The Latest News in ELT

February 2003

Singalong-a-Yamaha
Yamaha have developed software that can emulate a singing human voice. The software uses a database of several hundred recordings of vowel-consonant combinations and can produce a voice that sings in English or Japanese. The software also overcomes the unnatural sound of synthesized speech by altering the frequencies of sounds when they are combined. Yamaha plans to release the software early next year and expects it to sell to record companies worldwide. Yamaha Web site. (February 28, 2003 )

When in Rome...or Tokyo
The latest Pop Vox column on the JapanToday.com site asks Japanese people on the streets of Shibuya whether foreigners in Japan should speak more Japanese or whether the locals should speak more English. One young woman says, "If foreigners use simple English to talk to Japanese people, I think that is fine. It is really a matter of whether you are willing to listen to someone or not." Read more... (February 27, 2003 )

DynEd Chosen for Malaysian Contract
DynEd International and its Malaysian partner ICSB recently announced that they have completed the delivery of courseware and training support materials to improve the English level of 30,000 Math and Science teachers in all 13 Malaysian states. The contract forms part of an overall package of new curriculum and teacher support materials to assist in the transition by Malaysian schools to English as the language of instruction for the teaching of math and science. Starting with the current semester, all students in three grade levels are being taught both subjects in English with all other grade levels to make the switch in the coming years. DynEd Int'l Web site. ()

Deadline Extensions
Deadlines for the submission of proposals for the following two events have been extended:
- PAN-SIG Conference (May 2003; Kyoto): extended to March 15th.
- Southwest Regional Conference (September 2003; Kokura, Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture): extended to March 31st.
The deadlines for the Second Peace as a Global Language Conference (September 2003; Tokyo) and the JALT National Conference (November 2003; Shizuoka) are still this Friday, February 28th. (February 26, 2003 )

Deregulation for International Schools
The education ministry has been studying a proposal to allow graduates from about 20 international schools to matriculate to national universities without having to take a separate exam. At present, such students have to obtain the "Daiken" college admission certificate which shows that they meet national academic standards. The proposal would recognize the certification currently provided to most international schools with an English curriculum by such bodies as the Western Association of Schools and Colleges of the US and the British European Council for International Schools. The plan would not apply to the majority of international schools, which cater to Korean or Chinese speaking students. Ministry officials have until the end of March to finalize the plan. (February 25, 2003 )

Itochu to Move Into English Publishing
Itochu, one of Japan's largest trading companies, is to start publishing English versions of Japanese novels and comics. These include Koji Suzuki's novel "Ring" and "Buddha" by the late cartoonist Osamu Tezuka. The company plans to invest in Vertical Inc., a New York publisher and sell these books in both the US and internationally. Vertical holds the English translation and publishing rights for a dozen books by Suzuki and other popular writers such as Kenzo Kitakata and Taichi Yamada. It has a sales target of over 1 million copies of the titles. Itochu Japan Web site. (February 24, 2003 )

The More Things Change...
The influx of western culture since the break up of the Soviet Union has gone too far for the Moscow government. A new law has been passed to discourage the use of English words by Musovites. Anyone overheard using westernized words such as "biznes" or "menedgment", or swearing or using slang for that matter, could be served with two months' "corrective work", the Russian equivalent of community service. (February 21, 2003 )

Start With 100 Words on NHK
"Start With 100 Words - Eikaiwa" is the latest NHK English conversation program, due to start on April 8th. It will air on Tuesday to Friday nights on Channel 3 from 11 to 11:10pm. Appearing on the show will be radio DJ George Williams in the role of a teacher. 17-year old actress Kato Natsuki, who is also in the forthcoming movie "Battle Royale II" by the late Fukasaku Kinji, will play a student. ()

Seiyu Execs Go With English
Executives at Seiyu Ltd, Japan's fourth-largest supermarket operator, are to adopt English job titles from March 1. Titles such as 'Kaicho', 'Shacho' and 'Torishimaruyaku' will be replaced with their English equivalents 'Chairman', 'CEO' and 'Director'. US retailer Wal-Mart recently invested in the company, and the move is part of an effort to spread the parent company's corporate culture in Japan. Seiyu Web site. (February 20, 2003 )

Tokyo Ward Conducts Achievement Tests
Students at 24 elementary schools and all junior high schoolers in Tokyo's Arakawa Ward, about 9,500 in all, are taking part in a new testing system that will track annual progress. It is the first such move by a local government in Japan. Students in the first six grades took tests in Japanese and math, while those in middle school were also examined in English. Keizo Fujita, the principal at one of the elementary schools said, "It is important for each child to know the level of his or her achievement." ()

Bowlingual to Hit US
Bowlingual, the device that translates the barks, whines and growls of dogs into English, is to be launched in the US market in August. It can translate 200 different voiced emotions as well as 23 from physical gestures into English text messages on a wireless monitor. Released by toy maker Takara in Japan last September, it has sold 200,000 units. The company hopes to sell three times that number in America, where it will be priced at $120. It will be sold through toymaker Hasbro Inc. as well as pet shops, gift shops and other outlets. Bowlingual PR, PDF file. (February 19, 2003 )

Strange School Rules
In an aside to a recent survey on Japanese education, the Japan Information Network included the following strange school rules reported by pollees: at one elementary school, students are required to do everything in pairs; at a coeducational middle school, the boys and girls are not allowed to speak with each other; a 35-year-old mother notes that her old high school did not allow the students to talk to students from another school; another parent recalls that when she attended a girls high school, students were only allowed to use 30 centimeters of toilet paper per trip to the bathroom. (February 18, 2003 )

Saitama School to Help Students Take Extra STEP
Saturday's Daily Yomiuri reported that a Saitama Prefecture high school is to become the first to prepare students for English proficiency tests, such as TOEFL, TOEIC and STEP. Warabi Prefectural High School will offer the classes, each with no more than 15 students, to the 40 students in each grade majoring in foreign languages. The school aims for all students to pass at least the 2nd Grade STEP Test by graduation, a target recently set by the education ministry, and for 10% to reach the Pre-1st Grade level. (February 17, 2003 )

First Global Online Education Fair
Educational and recruitment publisher Hobsons is launching the world's first global Virtual Education Fair (VEF) on Feb. 25-27. It a three-day, free Web event that will connect 30,000 prospective international students with over 150 institutions around the world. Hobsons' first global VEF aims to help prospective students, especially those who have no access to education fairs in their area. It has all the features of a traditional education fair, plus the advantages of being online and accessible from anywhere in the world. All levels of education will be covered, from EFL and pre-degree to management education. For more info, see the Hobsons site. ()

TOEFL Requirement for Kyoto Teachers
The Kyoto Municipal Board of Education announced this week plans to incorporate the TOEFL test into its teacher training. Over the next three school years, a total of 330 English teachers at its public junior and senior high schools and schools for the handicapped will have to take the test. They will then take the test again in 2006. While the education ministry, in its July 2002 "Japanese Who Can Use English" plan, set a target score of 550 points, Kyoto hopes just that teachers will show an improvement over the two tests. They also aim for the teacher trainees' university lectures and group training to be carried out completely in English. (February 14, 2003 )

Sophia U. English Test Blunder
Tokyo's Sophia University (Jochi Daigaku) distributed the wrong English test papers to almost 10% of examinees sitting entrance exams on Monday. The exams were delayed by an hour as a result of the mistake. The university will issue a letter of apology with the exam results. Sophia is known as one of Japan's more international universities. About 20% of its full-time faculty and 5% of students are non-Japanese. (February 13, 2003 )

Got a Case of the Wiggles?
It took this group a mere five minutes to sell out 43 shows on the US east coast. They've sold nearly 2 million copies of 11 albums and more than 9 million videos since their 1991 debut. They're not a rock band or even an idol group. Right now, the Wiggles are the biggest thing in tiny-tot entertainment. And their appeal goes beyond their legions of pre-school fans - they also meet with the approval of parents and educators, who consider them a very 'wholesome' group. Three members of the Australian quartet first met while taking early childhood education courses at Sydney's Macquarie University in 1990. Lead vocalist Greg Page says: "Our unique background in early childhood education equips us with a better and more in-depth understanding of children - understanding what interests them, what makes them feel comfortable and the things that make them laugh." Their performances are enlivened by a supporting cast that includes Captain Feathersword, Dorothy the Dinosaur, Henry the Octopus and Wags the Dog. The band have signed a franchise deal with Disney, with 'cloned' bands to be created throughout Asia. Auditions for a Japanese version of the Wiggles are being held this month. Time to get wiggling. (February 12, 2003 )

Nationwide Immersion Program for Kids
Yesterday's Mainichi reported on an education ministry plan to place hundreds of elementary school students in short-term immersion programs. The aim is to encourage the use of "real English," according to ministry officials. Starting this year, dozens of groups of 20 to 30 fifth and sixth graders in various locations around the country will be selected to spend two weeks of their summer vacation and a week of the winter break living with native English speakers and Japanese teachers. Details of the plan will be drawn up by local boards of education, teachers and English conversation schools. (February 10, 2003 )

Nova's High-Fiber English Diet
English conversation school Nova Co. have announced that they will upgrade from the current ISDN network to a fiber-optic network for students taking lessons at home. The higher speeds available with fiber-optics will allow for more "realistic" lessons. The new service, set to begin in the Kansai region next Monday, uses Internet protocol videophones. Of Nova's 360,000 students nationwide, 100,000 take lessons at home. (February 07, 2003 )

BC & SVIC Team Up for e-Learning Project
The British Council, the UK's international organisation for educational and cultural relations, and SV Interactive Communications Inc, (SVIC), have agreed to collaborate in the area of English language learning and assessment. SVIC is an e-learning joint venture company established by Vektor Limited, UK and Sony Human Capital Corporation. The objective to provide effective English learning materials to Japanese businesspeople. The Executive English Programme includes assessment and preparation using BULATS (Business Language Testing Service), provided by Cambridge ESOL and administered locally by the British Council, personally tailored English courses and a native 1-to-1 personal tutor from SVIC using their unique "Blended e-Style" approach to learning. ()

Taiwan Rethinks Teacher Recruitment
Plans by the Taiwanese education ministry to hire 1,000 native English speaking teachers by 2008 have been revised. The plan led to protests by local teachers, who said it was poorly thought out, rushed and badly planned given the island nation's struggling economy. They also feared it would endanger the jobs of many of their colleagues. During a recent forum, the ministry's English Education Advisory Committee unanimously disagreed with the plan and instead decided on a target of 400 to 600 foreign teachers, with the budget balance to be used to hire foreign teacher trainers. Japan's experiences with hiring foreign teachers for primary schools were cited. "Both Japan and South Korea have reduced the number of foreign English teachers. The problem was that the foreign teachers usually had difficulty in coordinating with the domestic teachers, and were often treated as simply 'living recorders' who did nothing but regurgitate native-English pronunciation," said one professor. ()

Half of Primary Schools Teaching English
In a white paper released this week, the education ministry said survey results show that more than 50% of the nation's public primary and middle schools have introduced English conversation classes for students in the third grade or above. But the number of hours taught per year are still low, with only 1% of schools teaching sixth graders more than 35 hours annually, the equivalent of one hour a week. 30% of schools taught less than 10 hours per year. The survey also showed that class sizes have become smaller and more classes are being increasingly tailored to students' levels. The report said that Japanese students' performance is reasonably good but, compared to other OECD countries, there are fewer students with high academic ability. (February 06, 2003 )

DEH Book Service Now Online
ELT News is proud to host the David English House Online Book Service. DEH's book service is famous for its top quality, comprehensive and speedy service, and with a 20% discount of ETJ members, it's the best value book service in Japan. For more information, see here. (February 05, 2003 )

Conference Deadlines This Month
A reminder that the deadlines for proposals for the following conferences are coming up this month:

-- 2nd Annual JALT PAN-SIG Conference (Kyoto Institute of Technology, May 12-13, 2003)
Due: February 14th, 2003 | Information

-- JACET 42nd Conference (Sendai, Miyagi, Sept. 4-6, 2003)
Due: February 20th, 2003 | Call for Papers (English follows Japanese)

-- The 2nd JALT Southwest Regional Conference (Kitakyushu Int'l Conf. Centre, Sept. 21, 2003)
Due: February 28, 2003 | Call for Papers

-- JALT 2003 International Conference (GranShip, Shizuoka, Nov. 21-24, 2003)
Due: February 28, 2003 | Call for Papers
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Communication Strategies a Hit for Paul
Communication Strategies, a fluency-building text for Japanese intermediate students, has proved a great success since its publication at the end of last year. "I'm delighted with the reception the book has received," said author David Paul. "I've always felt there was a big need for a book that focuses on getting students through the intermediate threshold." According to publisher Thomson Learning Japan, it has proven effective in a variety of situations, from senior high schools to private language schools and universities. "The timing has been perfect for this fluency-builder, and David Paul did a wonderful job creating a package that fits Japanese intermediate students perfectly. One reason for the success is the book's transparency, both for teacher and student," said rep Stuart Bowie. "A level 2 book is already on the way," he added. For further info or free samples to teachers please contact Thomson Learning at elt@tlj.co.jp, or 3511-4392. (February 04, 2003 )

Is There a Doctor in the Stadium?
When Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Kazuhisa Ishii was asked to comment about his team recommending that he see a sports psyschologist following a nasty accident on the mound last season, his answer sounded all too familiar. The former Yakult Swallows star said that instead he "wanted to see an English doctor to improve my English." The comment was made through an interpreter. Ishii was hit square in the head by a line drive in September, leaving him with a fractured skull that needed surgery and the insertion of a titanium plate. Shame it didn't have a built-in dictionary. (February 03, 2003 )

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