Category: English Central Blog

We are a little late on this one… In November, Panasonic announced that it would be launching a new megaphone in December. This megaphone is special because a Japanese speaker could speak into it and it would translate into English, Chinese and Korean. It won’t translate anything – it has about 300 pre-programmed phrases that it can recognize and translate.

Why a megaphone? The device was designed to help companies deal with the increasing number of tourists to Japan. They are hoping it will be used in transportation hubs and at tourist destinations. Users can add new phrases and updates by connecting to the internet. They are available for the bargain price of $183/month.

Read more.

The American College Testing exam board has announced that it will be making changes to the ACT test to accommodate ELLs starting in the 2017-2018 school year. Some of the accomodations include allowing ELLs extra time to complete the test, having the use of translation dictionaries, testing in a non-distracting environment (such as a different room), and rubrics in the student’s native language. The stated ambition for the changes is to make the ACT better reflect what ELLs have learned in school and thereby improve access and equity.

Read more in Education Week.

The teacher’s union New York State United Teachers has called on the state to make a greater investment in supporting ELLs. The number of ELLs in New York State has increased by 22% since the 2008-2009 school year. Schools are mandated to provide adequate support to ELLs, but the union is arguing that budget constraints make it impossible to satisfy this requirement. The union is asking for a special aid category to be created in the 2017-2018 budget that will provide at least $200 million to boards with large or growing ELL populations.

Read more from NYSUT media relations

In December, Peggy Estrada, an associate research scientist in Latin American and Latino studies at UC Santa Cruz, was awarded a research grant to study the classroom composition of California classrooms and specifically whether integration or separation of ELLs affects their learning opportunities. The Spencer Foundation awarded the grant called “English Learner Achievement in Elementary School: Classroom Composition and Opportunity to Learn.” Over the next three years, Estrada will work with colleagues Timea Farkas and Claude Goldenberg to conduct a small-scale experiment with 16 schools in California, where 42% of K-12 students are said to be non-native English speakers.

In a UCSC news release, Estrada stated that three main questions will be examined in the study. “First, do English language arts classroom practices differ depending on the classroom composition, and if so, how? Second, do classroom practices and classroom composition each predict student achievement? And finally, if we find a relation between classroom composition and student achievement, is that accounted for by classroom practices?”

Read more in the UCSC press release.

We noted last year that there was a surge in traffic to the Canadian Immigration website as well as to Canadian University websites from Amerian IPs. The surge of interest was not temporary curiosity, as the Associated Press is reporting that there has been a huge increase in American applications to Canadian Colleges/Universities. The University of Toronto has received 70% more applications than it had by this time last year, while there has been a 34% increase at McMaster University in Hamilton.

Read more.

There seems to be no end to the madness these days. The mood and general fear of foreigners that seems partly responsible for the Brexit vote in the UK is far from over. In December, the Home Office let it be known that they were considering reducing international student quotas almost in half – from 300,00 to 170,000. Naturally, a number of university heads have expressed alarm and some have said that students are already being denied visas on spurious grounds such as:

• an applicant was deemed to be ungenuine for not knowing the library’s opening hours
• another was denied for not knowing the name of the vice chancellor of the school he was planning to attend
• another was denied a visa because the balance of his bank account was a few pounds short of the balance specified during a 90 day period, even though his parents had considerable funds and their accounts were also submitted

To read more about why more international students will be heading to Australia and Canada, read the artile in The Guardian.

Season’s Greetings everyone! It is hard to believe another year has gone by (well, we don’t want to believe it but the increased creaking of the bones makes it impossible to deny). If it is any consolation, this is the one time of the year when we have a sale. We can help you get some awesome resources for a (festive) song; at the same time, you can help us lower the number of books we have to count during our upcoming end of year inventory. Everyone wins! Here is how it works:

1. This sale is 12 days long, though it is 12 English Central business days, making it December 10th to 23rd with a time out for eggnog on the 18th.
2. All teacher resource and photocopiable books in our catalog are 25% off during the entire sale. Use promo code hohoho25 if you are shopping online.
3. There is a different super sale item (up to 60% off) each of the 12 days. Check the flyer for details. Quantities are limited so make sure you order/buy as early in the day as possible.(For anyone ordering online, the daily specials appear in the “What’s New Section” of our website. Also, our website will not stop you from ordering if we have run out of stock, so you will receive a confirmation from office@englishcentral.net about stock after you place your order.)
4. 80% off a limited number of class sets!
5. The sale is valid online and in person in our Toronto showroom.
6. While quantities last, each purchase of $50 or more will receive a free mystery book. You might luck out and get something you would have paid hundreds for!
7. A miscellaneous collection of stuff that has been here for too long and needs a nice new home for the holidays will be on sale for as little as $2! (In the Toronto showroom only.)
8. Spread the joy! Let your colleagues and students know about our CHRISTMAS! Sale.

 

Download the sale flyer.

Who would have thought that a man who can rarely string together a complete sentence would influence what got chosen as Oxford Dictionaries’ word of the year? Well, the unthinkable has happened again. Donald Trump’s electioneering, along with Brexit, have popularized the use of the term “post-truth”, which is an adjective defined as ‘relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief’.

The term has been around for a decade, but its usage has gone mainstream during the past year, and often collocates with “politics”.

Read more on the meaning and the rise of the term (and see the other words on the shortlist) on the Oxford Dictionaries’ site.

 

The Open Doors report was recently released and it shows that while the number of international students enrolled in undergraduate and graduate programs in the United Stated increased by 7.1% in the 2015-2016 school year, the number of students in intensive English programs (IEPs) decreased. Enrollment in IEPs actually decreased by a substantial 14.6%. A representative from English USA attributes the dip in numbers to the decline in Brazil and Saudia Arabia’s funding of students wishing to study English overseas.

For a full analysis, go to Inside Higher Ed.

The full Open Doors report.