As part of a unique, government-led scheme, the Dominican Republic is preparing its university students for careers in international business using expertise from University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations (English for Speakers of Other Languages).

4,200 students are enrolled onto the ‘English Immersion Program to Meet the Competition’. A first group of almost 800 students have sat Cambridge ESOL’s BULATS (Business Language Testing System) in Santo Domingo and Santiago to assess their ability to deal with the demands of a global business environment.

Ellen Ducy of the country’s Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology, said: “Those who graduate are able to easily understand spoken English and effectively communicate both orally and in written form, and will thus be able to work in call centres, banks, free zones and international companies with offices and facilities in the Dominican Republic. They will be able to support themselves and at the same time, contribute to the economic progress of the country.

“This English Immersion Program, entirely underwritten by the Ministry, is apparently the only one of its kind in the world, and bears watching for those interested in TESOL programs.”

All the attendees are university students considered to be from disadvantaged socio-economic groups, who have received 700 hours of English training at one of 24 centres across the country.

The collaboration follows a first meeting between the President of the Dominican Republic, Dr Leonel Fernández, with Cambridge ESOL on a visit to the UK in March 2006.

By using BULATS, the test-takers are being assessed in line with an internationally renowned measure of language skills, the Council of Europe’s Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). Each candidate is given a BULATS score which shows their level on the CEFR.

In order to provide longer-term support for the government’s plans, Cambridge ESOL will help to put in place local systems to enable BULATS to be delivered on a scheduled basis to meet the ongoing needs of the programme.

Interesting Grocery

If we ever pass by CEFORMA we will notice that at the entrance of the centre there is a small grocery where we can buy sandwiches, pizza, juice and even a cup of coffee, but the curious thing is that the one who sells speaks English too.
Once we asked about his skills and he said he improves his knowledge with the students who usually go there for coffee.
"Being lucky means being ready" is the slogan of Valentin, the bilingual seller.

Music in a classroom by Rosa Diaz

Neurologists have found that musical and language processing occur in the same area of the brain, and there appear to be parallels in how musical and linguistic syntax are processed (Maess & Koelsch, 2001). In one study, college students demonstrated improved short-term spatial reasoning ability after listening to Mozart. This was dubbed the "Mozart effect" in the popular press (Rauscher, Shaw, & Ky, 1993).

Adult learners in South Africa, exposed to instrumental music during an intensive English course, showed benefits in language learning (Puhl, 1989). Many educators report success using instrumental music as a warm up and relaxation tool, as a background for other activities, and as the inspiration for writing activities (Eken, 1996).

Songs contextually introduce the features of supra-segmentals (how rhythm, stress, and intonation affect the pronunciation of English in context). Through songs, students discover the natural stretching and compacting of the stream of English speech. For example, the reduction of the auxiliary have to the sound /uv/ can be heard in the song by Toni Braxton "You've Been Wrong for So Long" (2000). Similarly, the change of word final t + word initial y to /ch/ can be heard in a line from the Tracy Chapman Song "All that You Have Is Your Soul" (1989), where the singer says, "Don't you eat of a bitter fruit." Moriya (1988) points out the value of using songs for pronunciation practice with Asian learners because of the many phonemic differences between Asian languages and English. However, students from any language background can benefit from a choral or individual reading of the lyrics of the songs mentioned above, practicing the natural reductions that occur in spoken English.

Students may summarize orally the action or theme of a song or give oral presentations about a song or musician, playing musical selections for the class. To involve the whole class, students can fill out response sheets about each presentation, answering questions about the featured topic, something new they learned, and something they enjoyed.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Immersion at CEFORMA SEESCYT D.R
Santiago De Los 30 Caballeros

Language immersion is a method of teaching a second language (also called L2, or the target language). Unlike a more traditional language course, where the target language is simply the subject material, language immersion uses the target language as a teaching tool, surrounding or "immersing" students in the second language. In-class activities, such as math, social studies, and history, and those outside of the class, such as meals or everyday tasks, are conducted in the target language. Today's immersion programs are based on those founded in the 1960s in Canada when middle-income English-speaking parents convinced educators to establish an experimental French immersion program enabling their children 'to appreciate the traditions and culture of French-speaking Canadians as well as English-speaking Canadians'.^[1]

Educators distinguish between language immersion and submersion programs. In the former, the class is composed of students learning the L2 at the same level; while in the latter, one or two students are learning the foreign language, which is the first language (L1) for the rest of the class, thus they are "thrown into the ocean to learn how to swim" instead of gradually immersed in the new language.

A new form of language related syllabus delivery called Internationalised Curriculum provides a different angle by immersing the curricula from various countries into the local language curriculum and separating out the language-learning aspects of the syllabus. Proponents believe immersion study in a language foreign to the country of instruction doesn't produce as effective results as separated language learning and may, in fact, hinder education effectiveness and learning in other subject areas.