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FT on Language Books
The Financial Times rounded up and reviewed a selection of notable books on language, including David Crystal's The Story of English in 100 Words and David Bellos' Is That a Fish in Your Ear?

Big in China
Pearson-owned Wall Street English confirmed it will open 15 new English schools in China, taking its total to 70 whilst EF which has nearly 150 centres in more than 50 cities, plans to open 200 new premises. Disney now runs 30 schools in Japan, aimed at children.

Grammar Comics
We discovered a delightful series of comic strips that amusingly and effectively covered issues such "Ten Worlds You Need to Stop Misspelling" and "How to Use a Semi-Colon".

Signs and Apostrophes
Language Log covered some rather shocking "Sale!" signs in Japan and looked at how Japanese is also being misused in a similar way. LL also had some interesting comments on the Waterstone's / Waterstones rebranding and the debate that ensued on the apostrophe on Radio 4. Peter Viney updated an article of his on "Intelligent Apostrophes and Dumb Apostrophes" for his blog.

New CUP Head
Cambridge University Press said goodbye to Dr. Richard Ziemacki, the president of its US operations who worked for 37 years for the press. To replace him, Michael Peluse has joined the New York office as Managing Director and will also serve as global Managing Director for English Language Teaching, a division which accounts for over a third of Cambridge's publishing sales revenue.

Hilary Takes on British Council
The US state department announced it would be seeking to promote its ELT expertise more aggressively to help meet the growing demand for language learning. The department's partner for what is being seen as a shift in strategy will be the main US ELT professional association Tesol, which has 9,000 members in the US and a further 3,000 abroad. The new partnership is likely to be similar to the model created by the British Council, the UK government-sponsored cultural and education promotion organisation, which actively markets UK ELT goods and services internationally and sells its own language courses and tests. Tesol spokesman John Segota acknowledges that US ELT providers have lagged behind the UK's export efforts, in part because they have been occupied with the massive domestic ELT market.

Lexile for TOEIC
In Japan, MetaMetrics partnered with with the Institute for International Business Communication (IIBC). The Lexile English Reading Guide is now offered through IIBC and provides TOEIC test-takers in Japan with access to a personal library of targeted books and a limited number of daily recommended articles. To date, more than 3,600 Japanese TOEIC test takers have registered for this free service.

More Great JET Comics
Cartoonist Lars Martinson released the second of his "Kameoka Diaries". The author of the Tonoharu graphic novel is back teaching on the JET scheme.

ELTNEWS Partners with Newsweek
ELTNEWS.com teamed up with Newsweek to offer the cheapest subscription rates in Japan for the venerable weekly. Teachers and schools can now become "resellers" of Newsweek by providing their students with a special code that provides a special student discount for subscriptions ordered from ELTNEWS.com

View the original article here

View the original article here

FT on Language Books
The Financial Times rounded up and reviewed a selection of notable books on language, including David Crystal's The Story of English in 100 Words and David Bellos' Is That a Fish in Your Ear?

Big in China
Pearson-owned Wall Street English confirmed it will open 15 new English schools in China, taking its total to 70 whilst EF which has nearly 150 centres in more than 50 cities, plans to open 200 new premises. Disney now runs 30 schools in Japan, aimed at children.

Grammar Comics
We discovered a delightful series of comic strips that amusingly and effectively covered issues such "Ten Worlds You Need to Stop Misspelling" and "How to Use a Semi-Colon".

Signs and Apostrophes
Language Log covered some rather shocking "Sale!" signs in Japan and looked at how Japanese is also being misused in a similar way. LL also had some interesting comments on the Waterstone's / Waterstones rebranding and the debate that ensued on the apostrophe on Radio 4. Peter Viney updated an article of his on "Intelligent Apostrophes and Dumb Apostrophes" for his blog.

New CUP Head
Cambridge University Press said goodbye to Dr. Richard Ziemacki, the president of its US operations who worked for 37 years for the press. To replace him, Michael Peluse has joined the New York office as Managing Director and will also serve as global Managing Director for English Language Teaching, a division which accounts for over a third of Cambridge's publishing sales revenue.

Hilary Takes on British Council
The US state department announced it would be seeking to promote its ELT expertise more aggressively to help meet the growing demand for language learning. The department's partner for what is being seen as a shift in strategy will be the main US ELT professional association Tesol, which has 9,000 members in the US and a further 3,000 abroad. The new partnership is likely to be similar to the model created by the British Council, the UK government-sponsored cultural and education promotion organisation, which actively markets UK ELT goods and services internationally and sells its own language courses and tests. Tesol spokesman John Segota acknowledges that US ELT providers have lagged behind the UK's export efforts, in part because they have been occupied with the massive domestic ELT market.

Lexile for TOEIC
In Japan, MetaMetrics partnered with with the Institute for International Business Communication (IIBC). The Lexile English Reading Guide is now offered through IIBC and provides TOEIC test-takers in Japan with access to a personal library of targeted books and a limited number of daily recommended articles. To date, more than 3,600 Japanese TOEIC test takers have registered for this free service.

More Great JET Comics
Cartoonist Lars Martinson released the second of his "Kameoka Diaries". The author of the Tonoharu graphic novel is back teaching on the JET scheme.

ELTNEWS Partners with Newsweek
ELTNEWS.com teamed up with Newsweek to offer the cheapest subscription rates in Japan for the venerable weekly. Teachers and schools can now become "resellers" of Newsweek by providing their students with a special code that provides a special student discount for subscriptions ordered from ELTNEWS.com

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GETG provides English language test preparation services for students with 450 centres across 60 cities in China. It is expected to make $65m in revenues this year.

John Fallon, chief executive of Pearson's International Education Business commented: "Through organic investment and complementary acquisitions, we're learning a lot about the very significant growth opportunities we see in China and about the value of combining our content and technology with high-quality school networks."

The deal follows the $145m purchase of the Wall Street Institute chain of language schools in China in 2009.

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A Pearson spokesperson commented: "Corporate Japan has realized the need for an objective assessment of language capabilities, especially English, in international business. While most of the existing tests of English focus solely on reading and writing, Versant provides precise measurement of oral ability - the real communication skill in business. It is an accurate test with quick results, and is expected to become widely used in corporate recruitment in Japan, as well as for career development and in-house training."

Versant tests can accurately measure the speaking skills of the test taker. The test is 15 minutes long, and can be taken over a telephone or on a PC 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The score report is available within minutes of completing the test and includes score mappings to TOEIC, TOEFL and CEFR (Common European Framework) scores.

The test was first developed by Ordinate and marketed by Thomson Learning as PhonePass before being sold to Pearson.

See also:
• Versant Japan
• 2002 ELTNEWS.com interview with Jared Bernstein of Ordinate
• DISCO

View the original article here

A Pearson spokesperson commented: "Corporate Japan has realized the need for an objective assessment of language capabilities, especially English, in international business. While most of the existing tests of English focus solely on reading and writing, Versant provides precise measurement of oral ability - the real communication skill in business. It is an accurate test with quick results, and is expected to become widely used in corporate recruitment in Japan, as well as for career development and in-house training."

Versant tests can accurately measure the speaking skills of the test taker. The test is 15 minutes long, and can be taken over a telephone or on a PC 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The score report is available within minutes of completing the test and includes score mappings to TOEIC, TOEFL and CEFR (Common European Framework) scores.

The test was first developed by Ordinate and marketed by Thomson Learning as PhonePass before being sold to Pearson.

See also:
• Versant Japan
• 2002 ELTNEWS.com interview with Jared Bernstein of Ordinate
• DISCO

View the original article here