Archive for the ‘News Updates’ Category
India English growth is too slow as compared to other Asian countries. India is falling behind countries like China in its attempts to increase use of English language among its population, a new report by British Council.
The report says that there is “huge shortage” of teachers and the quality of English education in institutions is hampering India despite a growing demand for English skills. English learning process needs to be enhanced and new technology support must be added.
It is clearly stated that China may have more English speaking population than people in India who speak English. It is a cause of concern because India being a major software and IT hub has been because of its English-educated workers. The overall less learned population in English will affect the growth of business and opportunities for people in India in the future.
British author David Graddol says English is a “casualty of wider problems in Indian education”, in his report- English Next India.
“The rate of improvement in the English language skills of the Indian population is at present too slow to prevent India from falling behind other countries which have implemented the teaching of English in primary schools more successfully than as it is happening in India.”, said David.
One estimate suggests that around 333 million people in India are ‘using English’, but India’s National Knowledge Commission says “even now, no more than 1% of our people use English as a second language”.
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Though Canada badly needs skilled workers like plumbers, electricians and auto mechanics etc. but the most important factor that help a skilled worker from India get a job there is their English language skills. The Canadian Consul General in Chandigarh, Scot Slessor warned that poor English language skills was affecting the chances of job aspirants from India and especially Punjab.
There are many trained professionals in India who are willing to migrate to Canada for better opportunities and life style. Even if they know their technical skills well their English speaking abilities can only help them get a job in a country like Canada.
“The major problem is that people who migrate from here to Canada cannot speak fluent English and therefore while communicating there they face many problems including communicating in English to locals and while applying for jobs. So before applying for Canada immigration they need to attend proper English classes and practice English speaking in real life to ensure they are well versed and do not face any problems when they speak to someone in Canada in English language. This will help them finding jobs with much ease else they get frustrated very fast. Yes, there is a lot of demand of plumbers, electricians, truck drivers, auto mechanics and other professionals in Canada as there is shortage of such people and in India we find good plumbers and other professionals to join there” Slessor updated.
The Consul General updated that the his country had eased visa restrictions for parents and grandparents of those who are permanent residents in Canada. Just about a month ago, Canadian immigration authorities has introduced a Super Visa category for grandparents and parents, who can apply for visa in this category to visit Canada and meet their children, grandchildren. The visa duration is for ten years and they can stay for two years in one go. This was updated as there was a backlog from immigration family cases who wanted their parents to migrate to Canada to take care of their grand children due to both are full time professionals and find difficulties in taking care of their kids.
“The super visa is greatly appreciated in India and within a month itself we got almost thousand applications under this category. There are around 40 to 50 thousand people who apply for tourist and short duration stay visas and even the number of student visas applied are the highest in the country.” Scot Slessor updated.
How is your listening skill in English to watch a Hollywood movie in India? If you are reading titles only then better start learning English and build your listening skills in English language. More and more Hollywood movies are launched in India with great success. Past grand successes of movies like Harry Potter (all series), Lord Of The Rings (all series), Mission Impossible, Terminator (all series) have made India a favorite destination and generate more moolah.
The recent movie Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol even included leading Bollywood actor Anil Kapoor in a cameo role. Similarly, the Bollywood actors participated in award winning Slumdog Millionaire.
The Indian audience have started liking the Hollywood trend and catching up more with the English movies. Most of these movies are launched with subtitles in English because there are many users who do not follow the accent (american or australian in these movies) and that makes them difficult to follow movie sequence.
On the other hand, the impact of English is already visible as the employment opportunities are more promising for English speaking professionals in India. Every graduate or job aspiring candidates are seeking communication skill training in English for better career opportunities in India. Even these Hollywood movies just work as a learning platform for these aspiring professionals.
In the year 2011 alone there were more than 10 million job opportunities for English speaking professionals including jobs in retail, BPO and IT. A personalized learning like SpeakToday spoken English learning in India gives freedom to learners to even practice English speaking on their PC or laptop.
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Rashida Chapti, now a British citizen, has been married for almost 40 years. She has six children and find it hard to divide her time between Leicester and India. She claims, her husband wants to join her permanently in Britain but he is unable to speak, read or write in English.
The high court judge Mr. Justice Beatson dismissed a judicial review challenge where the immigrant couples including Rashida Chapti’s petition was dismissed on the grounds that the decision was racist and can break up their family ties.
The Birmingham high court judge said the requirement to have passed a pre-entry English language test did interfere with the couple’s article 8 rights to a family life. This was justified in the interest of promoting integration and social harmony among the citizen of UK.
“We believe it’s entirely reasonable that someone intending to live in the UK should understand English so that they can easily live in a common integrated society.” said Mr. Damian Green, the immigration minister, UK.
Pre-entry English language test for immigrants coming to Britain to join a spouse or civil partner on a spousal visa was first proposed by the labor ministers about three years ago to encourage social integration among citizen of UK and also to help newcomers get work and make clear to migrants the importance of learning English. Later it was introduced by the coalition in the last November.
The tests apply only to those who come from non-English-speaking countries, the top five nationalities of those coming to marry UK citizens are from Pakistan (8,750), India (5,110), Bangladesh (2.780), US (2,110) and Thailand (1,776).
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Graduate students in rural areas are realizing the potential of learning spoken English. Take an example of Arindam Srinivasan, a B.Sc. graduate from Trivandrum, spends lots of time in studying English newspaper. Arindam is just learning English language to better his performance in his next CAT examination.
He finds that the English subject would be tough to crack because of his rural background.
I’ve been preparing for CAT for almost 7 months now and have been studying all this time but English was tough. I knew English but my reading was slow. Students from rural background find English tough.” Arindam.
In India, computers have already reached villages.
Even if you find it hard to believe but it’s a fact that computers have reached rural areas now and students do not find it hard to appear in online tests now a days. But, yes it requires further penetration in deeper areas and more exposure to students.
A large student population comes from rural areas and premier coaching centers like TIME coaching institute, too, has recorded 15-20% rise in rural students enrollments every year.
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IELTS has been there from many years in India and people have been opting for IELTS mainly for three reasons:
For studying abroad,
For immigrating, and
For job opportunities.
“IELTS has been the fastest growing English test in the world”, said McLaven, first secretary, Educational Services, British High Commission while his visit in Bangalore. There were 2,30,000 candidates who opted for IELTS in year 2009 alone. This year the numbers would be much higher.
People from India find listening test relatively easy. They are usually nervous during speaking test, but felt positive about the experience after. Of the candidates, 75% are those who want to study abroad and 25% are those who want to emigrate. Nurses form 10 percent of total IELTS participants.”, updated McLaven.
Also, some institutes are only focusing on practice rather than addressing the larger learning needs. The support to the program is widely used through online learning in India now a days. SpeakToday also has been a popular learning platform for students in India.
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The necessity of spoken English is realized in the schools also. Now, ICSE will be evaluating the spoken English abilities of students in schools especially for the class IX students in India. They need to be trained in spoken English as well as listening skills.
Empowering the students with spoken English skills from early help in building their personality. It help them speak confidently to teachers and to the outside world especially when it comes to interviews and presentations.
It’s not only the spoken English abilities but also the listening skills and grammar need to be corrected. Today, we find many students and professionals who can write good English and may get good marks in their English exams but when it comes to speaking the language, they miss the magic.
Overall, a student’s ability to speak in English open many doors for advancement of their career and helps them in spearheading their achievements. There are millions of students who study abroad and that requires them to clear TOEFL and IELTS exams that require them to prove their communications skills in English.
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