Category Archives: Teaching English in China

China Radio International investigation of EF

Posted on 30/11/2013 by alexcase

Some of the criticism is a bit random, but the reports of refusing refunds and Western-looking but non-native teachers seem genuine: Behind the Foreign Brand Name (radio programme and transcript)

Posted in EF, Teaching English in China | 5 Comments

100,000 foreign English teachers in China?

Posted on 27/10/2012 by alexcase

So claims this article from Forbes, which also has the fact that in almost every country in the survey women had better English than men: English – The global language of business? Click on the Stats tag below for more … Continue reading →

Posted in Teaching English in China | Tagged | Comments Off on 100,000 foreign English teachers in China?

Mute English

Posted on 26/07/2012 by alexcase

Have just come across this Chinglish term for being able to understand English but not produce it orally, according to Wikipedia translated from the Chinese expression ya ba ying yu, and simply liked this compound noun so much that I wanted to spread the … Continue reading →

Posted in Teaching English in China | Comments Off on Mute English

Pearson buys 450-branch test preparation school chain in China

Posted on 22/11/2011 by alexcase

They already own the China-based bits of the Wall Street English conversation school chain, so they just keep getting bigger. The article in the FT doesn’t speculate on it (because they are also owned by Pearson??), but I wonder whether … Continue reading →

Posted in EFL exams, Pearson Longman, Teaching English in China | Tagged | Comments Off on Pearson buys 450-branch test preparation school chain in China

More interesting TEFL/ TESOL statistics

Posted on 18/11/2011 by alexcase

It’s turning into a bit of a collection. Better than collecting stamps, I suppose: 1.5 billion – Estimated number of English speakers up to 400 million – number of Chinese learning English (nearly a third of the population) over 50,000 … Continue reading →

Posted in Teaching English in China | Tagged | 1 Comment

The Disneyfication of English teaching

Posted on 07/07/2010 by alexcase

Literally. The main motivation for setting up official Disney English schools in China is finding a product that isn’t prone to piracy, all parts of all lessons are based on Disney characters, and whatever teaching that leaves for people who are in … Continue reading →

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Weekend TEFL courses- better than nothing or bringing us all down?

Posted on 01/01/2010 by alexcase

My feeling is that some people are doing weekend courses where previously they would have done a four week one, which can’t be good. Then again,the majority of people who do weekend courses now would probably just do no training if … Continue reading →

Posted in i-to-i TEFL, Teacher training, Teaching English in China, Teaching English in Japan, Teaching English in Korea, TEFL certificate, TEFL qualifications, Weekend TEFL course | 11 Comments

Losing my best students

Posted on 06/11/2009 by alexcase

Getting back to my paranoid fears of the last post (because a blog might be time consuming and pay nothing, but unlike seeing a therapist it’s free), there definitely does seem to be one kind of student I have lost … Continue reading →

Posted in ALT, Classroom management, Cultural differences/ cultural training, Eliciting, JET, Pairwork and groupwork, Problem students, Teaching English in Asia, Teaching English in China, Teaching English in Japan, Teaching English in Korea, Teaching shy students | 3 Comments

How not to teach pronunciation

Posted on 21/07/2009 by alexcase

“Japanese college students who’d had little exposure to spoken English underwent 12 sessions listening to exaggerated “Ls” and “Rs” while watching the computerized instructor’s face pronounce English words. Brain scans — a hair dryer-looking device called MEG, for magnetoencephalography — … Continue reading →

Posted in Linguistics, applied linguistics and SLA, links, minimal pairs, Pronunciation, Teaching English in Asia, Teaching English in China, Teaching English in Japan, Teaching English in Korea, Teaching English in Thailand | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Rumours about TOEIC

Posted on 21/06/2009 by alexcase

This is just gossip, so perhaps you can tell me (by comment or email) which ones you have heard or think to be true: – The TOEIC was originally set up by specific request of the Japanese government who wanted to … Continue reading →

Posted in Business English and ESP, EFL exams, ETS, History of English teaching in Japan, Teaching English in Asia, Teaching English in China, Teaching English in Europe, Teaching English in France, Teaching English in Japan, Teaching English in Korea, Teaching English in Taiwan, Teaching in Japanese companies, TEFL, TOEIC | Tagged | 4 Comments