http://www.ricpublications.com. (January 16, 2003 )

MAT Workshop in Tokyo
The Institute for the International English Education of Children will hold a workshop in Tokyo on January 19th for teachers on the MAT (model, action and talk) method. Ritsuko Nakata will explain the method she has developed and offer practical suggestions on using it. For more details, see the Event Calendar. (January 15, 2003 )

China Crazy For English
With the Olympics coming to Beijing in 2008, China is currently caught up in an English craze. This weekend the Sydney Morning Herald reported on the trend that is exemplified by the official "Beijing Speaks English Program", which aims to have 400,000 fluent English speakers in the city by the start of the games. With a stipulation that activities should be "popular, practical, mass-participating and entertaining", they've taken quite a different approach to that of the Japanese. The response has been huge, with thousands of people lining up from early morning for lectures, festivals and speaking and singing contests. This is in addition to the much-publicized nationwide Crazy English program, whose latest venture is a 10-hour-a-day, 12-day English "concentration camp." The report also mentions that the minimum income that you can expect if you join the 2,000 or so registered native teachers in China is about 8,000 yuan ($1,000) a month for 20 hours teaching a week. (January 14, 2003 )

Taiwan to Hire Thousands of English Teachers
The Taiwanese Ministry of Education plans to hire 1,000 native English teachers by this August. It is part of a long-term plan to have foreign teachers at all of the country's 3,300 public elementary and secondary schools, requiring a change to the law which prohibits the employment of foreigners in public schools. Prospective teachers must be under 45 and come from an English-speaking country with English as their mother tongue. They must have a college degree in a linguistics-related fields, be proficient in basic Mandarin Chinese and have no record of drug abuse. Previous teaching experience is recommended. Each teacher will be paid NT$60,000 to NT$90,000 (US$1,800 to US$2,700) a month, which is about double the wage of local English teachers. Prior to starting formal teaching in August, qualified teachers will have to undertake two weeks of training after arriving in Taiwan. (January 10, 2003 )

Teacher Breaks Student's Jaw Over Late Lunch
An elementary school teacher in Tokyo was arrested after he left a fourth-grade student with a broken jaw and injuries requiring eight stitches. In the kind of case that more often than not never reaches the police, Ichiyo Arai (52) initially said that he had injured the boy by accident but later told police he had punched him several times. The boy failed to obey Arai's instructions to clear up his classroom after finishing his lunch late. Arai took him to a lavatory where the assault took place. It is reportedly not his first attack on a student. The criminal complaint was filed by the boy's parents almost two weeks after the incident. (January 09, 2003 )

Moore to Head RIC Publications Japan
John Moore, former General Manger and Vice-President of Tuttle Japan has joined the RIC Group, an Australia-based educational publisher of resource materials for schools and teachers around the world. As President, Moore's role will be to head the new Japan office of RIC and focus on the needs of teachers, parents and students in Japan and Korea and other Asian markets. RIC Publications Limited has been incorporated in Japan and is a joint venture between RIC, Learners Publishing (Singapore) and John Moore. http://www.ricpublications.com/. (January 08, 2003 )

Ministry Plans Curriculum Revision
The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology is planning to revise the School Education Law, possibly as early as next year, to allow the country's elementary and middle schools to develop more integrated curriculums. The revisions would permit schools to change from the current six-three-year division to, for example, a four-three-two system, with the bridging period used to allow for faster or slower learners. The changes are expected to allow for a more gradual, long-term approach to English education in particular. (January 07, 2003 )

JALT2003 Already?!
JALT are now accepting submissions for presentations at JALT2003. The theme of this year's conference is "Keeping Current in Language Education". The focus is on "what is happening here and now in Japan: what is current practice and how is it changing, what is new, what is developing, and what do current research results show?" The event will be held at Granship, Shizuoka from November 21-23 and the deadline for submissions is February 28th. For the latest details, visit: http://jalt.org/jalt2003 (January 06, 2003 )

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