Page 15 - ELG1906 May-Jun Issue 465
P. 15

EU special          .
                                                                                                                                                                                                                         SPECIAL FEATURE
                                                                                                                               Is European ELT facing
                           NEWS FROM AROUND THE EU
                           British lettori, Dutch Universities
                                                                                                                               a continental shift?
          4-7 and the latest on Erasmus+

                                                                                           SUMMER SCHOOLS
                 RESEARCH NEWS                                                             SHAKEUP                             Demography is the real danger, says Melanie Butler

                 European study fi nds dubbing  11-12  Forget fun, bring on
                                                                                                                                     he mood in European EFL is generally   specialist teachers – easy enough for boarding   Teaching young learners is a whole different
         8 TV is bad for your English                            the physics and fi rst-class football coaches                       glum. And it’s not just Brexit.  schools, though the cost of such teachers   ball game from the adult market, as Kevin
                                                                                                                                       I’ve been getting e-mails from   is putting an extra strain on private sector   McNally of Torquay International School
                                                                                                                               TSpain predicting the death of the   providers, as we explain on page 11.  explains on page 16.
                                                                                                                               language school, and tweets from British   Others are demanding proper sports   Torquay is just one of the towns in Devon
                 MALTA MAKES ITS MARK                                       HIGH SCHOOL PROGRAMMES                             teachers from Posnan to Padova, complaining   courses with professional coaches (see   which makes that region the young learners
                                                                                                                               they cannot live on their salaries.  page 12).                          centre of the UK. As we explain on page 15,
                 Will work rights for students                              Ireland regulates guardianship as                    Pity the poor foreign lettori in Italy who,   Agents also report a switch from summer   schools have been enrolling under-16s here
                                                                                                                               as we report on page 4, have been fighting   courses to year-round provision. The demand   for many years, and the policies of the local
         9 help island’s EFL expand                           13 as EU kids fi ll local high schools                           for their rights for thirty years, and now the   for academic, year-round immersion courses   authorities help make it one of the safest
                                                                                                                               British lettori may risk losing everything.  in state secondary schools is growing,   places to send children.
                                                                                                                                 Even the universities are                 especially in Ireland where, as we   The irony, of course, in the growth of the
                                                                                                                               moaning. On page 7 we                            report on page 13, language   young-learners’ language travel market, is
                                                                                           YOUNG LEARNERS                      reveal the Dutch have                             schools have led the   that Europe is running out of children. Half
                                                                                                                               so many international      The irony is,           campaign to regulate the   the population in the EU is over the age of
                                                                                           YEAR-ROUND                          degree students they     of course… that           guardianship sector.  46, only 15 per cent is under 15.
                                                                                                                               have to house them in                               Brexit or no Brexit,   This demographic squeeze is about to hit
                                                              14-16 Stick with the specialist,                                 shipping containers,    Europe is running          the move, it is clear, is   not only the supply of young learners but the
                                                                                                                               while on page 4 we find   out of children.         for EFL to become part   supply of teachers. For every 18-year-old in
                                                                 drop in on Devon and Kevin McNally’s tips                     French universities have                          of education, rather than   the UK there are two people aged 50. The
                                                                                                                               put their fees up in an                          just a variation on the   situation in Ireland, which has the youngest
                                                                                                                               effort to attract more students.               junior activity holiday with a   population in the EU. may be better, but
                                                                                                                                 Now for the good news. With UK Brexit   bit of English grammar thrown in.   don’t expect a flood of Irish graduates to
                                                                                                                               plans in chaos, the European parliament   The under-16 market is also growing   fill the post-Brexit shortfall. The graduate
                                                                                                                               has rushed to protect European students on   outside the traditional summer season and   unemployment rate in the Republic is just 5
                                                                                                                               Erasmus courses in the UK, as we report on   the UK has responded to the surge in groups   per cent.
                                                                                                                               page 5 of this supplement.          of young learners coming for short courses   Maybe it is not Brexit that poses the
                                                                                                                                 Meanwhile, on the same page, we report   in the low season by increasing the number   biggest threat to the EFL market across the
                                                                                                                               how the Irish are rubbing their hands at the   of schools which specialise in the sector.   EU, but demographics.
                                                                                                                               prospect of cornering the EU
                                                                                                                               market. On page 9, we note
                                                                                                                               that Malta is rolling out
                                                                                                                               the work visas as their long-                                                                              WIKIMEDIA
                                                                                                                               haul student market grows.
                                                                                                                                 Best news of all, at least
                                                                                                                               for their governments, the
                                                                                                                               language levels of students
                                                                                                                               in Italy and Spain are
                                                                                                                               rising. The main reason
                                                                                                                               seems to be the rise and
                                                                                                                               rise of CLIL and bilingual
                                                                                                                               programmes in the state
                                                                                                                               sector. This may be bad
                                                                                                                               news for local language
                                                                                                                               schools in Milan and
                                                                                                                               Madrid, because parents
                                                                                                                               don’t feel the need to top
                                                                                                                               up their child’s English
                                                                                                                               with a twice-weekly
                                                                                                                               language lesson. But
                                                                                                                               it doesn’t seem to be
                                                                                                                               having much impact on
                                                                                                                               the market for summer
                                                                                                                               schools.
                                                                                                                                 But the choice of summer
                                                                                                                               courses is changing.
                                                                                                                                 Some are looking for
                                                                                                                               hard-CLIL courses with

        EU2                                                                                         May/June 2019              editorial@elgazette.com                                                                               EU3
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