Tag: English

English to be second language in Vietnam HE

subhadip

The Minister of Education and Training, Phung Xuan Nha, has initially aimed this regulation at 61 universities, academies and colleges under the Ministry. Announced last month, the regulation will ensure that lecturers at universities hold their meetings in English, with students also required to give presentations and discussions in English. “It sends a very strong signal that English proficiency is important for Vietnam” Autonomous universities will be asked to review and report on the difficulties in implementing English as a second language on campus, and suggest resolutions. “Once English becomes…

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Tourists are obsessed with this small English village and no one knows why

subhadip

AN ORDINARY English village is dealing with an extraordinary mystery. Asian tourists are flocking to Kidlington, Oxfordshire, by the busload — and none of the locals can understand why. It was about a month ago residents first noticed packed tour buses arriving in the village — which has a population of about 13,700 — and they’re continuing to arrive in droves. The village doesn’t have a particularly unique history and it has no obvious attractions, locals say. Still, packs of curious tourists pour out of the buses each week, peering…

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Universities compete by teaching in English

subhadip

There are now almost 8,000 courses being taught in English by leading universities in non-English speaking countries, according to a project mapping their expansion. The rise of universities teaching in English, rather than their own local language, has become a global phenomenon. These are not only appealing to the world’s five million international students who travel abroad, they are also being chosen by students staying in their own countries who prefer to study in English rather than their own language. The research is from a Dutch-based organisation,StudyPortals, which has a…

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‘English as a Life Skill’

subhadip

The third phase of the Presidential Initiative ‘English as a Life Skill’ through which the President takes English Language Skills across the country with a special focus on Spoken English, is being launched by the President from Temple Trees in the morning of Tuesday February 19, 2013. Releasing the creativity latent within the State Education System For the first time in the history of language teaching and learning in our schools, a set of 50 English language learning DVDs for grades 10 and 11 will be launched together with a…

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Chennai engineering grads rank low on English

Dona Smith

  CHENNAI: Engineering students in Chennai and Hyderabad needed maximum improvement in spoken English among a sample of 30,000 graduates surveyed across six metro cities including Delhi, Mumbai-Pune, Kolkata and Bangalore, according to a study. In comparison, New Delhi, Mumbai-Pune region and Bangalore were found to have students with good spoken English skills. The grading was based on SVAR – a spoken English assessment tool used by many industries in the country prior to hiring employees. The automated test judges parameters such as fluency, active listening, vocabulary, grammar, spoken English…

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