Why+can't+they+speak+English+properly?

Sometimes people are critical of the lack of English of migrants who've been here for many years and may have had many hours of English classes. But consider for a moment how difficult it can be to learn a language from scratch, especially when the script is totally different and the teacher doesn't speak your language at all. Watch this short video of an Arabic lesson to get a taste of what it's like.

media type="youtube" key="K18A2a7p80Y" height="315" width="560" align="center"

As you've probably guessed, these "students" are not really migrants and refugees - they are all English teachers in the Migrant Education program at the Tasmanian Polytechnic. The lesson they experienced was 40 minutes long and covered some basic greetings and an introduction to the Arabic alphabet. Some comments from these teachers after this experience:

HOME