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
Volunteers to teach asylum seekers English
December 10, 2008Academics petition over ‘spying’
December 10, 2008LONDON, 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
December 10, 2008GRAND 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
December 10, 2008LEARNING 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
December 10, 2008CALGARY, 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
December 10, 2008LONDON, 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
December 10, 2008PHOENIX, 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
Language Centres Set Up All Over the Country
December 10, 2008KIGALI, RWANDA–Following the move by the government making English the language of instruction in all schools, centres have been established across the country that will facilitate students and teachers learn the language. According to Fred Bahati, the Director of the full story
The Top Ten Linguists
December 10, 2008LEXIOPHILES–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
‘Other English(es)’ teachers
December 10, 2008SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA–The days of “The Queen’s English” are long since past. English is now a global language, shared not by only the British, N. Americans and Australians, but S. Africans, Singaporeans, Filipinos, Indians, Jamaicans, and many others. In this situation, we can full story