Chile's "English Opens Doors" plan aims to make all Chileans bilingual within a generation. The government, believing that knowledge of English is a vital commercial and educational tool, plans for Chile to join Scandinavian countries and some Southeast nations which treat the English language as a basic instrument of global trade. However, not all Chileans favor making the country bilingual. fearing that adopting English will dilute national identity.  Read entire article


ESL Teacher Blogs Interesting, Informative
About.com has compiled a list of the fourteen best ESL teacher blogs on the the internet. These sites provide insightful information, lesson plans and local cultural information as well as reflections on teaching English as a second or foreign language.

At the top of the list is An ELT Notebook, written by an Sue Swift, who has been an EFL teacher and teacher trainer for over thirty years. She is the author of a number of published courses, and runs a small language training business in Italy. Her blog offers a variety of well designed lesson plans.

Another recommended blog is APCAMPBELL, written by Aaron Patric Campbell, who teaches English as a Foreign Language at Kyoto Sangyo University. Included on his site is a discussion of how to use blogs in language learning classes.


Korean College Students Deserve a Grade of  "F" in  English
A prominent business executive demanded last month that the Korean government give priority to improving college students' level of English proficiency, saying that companies are reluctant to hire graduates because their English skills are so poor and most deserve a grade of F.

In response, the education minister said the government is devising a new nationwide English test to replace the current TOEIC and TOEFL tests, which focus on reading and writing ability, not on conversational skills. (Editor's note: the TOEFL has recently been revised to include a speaking component.) The education ministry looking into designing a new English test. Read entire article

This refereed online journal is well designed, easy to navigate, and offers an in-depth examination of issues within the Asian EFL linguistic scene.  Its editorial board and contributors are drawn from around the world.  The editors state that "our policy is not to have only linguistic scholarly work, but to seek and allow other input of a multidisciplinary kind when possible so as to facilitate the necessary cross-discipline pollination that helps advance intellectual and professional advancement ... The Asian EFL journal sets out to more critically examine current and new methods in pursuit of helping to revitalize Asian EFL education, considered by some modern linguistic commentators as rather moribund and in need of new thinking."