ELTWeekly Issue#11, Worldwide ELT news

By Tarun Patel

English-a Vehicle for Service Industry - kanglaonline.com

In the globalized world, English is increasingly becoming a medium of communication for almost all interactions – social, economic or political. The interactions take place through various available ways – real time face to face personal interaction, virtual interactions over the internet, which could be on real time basis or otherwise, written communications for personal or business purposes, verbal communication over phones-mobile or fixed landline and short message service. The arena of communication among the global citizens is widening. Facebook, Orkut, blogs, and other social networking sites are allowing people from various corners of the world to share personal details, opinions on anything and everything.

Read the complete news here: http://www.kanglaonline.com/index.php?template=kshow&kid=1465

INTO fears for 1,000 teaching jobs - rte.ie

The INTO has said figures released this evening by the Department of Education confirm its view that up to 1,000 teaching posts will be lost in primary schools as a result of budget cutbacks.

The department has released information that shows that more than 250 mainstream teaching posts will be lost.

However, the data deals only with losses to classroom teacher posts. It does not include the loss of special needs teachers, language teachers or other positions.

Read the complete news here: http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0224/education.html

ZAINUL ARIFIN: Every language has a role to play - nst.com.my

MOST of those who want to put a stop to the teaching of the subjects of Science and Mathematics in English are neither racist nor chauvinist, though some may be. Most simply believe in their cause — whatever it may be.

And, they are championing their cause despite knowing its potentially disastrous outcome.

It is akin to acknowledging the dangers of smoking, and yet continuing to puff away. Why?

Read the complete news here: http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Wednesday/Columns/2488848/Article/indexpull_html

The language of opportunity - timesofmalta.com

Students aged between 17 and 19 should be benefitting from an international public-speaking programme, with far-reaching aims, as the first concrete step of the English-Speaking Union’s establishment in Malta.

Schools will be able to take part in the competition, one of the union’s most important programmes, starting from the next scholastic year.

English-Speaking Union director-general Valerie Mitchell has met head teachers and education officers and was impressed by the positive feedback, convinced that schools across the board will be participating.

Read the complete news here: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090224/local/the-language-of-opportunity

Importance of learning soft skills for graduates - deccanherald.com

An English faculty’s role is not just improving the language skills of his students, but also fine tuning their soft skills.

The time has arrived to brainstorm on what to teach in English language classrooms. The textbooks which are filled with prose and poetry are not catering to the changing demands of the student community. The students don’t need to appreciate the works of literature to improve their communication skills. In the present context, where good verbal and written communication is in demand, our text books don’t give the necessary input required by them. So students go in search of centres which claim to improve the communication skills of students in a few days. What can be done by the universities while designing the syllabus, so that students don’t need outside support?

Read the complete news here: http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Feb252009/avenues20090224120479.asp

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ELTWeekly Issue#11

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February 25th, 2009

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Tarun Patel (http://tarunpatel.net/blog/) is an ELT and Communication skills teacher, working with Charotar University of Science & Technology (CHARUSAT - http://charusat.ac.in/). He has been dealing with the Language learning processes for last seven years. 'Technology in Teaching English' is his favorite domain and he has presented several research papers in national and international conferences on the same theme. He is the founder editor of ELTWeekly (http://eltweekly.com/), India's first weekly ELT eNewsletter which reaches in more than forty countries and benefits more than 1600d teachers of English and Communication Skills. Have a look at his personal blog http://tarunpatel.net/blog/.