Editor of the Verbalists Communication & Language Network
- Urednik komunikacione i jezičke mreže Verbalisti
Editor of the Verbalists Communication & Language Network
- Urednik komunikacione i jezičke mreže Verbalisti
Get cozy this winter with some tea or coffee and a good book to help you improve your English skills. While it may seem intimidating to read an entire book in English, it is great for mastering fluency. You can even keep a notebook full of words you may not understand to help you with your vocabulary! Here are the top picks from the readers of Goodreads, a site which allows book fans to choose their top picks from each genre.
Best Fiction
Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty
A couple who share what seems to be a dream life with their two daughters have their lives turned upside down when they attend a neighbour’s barbecue. Two months later, they regret what happened that day and can’t stop wondering what would’ve happened if they had never gone.
READ MORE
With international students paying up to three times as much in tuition as in-state residents, public research universities in the United States are increasingly turning to foreign student recruitment to offset cuts in state support for higher education.
The number of international students in the US has increased more than 40% in the last decade. In 2015/16, international student enrollment in America surpassed the one-million mark for the first time. With foreign student numbers now at an all-time high, international education has become a big business in the US. NAFSA estimates that international students contributed US$33 billion to the US economy in 2016, while supporting more than 400,000 jobs. READ MORE
Watch what happens when two Scottish men get trapped in a voice control elevator and cannot control it because of their Scottish accent. A great, hilarious sketch!
Can voice recognition technology replace good old buttons? Would our Scottish men have the same problem with automated, multiple choice phone systems? 🙂
The junior market – that is, students under the age of 18 – has been a growth segment in language travel in recent years. Demand is being driven by a greater emphasis on foreign language learning in markets abroad, and by an increasing interest on the part of parents in boosting their children’s language proficiency. However, the junior segment is also susceptible to economic conditions and other market disruptions and some destinations – notably Canada and the UK – saw a decline in junior numbers in 2015. Overall, the segment appears poised for further growth and development, and consumer demand is shifting to more specialised programmes for youth, including courses focused on preparation for academic studies abroad.
Junior students have become an important growth segment in recent years, especially in Europe, where students under age 18 now compose a significant proportion of language travel enrolments. Juniors accounted for nearly half of all language students in the UK (see chart below) and Ireland (47% each) and Malta (48%) in 2015.
Adult and junior student numbers for private-sector language centres in the UK, 2011–2015. Source: English UK
Language schools are reporting that students are travelling to learn a language at ever-younger ages. READ MORE
A recent study written by Bernd Wächter and Friedhelm Maiworm published by the Academic Cooperation Association (ACA) collected survey data from European education institutions to examine their use of programmes taught in English as a tool to increase mobility.
Data collected by ACA in collaboration with the Gesellschaft für Empirische Studien (GES) and StudyPortals BV shows that the number of English-taught bachelor and master programmes – referred to in the study as English-Taught Programmes (ETPs) in non-English-speaking European countries has more than tripled over the last seven years. READ MORE
University tuition fees are set to be implemented for international students enrolling in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, becoming the first province to move away from the current country-wide tuition-free model for all students. The proposal, led by the state’s Minister for Science, Research and the Arts, Theresia Bauer, is expected to be introduced from the 2017-18 winter semester.
Speaking to StudyTravel Magazine, spokesperson for Baden-Württemberg’s Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts, Jochen Schönmann, said, “We expect the final tuition fee would be announced within the first quarter of 2017. EU1,500 is a guideline figure.” READ MORE
Berlin, Germany – 7 November 2016 – The Verbalists Language Network had one of the most successful education fair attendances this year in Berlin. Over the course of the three-day workshop, 1,583 organizations from 100 countries came together at ICEF Berlin to network, learn, and build meaningful connections through 27,267 onsite business meetings. Among the 2,444 participants 1,032 were education agents and 1,412 were educators, service providers, industry associations, or work and travel organizations.
The following ICEF video postcard features highlights from the world’s most important education workshop and the event feedback of Maja Merdovic, Education Program Manager with Verbalists, made by Schools & Agents.