By Natalie Marsh. The number of students studying at English-medium international schools globally reached a record-level four million students last month, according to the International School Consultancy. More...
UK school rolls out ESL for foreign doctors
By Natalie Marsh. A new language training course is being launched to prepare overseas doctors to communicate effectively in English in a hospital environment. More...
Canada: language students stable after 2013 drop
By Beckie Smith. Student numbers in Canada’s language teaching sector have begun to stabalise after falling almost 10% in 2013, representative body Languages Canada’s 2014 annual report has revealed. More...
ALTO proposes industry standard for language travel bookings
By Beckie Smith. The Association of Language Travel Organisations, a globally representative body of language schools and agents, has proposed introducing an industry-wide standard for how language courses are presented to cut down the time and human resources it takes agents to interpret schools’ offerings and make bookings. More...
Teaching in English: A Contentious Debate
By Hans de Wit. One of the more controversial issues in internationalization is the dominance of English as language of instruction and the dissemination of scholarship.
Recently, two countries seem to be at the forefront of the debate. In Europe, The Netherlands has been implementing courses and degree programs in English since the mid-1990s. In Asia, South Korea leads other countries in developing English taught courses, a trend provoking considerable debate; In the Netherlands attitudes are shifting from rather positive to more critical assessments, resulting in a national discussion led by key scholars to abandon the unconditional use of English in the classroom. Read more...
What’s in a Name?
By Sue Cunningham. As I conclude my fourth month as president of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, I find that I have made an important discovery: the words my colleagues around the world use to describe our shared work are not global. More...
U of New Hampshire 'Bias-Free Language Guide'
Conservative websites on Wednesday spent time mocking a "bias-free language guide" at the University of New Hampshire, which isn't new, but that somehow captured attention this week. Read more...
Medical Treatment and English
By Sean P. Murphy. I used to spend my days reviewing essays, referring students to the writing center, offering advice to students about their academic paths, writing lesson plans and assessing the effectiveness of these lesson plans after their implementation in the classroom. I was an English professor. Read more...
Ready, Set, Speak
By Aisha Langford. Public speaking is a critical, but often underdeveloped, skill among higher education professionals. Your ability to convey ideas with confidence and clarity is essential for articulating the importance of your research, getting buy-in for your projects and obtaining funding from sponsors. Read more...
Shakespeare in the Courtroom
By William Germano. Julius Caesar and Otello (the version of Othello by Giuseppe Verdi and his librettist Arrigo Boito): These are the texts that framed the final remarks of federal Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. in the case of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, convicted last month of the Boston Marathon killings. More...