All incoming Freshman to use EnglishCentral in Blended Learning Program
| Tokyo, Japan – April 25th, 2017 – EnglishCentral, the leading provider of online English conversation solutions, today announced that Kyoto Sangyo University has adopted EnglishCentral for all incoming freshman, over 6,000 students, taking the compulsory “General English” class starting this year. EnglishCentral will be used as part of blended learning curriculum that combines a traditional textbook with EnglishCentral’s e-learning platform that emphasizes listening, speaking and vocabulary learning through interactive videos. |
| Kyoto Sangyo University has been testing EnglishCentral in certain classes for several years. A 2016 study at the University comparing TOEFL scores before and after the use of EnglishCentral showed high levels of student engagement and TOEFL test score increases on average of 40 points, and as high as 80 points for the most engaged students, in just 10 weeks. In 2017, Kyoto Sangyo decided to adopt EnglishCentral for all incoming freshmen. |
| The university’s compulsory “general English” course covers the 4 primary skills of English: reading, writing, listening and speaking. Lectures are generally led by a Japanese faculty members in combination with classes focused on English communication led by native teachers. The challenge of improving students’ speaking and listening ability is that the native teacher classes are held only once per week, giving limited time for students to engage in listening and speaking practice. |
| The idea behind adopting EnglishCentral broadly across the curriculum is to give students more exposure to conversational English and more opportunities to practice conversational English outside of class. Each lesson in the students’ textbook corresponds with an interactive video lesson, where students can watch and listen to authentic English, easily build their vocabulary as they watch, and then practice speaking what they’ve learned getting feedback on their pronunciation and fluency. |
| In addition to allowing teachers to build interactive video courses mapped to textbooks adopted in the class, students are able to use EnglishCentral’s diverse library of 10,000+ video lessons, covering over 50 topics, including, for example, interviews with celebrities, politics, technology and more. This library allows students to enjoy English based on their own interests and level, increasing their motivation to seek out more exposure to conversational English. |
| “EnglishCentral now plays an important role in our curriculum because students have few opportunities to be immersed in English except for one class a week,” according to Kyoto Sangyo University Associate Professor James Holsworth. “Now that students can enjoy the EnglishCentral video courses linked to their textbook, they have many more opportunities to practice outside of class.” |
| “We are very pleased that EnglishCentral has been widely adopted and used at Kyoto Sangyo University,” said Hirofumi Matsumura, the General Manager of EnglishCentral in Japan. “After testing our platform for several years, we are very happy to work with the university to create a blended curriculum for their general English classes, allowing over 6,000 students to improve their English with the EnglishCentral app and platform.” |
Hello and Welcome! My name is Gordon Bateson.
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