@janjal,
Ha, funny, but not likely.

You're a smart guy, do u not see the writing on the wall?

@livinginchina

They were going down no matter what, badly managed, this probably little to do with their demise, from what I've read on them.

Yeah, I guess there will be lot of Chinese English teachers looking for jobs too. Maybe it will lead to better level of English in some service establishments here. Or exodus of young English speaking natives to other countries.

I use to work for W.E.B.I.

a long time ago. It was a national training center like New Oriental and Henderson. A few years back (2-3 years), I read that they went out of business. They were expensive too. Teaching nowadays is not a profession I would recommend. I do see an exodus of teachers happening because there's really no other job in China you can do unless you are transfered here from an international company.

Let's see what develops.

I see they are still looking to hire English teachers.

Chinese students in China study English from around grades 1-3 until high school and sometimes in university. Typically they study English every year for at least 10-12+ years, college and post grads even longer.

Most of these alleged college grads I've met panic and go into catatonic shock at the simplest business communications phrases:
1. Hello. Nice to meet you, what's your name
2. Where do you work?

3. What do you do?
...etc etc etc...

If I studied Chinese (or latin, Hebrew, farsi, Urdu, Swahili etc) for 10 years - I could sing Beijing opera from memory and recite, read, and write (and somewhat understand) the entire litany of popular Tang Dynasty poems, dizigui, dao de Qing, and possibly Sunzi's art of war...

There is something inherently wrong with the way English is taught and learned in Chinese schools (starting with a lack of action-based learning outside the classroom), not to mention the general lack of motivation by students to actually be bilingual fluent.

That said - I have no solution...but it's rather a waste of government and academic resources and students limited time based on my very very limited perception of the results.

Teaching languages is very different from any other subject. Unless you have a really good reason for learning the language, you're only aim is to pass exams. Since it is taught on the basis of passing exams, not for communication or any other purpose, then students focus on written questions and answers. The joy of learning is killed by the boring formalised rote-learning approach as with all other subjects. Bringing the language alive, through actual communication with a native language-speaker is the way to make it interesting (and to show that it 'works'!). Since that cannot happen within the classroom structure, large class-sizes and lack of time, very few students ever develop an interest in the language as a living breathing meaningful subject. The few enthusiastic students (and many Chinese citizens who teach English!) come to my English Corners and I aim to reinforce their enthusiasm and encourage their language development by having a fun, challenging and interesting English language environment. But I'm retired and have the time and energy to do this, most foreigners don't.

what happen lately in shanghai tells you something about the latest trend. electricity of a bookshop was cut by authority while it is trading and the shop was packed with parents amassing foreign language textbooks. customers were told to leave the bookshop and shelves of foreign language textbook were clear. the door of the bookshop now remains shut. the reason given was, i heard, those books being cleared are published without copyrights. the interesting thing was, the shop has been selling those copyrights infringed copies for decades. hahahhahahhahah

People will find a way to get these book via e-book format or other means. There's always been a way.

When I think of the French I learned in school, the phrase I remember most clearly is, 'écouter et répéter'.

There seems to be a growing trend to hire English speaking teachers for subjects other than those restricted. Art, sports, etc...

Reasons may be questionable, but optimistically such approach may address some of the points @bubblyian mentioned above - incorporating casual English communication into the primary subject, which itself isn't a core test subject either.