Page 1 - ELG1601 Feb Issue 433

ELgazette

£3.50 • US$6.50 • ¥700 • €5.50 The newspaper for English language and international education Issue 433 | February 2016

Mexico on

the march

LEARNING ENGLISH in
Inside... Mexico will be compulsory for
all state primary school students
from the age of six and up, writes
Andrea Pérez. Education sec-
retary Aurelio Nuño Mayer said
Courtesy the White House/US Department of Education described ELL as a ‘cornerstone
that ‘in ten or twenty years the
country will be bilingual’. He
tool’ for a country where less than
1 per cent are fluent in English.
The government will launch a
new 733 million peso (£30 mil-
lion) National Programme of
English, El Financiero reports.
The first National Programme
ran 2007–12.
Upskilling current teachers
will be the next step. The Secre-
tariat of Public Education’s most
Page 2: Refugee crisis recent census in 2014 revealed
sees universities worldwide Obama overhauls that there were 50,274 English
SIGN OF SUCCESS School students,
turn to high-tech solutions teachers and members of the US Congress teachers in Mexico – one for
every seven public schools.
surround President Barack Obama as he
English is often seen as a ‘lux-
student support signs the Every Student Succeeds Act ury’, according to El Economista,
(Essa) into law in December. Essa requires
while the greatest motivation
that ‘when students fall behind, steps are
taken to help them, and their schools,
improve employment prospects
improve’. It replaces the 2001-vintage No for beginners to study it is to
Child Left Behind Act, and has written into it and ‘quality of life’, according to
KELLY FRANKLIN Title III funding by a fifth and moves the a ‘particular focus’ on ‘subgroups’ including the recent British Council Eng-
writes accountability provisions for ELL perfor- ‘English learners’. See main story lish in Mexico report. n
mance into the main Title I section, under
ENGLISH LANGUAGE learners (ELLs) which all outcomes are measured, rather
are the fastest-growing segment of stu- than those for specific subgroups.
dents in US public schools, a fact not lost Title I total funding authorisation is $24.9
on lawmakers, who passed a rewriting of billion for 2016. The move to Title I ensures
the fifty-year-old Education and Secondary ments will more often be considered to be ELgo
all schools, not just those with heavy ELL
Education Act in December 2015. enrolments, are scrutinised on the success of
Pages 5–8: Summer The original 1965 act provided federal sup- their English language instruction. This may
schools special – boarding, port for local and state-level efforts to help mean those schools with higher ELL enrol-
beaches, Clil and more disadvantaged and poor students. This was
amended by the 2002 No Child Left Behind failing.
(NCLB) Act, which added strict annual Essa gives more power and flexibility to
testing measures that states were forced to states to determine specifics of funding, cur-
implement to secure federal funding. The riculum and oversight. Immediate relief for www.el-go.com
new provisions and sanctions helped many ELLs and their teachers comes with less strin-
failing schools improve, although the bill’s gency on how often and what types of tests are
‘one size fits all’ approach pushed states to given. Test scores of ELLs in their first year
base their curricula on improving mandated can be excluded from school results, while in
test scores in reading and maths to the detri- year two the scores can be used to measure
ment of other goals. progress, with ELL scores only incorporated
Second language teachers were forced into general data in year three.
Language instruction policy will now
to test even newly arrived ELLs, and test depend more heavily on each individual The new rankings and
scores badly hit overall scores for each
school. NCLB did include a separate sec- state’s decision-makers. The federal govern-
tion, Title III, which granted federal funding ment’s funding to help every student succeed comparison site for
– $737 million in 2015 – among other incen- recognises that ELLs now exist in about
Pages 9–16: Middle East tives to states for implementing measures three quarters of all public schools and total
supplement in association improving ESL and bilingual education. over 10 per cent of the entire school popula- the ELT sector
with the British Council The latest revision, dubbed the Every Stu- tion, but now these funds are distributed and
dent Succeeds Act (Essa) and signed into law used will basically depend on the approaches
by President Obama in December, increases taken by each of the fifty states. n

Minister’s language mix-ups • Launched to consumers

RUSSIA’S SPORTS minister Vitaly Mutkos a gift, news agency Tass reports.
is best known for his strong Russian accent The sports minister is also a member of
when speaking English, writes Andrea world football body Fifa and the head of the • Graded English, French,
Perez, with the Moscow Times describing committee organising the 2018 Fifa World
his accent as if ‘he learned the language Cup in Russia. His English speech to Fifa Italian and Spanish
from stereotypical Russian characteristics in went viral due to his strong Russian accent and
Hollywood movies’. the way that he began it: ‘Let’s me speak from
Mutkos’s notoriety meant that at a meeting in my heart, in English.’ He also routinely mixes • Direct student enrolments
Page 20: Interview – the Kremlin last December President Vladimir up English and Russian words when he speaks
Bram van Asselt on giving Putin congratulated him on his birthday by giv- with the press: ‘Tomorrow? Nu … tomorrow
students a sporting chance ing him an English language self-study book as meeting budet yevro association.’ n