THE US National Board for Professional Teaching Standards has announced that more than 130 teachers of English as a New Language recently achieved National Board Certification, the highest credential in the US teaching profession. The 2008 achievement brings the total number of teachers who got certified in this field over time to more than 900. States with the highest number of English as a New Language teachers achieving National Board Certification in 2008 were North Carolina, 27; California, 16; Washington, 14; Florida, 13; Illinois, 10 and Maryland, 10.
S. Korea to hire 5,000 language instructors
韩国:政府拟新聘五千名中小学英语教师
FIVE thousand English conversation instructors, preferably with teaching licenses, will be hired and sent to local primary and secondary schools in September, the South Korean Education Ministry said. These instructors will be hired separately from the native English-speaking teachers. They will be responsible for additional class time as English teaching hours at elementary schools have been increased and more secondary schools are running separate English classes for students with different levels of proficiency. They will receive an annual pay of about 26 million won ($18,900) based on an annual contract.
Ireland to cut English support positions
爱尔兰:英语教学岗位大幅缩减
MORE than 500 teachers who provide English language support to foreigners will lose their jobs as a result of budget cutbacks in Ireland. The cuts will amount to 11 million ($15 million) in 2009. Irish Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe said he was not running down English language support services since there were still 1,400 English support teachers in the system. The Irish National Teachers’ Organization has predicted that cutbacks to date would put 1,000 newly qualified teachers in the dole queue instead of in classrooms next September.
