TEFL News
Stay in touch with what’s happening around the TEFL world and around the web.
Word Press Blogs Blocked In Turkey
Just as Thailand unblocks YouTube after five months, Turkey has blocked all Word Press blogs. I found out about this via the comments of A Foreign Perspective, one of the EFL blogs I follow. Apparently there was an accusation of libel against the nemesis of a creationist / accused cult leader with “deep pockets” (the libel was in several blogs). When Word Press did not respond to requests to remove the specific offending blogs, the decision was made at the court level in Turkey to block all Word Press blogs.
I do hope A Foreign Perspective will be back soon, or Jake will direct readers to another, non-Word Press blog.
Date: August 31st, 2007 |
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TEFL News Hot Off The Press: August 27
From a rather unlikely source, the New Yorker, fiction with the ESL classroom as a backdrop.
“It seems so logical, and I don’t know why we haven’t done it all along”: pupils in Georgia put language skills to use. (you have to register to read it)
English language requirement enforced for nursing student applicants in Dubai.
An article explaining why learning a language does not automatically entail teaching extremism.
English will not shatter into smithereens if you drop it, according to one writer highlighting an anthology of “rotten English.”
Understanding English language said to be the biggest barrier …
Date: August 27th, 2007 |
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Around The Web On TEFL: August 22
High demand and low supply of ESL classes in California…and Arizona too.
An EFL teacher and graduate student in Korea explains how she’s culturally enhanced Korea and how it has culturally enhanced her. (Thanks to TESall.com for the link)
From ESL Teacher Talk, get some new ideas for using news articles in class.
Make sure you’re up to speed with English for NYPD purposes.
Bilingual charter schools take some heat…well, some of them.
A speaker of Bahasa Indonesian answers: does choosing to speak English reflect on your feeling for your own language?
Chinese and Arabic are …
Date: August 22nd, 2007 |
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Lost Isn’t Over Yet, But It’s Time To Leave The Island
“It’s time for Americans to get off their island” says one Fulbright recipient, explaining why it’s important for US citizens to spend time in other countries, especially given what seems to be a common negative impression of the US.
First of all, one of the reasons I think it is so valuable to teach EFL even for a year or two is just this: it gives you the chance to live in another country and actually interact with locals on a personal level.
However I’m not okay with the idea that Americans - or anyone - should travel or work abroad with the goal of “representing” their country. There is definitely something to be said for positive interactions between those from different countries…but people don’t need to be defined on the basis of their citizenship (or language or religion or hair color) or assumed to represent others because of it. In many contexts we talk about making judgments on a whole group of people based on the actions of one or two as a bad thing…is this really different from treating people as “representatives” of their country?
Date: August 15th, 2007 |
5 comments
Around The Web On TEFL: August 12
Courtesy of the Bootsnall Italy Logue, a link to a blog post with a variety of TEFL resources, including several specific to Italy.
From Education Week, a link to a study on what it would take – in dollars and teaching time - for legal permanent US residents to learn English to pass the US “naturalization” test or start post-secondary education.
Some Anglophones find a bone to pick with the usual suspect in linguistic debates: France. From the Education Guardian. (Just kidding! Everyone likes to argue with France, right?)
And there’s more, thanks to TEFLtastic for …
Date: August 12th, 2007 |
4 comments
The TEFL Logue At TEFLtastic
If you can take that much TEFL in one dose, the TEFL Logue has just been featured at TEFLtastic. My readers might be aware that there is a certain country in south east Europe which I like a lot, and when word reached me that TEFLtastic was looking for guest authors, I seized the opportunity to spread the word about do’s and don’ts in Bosnia and the rest of eastern Europe. From food to smoking to shoes and cheating in class, it’s all there.
You may recall that just a few weeks ago, I guest …
Date: August 29th, 2007 |
2 comments
Bilingual Education Drama
I recently came across an article on a potentially controversial topic in the US; my instinct is that it feeds into the fears fueling what I consider the ridiculous and xenophobic “English only” trend in the US. For that reason, I’ve been hesitant to post about it – am I contributing to that silliness?
My main decisions is: I’m not that important (although I definitely think I should be)!
Spanish needs worry some teachers. Is it because they are concerned about the progress of their students? Or that they cannot offer what their students need? Not exactly.
Date: August 26th, 2007 |
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Around The Web On TEFL: August 17
Can your students not draw to save their lives, and are you teaching furniture and prepositions of place? Check out Larry Ferlazzo’s Blog with a link to Create a Flooplan. This is just one activity, but Larry finds an astounding number of fun online stuff with EFL uses and posts nearly every day.
See how some US students are increasing their foreign language conversation time with Skype
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Jeju Island in Korea might just become the Mecca of English language education with a plan to build 12 schools inside a 4.26 million square meter English language village.
The International …
Date: August 17th, 2007 |
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Are Your Students Too Embarrassed To Speak?
I ask because apparently embarrassment at speaking a foreign language is a major reason given by some Brits for choosing not to travel abroad. I suspect many Americans are in the same or a similar boat…and further I suspect that this embarrassment is not about making a grammar mistake, but about speaking the foreign language at all.
So what about English language learners: are they embarrassed to speak? The answer probably depends on a whole range of factors, like the culture and each student’s own personality and so on….but if …
Date: August 14th, 2007 |
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Around The Web On TEFL: August 7
One Danish group uses its own language to covertly criticize a political leader in a commercial ad, proving you never know just what trouble those non-English speakers get up to!*
A Texas judge rules that the state’s ESL program is adequate.
Korea Beat blog wonders if there are too many foreign words in Korea.
American Sign Language is determined not to be a foreign language for university requirement purposes in Michigan. Still, its popularity in the US is rising - and it is the third most commonly used language.
A teacher of Chinese students considers students dozing …
Date: August 7th, 2007 |
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