The British Pearson group is buying Grupo Multi, the largest provider of private language education in Brazil, in a major move into education in South America.Peason will pay $720 million in cash to buy the company which currently has over 800,000 students and last...
Fears are growing in that ESL programs are likely to close leading to a loss of jobs for ESL teachers but also increased difficulties for immigrant and refugee students who will not have the opportunity to learn English. Proposed budget changes in NSW, Australia are...
English is the most important language anyone can learn today. That's not really in question as it dominates the world. But what is the second most useful language anyone can know? The British Council published a list today of which languages are the most important...
The 2020 Summer Olympics in Japan may seem a long way off, but in Japan the Tokyo authorities are already beginning to plan for the influx of foreign tourists and athletes. And the first step is increasing the number of English teachers in the country. Right now in...
The Malaysian Education Ministry is under fire after results from state school tests showed an overall decline in English standards despite recent massive spending on training from the British Council, the Brighton Education Group and the SMR HR Group."There is...
A bus driver in Maine, USA, has been suspended after complaints she made noisy students put duct tape over their mouths to keep them quiet. The driver worked for the First Student bus service and ferried children from Surrey Elementary School in Surrey, Maine....
British English teacher Roy Tucker, aged 49, died of a heart attack last Friday in Bang Saray, Thailand. He was an English teacher in several Satthip District public schools. Mr Tucker was with his girlfriend at the time and suffered from heart problems for which he...
Headway is one of the most popular ELT coursebooks around today with sales topping 70 million. The authors have recently announced an extension to their scholarship program helping 2 teachers a year in their professional development in the UK. Since 2004 the authors...
The UK government has awarded £6m ($9.5m or €7m) to various projects teaching English to non-native speakers in the country. The projects are aimed at some 24,000 speakers in so-called 'priority areas' in London, the Midlands and the North of the country where many...
Q: Which word unites the world? A: Huh? In English we say, Hello, and in Italian they say, Ciao, and in Greek they say, Gia, and on and on. Even the universal act of greeting has a thousand different forms in a thousand different languages. But Dutch researchers have...
We often get asked if users can quote parts of our resource library in their own work. This page explains how you can do this and more generally, how any online source can be cited in your work. Quoting ICAL TEFL Resources The resources on this site are free to use....
A report released today shows how the number of foreign students studying in the US has reached and all time high, up by about 40% from 10 years ago and up 7% from last year. This accounts for about 4% of the total student population and contributes almost $25 billion...
More and more these days we're asked about websites for teachers. Are they a good idea? Do they work? Why are they necessary? This article looks at why teachers might need a website, what you can do with your website and then how to create it. And no special computer...
The Church of Christ Thailand have signed a memorandum of understanding to recruit English teachers from the Nagaland Mission Movement based in northern India. According to CCT the need for English teachers is paramount. To overcome the shortage they will hire...
English First (EF) have just released their EPI or English Proficiency Index. Essentially it is an analysis of English language ability in countries around the world. But how truthful is it? After just a quick look there are some real concerns that what they've done...
The Hamas movement in Palestine has appointed its very first English language spokesperson - 23 year old, Isra Almodallal, who spent a number of years living in the UK. The move is seen as a simple step in promoting the Hamas message in the West.
Shanghai (Hu for short, also known as Shen) has again topped the list of preferred cities in China for expats. The survey was published by the Beijing magazine International Talent Monthly and the China Association for International Exchange of Personnel. Some 72,000...
A recent study has found that people who speak more than just one language and who develop dementia, tend to do so up to 5 years later in life than those who speak just one language. The study looked at some 650 sufferers of dementia and analyzed when they first...
The Afghan government has signed a major deal with the British Council in Afghanistan to begin training over 16,000 teachers in the country. This is designed to help facilitate the country's move towards offering an English language university curriculum. “We are very...
The prestigious Milan Polytechnic has been delivered a blow in its attempt to teach all postgraduate courses in English. A local court has ruled that making English obligatory is not constitutional and courses must be delivered in Italian. Both students and the...
I think we've all been there (at least in our heads, even if we didn't say what we were thinking). A teacher in California was giving a class on race and ethnicity. A student kept heckling and interrupting. The teacher had enough and suddenly flipped out, swearing at...
Interchange is a four-level, multi-skills English series for adult and young-adult learners. It was written by Jack C Richards and is published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) and is currently in its 4th edition. Components The series comprises a large number of...
In this guest blog, Tom Fitton explains how to approach teaching so that the students - and you - get the most out of the experience. The basic rules of human motivation tell us that everything we do is in the pursuit of something enjoyable or the avoidance of...
There have been a lot of problems with teachers getting ripped off in China by unscrupulous agents and illegal agents. In fact, one reliable estimate from the CFTU (more on them later) is that only around 20% of agents in China are authorized and legal - the other...
TEFL/TESOL in the Middle East The Middle East is traditionally where the best paying jobs have been found for English teachers. However, in the wake of the so-called Arab Spring of 2012 there have been increasing demands for the "Arabification" of teaching in Arab...
TEFL/TESOL in Africa To read about teaching English in specific countries in Africa, see below. Generally speaking Africa can be divided into several distinct areas when it comes to English teaching. There are a great number of schools across North Africa from...
Do you want to teach English in China? With ICAL TEFL you can take our TEFL Certificate Course and learn how to teach English and get the most from yourself AND your students! This course is ideal if you want to teach English in China. It is the basic qualification...
The ICAL TEFL Blog and the ICAL TEFL Resources are hugely popular destinations for English language professionals. Although we have added our own articles, we also welcome submissions from individuals and organizations outside ICAL TEFL. If you are interested in...
There is growing evidence that the "linear" English languages courses are declining in usage in favor of more clustered materials and returning to the same basic sources when learning. Fueled both by a demand for more efficient and faster delivery and more...
I think we have all found that giving clear instructions to our students, especially lower proficiency students, can be a real challenge. We quickly learn that giving only oral instructions can be futile in getting our students to understand what it is we want them to...
