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Cartoons and Comic Strips Shape Our Language

Richard Lederer is inspired by his hometown festival dedicated to cartoon characters from comic strips and comic books

 

San Diego Comic -Con is the largest gathering of comics and pop culture enthusiasts in the world. Held a couple of weeks ago, the event has sold out the past decade, and more than 130,000 flocked to the fun as our city perked up to the joys and color of comic book characters in our collective consciousness. These creations are so woven into the warp and woof of our culture that some of them have transmogrified into images and words in our everyday speech and writing.

Thomas Nast, perhaps the most famous political cartoonist in our history, was responsible for the popularity of two party animals. During the election of 1828, opponents of President Andrew Jackson labeled him a “jackass” for his populist beliefs. Jackson was entertained by the notion and ended up using it to his advantage on his campaign posters. Nast is credited with making Jackson’s donkey the symbol of the Democratic Party through one of his cartoons that appeared in Harper’s Weekly in 1870. 

Four years later, also in Harper’s Weekly, Nast drew a donkey clothed in lion’s skin, scaring away all the animals at the zoo. One of those animals, the elephant, was labeled “The Republican Vote.” That was all it took for the elephant to become associated with Republicans.

In 1928, Walt Disney gave the world Mickey—an all-American rodent who performed heroic deeds and squeaked his undying love for Minnie. Soon after World War II, international markets were flooded with wristwatches bearing Mickey’s likeness. Because these watches were generally cheap affairs subject to mechanical breakdowns, people started calling anything shoddy or trivial Mickey Mouse.

The name of H. T. Webster’s wimpy comic-strip character, Caspar Milquetoast, has become a synonym for a wimpy, unassertive man. In a similar vein, some scholars assert that the term sad sack to designate a pathetically inept man, especially a soldier, owes its origin to the cartoon character created by George Baker in 1942.

Speaking of wimpy, some linguists trace that adjective to Elzie Segar’s cartoon strip Thimble Theatre, which, when animated, became Popeye. Wimpy was a mild-mannered, soft-spoken, lazy, parsimonious, and utterly gluttonous hamburger-wolfing straight man to Popeye. 

The opposite of a wimpy person is a Superman, the comic-book creation of writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster. Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound! Superman has become a superman, a person who exhibits extraordinary powers.

Siegel and Shuster purloined the name Superman from the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s Übermensch, meaning “overman,” in Thus Spake Zarathustra and George Bernard Shaw’s translation of the term in his play Man and Superman. Only diehard trivia buffs know that Superman’s alter ego, the mild-mannered Clark Kent, derived his name from two 1930s movie stars—the iconic Clark Gable and the never-heard-of-him Kent Taylor.

On the fritz, meaning “not operating properly,” may have started with one of the earliest comic strips, The Katzenjammer Kids. Typically, the two hyperactive German boys Hans and Fritz caused all sorts of troubles for the Captain and other grownups in the story.

Two men of strikingly disparate height are dubbed Mutt and Jeff. The original mustachioed twosome, one tall, one short, inhabited a comic strip by Bud Fisher, the third created in the U.S.

For more than eight decades, Blondie’s husband has been creating culinary masterpieces in his kitchen, yet he does not appear to have gained an ounce (for which I envy him). Dagwood carries the cornucopia of ingredients from the refrigerator to the kitchen table on his arms and head, and the massive repasts he concocts are now known as Dagwood sandwiches.

The most famous and enduring of all quotations ever to emerge from a comic strip is the pronouncement declaimed by Walt Kelly’s immortal possum, Pogo: “We have met the enemy, and he is us!” Some grammar mavens would argue that the us in Pogo’s statement is cast in the wrong pronoun case. We is puristically the correct pronoun form for a predicate nominative, but it would be sacrificing poetry on the altar of grammatical purism to recast the sentence as “We have met the enemy, and he is we!”

Richard Lederer, MAT English and education, PhD linguistics, is the author of more than 50 books on language, history, and humor, available at his website, www.verbivore.com. Please send your questions and comments about language to [email protected]. 

The New Free Voluntary Reading?


Kenneth S. Horowitz finds a parallel between the use of video games and Krashen’s theories of Free Voluntary Reading and Free Voluntary Surfing

ESL teachers often wonder how it is possible that the same students that have difficulty with texts assigned in class, who often struggle with composing a cohesive paragraph in English and would often prefer a failing grade to giving an oral presentation, are so readily — and easily — working around the language barriers they encounter in the social and recreational environments they find online. The answer is could be tied to what Krashen refers to as Free Voluntary Surfing (FVS), a variation of the term Free Voluntary Reading”(FVR). In this case, Krashen refers to learners surfing pages on the Internet in their second language (L2), covering subjects that interest them (Rodriguez & Ramos, 2009).

For teachers here in Puerto Rico, a potential problem with FVS is figuring out how to make the enormous selection of online texts comprehensible for ESL students. FVS suggests that the use of narrow reading (focusing on a single subject, author or genre, depending on the reader’s interest, and then expanding to other areas over time) is the best for optimal language and literacy development. When learners choose what to read and select a subject that interests them, comprehensibility is assured. Moreover, the vocabulary and syntax acquired through narrow reading is carried over to other topics (Krashen, 2007). Thus, Krashen, who is a strong advocate of FVR, suggests that those learners who apply narrow reading when surfing the Internet will benefit in the same way they would from applying it to reading books and other traditional texts.

This is not something entirely confined to higher education either. The use of narrow reading as a means for students to acquire vocabulary and language structure through comprehensible input is widely believed to be beneficial from as early as elementary school (Hadaway, 2009). Today’s Puerto Rican ESL (PRESL) learners are well prepared to apply these techniques to a digital medium and have acquired this knowledge on their own, with little regard to the use of language. The ability to use a computer and access the Internet is not entirely dependent on proficiency in English, and learners are bringing these computer skills to their reading. More importantly, these digital and language skills are already being carried over to other mediums, where learners are applying them regularly. Video games are one such area.

PRESL learners of all levels avidly play video games regularly and with little difficulty, despite the fact that the games are not in their first language. There seems to be little correlation between the need for a game to be in a particular language and the ability of PRESL learners to play it through to completion. The appeal of video games seems to overpower the barrier of a foreign language, especially if the learners already have an educational background with said language. It is estimated that around 73 percent of young adults in the U.S. between the ages of 18 and 29 make use of social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, an increase of almost 20 percent from 2006 (Choney, 2010). With today’s young adults maintaining a constant online presence, the amount of time dedicated to digital entertainment has greatly increased, and now even the most unconventional of learners can access a myriad of game titles of all genres, and most importantly, all in English. Our students are joining make-believe mafias, attending to farms and cafes, and solving all kinds of puzzles, right there on their computers — completely in English —  and with little regard to the language difference that we, as teachers, so quickly and readily identify. For example, Farmville, a game where the player maintains and expands a farm with the help of online friends, has a base of over 80 million players worldwide (McElroy, 2010). Furthermore, it is estimated that a whopping 97 percent of children between the ages of 12 and 17 play video games, which means they are well established in this area by the time they reach university (Rich, 2008).The use of video games for English teaching is not a new thing.

Research, as well as actual implementation of games as a tool for ESL teaching, have been going on for most of the past decade. Studies have already been done that involve the use of video games such as Sony’s Everquest as tools for L2 teaching, and these have included such languages as Chinese and Spanish (Waters, 2007).PRESL learners are already benefiting from such experiences, and they have the tools to apply the narrow reading techniques described above for reading books and using the Internet to video games. Those PRESL learners who have played video games, whether it be on a traditional game consoles such as the Nint­endo Wii, Playstation 3 or Xbox 360, a portable system like the Nintendo DS or Sony PSP, or even casually on web sites like Facebook or Popcap.com, have been doing so out of their own interest, with no formal accountability (grades or other evaluation) and at their own pace. Arguably video games are more interactive than books and the Internet.

Depending on the game, it can providevisual and audio simultaneously at a consistent rate, and can engage the player in real-time decision making. All these skills must be used together persistently. PRESL gamers must make on-the-fly decisions based on their readings, and their choices can have lasting effects on the game they’re playing. Furthermore, many games do not have a pause feature, which means that all reading and/or conversations must be done in real time. Most PRESL gamers know enough English to be able to get started in the game of their choice with little trouble. By the time they turn to video games entirely in English, many PRESL gamers have already experienced video games that either require no specific knowledge of English, or more rarely, had a language option. This gives them the necessary background of skills and schema to apply in the second language. (Gee, 2003). Thus they do not have to learn brand new skills just to be able to play games in English.Most single-player video games have no language option, requiring the PRESL player to read only in English to progress the story. Moreover, many games such as role-playing (RPGs) and first-person shooters, while violent, have scripts that contain tens of thousands of words. Bioware’s Mass Effect for the PC and Xbox 360 is one example of a game that creates a high level of immersion for the single player. Bioware’s games average around 500,000 words, and the first Mass Effect game has over 20,000 lines of dialogue, compared to an entire season of The Simpsons, which averages around 8,000 (Zenko, 2007). Another RPG, Lionhead’s Fable II, has 370,000 recorded words (around 38 hours of dialogue), with over 45 actors playing almost 200 speaking roles (Ogden, 2008).The effect is not confined to a single-player experience either. Multi-player games, such as World of Warcraft and the recently released Star Trek Online, offer PRESL gamers the opportunity to interact with other players in real-time, in either a cooperative or competitive setting. Players can form parties that require them to work together to complete objectives, and this constant interaction, combined with the English in-game text, provide simultaneous comprehensible input on several levels.All these factors combine to create what is effectively the gaming equivalent of FVS.

PRESL gamers find their activity interesting and compelling enough to not focus on the fact that the game they are playing is in English. They become so engrossed in the activity itself that they “forget” that the game is in English. This can be attributed to several factors, such as gamers’ familiarity with the language due to formal schooling, consistent exposure from television, the Internet, and movies, and prior experiences playing other games.Video games for PRESL learners seemingly fit the guidelines of Krashen’s theory of Free Voluntary Surfing (FVS): video games are intermediate and authentic texts, video games are genuinely interesting to the gamer but not crucial, and PRESL gamers find the activity compelling enough to avoid looking up words constantly, allowing real language acquisition to take place (Krashen, 2007). This activity is also consistent with Krashen’s Comprehension Hypothesis because PRESL gamers choose which titles they wish to play. PRESL gamers tend to like specific genres and focus their gaming habits on those types. This specific context gives them the narrow focus that helps with language and literacy development. Due to the wide array of genres and styles, most tastes are satisfied, and players are able to choose the types of games they enjoy the most. Furthermore, since most PRESL gamers play different types of games, the syntax and vocabulary acquired in one genre will carry over to others.

In fact, it has been suggested that the reading done by gamers with instruction manuals, strategy guides, and online message boards may serve as a sort of “gateway drug” for more complex reading later on (Rich 2008).Though PRESL gamers usually like a diversity of genres, RPG games require more time for completion, taking usually from 40-100 hours. This usually means that the RPG being played is the only game on which the player is focused for days, if not weeks at a time. Let’s look again to Bioware’s Mass Effect, for instance. Though the actual main quest of the game can be completed in around 20 hours, there are many side quests available that can double that amount. Players are motivated to complete these extra quests because they flesh out the relationships between the main character and his party, and they also provide a deeper look into the game’s overall plot. Mass Effect’s incredibly rich storyline provides the gamers with a fascinating look at all the alien races, planets, and governments featured in the game, and it does this through a combination of text and voice work. What makes games like Mass Effect so useful to ESL learners is that the entire plot is directly influenced by the player and the choices he or she makes. Players can be a paragon of virtue or a dastardly rogue, and virtually every other character in the game will react accordingly. Conversations are controlled by dialogue trees, which allow the player to choose how to answer a question or address a particular situation. The dialogue presented onscreen provides only the intent of the actual choice, so the player has to choose the option to learn the full answer, which is provided though actual voice (Nutt, 2007). Characters can gain or lose loyalty from particular responses, as well as fall in love with the protagonist or even die. This is especially beneficial to language learners, as the game must be completed twice for the player to see the results of the majority of dialogue options to see how the plot develops. Moreover, should players choose to import their characters into the sequel, all the decisions made in the first game carry over, providing them with continuity and allowing them to see the long-lasting effects of the conversations.The use of video games as an effective means of ESL instruction is something that has only begun to be explored.

The pedagogical foundation for its use is there, and the sheer amount of young language learners already engaged in gaming in English is something that should not be ignored. Students learn best when we bring their own interests into the equation. Gaming, when done under the right conditions and in the right context, can provide an excellent means for them to acquire vocabulary and sentence structure from real-time interactions, either in a single-player environment or through online play with other learners.

References

Choney, Susanne. (2010, February 3). “Most Younger Net Users Get There Wirelessly.” Retrieved February 10, 2010, from MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35206710/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/Gee, James Paul. (2003). What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.Hadaway, Nancy L. (2009, April). A Narrow Bridge to Academic Reading. 66.38-41. Krashen, S. (2005). “The ‘Decline’ of Reading in America, Poverty and Access to Books, and the use of Comics in Encouraging Reading.” Teachers College Record.Krashen, S. (2007, July). “Free Voluntary Web-Surfing.” International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching, 3, 2-8.McElroy, Griffen. (2010). “Farmville Community Surpasses 80 Million Players.” Retrieved February 22, 2010 from Joystiq: http://www.joystiq.com/2010/02/20/farmville-community-surpasses-80-million-players/ Nutt, Christian. (2007, September 7). “AGDC: Bioware Charts Writing for Mass Effect.” Retrieved January 21, 2010, from Gamasutra:  http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=15406Ogden, Gavin. (2008, June 26). Fable 2 Dialogue: 370,000 Words Recorded. Retrieved January 21, 2010, from CVG.com: http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=191732Rich, Motoko. (2008, October 5). “Using Video Games as Bait to Hook Readers.” Retrieved February 19, 2010 from NewYork Times.com: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/06/books/06games.html?_r=2&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin Rodgriguez, J. M., & Ramos, F. (2009, January). A Conversation with Krashen. Language Magazine, 8, 28-30.Waters, John K. (2007, October). On a Quest for English. Retrieved February 19, 2010, from The Journal http://thejournal.com/the/printarticle/?id=21380 Zenko, Darren. (2007, November 4). Killing? Sometimes. Talking? Constantly. Retrieved January 20, 2010, from TheStar.com: http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/273322

Kenneth S. Horowitz ([email protected]) is a professor in the Department of English, Pontifical Catholic University, Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. He has been an English teacher on the sunny Caribbean isle of Puerto Rico for 13 years, where he has worked with students who have been raised with English virtually their entire lives yet still see it as something foreign. He has a BA and MA in ESL and teaches undergraduate English courses from the basic level to ESL majors working towards board certification. He is currently working towards completing his Ed.D in ESL.

UK ‘Likely’ to Lose Second Place Study Abroad Slot to Australia

The UK is likely to lose it’s spot as the second-most popular global study abroad location to Australia, according to a new report by the Centre for Global Higher Education. There has been little increase in growth in the number of international students entering the UK since 2012, making the gap between the UK and other countries shrinking, widening the possibility for the UK to slip to third place.

The UK’s number two postion (behind the U.S.) showed that it was the leading attractor of European students. However, the study notes that conditions brought on by Brexit, such as European students having to pay full cost international student fees as opposed to UK fees and the lack of eligibility for tuition loans are predicted to result in a lack of interest. Australia, on the other hand, has seen an upward trend in interest that does not appear to be affected by the geopolitical climate that the U.S. and UK are facing.

Simon Marginson, the paper’s author, Director of the Centre for Global Higher Education and

Professor of International Higher Education at the UCL Institute of Education, also notes that Canada is likely to be a principal beneficiary of the slowdown in growth of international students entering the U.S.

Marginson said, “What we are seeing is a seismic shift in the global student market. UK higher education is still highly valued internationally, but the government has held down the growth of international student numbers for five years, by limiting new student numbers and post-study work visas. Meanwhile, competitor nations are strongly promoting their international education.”

The three leading findings of the report that Marginson found were:

  1. The UK is the world’s leading nation in educating international students from Europe at tertiary level, but its leading position is about to be decimated by Brexit’s effect on tuition prices.
  2. It looks certain that Australia has now gone well past the UK in its numbers of international students from outside Europe, and this will be confirmed when the UNESCO data for 2016, 2017 and then 2018 become available.
  3. In terms of total international student numbers in tertiary education, Australia may have surpassed the UK in 2018, and if not will almost certainly do so in 2019. The UK will be number three.

Emirates Embrace Chinese

Last month’s visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) not only strengthened bilateral relations between the two nations, but also provided a huge boost to the learning of Mandarin in the UAE.

Abu Dhabi’s Ministry of Education announced that Chinese will be taught in 100 schools from next year, stressing that the initiative is a first step that will be followed by further action, There are about 580 schools in the Emirates, of which about 60% are private. The government allocated 21.2% of its 2016 federal budget for the education sector and has launched substantial initiatives to hire accredited teachers, improve professional development, develop smart learning programs, and revamp education curricula in anticipation of a steep increase in the school population from the current figure just under 600,000.

During the same week, the Abu Dhabi Company announced the launch of Zayed Digital Channel which will broadcast in Chinese language, and the Abu Dhabi Police issued their first driving license in Chinese. Brigadier Ibrahim Naser Al Shamsi, director of Vehicle Licensing Department at Abu Dhabi Police, said that the move reflected “the depth of the historical relations between the two friendly countries and their excellence in all fields.”

Allez les Bleus! Soccer Study Abroad

Soccer, the world’s favorite game, is an inspiration for language learners

The excitement of this summer’s World Cup finals in Russia reverberated around the world, creating thousands of new fans, drawn in by unexpected results and the diversity of the game’s stars. Although the final match was an all-European affair, it pitted tiny Croatia, with a population of just four million, against the multiethnic French team, largely comprising second-generation immigrants from France’s former colonies. Hopefully, France’s victory will help to heal some of the cultural rifts in the country and be a catalyst for integration. The international nature of the game, with top clubs often fielding teams of more than five nationalities and coaches working worldwide, presents plenty of language problems and language-learning opportunities. To capitalize on the enthusiasm for the game, language and soccer camps have sprung up worldwide. Here’s a selection:

Soccer Camps International
In business for over 19 years, Soccer Camps International offers soccer camps in Europe with language immersion programs for children seven to 18 years of age. Students have access to exclusive soccer clubs’ training sites, new cultural experiences, and excursions to major European cities, all while studying a new language. With over 15 world-class European soccer camps to choose from, families can select soccer and language camps in France, Spain, and England:
ENGLAND: Chelsea FC Foundation Soccer Schools, Manchester City Football Performance Program, Manchester City Football Language School, Arsenal Soccer Schools, Liverpool FC Residential Language Camps, Brighton FC Soccer Schools and Language Camp
SPAIN: Real Madrid Foundation Soccer Camps, FC Barcelona Soccer Camps, Atletico Madrid Soccer Camps, Spain Federation National Team International Soccer Camp
FRANCE: Paris Saint Germain Academy, Bordeaux Cap Girondins Soccer Camps

IFX
The International Fútbol X-Change is a premier international soccer organization providing total immersion programs to soccer players from around the world. Since 2003, they have sent hundreds of players to experience soccer and life in a variety of international destinations. Their expertise in managing the complex demands and issues surrounding playing and living overseas enables players to hit the ground running and focus on their game and new life in an exciting new world. On offer are over 20 unique soccer and study programs in five different countries, varying from one-week international soccer camps with Europe’s most renowned clubs to full season/academic-year programs. With the International Fútbol X-Change, not only do participants benefit from their international partner soccer-club network, but IFX also arranges all of the essential components a player needs in order to live abroad, including procuring short- or long-term accommodations; enrollment into academic institutions including high schools, colleges, language schools, and universities; supporting the student visa process; and providing ongoing local support and guidance in the host country.

Xplore (UK: English)
English Plus Football camps are designed for students who want to play and improve their soccer skills and develop English language skills alongside other like-minded fans and is best suited to those with prior football experience. This two-week camp consists of one to two football training sessions per day (except excursion days), delivered in English, supported by English language lessons, and is available at three camp locations—Framlingham College, Worksop College, and Pangbourne College during the summer. Training sessions take place on both indoor and outdoor pitches where Ferienfussball coaches take the time to improve technical ability, enhance individual skills, and practice team building.The aim throughout the camp is that everyone is supported according to his or her individual criteria and abilities. The course will also include the chance to play against a local team in a friendly match, where students can test their new skills and experience against international players. Upon completion of the camp, students will be awarded with a t-shirt and certificate.
A special highlight of the English Plus Football camp is that players go on a stadium tour during one of their excursions. At Framlingham College and Pangbourne College, they visit Arsenal Emirates Stadium, and at Worksop College, players visit Old Trafford in Manchester.

Report Recommends French Promotion in Ontario

The annual report of Ontario’s French Language Services Commissioner, François Boileau, “Looking ahead, Getting ready,” makes 14 recommendations, including one suggesting that the Canadian province adopt an action plan on the development of Francophone communities and the promotion of the French language in Ontario.

The report projects the Francophone population forward to 2028, and calls upon the government to prepare itself for demographic changes, in which the best-case scenario predicts that by 2028, in spite of expected growth in Ontario’s Francophone population in absolute figures, the proportion will continue to decline, relative to the province’s total population.

According to Boileau: “The findings are alarming. We need to prepare for a scenario in which we will have some serious catching-up to do, notably on Francophone immigration and the aging of the population. A provincial action plan for developing Francophone communities and promoting French in Ontario would be a first step towards a long-term solution. I agree that it is ambitious, but it is also essential. It would give the ministries a framework and indicate the desired collective direction. The new Ford government needs to field the ball and immediately seize this opportunity.”

The Commissioner made another seven recommendations on Francophone immigration and six more on demography, health, the production and dissemination of French-language digital content, the digital transformation of the government-citizen relationship, the restructuring of in-person public services, and tomorrow’s workforce.

“My advisory role is one of the most important assigned to me under the French Language Services Act. More than ever, the annual report includes valuable advice. Daring to think 10 years ahead is a perilous exercise at best. The very words used in the title, Looking ahead, Getting ready, are action verbs recommending that we face up to reality and do what has to be done. My goal is to mobilize public policymakers and engage Francophone communities in taking strong collective action,” concluded Boileau.

The mandate of the Commissioner’s Office is to ensure that government services are delivered in compliance with Canada’s French Language Services Act.

Zombielandia Brings Reading to Life

Many resources for learning a second language can be unengaging and repetitive, like learning foods and animals. The award-winning book Planet Zombielandia does the exact opposite of that and is hilarious, fun, and a valuable tool for reinforcing beginning vocabulary and reading comprehension. The story is available in both English and Spanish at beginning levels in print and digital and follows a zombie outbreak on earth. The book is genuinely funny and features quirky illustrations. Beginner-level students will be able to follow along with easy-to-read language as well as learn new vocabulary in a casual way.

Planet Zombieland was unanimously selected for the Parent and Teacher Choice Award. This short reader teaches beginning language learners through story telling by use of high-frequency vocabulary. It’s highly recommended for any student school-age to adult who wants to learn English, Spanish or French.

“We love that the Planet Zombieland Activity Workbook is open-ended so that students get to continuously write their own ending. It also includes numerous games to personalize the learning at each step for the learner so they remain fully engaged. Highly recommended by the Parent and Teacher Choice Award team to anyone – parents or teachers, teaching English or Spanish with the intent to help students acquire a new language.”

 

www.59wise.com   

 

Putting More Fun into Nonfiction

From futuristic features on flying cars and fun facts about the rainforest to the latest football stats and fashion trends, who said nonfiction reading can’t be fun? Yet despite recent calls for increased nonfiction reading from the National Governors Association (NGA) and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), more often, students are reaching for fiction books. In fact, according to the 2018 What Kids Are Reading report, the world’s largest study of K–12 students’ reading behavior, nonfiction reading has only grown by less than 10% nationwide since NAEP laid out its reading framework in 2010.
A solution many classrooms are using to engage K–8 students is myON News, powered by News-O-Matic. The service delivers five daily news articles, 52 weeks a year, on timely topics and current events.

Each article incorporates engaging multimedia to help students better understand news and other informational topics. Accompanying maps show where news is occurring relative to the location of the reader, as well as other fun facts. Students can read about a wide variety of topics: high-interest U.S. and world news, arts and entertainment, sports, science and technology, animals, wacky news, and kids in the news. Every article is written at three Lexile levels (pre-K–3, 3–5, and 5–8), with accompanying audio supports to further student understanding. Each article is also vetted by a child psychologist to ensure children are reading content that is age appropriate for K–8 students. In addition, the articles, which are written by professional journalists, are available in multiple languages, including English, Spanish, and French.

Teachers can use the metrics from myON News to track the number of articles their students have read as well as the categories and articles that are most popular with each student. Students can learn about the world in a way that fosters their natural curiosity. The platform also assists students with developing critical-thinking skills to determine the difference between “real” and “fake” news and helps educate them on global headlines that may impact their daily lives. renaissance.com/products/myon-news

It’s Easier to Lie in a Foreign Language

A new study suggests that it may be easier for people to lie in their second language than in their native tongue. The study, titled “The language of lies: Behavioral and autonomic costs of lying in a native compared to a foreign language.” in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, evaluated participants in their native and non-native languages. Unlike previous studies that evaluated only the perceived trustworthiness of participants when communicating in their native and non-native languages, this study monitored participants to gauge physical differences when lying and telling the truth in their native and non-native languages.

In the study, 50 participants were asked a number of questions where they would respond both truthfully and deceptively. Researchers monitored their response time, heart rate, and amount of sweat. The scientists found the following:

  1. It takes longer to answer any question in a second language (which is to be expected).
  2. It takes longer to answer emotional questions than non-emotional ones.
  3. It typically takes longer to lie than to tell the truth.

The difference between native and non-native language happens when it comes to the difference in how long it takes to answer truthfully or with a lie. For a native speaker, there is a larger and more pronounced difference between the amount of time it takes to answer truthfully or with a lie. In a second language, however, the amount of time it takes to tell a lie and tell the truth is relatively similar. This is partly attributed to the fact that it takes longer to answer questions that have emotion. Since there is a larger perceived emotional load when answering truthfully, it takes longer to answer. Lying, on the other hand, takes a higher cognitive load, which researchers believe “cancels out” the emotional load, making the response times similar.

Should Spain’s Constitution be Gender Neutral?

Spain’s new socialist government has upset the Real Academia Española (RAE), the Spanish language’s official guardian, by asking it to see if Spain’s Constitution could become more gender neutral.

Specifically, the government is seeking to replace the prevalent masculine plural (eg. señores) with both the masculine and feminine versions (señores y señoras). The row erupted after Spain’s deputy prime minister and equality minister, Carmen Calvo, called on the RAE to consider updating the 1978 constitution with “inclusive” language, saying: “We have a masculine constitution. We need to begin to have a text that includes women.” She pointed out that it referred to “ministros y deputados” using the male forms of the nouns.

Calvo, a former culture minister, and prime minister Pedro Sánchez took control of the government at the beginning of June, when their party (PSOE) and its allies (the populist Unidos Podemos, Basque, Catalan, and Valencian nationalist parties) succeeded in passing a no-confidence motion against the conservative government of Mariano Rajoy and the Partido Popular. When the new government’s majority female cabinet was sworn in, most members referred to the “Consejo de Ministras y Ministros” rather than the “Consejo de Ministros.”

The new government soon asked the RAE to investigate what it would take to make gender-inclusive changes to the constitution, but the RAE’s director, Darío Villanueva, dismissed the idea, telling El País that the problem is “confusing grammar with machismo.” Arturo Pérez-Reverte, a prominent Spanish novelist and RAE member, also said he would resign if any changes on the basis of gender-neutrality were made.

However, there is some support for change within the Academia—philosopher Inés Fernández-Ordóñez argued that the RAE should be “open to the demands of society,” noting that meetings often start with “señores y señoras” (ladies and gentlemen), so ways can be found to “mark the female presence.”

Reformists say that the traditional Spanish use of male pronouns and noun forms to refer to both genders collectively effectively makes women invisible, but opponents argue the inclusion of women is implied.

 

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