Reinventing the English teaching model
- Source: Global Times
- [08:00 December 21 2009]
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By Michele Scrimenti and Cong Mu
Zhang Ying had studied English for years and even lived abroad, but she just couldn't get a seven on the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) used by universities and companies around the world to measure English proficiency. Zhang had managed to score 6.5 twice, which meant her English was pretty good, but not good enough to nail down a job as a nurse overseas. A salary increase and a new life in another country were just half a point away.
Millions of Chinese around the country cram into large classrooms and pay high fees for one-on-one lessons at major well-known schools like New Oriental and English First, but Zhang opted for EQEnglish.com, a Beijing-based IT start-up that plans to revolutionize language-learning through the Internet the way Amazon overturned the book industry.
Supply and demand
EQEnglish, founded in Zhongguancun, China's Silicon Valley, in 2005 by Jonathan Palley and Adrian Li, solves a basic supply and demand problem.
According to Reuters, the number of Chinese students enrolled at English teaching industry-leader New Oriental exceeded 1.5 million as of May 31. And that's just one company. The People's Daily reported in 2006 that as many 300 million Chinese people are learning English. While that might be an inflated figure that included cab drivers and street vendors who were learning basic phrases in the build-up to the Olympics, the number of people taking the IELTS, which EQEnglish is currently focused on, is expected to exceed 300,000 in 2009, up 15 percent from 260,000 in 2008.
But the number of native English speakers teaching in China cannot begin to sate this demand, leading to exorbitant tuition fees, with a one hour one-on-one session ranging from 150 ($22) to 600 yuan ($88).
While companies like English First and New Oriental pay foreign teachers' plane fares to meet demand, EQEnglish gets around this problem by hooking up Chinese students with teachers in America over their own Skype-like interface designed specifically for teaching English. Students can connect with teachers anywhere they can get an Internet or phone signal.
