Volunteers to teach asylum seekers English

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM–A campaign aimed at embarrassing the government into revoking its ban on free English lessons for asylum seekers by mobilising volunteers to teach them is being launched today. The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (Niace) full story

Academics petition over ‘spying’

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM–Academics and students have presented a petition to Downing Street, urging the government to withdraw new immigration rules for overseas students in the UK. From next March, universities will be expected to monitor whether full story

ELL numbers balloon

GRAND FORKS, ND–Amera Issa excitedly raises her hand to answer almost every question her teacher asks. Amazing, considering the 8-year-old second-grader at Century Elementary in Grand Forks is new to the English language. Issa is a Somali English Language Learner full story

States with Alternative Tests for ELLs

LEARNING THE LANGUAGE–Staff members of the U.S. Department of Education have provided me with a factual statement about states that have alternative tests for English-language learners for calculating adequate yearly progress under the No Child Left Behind Act—and full story

Strong grasp of mother tongue boosts students

CALGARY, CANADA–A cacophony of sounds emerges from the St. Mark School library as parents and children create multi-coloured advent wreaths. Intermingling conversations in Spanish, Asirian and Tagalog are encouraged in this specialized preschool for students full story

Asylum seekers need free English classes, urges campaign

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM–Asylum seekers should be entitled to free English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and not have to wait until their claims for asylum have been approved. This is the principle aim of A Right to a Voice – a campaign being launched in London today, full story

Study rebuts perceptions of migrants’ English use

PHOENIX, AZ–Phoenix resident Guadalupe Garcia has lived in the United States for nearly 35 years, but she still doesn’t speak English well. The 65-year-old seamstress from Mexico spoke only Spanish at home to her children and held jobs where she didn’t need much English. full story  related story

The Top Ten Linguists

LEXIOPHILES–Broadly defined, linguist is someone who is engaged in the study of human language. Throughout its distinguished history, language study has known thousands of names from Panini, the author of the first Sanskrit grammar, to John Grinder, the founder of  full story

What is ELL?

GRAND FORKS, ND–The English Language Learner program includes six levels. Level 1 contains students with no English background, and students become more proficient closer to Level 6. Students can be taken out of the program when they reach 4.5, according to state law, but staff full story

Integrating immigrants into the workplace takes time

CALGARY, CANADA–Thousands of studies and practical experience have demonstrated that culture-sensitive HR management practices improve performance in the modern, diverse workplace. Due to cultural differences, management methods that work well in Calgary will not full story