Professors at the Florida International University received a grant from the Stevens Initiative to use virtual reality to build an English-Arabic language learning environment.
Read more on the FIU.
Tag: English
Canada to offer new pathway to permanent residency for temporary essential workers and graduates
This recently-announced, new policy will allow up to 90,000 essential workers and international graduates already in Canada to convert their temporary status to permanent.
More from CBC.
Pandemic has created a mental health crisis amongst international students
One Voice Canada recently released a study that looks at the difficulties that international students, specifically Indian students, face. While these difficulties existed before, they have become amplified by the pandemic. The study notes that there has been an increase in mental health problems and suicide.
Read the report.
Quarantine rules discouraging international students from coming to Canada
The travel rules implemented recently have led to many international students either postponing or canceling their plans to study in Canada. In the meantime, the US and UK are actively marketing to international students.
Read more on CTV.
The suprising – and likely short lived? – success of the Duolingo English Test
While most of us involved in English language instruction have been negatively impacted by the pandemic, language learning apps have seen a boom. Duolingo saw its sales increase 67% in 2020. It then launched its English Test, which is aimed at the US university market. Cheaper and faster than the TOEFL (and capitalizing on the fact that many US institutions became test optional or test blind recently to help attract students), it has quickly made inroads.
But a number of factors make one wonder if this is a flash in the pan…
Read more in the EL Gazette.
Positive energy: ELT edition
We are planning on making this year the positive energy year. We have some ideas we are working on and we will bring them to you over the course of the year, but we would first like to start by asking our readers what we can bring you that will make a happy and positive difference to you. Please take a minute to think and then ask us for speakers or information on any area that would bring some positive energy to you. The possibilities are endless, really, so don’t be shy to bring anything to us. We will do our best to use what connections and resources we have to make it happen. |
ILAC acquires CTC and Sterling College
Mega private langauge school ILAC has aquired two British Columbia colleges : Canadian Tourism College and Sterling College. ILAC recently created a Higher Education division and will be offering programs in tourism, hospitality, nursing and business. The two colleges were acquired to strengthen this new division.
Read more on the ILAC blog.
After you’ve gone big, you don’t need to go home… so diversify instead.
In 2014, the Canadian federal government set the objective to add 450,000 international students by 2022. In a rare example of a government succeeding in a plan, that number was actually reached by 2018!
A small problem with this great success story is that almost half of those students are from China and India. Given the tensions in relations with China lately (and historical lessons like those of ghost towns) and the comfortable position that Canada is sitting in at this moment, the feds have set some new objectives: diversifying the international student body, increasing the number of Canadian students who go to study abroad and improving the experience of international students. All sounds good.
Read more in Maclean’s.
Pairing NESTs up with NNESTs for better outcomes (for students in China, at least)
The EL Gazette has an interesting article on a study that was recently published showing that student outcomes were better in Chinese classrooms when Native English Speaker Teachers (NESTs) and Non-Native English Speaker Teachers (NNESTs) collaborated and co-teach.
Read more in the EL Gazette. If you are a real nerd, read the actual study (paid).
Group work makes local students unpaid tutors to international students
The EL Gazette reports on an Australian student, Meshal Laurie, who argues that with the group work projects they are required for their courses, the Australian students in her program are effectively required to tutor the international students in their groups in order to pass their courses. Similar stories have come out of the UK.
Read more in the EL Gazette.