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Pocketalk Donates Devices to 100 ELL Teachers

Pocketalk, the global innovator in connecting conversations and removing language barriers, donated 100 new translation devices to U.S. educators teaching English language learner (ELL) students as part of its first-ever Back to School program, equipping teachers with the tools needed during the pandemic to foster inclusive learning environments. During the application process, all 100 recipients, representing 29 states and Washington, DC, were surveyed to reveal their communication needs ahead of an unconventional school year. Through a survey and additional research, Pocketalk uncovered the needs to provide tech for underserved learners; to supply teachers with quick, accurate translation; and to offer more hybrid learning solutions.

  • 99% of educators said virtual learning changed communication with ELL students and families
  • 62% of teachers use translation daily with parents
  • Teachers are most likely to primarily use phones (38%) with parents


“For educators, frequent communication with students and families during the pandemic ensures that all students feel welcome,” said Joe Miller, general manager (Americas) of Pocketalk. “We shifted our dialogue from speculation about what will happen into action through our Back to School program, which has now sparked a new initiative for our customers to give back to educators.” As part of a new effort following the Back to School campaign, Pocketalk is now giving a Classic device to a school or district for each new device sold on their website, up to 200 units. After purchasing a new device, U.S. residents will receive an email inviting them to submit their chosen school district.
www.pocketalk.net

New TESOL K–12 Remote Teaching Resource

When schools pivoted to remote teaching in response to the pandemic, I was directing a large graduate program for in-service teachers of English learners (ELs). My colleagues and I were mentoring classroom teachers and EL specialists in our state. When you have a full view on teachers of ELs who are switching to remote instruction, you are quick to realize that their difficulties aren’t unique to their situation and teachers nationwide need guidance on how to rethink instruction in a way that allows their students to attend and participate.

Our team surveyed, interviewed, mentored, and coached teachers during spring 2020. My colleagues and I carried out a review of the literature on using technology with ELs and on engaging their caregivers in the digital age. We applied what we had learned from prior training grant projects. One issue in particular that came to the top of our investigations was that districts were not creating plans specifically for ELs.

They expected them to fit the mold they formed for all students and they left it to EL specialists to adjust that mold for students who are learning English at the same time that they are trying to progress with grade-level instruction. Based on all the roadblocks and outcomes, this planning approach is insufficient for students who lack the home supports to be able to switch to online instruction. Data we collected indicated to us that the problems with EL students’ access, attendance, and engagement with learning were severe and needed a remedy with a systematic planning process that involved the caregivers of ELs as well as the specialists and content teachers who have day-to-day responsibility for them.

TESOL International Association’s 6 Principles for Exemplary Teaching of English Learners provides an intuitive framework, based on well-established guidelines of language teaching and second-language acquisition research; this framework has been vetted by experts and teachers from TESOL’s international community of practice. Taken together, they form a comprehensive approach, which is in no way experimental. The principles and their key practices are universal enough to apply to a broad range of teaching contexts where students are learning English.
Personally, I have been one of the writers of TESOL’s six principles initiative, drafting them under the leadership of Deborah Short, TESOL International Association’s current president.

These principles and their exemplary practices have been central to my work with in-service teachers through a National Professional Development grant. When teachers approached me for advice on remote teaching, my reaction was that we should be reaching for what we know about instruction that works for English learners. The proliferating digital tools for learning are only helpful when our learners have the socio-emotional conditions and the proper infrastructure to use them well.

“The 6 Principles Quick Guide: Remote Teaching of K–12 English Learners” is the application of TESOL’s six principles for a sporadically charted context that has challenged us educators to our limit. My hope is that I provide a clear pathway that will help us regain a true sense of self-efficacy. The guide is a quick read, and when you are finished, you will feel, “This is a lot of work, but I do know how to do this because I can draw on what I already know about teaching K–12 English learners.

My colleagues and I already share this common language. I know where to start, where I am going, and where I can put my effort so it matters the most.” First things first: the modality has to fit the families who are expected to sustain it. Empowering them, supplying them with the tools, and training them for their tasks is where we start. Then comes building relationships with students, meeting their socio-emotional needs, and motivating them to engage meaningfully. When we have covered this ground, the guide makes it easy to move forward to the next level of action steps. Full of handy pointers and ready tools, the guide makes digital lesson planning easier for the teacher and engaging for the learner.

Andrea Hellman is the author of “The 6 Principles Quick Guide: Remote Teaching of K–12 English Learners,” available to order at http://sites.tesol.org/Bookstore.

Spain’s ‘Wealth of Bilingualism’

The director of Spain’s Instituto Cervantes applauded the country’s linguistic diversity and said that people should “understand the enormous wealth of living in a country with so many languages.” During a meeting with the heads of organizations that promote Galician, Basque, and Catalan, Luis García Montero affirmed that the co-official languages ​​contribute “different ways of living in this world that enrich us” not only in the respective territories where they are spoken but for all of Spain. Hopefully, he stressed, those citizens “who are lucky enough to be bilingual do not have the bad luck to stop being so.”

Within the framework of the European Day of Languages, García Montero held a face-to-face meeting at the Cervantes Institute in Berlin with the general director of El Libro, María José Gálvez; with the directors of the Consello da Cultura Galega, Rosario Álvarez, and the Etxepare Euskal Institutua, Irene Larraza; and with the delegate of the Institut Ramon Llull in Berlin, Sílvia González.

All of them expressed their desire to coordinate strategies among the various institutions to reinforce multilingualism in Spain, as agreed in the first cooperation agreement between Cervantes, Ramon Llull, the Consello, and Etxepare. The director of the Consello da Cultura Galega declared that “linguistic and cultural diversity is in the DNA of Europe, as it is typical of territories long inhabited by peoples who create languages, which evolve over millennia.”

Rosario Álvarez added that “the institutions represented here have the firm will to walk together to show, within and outside the borders of the Spanish state, the diversity of the creative impulse of this mosaic of cultures and languages. The shared values of each identity, as well as mutual respect and appreciation, are the basis of democratic coexistence.” Irene Larraza praised the role of nonhegemonic language institutes in making minority languages “known, recognized, and used to become fully fledged languages,” because “in a Europe based on common values, it is essential to learn to understand each other not from homogeneity but from difference. It’s impossible to create or expand a community without an appreciation of diversity, in all areas.”
“As speakers or representatives of minority languages, we can undoubtedly contribute our extensive experience in managing multilingualism,” Larraza added.

Spanish Propaganda Floods Florida

In the run-up to the election, Spanish speakers in the battleground state of Florida are being targeted by misinformation campaigns designed to sway their votes. According to Sabrina Rodríguez and Marc Caputo (Politico, Sept. 14, 2020), an onslaught of anti-Biden disinformation “is inundating Spanish-speaking residents of South Florida ahead of election day, clogging their WhatsApp chats, Facebook feeds, and even radio airwaves at a saturation level that threatens to shape the outcome in the nation’s biggest and most closely contested swing state.”
Last month, Aminda Marqués González, executive editor and publisher of the Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald, and Nancy San Martín, managing editor of El Nuevo Herald, apologized to readers over a paid Spanish-language insert which claimed that American Jews support “thieves and arsonists” and compared Black Lives Matter protesters to Nazis. The editors said they were “deeply sorry” for the column, which was posted in an insert in the newspaper called “LIBRE,” and stated they would no longer include the paid Spanish-language supplement, which has included anti-Semitic and racist columns for months. The editors were first informed due to a reader flagging the material.
Some conspiracy theories have also been aired on local radio. Miami’s Actualidad Radio, an AM radio station, interviewed a commentator who said the aim of the Black Lives Matter movement involves “brujería,” or witchcraft, and “a vote for Biden is a vote for that.”
In August, Caracol Radio, another AM radio station, aired a paid program that claimed that if Biden won the election, the U.S. would fall into a dictatorship led by “Jews and Blacks.” Caracol later apologized for the content and said it had banned the commentator from its airwaves.
In an attempt to counter the propaganda, the biggest Democratic super PAC has launched a $6 million Spanish-language ad buy in Florida after Michael Bloomberg pledged $100 million toward the presidential election in the Sunshine State.

French Program for Refugees Shows Success

A French parliamentary report presented to the National Assembly last month found that significant progress has been made since 2018 in helping refugees and asylum seekers to learn French and thus integrate into French society. However, refugees are slightly better off than asylum seekers, who are still struggling to access employment and language training.

“A real effort has been made but progress remains to be made,” French parliamentarians Stella Dupont of the ruling LREM (La République En Marche) party and Jean-Noël Barrot of the centrist MoDem (Mouvement Démocrate) claimed in the report, which recommends making it easier for asylum seekers to obtain work permits and to access French language courses as soon as asylum applications are filed.

Stella Dupont told InfoMigrants: “When it comes to statutory refugees, data from the OFII [Office français de l’immigration et de l’intégration] shows real progress in learning French. Official measures to double or triple the number of hours of French classes proved particularly beneficial for foreigners who had the lowest level of language skills upon arrival, some of whom could neither read nor write. Thanks to the increase in the number of class hours, the number of people who completed the basic French A-1 level increased by 16%. It’s therefore necessary to continue and even strengthen the system. Germany is going up to 900 hours of language training.”
“The most effective measure has indeed been doubling or tripling the number of hours of French language lessons. On the other hand, it should be pointed out that those who had a basic French level and who went from 50 to 100 class hours saw no progress at all. Efforts should therefore be concentrated on those with a low level, especially those who went from 200 hours to 600 hours,” added Barrot.

Educated Choices

Although education has hardly been a major issue during this campaign, apart from the school reopening question, next month’s elections will have a profound effect on public education in the U.S. and the traditionally accepted, bipartisan policy of using federal incentives to encourage states to supplement and boost the funding of schools that serve low-income, minority, and multilingual students.

The fact that these elections are happening during a pandemic, when many schools have been forced to go online, has dented the appeal of large public institutions, but we must recognize the long-term benefits of a solid, nationwide public education system.

Despite threats to defund the Department of Education during his first term, President Trump and his secretary of education Betsy DeVos have concentrated on expanding school choice and redirecting funds previously directed to public schools serving lower-income students to private and charter schools.

Just last month, a federal judge ruled against a Department of Education rule directing states to give private schools a bigger share of the $13.5 billion that Congress earmarked for schools in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act to mitigate economic damage from the pandemic. Should the administration make another conservative appointment to the Supreme Court prior to the election, many of the established rules promoting educational equity could be overturned over the next few years.

During this era of social distancing, the idea of school choice is gaining popularity among a wide range of voters; however, school choice is a broad term that includes publicly funded charter schools, for-profit schools, and school vouchers. Despite this support, there is a general agreement that funding of the public school system should be weighted to ensure that low-income groups have access to a quality education.

The Democrats have committed to closing the school funding gap by tripling Title I funding, which benefits schools that serve low-income students, and incentivizing states to adopt progressive funding formulas that direct resources to the schools that need it most. They have claimed that they will ensure “sustainable, reliable funding for rural schools and Bureau of Indian Education schools” without providing specifics.

Democrats oppose private school vouchers, and they say that they will ban for-profit private charter businesses from receiving federal funding, increase accountability for charter schools, and require all charter schools to meet the same standards of transparency as traditional public schools, including with regard to civil rights protections, racial equity, admissions practices, disciplinary procedures, and school finances. Federal funding for new, expanded charter schools or for charter school renewals on a district’s review of whether the charter will “systematically underserve the neediest students,” according to their manifesto. A new coronavirus relief bill released by House Democrats would allocate $175 billion to help K–12 schools, about three times the amount in their previous proposal. The bill would not require schools to offer in-person instruction to receive funding, unlike the Senate Republicans’ proposal for $70 billion in relief for public and private schools based on them offering some kind of face-to-face instructional time and an expansion of school choice.

Congress looks set to become the battleground for educational ideology, as it should be if the influence of federal funding is the key policy tool. So, instead of focusing on the presidential election, students, particularly those from lower-income (including minority and multilingual) families, may be better served if educators and educational activists focus their attention on key congressional contests.

Oct. 5 is World Teachers’ Day

October 5 is World Teachers’ Day and this year the theme is “Teachers: Leading in crisis, reimagining the future.” The following is an excerpt from a joint message from UNESCO, the International Labour Organization, UNICEF, and Education International regarding this year’s theme:

“In this crisis, teachers have shown, as they have done so often, great leadership and innovation in ensuring that #LearningNeverStops, that no learner is left behind. Around the world, they have worked individually and collectively to find solutions and create new learning environments for their students to allow education to continue. Their role advising on school reopening plans and supporting students with the return to school is just as important.”

To read the message in its entirety, click here.

Throughout the week of October 5, UNESCO will host celebratory events online. Events slated to take place include the sixth edition of the UNESCO-Hamdan Teacher Prize and the launch of the Teacher Task Force’s Knowledge Platform.

World Teachers’ Day commemorates the anniversary of the adoption of the Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers, which was put forth by UNESCO and the International Labour Organization in 1966. To learn more about UNESCO’s commitment to education, click here.

Dia de los Muertos Art Competition Invites Submissions

The Pasadena Tournament of Roses is inviting submissions for its first-ever nationwide Dia de los Muertos art competition. Since 1890, the Tournament of Roses Association has hosted a New Year’s Day parade featuring floral floats, marching bands, and equestrian units.

On its website, the Tournament of Roses Association said:

“A tradition in Mexico that goes back more than 3,000 years, Dia le los Muertos is an annual holiday that is now celebrated around the world. A celebration of life and death, the holiday spans two-days, during which it is believed that the spirit world and the real world become one, even if only for a moment. When it comes to traditions, festivities and flowers – we get the appeal. As an organization that’s all about a rose, the Pasadena Tournament of Roses can appreciate that the marigold holds such a prestigious place in this celebration.”

The competition is open to children ages 4-18 and submissions are due by October 28, 2020. Ideas for submissions include:

  • Construct an ofrenda (altar)​​​​
  • Build a visual art presentation​​
  • Create a floral arrangement​​​​
  • Make and decorate a Sugar Skull
  • Make a traditional Dia de los Muertos costume
  • Write a literary calavera
  • Paint a face with traditional Dia de los Muertos makeup​
  • Create an art piece featuring marigolds and/or monarch butterflies

The Tournament of Roses Association will select three winners, one from each of the following age groups:

  • Ages 4-8
  • Ages 9-13
  • Ages 14-18

Prizes include scholarships and gift cards. To learn more about the competition, including submission guidelines, visit https://tournamentofroses.com/about/diadelosmuertos/.

Call to Reimagine English Learner Education

Coalition for English Learner Equity issues a call to help address the education disparities faced by English Learners across the U.S.

Group of multi-ethnic five little kids children African American, Asian and Caucasian happiness together with friend to draw color pencil to full color of picture in living room or class room

The Coalition for English Learner Equity (CELE), a group of national education leaders and organizations, working together to improve educational outcomes for linguistically and culturally diverse students, has launched a new national effort to help address the education disparities faced by English Learners across the nation. The COVID 19 pandemic exposed long-standing inequities and school systems are ill-equipped to meet the needs of EL students. This initiative addresses these challenges by providing guidance to district and state leaders as well as educators to reimagine the way this critical population is served in schools. 

“We know that educators have received little guidance or resources during this pandemic to ensure continuity of learning for EL students, and these students and their families have been left in the dark,” said Harold Asturias, director of the Center for Mathematics Excellence and Equity at the University of California, Berkeley and co-chair of CELE. “With long-term implications of COVID 19 likely to last a generation, school systems must respond immediately to the needs of our linguistically and culturally diverse students.”

As part of this effort, the Coalition has launched a new website which includes a Statement of Agreement and Call to Action for district and state leaders, as well as educators across the nation. National organizations, including Language Magazine, and education leaders have endorsed the Statement of Agreement and signed onto the call to action, which asks education leaders to commit to the following actions: 

  • Take a stand against racist policies and practices, examine unconscious biases, and acknowledge the smog of racism we are socialized to ignore. 
  • Design curriculum and instruction with EL students as priority users in mind and ensure their inclusion in a broad range of academic and career opportunities.
  • Reimagine partnerships with families and caregivers of linguistically and culturally diverse students based on trust, respect, and valuing their experiences and histories.
  • Design content-focused, student-centered, instructionally relevant, and actionable professional learning experiences for all educators to serve linguistically and culturally diverse students and recruit leaders and educators who themselves are linguistically and culturally diverse.
  • Showcase practices and strategies to serve students and their families that demonstrate excellence and value the linguistic and cultural assets they have in the classroom and beyond.

“We need a cultural mindshift in our education system, so that district and state leaders see our linguistically and culturally diverse students as assets and prioritize their needs,” said Angélica Infante-Green, commissioner of Education in Rhode Island and CELE member. “Very little has been said during this election about prioritizing these students or building a new bold agenda to ensure they receive a quality education. This population has always been left behind but whatever happens in education moving forward has to lead with them for the sake of all of our nation’s students.”

CELE provides specific resources and tools for taking action, organized according to responsibilities and spheres of influence of key stakeholders within the educational system. There are close to five million EL students in the United States, and they represent the fastest growing student population in our public education system. CELE will work with other education groups and those within the coalition to continue providing resources and tools to educators who work with these students.

“We have decided to come together and provide a unified voice and vision for how our education system can do better for linguistically and culturally diverse students. Rather than work in silos, we are saying that a new collaborative and disruptive approach is needed and that is why that is why we are releasing this statement as a collective call to action now,” said Crystal Gonzales, executive director of the English Learners Success Forum and co-chair of CELE. “We invite others to join our movement and demand a reimagination of our education system; if we can do better for our most underserved, all students end up benefiting.”

The groups and individuals that have endorsed the Coalition’s vision include the National Association for Bilingual Education, Education Trust-West, Californians Together, English Learners Success Forum, Understanding Language at Stanford University, Parent Institute for Quality Education, Rhode Island Department of Education, the Lawrence Hall of Science at University of California at Berkeley, Latino Policy Forum, Abriendo Puertas, Todos – Mathematics for All, Dr. Aída Walqui; Lily Wong Fillmore; Patricia Gandara; Judit Moshkovich; Kenji Hakuta; Delia Pompa.

To learn more about the Coalition for English Learner Equity and this initiative, visit: www.elequity.org.

International Translation Day

In 2017, the UN General Assembly adopted resolution 71/288 on the role of language professionals in connecting nations and fostering peace, understanding and development, and declared 30 September as International Translation Day.

This is an opportunity to pay tribute to the work of language professionals and their role in bringing nations together, facilitating dialogue, understanding and cooperation, contributing to development, and strengthening world peace and security.

30 September was chosen as it celebrates the feast of St. Jerome, who is considered the patron saint of translators. St. Jerome was a priest from Northeastern Italy, who is known mostly for his endeavor of translating most of the Bible into Latin from the Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. He also translated parts of the Hebrew Gospel into Greek. He was of Illyrian ancestry and his native tongue was the Illyrian dialect. He learned Latin in school and was fluent in Greek and Hebrew, which he picked up from his studies and travels. Jerome died near Bethlehem on 30 September 420.

Every year since 2005, the United Nations has invited all its staff, accredited permanent missions staff and students from select partner universities to compete in the UN St. Jerome Translation Contest, a contest which rewards the best translations in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish, and German.

Multilingualism, a core value of the United Nations

According to the UN, “languages, with their complex implications for identity, communication, social integration, education and development, are of strategic importance for people and the planet.

There is growing awareness that languages play a vital role in development, in ensuring cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue, but also in attaining quality education for all and strengthening cooperation, in building inclusive knowledge societies and preserving cultural heritage, and in mobilizing political will for applying the benefits of science and technology to sustainable development.

An essential factor in harmonious communication among peoples, multilingualism is also regarded by the United Nations General Assembly as a core value of the Organization. By promoting tolerance, multilingualism ensures effective and increased participation of all in the Organization’s work, as well as greater effectiveness, better performance and improved transparency.

Translation at the UN

The United Nations is one of the world’s largest employers of language professionals. Several hundred language staff work in UN offices in New York, Geneva, Vienna and Nairobi, or at the United Nations regional commissions in Addis Ababa, Bangkok, Beirut, Geneva and Santiago. Translators are one type of language professionals employed at the UN.

UN language specialists include:

United Nations translators handle all kinds of documents, from statements by Member States to reports prepared by expert bodies. The documents they translate cover every topic on the United Nations agenda, including human rights, peace and security, and development. New issues arise every day. UN documents are issued simultaneously in the six official languages of the Organization (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish). Some core documents are also translated into German. This multilingual documentation is made possible by United Nations translators, whose job is to render clearly and accurately the content of original texts into their main language.

If you are interested in working as a language specialist at the UN, check UN Careers on Competitive examinations for language professionals.

Translators Without Borders

To meet the unprecedented demands of the COVID-19 pandemic, Translators Without Borders (TWB) has launched the COVID-19 Community Translation Program. They are providing community organizations with free and open access to TWB’s online translation environment so they can connect and collaborate directly with TWB’s community of over 30,000 translators, many of whom are generously donating their time to help people access COVID-19 information in their language.

TWB has received an unprecedented number of requests from small, local organizations desperate to translate information for their non-English speaking community members. Examples include translating travel ban information for refugees and immigrants into Chinese and Korean; translating what social distancing means into Spanish; and translating infection prevention and control information into Spanish, Chinese, French and Portuguese.

Click here to find out more.

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