Teaching English as a Second Language in Asia

Recent reports show that taking English language lessons has increased dramatically across South East Asia over recent years. The regions businesses have developed internationally, through greater worldwide contact and globalisation, English is acknowledged as the international language of commerce. A recent survey in France; not renowned for its support of things English, concluded that 80% of the population agreed that outside of your mother tongue, English as a second language was the most useful.

In Singapore at a recent seminar the countries Minister for Education Dr Ng Eng Hen was proud to announce a new strategy to further promote English language learning within schools. Dr Hen said that it was to the countries credit that Singapore chose to adopt English as their common language as long ago as the1960’s which had led to the current situation where the country could compete globally because of its high levels of English literacy.

The minister praised schools like Bukit Panjang Government High School who held monthly public speaking competition. While CHIJ Kellock School, encouraged learning and use of the language with lesson posters in the corridors and a “speak good English” fortnight. This all helped to give students an improved understanding and usage of the language.

The Philippines is experiencing a massive influx of students from South Korea in recent times who want to sign up for ESL courses. The Philippine’s Foreign Office said there had been a 500% increase in Koreans applying for study visas between 2004 and 2008. Most of these were applying to study ESL courses.

The reason for the Philippines appeal being that it is one of the top 10 English speaking countries in the world. It is only two hours flight from the Korean capital Seoul, the cost of living in the Philippines is relatively low and there is always the allure of its tropical weather.

In Malaysia recently it has been reported that they plan to revert to teaching maths and science subjects in the native Bahasa tongue. The government however recognising the importance of English plans to increase its delivery to pupils by employing more teachers and allocating an increase in lesson time each week.

The conclusions you can draw from this is that countries at the highest level are acknowledging and implementing policy to ensure its population are well placed to compete for work internationally. It is a good time to be studying the language as there are an increasing number of ways this can be accomplished with the aid of educational technology on the internet. As there are more learners worldwide, practice becomes easier and with a single common language we all take a step closer to creating a truly global village.

Ten Tips for Practicing English Conversation

Once your ESL classes have finished what you can do to keep up the interest and motivation you have discovered during your English lessons. It becomes more difficult but is vitally important for you to progress in developing your language skills.

As you have spent valuable time and effort in starting to learning English it is a pity to then loose all you have learnt. The list below gives ten ideas that you can employ to keep studying and practicing English and most of all have fun.

Listen to English radio

Most radio stations these days have a “listen live” button on their websites and the best way to pick up speech patterns and phrases is to hear them spoken naturally. Ideally you should select a station with lots of conversation, discussion groups or commentary such as:-

BBC World Service – world events

Five Live – sports commentary & discussion

BBC 4 – plays and talk shows

Online Newspapers

Many National and local newspapers publish a free online version which you can read. This will enable you to follow known stories in English, keep up with current affairs and increase your vocabulary as you read. The list below are links to some of the more famous papers and periodicals around the globe.

Guardian – UK

Washington Post – USA

The Australian – Australia

Canada.com - Canada

Enrol in Conversational ESL courses online

Learning English Online (LEO) is becoming an ever popular way to practice your English lessons. Teachers with the aid of computer generated “white boards”, conference calling like Skype, a microphone and webcam are delivering presentations and seminars daily to people across the world. Many offer introductory free trials to give you a chance to see if you like their content. All this can be done in the comfort of your own home.

Online Games

Second Life or Travian gives you an excellent opportunity to meet up with people, practice shopping, exchanging views and interacting with individuals. The majority of them are free to register and gives you a chance to learn while you play.

Write Articles

Internet sites like Hubpages, Blogger, Squidoo and eHow give you a chance to practice writing and creating stories. If you do not feel confident enough to write articles you could just post short comments peoples work that you enjoy. They are a good place to build up your written skills.

Karaoke

Who doesn’t like a good old sing-a-long. What could be more fun than performing your favourite songs and tunes and practicing at the same time. Karaoke programmes often have a subtitle feature on the monitor which helps you with the words. Don't worry a lot of the time native speakers do not know the lyrics to some songs either.

Social Networking

Everyone is now familiar with Facebook, Bebo and MySpace, places where you leave messages, post photos and meet up with old friends. You can however also make new friends who speak English, just register and search in the countries where you are likely to find people. There are also a number of ESL Forums online like English Club, LiveMocha and ESL United who welcome teachers and learners alike.

Watch a film

Sit down in the living room, cup of tea and some biscuits and put on a DVD, keep the settings in English and try to follow the dialogue, the best way to enjoy any film is in its native language. If you find it a little difficult just switch on the subtitles, this is very useful if the conversations are fast or a lot of colloquialisms or strong accents.

Cook a Meal

Look online for a recipe from an English speaking country’s favourite dish and try it out for yourself. It will give you valuable practice in following instructions and vocabulary and once you have finished you will have a lovely meal to eat as well.

Join a Chat Room

There are many chatrooms online, from different countries, various age class and with people who have a wide variety of interests. Plenty are free to register on Yahoo Messenger and allow you to meet new friends and practice talking and writing English.

A word of warning though, be careful when talking online and don’t give out any personal information, contact details or addresses. Have lots of fun and keep on using your new found skills.