Page 1 - ELG1601 Apr Issue 435

ELgazette

£3.50 • US$6.50 • ¥700 • €5.50 The newspaper for English language and international education Issue 435 | April 2016

Canada

opens up

Inside... NEW REGULATIONS in Canada
mean that international students
could obtain citizenship more eas-
ily after completing their degrees.
Bill C-6 shortens the time
required to apply for citizenship
from four to three years and restores
a provision that allows 50 per cent
of the time spent at university to
count towards that requirement.
The government will also re-
assess Canada’s Express Entry
process, a score-based system
Courtesy Benson Kua permanent residency. One of the
that filters all applications for
programmes affected by Express
Entry is the Canadian Experience
Class, which allowed talented
international students to obtain
Page 9: Diving into the permanent residency.
data to find tips on the Court upholds FROM FAR AND WIDE O CANADA As reported by Times Higher
latest top travel trends Students watch a football (soccer) match Education, immigration minister
John McCallum said, “If there’s any
at King’s College Circle field at the
Korean ELT ban University of Toronto. One of the first group in this country who would be
good Canadians – they’re educated,
actions of Canada’s new government has
they know about this country, they
been to ease the country’s regime on
post-study visas, allowing international
So why punch them in the nose
students who have graduated from a speak English or French – it’s them.
Canadian university to settle in the when we’re trying to attract them
KOREA’S CONSTITUTIONAL court ruled A mandatory 10pm closing time dating from country more quickly. See story here in competition with Australia,
at the end of February that the government 2009 is also in place on hogwans in the cities of on right for more information. the UK and others?” n
ban on ‘intensive’ English language education Busan and Seoul, backed by an earlier constitu-
in the bottom two grades (the first two years) tional court finding that ‘it’s important to secure
of private-sector primary schools is consti- sleep for high school students to overcome
tutional and therefore legal. The court found fatigue and for the sake of their growth’.
that the prohibition on early years English was Yonhap news agency reports that the latest
the ‘proper means’ of mitigating the ‘negative judgement on intensive English arises from
impact of excessive private tutoring’. a legal challenge to the early years English
Pages 11–15: Iatelf According to Chosun Ilbo, the ban originates ban by over 1,2000 parents at Seoul’s pres-
special – regional round-up with the Seoul Metropolitan Office’s discov- tigious Young Hoon Elementary School,
from across the ELT world ery in 2013 that around one third of all private claiming the prohibition ‘infringes on their
schools were teaching English ‘intensively’. rights to an education’.
The ministry of education also restricts English The plaintiffs said the government’s earlier
classes to a maximum two hours a week in the decision violated ‘the rule of equality’ as stu-
next two grades of primary, and to three hours a dents attending international schools can take
week for the two grades after that. English courses regardless of their age. But
In 2014 President Park Geun-hye’s gov- the court found that these institutions could
ernment launched ‘a fundamental reform not be classified as elementary schools as
measure for the real-world demands on their curricula were so different, and that they
excessive English education’. Some esti- still had to adhere to government policy.
mates put the amount that families spend In the court’s opinion, ‘The first and sec-
on after-hours cram schools or hogwans at ond grades in elementary school are where
up to 20 per cent of household income, and students first learn Korean. Experts said
restrictions are in place on the amount per teaching both languages at the same time
hour hogwans can charge (see December could hinder developing students’ Korean
2015 Gazette, page 4). proficiency.’ n

Page 20: Author Marion
Williams on being part of
How silly! What a bad idea!
the thinking revolution

PUNCTUATION IS a bit like diets – fash- tion marks, now virtually the whole of English
ions abound and the government has its say, literature is being condemned as bad practice.’
but experts are rarely listened to. Some fundamental communicative
Recently, in the absence of any more urgent functions of language seem to have been over-
problems to solve in the British education sys- looked. For example, exclamations, sentences
tem, the distressing issue of primary school that ‘express surprise or shock or a strong emo-
children abusing exclamation marks was finally tion about something’ would pretty much lose
addressed. The new guidelines say that pupils their function. Cambridge Dictionaries Online
in Key Stages 1 and 2 (grades 1 to 6) should lists many exclamations, but some don’t start
get credit only if they use exclamation marks in with ‘How’ and ‘What’: for example ‘Wow!’,
full sentences beginning with ‘What’ or ‘How’. ‘That’s amazing!’ and even ‘Have I got news
Professor David Crystal, linguist, lecturer for you!’ (the BBC had it right all along).
and patron of Iatefl, told the Gazette that this And imperatives would lose their urgency.
is ‘a decision made by people who clearly One wonders how teachers are supposed
Free supplement: The have no understanding of the semantic and to enforce the new regulations, if they are
Gazette’s CEFR-graded pragmatic forces that underlie grammar. Just not even able to use an exclamation mark to
exam wall-planner because a few people have overused exclama- emphasise ‘Don’t use exclamation marks.’ n