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| Chile's drive for English faces first test A six-year campaign to raise the foreign language skills of students and schoolteachers and in turn boost global competitiveness is about to undergo its first formal evaluationThis year marks the first formal assessment of Chile's six-year campaign to raise English language skills: English Opens Doors. At the end of this month 240,000 students in their third year of high school (aged 16-17) will take the Toeic Bridge test to demonstrate that their comprehension of English is equivalent to B1 on the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) scale.An informal test in 2004 revealed that only 5% of Chilean students reached this level, but the ambitious target set by Opens Doors is that all students going into their final year of high school in 2013 will have achieved the equivalent of B1.The programme, created in 2004, promotes English learning through teacher-training programmes and scholarships abroad, inviting native-English speakers into Chilean classrooms and giving students the opportunity to participate in public speaking, debates and English camps."I had a great year while perfecting my English. I think study-abroad grants have helped improve teaching levels a lot," said Victoria Cuadra, who returned last year from the UK after spending 12 months as a teaching assistant in Hull, on a grant from the Chilean government. "There are still problems like teachers' salaries being too low and some schools not having enough resources to teach English."The Chilean government awards scholarships to university students on track to become teachers. These students spend either a term studying English abroad or a year working as assistants in English-speaking countries. In return the students must work for two years in state-funded school after they qualify as teachers. Many though, like Cuadra, are not planning to stay in the state system. "I think two years is enough. The money is much better in private schools, not to mention the better teaching environment," she said.Currently 8,200 English teachers work in establishments that receive state funding and 5,400 of these teachers have participated in courses designed to develop and update their language skills. The courses are offered on Saturday mornings, sometimes with an additional weeknight, and teachers contribute about $160 towards course fees with the government covering the remaining 85% of costs.The government is hoping that the first formal assessment of teachers' English skills, scheduled to take place in 2011, will show that the training has delivered results. Next year all teachers in government-funded schools will be expected to have reached B2 on the CEFR framework. The fate of teachers who do not achieve the level has still to be revealed.Isabel González, director of the Opens Doors programme, says its rationale is simple. "English is imperative to Chile in terms of business investment. Raising the level of English in schools will ultimately lead to a higher-quality workforce, which will in turn attract foreign investment and increase economic development."But she acknowledges that Chile's relative isolation has been a major challenge in the drive to improve skills. "Chile's geographical, economic and cultural characteristics have limited communication between the majority of our population and English-speaking communities. This isolation makes the quality of English learning and student motivation quite difficult."In an attempt to connect students and teachers, English-speaking volunteers have been invited into Chilean classrooms, in an exchange project supported by the UN Development Programme. Since 2004 almost 1,400 volunteers have been placed in schools."The students benefitted from having the presence of a native speaker in the classroom," said Emily Edwards from the UK, who worked as a British Council language assistant in the southern city of Concepción in 2008. "Many of them just needed the push of believing they were dealing with a non-Spanish speaker to spur them into talking in English in the class."However not everyone is happy with the way in which native-speaker assistants are used. Katty Kaufmann, a leading English interpreter and former director of a major US study and volunteer-abroad programme in Chile, is critical of the lack of training. "Neither the volunteers nor the teachers receive sufficient instruction on how the assistants should be used in the classroom. Most teachers simply don't know the capacity in which they should use the volunteers. The assistants could be helpful, but an effective policy needs to be implemented."Kauffman, who works with high-level government personnel across the southern hemisphere, says Chile is far behind its stated goals. "English in Chile at international standards? We're not even in the neighbourhood of international standards," she said.That view is shared by Jorge Cuevas, who supervises English language teaching at Bolivariana University in Los Angeles, near Santiago. "The government feels pressure to conform to international standards because of Chile's new political standing in the world, for example as a recent OECD member, but the reality is we are very far from achieving these standards," he said."Although it is possible all teachers may reach level B2 in the national testing, I think it is highly unlikely students will reach the goals that have been set. Even if they did, the Toeic Bridge test the government is planning to use only tests passive skills, so speaking levels will still be substandard."Government expenditure on Opens Doors is approximately $10m annually, but while the investment is welcomed questions remain about how the programme is being implemented. Kauffman cites bureaucracy as the "greatest shortcoming of the programme"."You have tremendously valuable ideas buried in paperwork. The programme could succeed if they get rid of the red tape, start to analyse and come up with quantifiable means to ascertain the programme goals."TeflChileInternational education newsguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
As Democrats' message lags, GOP awaits huge wins By CHARLES BABINGTON and LIZ SIDOTI 2010-10-16T17:35:30ZWASHINGTON (AP) -- Two weeks before Election Day, Democrats fear their grip on the House may be gone, and Republicans are poised to celebrate big gains in the Senate and governors' mansions as well.... hosted.ap.org |
Chinese woman forced to have abortion at eight months, claims husband Xiao Aiying, 36, was allegedly dragged from her home and beaten for violating China's one-child policyA pregnant woman in China was detained, beaten and forced to have an abortion just a month before her due date because the baby would have violated the country's one-child limit, her husband said today.Luo Yanquan, a construction worker, said his wife was taken kicking and screaming from their home by more than a dozen people on 10 October and detained in a clinic for three days by family planning officials, then taken to a hospital and injected with a drug that killed her baby.Family planning officials told the couple they were not allowed to have the child because they already have a nine-year-old daughter, Luo said.For the last 30 years, China has limited most urban couples to one child in a bid to curb population growth and conserve its limited resources. China has the world's largest population with more than 1.3 billion people. Couples who flout the rules face hefty fines, seizure of their property and loss of their jobs.The case is an extreme example of the coercive measures Chinese officials sometimes use to enforce the strict family planning regulations. Though forced abortions are illegal, police and judicial authorities often look the other way and the heavily censored state media shy away from reporting such news.But in recent years, victims have begun to speak out with the help of the internet and text messaging. Aiding them are social campaigners and lawyers who have documented cases of forced late-term abortions. Similar abuses have been reported in Hebei and Shandong provinces and in the Guangxi region.An official with the Siming district family planning commission, which oversees Luo's neighbourhood, confirmed there was a record of Luo's wife, Xiao Aiying, undergoing an abortion recently but said the procedure was voluntary and that she was about six months instead of eight months pregnant at the time. Like many Chinese bureaucrats, he refused to give his name.China bans forced abortions, but does not prohibit or clearly define late-term abortion.The Siming official said Luo had approved the abortion, a claim he denied."I never signed anything. No one in our family did," he said by telephone from Xiamen. "I called the police but they said family planning issues weren't their responsibility. I want to sue, but lawyers I've asked here say they can't help me and the media won't report on our case."Luo set up a blog last week to let people know what had happened to his wife, and satellite broadcaster Al-Jazeera posted a report about the couple's case on its website yesterday.Photos on the blog show a pained-looking, and clearly pregnant, Xiao sitting on a hospital bed after the injection but before the baby was stillborn 40 hours later. Other images show a large purple bruise on her arm and scratches on her leg, which Luo said were caused when family planning officials hit and kicked her as she struggled to get away.Ordinary Chinese people reacted with anger and disgust to Luo's online account, posting comments that called the family planning officials cruel and inhuman.Xiao delivered the dead baby on 14 October but remains hospitalised and may require emergency surgery to remove pieces of placenta still in her uterus, Luo said. The couple, both 36, were not informed of the sex of the aborted baby, Luo said.A man who answered the phone at the obstetrics ward of the Siming No 1 hospital confirmed that Xiao was still a patient there. He refused to provide more details or give his name.Calls to the press office of the National Population and Family Planning Commission in Beijing rang were not answered today.ChinaAbortionHealthguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Israel clash over anti-Arab march Israeli police clash with Arab protesters in the northern town of Umm al-Fahm, as Israeli far-right activists stage a demonstration. bbc.co.uk |
ESF: New skills for older workers - Video If you’re seeking a strong human interest story, then take a look at the European Social Fund. Far from being a set of dry statistics, the ESF is the framework for thousands of fascinating tales of individual human endeavour. feedproxy.google.com |