News Item: : The Language Show
(Category: Issues in Linguistics)
Posted by admin
Sunday 02 November 2008 - 21:08:36
The Language Show - 31st Oct - 2nd Nov 2008 Olympia London
The 2008 Language Show in London The 2008 Language Show in London Was an event that was a need to go, because I have been trying to find a job as an ESL teacher in the UK for quite some time, and the show had some promises for wannabe’s. Besides, as a person involved in developing new ideas in the language and applied linguistics markets I was interested to see the current panorama of what is going on worldwide. My number one motivation was terminated after a short while since I learnt that the opportunities are not for non-British citizens. If you want a teaching job in the UK, you need teaching experience in the UK. But you cannot get that, because of condition two. It was interesting that even some universities follow a similar policy. Like I was going to be interviewed for a lecturer position in translation by the Met Univ about a year ago, then they cancelled it, re-advertised the job with one more new criterion for eligibility – guess what – you need to be a British passport holder. So much about topic one. Or just one more related thing, I just remember another turn down on the basis of discrimination policies: The British Council openly wrote back to me that they would never recruit a new TESOL new teacher above 65. Good Morning Europe, wakie-wakie.
As far as new development in the language teaching business, including various resources and teaching materials I saw what I expected to see, most of the publishers and language schools with all their latest temptation devices. It was interesting to find that the promoters of Chinese language learning have a lot to offer similarly to the promoters of minor languages, such as Catalan, Basque, or Galitian. Romania was also pushing her language while the Hungary stand was only pushing entertainment via tourism, as if it was a show on catering or hospitality. It may be due to an assumption that the new head of Hungarian Cultural Centre is personally not interested in such a waste of money as inviting people to learn Hungarian in these days when Hungary has nothing to be proud of.
The presence of software for language learning reflects the fact that the once simple process of learning is now intrinsically connected with learning first how to use the learning aids, before anything in terms of acquiring new knowledge or skills actually takes place. You find individual learning support (Helping Learning), which is an internet delivery of live teaching services, or assistive software for language learning (Claro Software) integrating resources to improve efficiency in dealing with language assignments in several languages. Other services are even more ambitious connecting classrooms all over the world to share educational projects and curricula (www.rafi.ki) online. Some of the exhibitors showed extreme courage and an interesting perception of reality. A German developer English Made Easy reformed the phonetic transcription of the English Language (www.saaspel.com), another chap produced a stack of traditionally printed memory cards to help memorising words whereas TaskMagic (www.taskmagic.co.uk) is a kind of authoring software to produce tailored games and exercises used for language learning. LINK offers a tool for reorganising classroom work around PCs easily and realistically, yet another company Sanako (formerly Tanberg) have moved from language lab hardware to integrating other PC applications into a set of classroom management tools. It is also about the use of multimedia without telling you when and why you may need to switch over from one medium to another. At the other end of the applications Gapfillers offer a device for personal usage on the move using mobile telephone technology. The idea is to chunk the daily assignments to suit a busy learner making use of his/her spare time (www.gapfillers.co.uk). Perhaps the most comprehensive set of products on CDs came from IClanguage LINK showing what a book can turn out to be, given the relatively cheap technology of digital visualisation and recording.
But the language show was probably not the revision of all that there is for us today in the world in the above field. A Brasil author Patricia Lupion Torres and a UK professor have undertaken to give you a relatively full picture of recent developments and achievement in a book scheduled for print early next year. LINK The book is also advertised elsewhere as a book on applied ICT science LINK Her book where authors were invited to write on the subjects detailed at this website LINK is not the only venture of this kind as in Canada a similar publication was started earlier: LINK
This news item is from www.firkasz.com
( http://www.firkasz.com/news.php?extend.56 )
(Category: Issues in Linguistics)
Posted by admin
Sunday 02 November 2008 - 21:08:36
The Language Show - 31st Oct - 2nd Nov 2008 Olympia London
The 2008 Language Show in London The 2008 Language Show in London Was an event that was a need to go, because I have been trying to find a job as an ESL teacher in the UK for quite some time, and the show had some promises for wannabe’s. Besides, as a person involved in developing new ideas in the language and applied linguistics markets I was interested to see the current panorama of what is going on worldwide. My number one motivation was terminated after a short while since I learnt that the opportunities are not for non-British citizens. If you want a teaching job in the UK, you need teaching experience in the UK. But you cannot get that, because of condition two. It was interesting that even some universities follow a similar policy. Like I was going to be interviewed for a lecturer position in translation by the Met Univ about a year ago, then they cancelled it, re-advertised the job with one more new criterion for eligibility – guess what – you need to be a British passport holder. So much about topic one. Or just one more related thing, I just remember another turn down on the basis of discrimination policies: The British Council openly wrote back to me that they would never recruit a new TESOL new teacher above 65. Good Morning Europe, wakie-wakie.
As far as new development in the language teaching business, including various resources and teaching materials I saw what I expected to see, most of the publishers and language schools with all their latest temptation devices. It was interesting to find that the promoters of Chinese language learning have a lot to offer similarly to the promoters of minor languages, such as Catalan, Basque, or Galitian. Romania was also pushing her language while the Hungary stand was only pushing entertainment via tourism, as if it was a show on catering or hospitality. It may be due to an assumption that the new head of Hungarian Cultural Centre is personally not interested in such a waste of money as inviting people to learn Hungarian in these days when Hungary has nothing to be proud of.
The presence of software for language learning reflects the fact that the once simple process of learning is now intrinsically connected with learning first how to use the learning aids, before anything in terms of acquiring new knowledge or skills actually takes place. You find individual learning support (Helping Learning), which is an internet delivery of live teaching services, or assistive software for language learning (Claro Software) integrating resources to improve efficiency in dealing with language assignments in several languages. Other services are even more ambitious connecting classrooms all over the world to share educational projects and curricula (www.rafi.ki) online. Some of the exhibitors showed extreme courage and an interesting perception of reality. A German developer English Made Easy reformed the phonetic transcription of the English Language (www.saaspel.com), another chap produced a stack of traditionally printed memory cards to help memorising words whereas TaskMagic (www.taskmagic.co.uk) is a kind of authoring software to produce tailored games and exercises used for language learning. LINK offers a tool for reorganising classroom work around PCs easily and realistically, yet another company Sanako (formerly Tanberg) have moved from language lab hardware to integrating other PC applications into a set of classroom management tools. It is also about the use of multimedia without telling you when and why you may need to switch over from one medium to another. At the other end of the applications Gapfillers offer a device for personal usage on the move using mobile telephone technology. The idea is to chunk the daily assignments to suit a busy learner making use of his/her spare time (www.gapfillers.co.uk). Perhaps the most comprehensive set of products on CDs came from IClanguage LINK showing what a book can turn out to be, given the relatively cheap technology of digital visualisation and recording.
But the language show was probably not the revision of all that there is for us today in the world in the above field. A Brasil author Patricia Lupion Torres and a UK professor have undertaken to give you a relatively full picture of recent developments and achievement in a book scheduled for print early next year. LINK The book is also advertised elsewhere as a book on applied ICT science LINK Her book where authors were invited to write on the subjects detailed at this website LINK is not the only venture of this kind as in Canada a similar publication was started earlier: LINK
This news item is from www.firkasz.com
( http://www.firkasz.com/news.php?extend.56 )