SUBSCRIBE

Busting Myths, Telling Truths

Matt Renwick recommends a grounded approach when it comes to technology in the classroom

In a first-grade classroom, two teachers co-facilitated a literacy lesson. It was a shared reading experience that transitioned into a shared writing activity. One of the teachers read aloud a book written in both English and Spanish. This activity was followed by writing a text together that had a similar structure to the original book. As a class, they wrote this first draft on an easel.

Several of these students were English learners. Spanish was their first language; many had already made gains in their acquisition of English. This lesson positioned these kids as experts in the classroom. For example, when the teacher read aloud “piñata,” one of the students, Jesus, responded with a more accurate pronunciation. “Why, thank you, Jesus,” responded the teacher. “Your Spanish is excellent. I appreciate your help on that” (Routman, 2008).

There were many resources available in the classroom to support responsive and differentiated instruction: comfortable seating for both whole-group and small-group learning; high-interest, authentic literature; writing materials for students; easel paper and markers. All students were feeling successful as the teachers thoughtfully played to their strengths. What one would not have found, at least during the lesson, was technology.
Imagine if technology had been a part of this lesson, such as laptops or tablets.

What would the students have gained from this inclusion? How might the teachers’ instruction have been enhanced? A reasonable conclusion would be that technology would not have supported student learning in this lesson. In fact, it could have hampered it. For example, if the teacher projected her computer screen to students’ tablets as she wrote on a digital document, a few students might have lost connection to the wireless. Maybe another student would have tried to pull up a web browser instead of attending to the lesson. Certainly, everyone would have been staring at a screen instead of focusing on each other in this community-enhancing, literacy-rich lesson.

Technology has its place in schools and learning, yet only in specific situations is it necessary. Sometimes the benefits are merely nice. Technology can even have a negative impact on instruction. Try this quick exercise: Think about the past week of instruction. Then mentally remove the technological component(s) of it. Now imagine teaching the same lessons without the technology. Were the students able to learn just as well? Except for a few situations, my guess is the answer to this exercise is yes.

As teachers and school leaders, we need to take a critical approach when considering the inclusion of digital tools in our instruction. Technology providers will promote their products as essential to student learning outcomes. The problem with this approach is most of these providers work for businesses. They likely are not educators; their bottom line is dollars but not always sense. We as professionals are obligated to exercise our professional judgment when determining how to integrate technology into the classroom. The rest of this article describes five myths regarding technology for learning, countered by five truths, along with explanations for these misconceptions.

Myth: Technology is easy to learn and use.
Truth: Teachers need a reason, time, and support to successfully integrate technology.

Any time I see stacks of laptops or tablets being readied for student or staff distribution, the first thing I wonder is, “What preparations have been made to ensure that these computers will be used effectively and seamlessly in instruction?” Too often, no plans have been made other than a brief overview of the basic functions. This can be a recipe for wasted resources and no improvement in learning.

Technology is not necessarily easy to learn or use. Asking a teacher to implement digital tools with success can be a daunting request without a rationale for the technology, the proper training and time to practice, and accessible support. Yet with these elements in place, bringing technology into classrooms and schools can be a worthwhile effort.
A strong rationale for implementing technology is a prerequisite for its implementation.

This type of initiative cannot be about “keeping up with the Jones’s,” such as citing that a neighboring district has gone 1:1. Any purpose for implementing technology in schools has to be about improving teaching and learning. The goal does not have to be broad. In fact, smaller initiatives can increase the likelihood of teachers and students feeling successful.
One possible idea for a strong purpose is having students publish a classroom or school newsletter using Smore, WordPress, or Adobe InDesign. Students can create web-based, content-rich media that closely resembles the real work of the world.

These digital applications have a learning curve, which demands time and support for learners to be successful. The school library media specialist can be a key staff member for this work. In our elementary school, this person visits each classroom once a week to lead a lesson on a specific tool and activity. Library media specialists can also offer monthly after-school sessions for teachers to try out these new technologies in a low-risk environment and plan for how to implement them in the classroom.

Myth: Technology is expensive.
Truth: When upgrading outdated resources, technology can be cost-effective.

The Latin root of the word innovate (innovare) means “to renew or change.” If something new is introduced to a classroom, the assumption is it is replacing an outdated practice or resource. Yet in many schools, technology is instead layered over existing practices, a digital veneer that does not really change instruction.

If technology is purchased for classrooms without forethought as to what it is improving and replacing, this can impair a limited budget at the expense of other essential resources and staff. Something has to give if we believe that the inclusion of digital learning will improve student learning in a way not possible without it.

Some low-hanging fruit in traditional schools that is ripe for being replaced is textbooks. In the 21st century, these compendia of information are immediately outdated the moment they are printed. Today’s technologies can position students and teachers as co-creators of their own knowledge sources.

For example, middle-level teachers can guide students to create Google Sites around important points in history. Open educational resources (OER) such as the National Archives and Smarthistory can be linked into the site as pertinent content to study. Teachers can also develop curriculum with open educational resources using the OER Commons website. If the adage is true that the best way to learn something is to teach it, then having students co-develop learning materials with teachers seems like a smart and cost-effective approach.

Myth: Technology should be in the hands of every student.
Truth: Sometimes less technology can lead to greater student achievement.

For all of the gains students may experience with the addition of technology—for example, a constant connection to a world of information—what might they lose? Quite a bit. As an example, studies have shown that when students have unlimited internet access through their smartphones via social media, their relationships with people in their immediate lives can start to deteriorate (Turkle, 2015).

Additional effects of increased access to the internet include a decrease in school performance and an exacerbation of the achievement gap (Toyama, 2015). This is not to suggest that social media is an absolute negative in students’ lives. Another study which analyzed English learners’ activity on Facebook found the experience to be very positive when they were engaged in conversation and media consumption with people and resources from their countries of origin (Stewart, 2014).

The key here is how students are engaged in learning with technology. This is where a teacher’s expertise is so important. Educators need to understand not only pedagogy and content but also how technology might enhance or distract from the process of learning. Some of the best technology-enhanced lessons I have observed do not feature computers in the hands of every learner.

For example, in my last school, students in groups of three were provided one tablet with the task of creating an original digital nonfiction text. Using the app Book Creator, students were expected to incorporate audio, images, and text to communicate their learning regarding the culture of another country.

They knew their work would be published for an authentic audience through FreshGrade, a digital portfolio application. Students spent lots of time getting their audio recordings right as they read and reread the text. This audio would be embedded in the digital text to ensure that all readers could access their book. The limited access to technology brought students together instead of dividing them. Their deliberate practice with speaking was authentic and improved their fluency. The focus was on content and cooperation instead of the technology.

Myth: Technology improves student learning.
Truth: Without an expert teacher, technology’s impact on learning is minimal.

One type of classroom technology becoming more prominent in schools is intelligent tutoring systems, or ITS. These applications provide feedback for students in real time as they work through math problems or respond to questions about a given text. The idea is that students can learn important concepts and skills without the immediate guidance of a teacher.

The problem with this premise is it does not necessarily work. Technology-enhanced instruction has had mixed results in studies, with enough evidence to encourage caution among educators. However, many studies have shown that when a teacher’s instruction is thoughtfully incorporated with technology, learning can be improved.

In one research study conducted by Filament Games and Sennett Middle School in Madison, WI, the use of video games to teach social-emotional skills in the classroom without teacher guidance only resulted in a 1% improvement in student learning. Teacher-only instruction resulted in a 6% increase in learning, while a combination of the application and teacher instruction resulted in a 10% improvement in student learning (Clardy and Pittser, 2017).

The good news here is that, in the age of technology, teachers are more important than ever. What is critical for the teacher is to become familiar with digital tools and how best to utilize them in the classroom.

Myth: Technology is a distraction.
Truth: Technology is a thing. People are distractible.

A recent trend with technology in education is the banning of smartphones in schools. Whole districts are prohibiting these mini-computers from coming into classrooms due to the perception that they are distracting students from their learning. The thinking goes, kids cannot help themselves from checking their feeds on Snapchat and Instagram if their phones are in their pockets.

I think educators are going to look back on these policies with embarrassment—not because these concerns are unreasonable, but because we avoided having a critical conversation with our students and staff about the influx of mobile technology and the inherent challenges it brings. These problems exist beyond K–12 education. Instead of banning smartphones outright, what if teachers engaged in conversation around these issues, just as they would with any other current event or topic of interest? These discussions could lead to smarter policies that are student-owned regarding how best to regulate and self-monitor the usage of mobile technology.

As an example, teachers can provide choice boards when guiding students to study relevant concepts and themes in depth, such as “solitude.” Links to online content, such as articles, videos, and music, can be represented by QR codes that students scan with their smartphones to watch or listen. They can curate favorite resources using productivity tools such as Evernote and Google Keep to use for research when they later compose essays or presentations on these topics. These studies can conclude with deep discussions about the importance of finding balance in our overly connected lives.

Conclusion: The Future Belongs to the Learner

Education is experiencing growing pains brought on by the influx of technology in classrooms. We are not sure yet what works, which makes us susceptible to fads and initiatives without any evidence of their effectiveness. Educators should not wait for a litany of studies to support the inclusion of digital tools to support student learning. Instead, let us adopt a learner’s mindset and work with our students to discover what is possible with education today. These skills and dispositions will only serve to build our students’ capacities to discern what are and what are not the best approaches for bringing technologies into our lives.

References

Clardy, T., and Pittser, B. “Measuring the Socioemotional Benefits of Game-Based Learning.” Session presented at School Leaders Advancing Technology in Education (SLATE) Convention, Dec. 5, 2017.
Routman, R. Regie Routman in Residence: The Reading-Writing Connection. Online professional development series. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2008.
Stewart, M. A. “Social Networking, Workplace, and Entertainment Literacies: The Out-of-School Literate Lives of Newcomer Latina/o Adolescents.” Reading Research Quarterly 49, no. 4 (2014): 365–369.
Toyama, K. “Why Technology Alone Won’t Fix Schools.” Atlantic, June 3, 2015. https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/06/why-technology-alone-wont-fix-schools/394727/.
Turkle, S. Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age. London: Penguin Press, 2015.

Matt Renwick is the author of Five Myths About Classroom Technology: How Do We Integrate Digital Tools to Truly Enhance Learning?, and his latest book is Digital Portfolios in the Classroom: Showcasing and Assessing Student Work (ASCD, August 2017), available at www.ascd.org/Publications/ascd-authors/matt-renwick.aspx. He started as a fifth- and sixth-grade teacher in a country school outside of Wisconsin Rapids, WI, 18 years ago. He then served as a dean of students at a junior high, which developed into an assistant principalship along with athletic director duties. As an elementary principal for the Mineral Point Unified School District, he enjoys the curriculum, instruction, and assessment sides of education. He also teaches online graduate courses in curriculum design and instructional leadership for the University of Wisconsin-Superior.

Accelerator Aims to Close Global Literacy Gap with Project Literacy

Literacy rates have not improved in over 15 years, costing the world $1.19 trillion a year and leaving over 750 million people worldwide unable to read this sentence, so Project Literacy Lab, a partnership between Pearson and Unreasonable Group, part of the broader Project Literacy campaign, is bringing a new group of problem solvers to the table: entrepreneurs. This first-of-its-kind international accelerator focuses on scaling up ventures that are positioned to help close the global literacy gap by 2030.

In July 2016, the inaugural Project Literacy Lab brought together 16 ventures from across five continents for a two-week accelerator outside of San Francisco, California. Over the course of this program, the entrepreneurs were matched with the resources, mentorship, access to financing, and global network of support to help them scale more rapidly across multiple regions and countries. To date, the first cohort of companies operates in over 50 countries, has collectively raised over $70 million in financing, and has reached over ten million people around the world. Within just one year after the program, the cohort’s total revenue has increased by over 80%, and total funding has increased by approximately 185%.

Last month, the second Project Literacy Lab accelerator officially launched with a new group of 13 companies at a venue near New York City. The participating mentors included Aleem Walji, CEO of the Aga Khan Foundation and former chief innovation officer at the World Bank, and Tom Chi, founding team member of Google X and expert in rapid prototyping.

Each venture in the 2017 cohort is tackling one of the foundational issues that underpins the problem of illiteracy worldwide.

For example:
BeeLine Reader makes reading on screen more efficient and accessible for readers at all levels—especially for those with dyslexia, ADD, and vision problems. Instead of displaying text in monochrome, BeeLine Reader uses a subtle color gradient that draws the reader’s eyes from the end of one line to the beginning of the next. This technique can dramatically improve reading fluency and reading comprehension. To date, BeeLine Reader has been used to read over 250 million pages worldwide.

Cell-Ed brings essential literacy, language, and job skills to adults who need it most. They deliver skills training in three-minute lessons on any mobile phone, where adult learners simply call, text, or click to access a world of learning. To date, more than 10,000 Cell-Ed users have logged over 1,000,000 minutes of learning in reading and numeracy skills, vocational ESL, and more.

Kodable makes computer science education accessible to every child in the world, regardless of race, gender, or socioeconomic background. They develop computer science curriculum for elementary schools, with a grab-and-go lesson plan option for teachers and fun, engaging labs for students. To date, Kodable is used by over 50% of elementary schools in the U.S. and in over 200 countries around the world.

Pearson and Unreasonable Group share the belief that rapid-growth, for-profit companies have the potential to drive solutions into the hands of millions who remain illiterate today. This is where Project Literacy Lab comes into focus: connecting brilliant innovators and entrepreneurs with what they need to achieve greater scale faster.

“Project Literacy Lab aims to spark a conversation around how business investors and entrepreneurs can put a positive dent on history,” says Daniel Epstein, founder and CEO of Unreasonable Group. “Many of these entrepreneurs are already measurably closing the global literacy gap with technologies we didn’t know existed—profitably. Unlike most accelerator programs, we are choosing to align with solutions that have already proven to be effective in market. Now, we’re helping these entrepreneurs scale their ventures across countries and continents to impact hundreds of millions of lives.”

“Ensuring universal literacy means bringing new problem solvers to the table,” said Kate James, chief corporate affairs and global marketing officer for Pearson and chief spokesperson for Project Literacy. “We need everyone to work together to tackle this global crisis. With their innovative and scalable solutions, these entrepreneurs are key to how we help reach the low-income communities where illiteracy is most severe.”
www.projectliteracy.com/lab/

Diglossia Releases Mubakkir Arabic Early Reading Assessment

Diglossia has announced the release of Mubakkir, an Arabic early-reading assessment designed for native and nonnative learners at beginning and intermediate proficiency levels. Experts agree that early and frequent measurement of young learners’ progress toward the acquisition of early literacy skills is an essential element for developing successful readers and writers, and the test addresses a need in the MENA region for a standards-based Arabic early-literacy assessment.

Mubakkir gives teachers and administrators a powerful and easy-to-use tool for the systematic gathering of student data to inform effective instruction and intervention. The mobile app is a suite of individually administered tests designed to help schools and teachers determine how early readers are performing on critical preliteracy and early-literacy skills. The test is administered up to six times per year in a one-to-one setting, where the teacher uses the mobile app while the student reads from printed phonics or story sheets. Student performance is audibly recorded while the teacher is tracking fluency and identifying miscues to monitor and record progress.

The assessment makes it easy to maintain a running record of student progress toward meeting the benchmark requirements for six to ten prereading and early-reading skills identified by experts as essential to the development of reading fluency in young learners. As a formative assessment tool, the detailed data gives teachers diagnostic information to provide every child with meaningful feedback and to develop personalized, evidence-based remediation and intervention strategies.

Mubakkir consists of a mobile application available on Apple or Android devices that captures responses and keeps a running record of progress, and printed test sheets to elicit oral responses from students in a one-to-one test administration. A full range of individual, class, and school reports are available on a customizable dashboard. The two- to three-minute tests are designed to be administered frequently, approximately once every four to six weeks. Mubakkir is available to download from the Apple App or Google Play stores.
Mimi Jett, Diglossia co-founder and CEO, is excited about the release.

“We are honored to partner with the Arab Thought Foundation on Mubakkir, the first online test to measure literacy development in Arabic language learners. Early literacy skills are critical in preparing children for success in school and in life, and Mubakkir gives educators the data necessary to ensure achievement for early Arabic readers. The test furthers our commitment to partner with MENA educational organizations in realizing our shared goal of supporting Arabic language literacy throughout the world.”

Mubakkir was created in partnership with the Arab Thought Foundation to promote early-literacy skills in young learners and is part of the foundation’s efforts to improve the teaching and learning of Arabic language with standards, materials, tools, and support, throughout the Arab world. The development of Mubakkir was funded by the Arabi 21 Project under the guidance of Dr. Hanada Taha and the Arab Thought Foundation.
www.diglossia.net

www.arabthought.org

The Future of Spanish and Hispanic Media in the U.S.

Does one have to speak Spanish to be considered Hispanic or Latino in the U.S.? What is the role of Hispanic media in the country which elected Donald Trump a year ago? How important is the Spanish language to Hispanic media? How does such media affect the use of Spanish in a country with 58 million Spanish speakers?

These were some of the questions asked during the II Jornada de Medios de Comunicación y Cultura en Español, which was recently hosted by the Instituto Cervantes at its headquarters in Madrid.

Organized by the Institute’s press department, the conference culminated with a session by Univisión presenter Jorge Ramos on Hispanic media under the Trump administration.
Other speakers included Alberto Vourvoulias-Bush, a professor in the Spanish journalism program at City University New York, who said that in the U.S. there was “a desperate shortage of bilingual journalists.” He argued that for recent immigrants, the Spanish-language media is a “lifesaver which helps them navigate a new world” in such basic areas as finding work, health care, or school for their children.

Frances Negrón-Muntaner, director of the Media and Idea Lab at Columbia University, shared his belief that “the Hispanic community doesn’t exist as such and the term Hispanic is being used less every day.” For the Puerto Rican journalist, the English-language media “is a place where Latinos are marginalized,” by the continued casting of stereotypes like gardeners and maids, while the traditional “Latin lover” has virtually disappeared—the last one being Antonio Banderas.

The moderator of the first debate, Ángel Badillo, lead researcher at the Real Instituto Elcano, argued that Spanish is no longer a factor of identity, as 80% of Latinos believe that one does not have to speak Spanish to be considered Latino.

During the second debate on the future of Spanish-language media in the U.S., Alberto Avendaño, ex-director of El Tiempo Latino/Washington Post, claimed that “Hispanic-American” news coverage in the English-language media was “absolutely pathetic,” but he was optimistic, since every month, 50,000 Latinos come of age (more than young “Anglos”), so a social and demographic shift is inevitable.

Armando Trull, NPR’s chief correspondent on race and identity, questioned the policies of Republicans in the White House and Congress who were ready to “do away with Hispanic immigration.” He argued that the Spanish-speaking media “tell their audience what they want to hear” and that talking about the “quality of Spanish” spoken in the U.S. ignores the fact that “Spanish has many qualities.”

Confirming Your English Identity

Lisa Hagan takes the mystery out of biometric testing for international English language test takers

Recent television and radio coverage of situations in which international students without a basic grasp of English have been accepted by U.S. and other universities has highlighted the problem of fraud in international testing. Little systematic data exists on its pervasiveness, and this may even be a case of media hype, but assessment companies are taking fraud seriously and doing all they can to prevent students, professors, and administrators from suffering its consequences.

The pressure on some students to succeed at these exams is enormous, so it is hardly surprising that incidences of testing fraud vary from institution to institution. When asked how he dealt “with situations in which a student has achieved the required English test score but does not demonstrate adequate command of the language,” Gregg Perry, associate director at the Office of Undergraduate Admissions at the University of Illinois, replied, “We do not experience this. Any issues we have are usually from students who have not submitted an IELTS or TOEFL.”

Whereas Shawn L. Abbott, assistant vice president of admissions at New York University, paints a different picture, “I think our most pressing concern is with regard to testing fraud. Any enhancements to testing security would be most welcome by colleges and universities… but we do believe the three English language examinations (TOEFL, IELTS, and Pearson PTE) we have approved are the most appropriate examinations to ensure that a student who is admitted will come to NYU with a rapid idiomatic command of the English language.” The reality is that the issue of fraud in international English examinations cannot be ignored, so students preparing for such tests need to be prepared for the biometric testing which will soon accompany most of them.

Many students will naturally feel that these tests are an invasion of privacy and, in some cultures, they may even seem offensive, so student advisors must do all they can to reduce any tension they may cause. Advisors can start by explaining the negative consequences of testing fraud, such as the problems and costs associated with situations where students are out of their depth linguistically on a program in a foreign country. It is just as important to explain how the procedures actually work so students are not surprised by them.

ETS, the creator of the TOEFL test, is introducing a biometric voice identification to maintain fair and reliable testing. The newly announced security measure provides an additional proven technique to add to the program’s comprehensive security system in authenticating test takers globally. Similar to the highly advanced speaker identification platforms used by government and law enforcement agencies, the software uses statistical pattern matching techniques, advanced voice classification methods, and inputs from multiple systems to compare speech samples from test takers. Launched this year, the speaker identification system offers the ability to create voice prints for detailed analysis to validate test takers.

“The inclusion of biometric voice identification technology is yet another tool in the TOEFL test security portfolio to ensure test integrity worldwide,” explains David Hunt, vice president and chief operating officer of ETS’s Global Division. “Including a state-of-the art speaker identification component to the TOEFL’s security system further strengthens our ability to detect attempts to gain an unfair advantage, a common concern in academia today. ETS is committed to identifying and implementing those protocols deemed most effective by leaders in the security industry in safeguarding against fraudulent behavior.”

Pearson PTE Academic test centers around the world are equipped with advanced palm vein recognition technology. The device captures and recognizes the unique patterns in a candidate’s palm veins using non-intrusive, near-infrared scanning technology. New candidates are enrolled in the biometric system during their first test center admission. They are then automatically verified when taking and returning from breaks. They are verified again when taking a test at a future date in any biometrically equipped location worldwide.

Palm vein recognition is secure, privacy-friendly, fast, highly accurate, and virtually impossible to forge. Signatures, photos and palm vein biometrics are time-stamped and packaged together with the test results and test driver keystroke logs to provide a verifiable digital audit trail for each candidate through the entire testing process. All proctor actions, such as starting/stopping exams, are also logged. Digital images (photos and signatures) are also included in the result feeds.

Although the University of Cambridge’s IELTS has security systems in place to safeguard against identity fraud among candidates, it only employs fingerprint scans at some test centers in Australia. Handwriting samples may also be assessed. Whatever identity verification procedures are used, it is important to remind students that both the actual test and the biometric test are for their own benefit, and keep in mind that most colleges are flexible and can assist students in improving their English. As Shawn Abbott explains, “We have a conditional admission program in which students may be offered admission on a provisional basis. We then expect students to enroll in a summer program on campus where students live in our residence halls for six-eight weeks, signing a language pledge to speak only English, and study English in an intensive immersion program. Upon successful completion of the program, students then matriculate fully into the University.”

Lisa Hagan is a freelance writer who studied in Trieste, Italy.

Opinion–Can We Make Chinese Less Graphic?

While many schools are dropping foreign language classes, the number of schools offering Mandarin Chinese courses is rising. In 2001, about 300 schools in the U.S. taught Chinese. In 2011, a con-servative estimate reported the number at 1600, a 433% increase. Schools that cannot afford Mandarin classes may be eligible to receive sponsorship from the Confucius Classroom program. China’s place as a global superpower is not only a household conversation but an educational one, too.

I take Mandarin in school. I also tutor Mandarin to a really bright, curious fifth grader. It’s a pleasure to work with her — she’s got, as Mark Edmundson, a professor at the University of Virginia and a New York Times Op-ed contributor has astutely termed, “a hungry heart” for learning. She comes to me for character memorization and reten-tion. My last tutee came to me for the same reasons. I too struggle through these points of mastery. In an astonishingly logical language like Chinese, vocabulary memorization and retention, not grammar, are the keys to being able to express and converse.

They are what daunt people considering taking Mandarin. They are what make people raise their eyebrows when I say I take Mandarin. And they are what make otherwise “hungry hearts” all too often give up mastering Mandarin. Currently, at the high school and undergraduate level, Chinese instruction is often such that only very visual students can retain char-acters learned. Although adequate attention is usually given to culture (including conversation or oral practice), little attention is devoted to the way students study characters, and the relationship between characters and culture.

Is there a reason the two can’t be linked to make character learning sustainable for everyone? When I tutor or study, characters are stories. I’ll explain: the char-acter  (pinyin: mào) meaning “hat” has a complete picture. On the left part of the character, I see a person. He’s standing in front of his drawer, looking into a mirror (the two dashes are glints of sunlight reflecting off the mirror). He’s looking at himself and he realizes some-thing is missing – his hat. I’ll admit: it’s complicated, and a bit silly.

My point is that most stu-dents cannot retrieve a character’s meaning in an exclusively visual way — that is to say, characters cannot simply be recalled as if stu-dents are asked to draw a car or a dog. Understanding has to be linked to recall. Character memorization should not occur in isolation, within the confines of a student’s room. Chinese educators need to take the time to teach a character’s histo-ry and make students aware of the cultural or historical elements that make a character memorable.

In doing a little research, I find that the character for peace, for instance, is represented by a woman underneath a roof, because, in contrast, during war a woman is outside, tending to the field while men are away.

If we make character memorization more interactive and cultural, supported by teachers with accurate insight into a char-acter’s history, we create Chinese learners that retain more and are better able to make educated guesses on characters they don’t know. Characters won’t be seen as a cumbersome element of the language – rather, they will be seen as keys to unlocking culture and valuable insights, and tools for overcoming ethnic and cultural misun-derstandings. With the number of American schools offering Chinese hitting a critical mass, the time to tailor Chinese instruction to the needs of non-visual learners is precisely now.

Lilli Schussler is a high school senior in New York City and Mandarin student of five years.

Students Create Music Video “Dreamchild” in French, English and Mowhawk

A new video created by students at St. Willibrord School in Châteauguay, Que, near Kahnawake Mohawk territory has been making the rounds online, and has become the new anthem of the elementary school. The song focuses on messages of positivity, and was partially filmed near the Kahnawake Mohawk territory where a third of the student population lives.

The idea to make such an anthem came from music teacher Caroline Bouchard. She worked with executive producer David Hodges of N’we Jian to produce the music video. The students in “Dreamchild” are all in Grades 5 and 6, and have captured the attention of people across the world, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who wrote on Twitter “Now this is a beautiful way to celebrate diversity.”

Grants to Fully Fund Chinese and Arabic Teachers @ K-12 Schools

U.S. K-12 schools can host a fully-funded teacher from Egypt, Morocco, or China with the help of Teachers of Critical Languages Program (TCLP) grants. TCLP is fully-funded grant sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State. Through TCLP, schools can start new critical language programs or expand existing programs by hosting teachers of Arabic or Chinese as a foreign language.

This grant is available to elementary, middle, and high schools (K-12). The exchange teachers teach English or Arabic/Chinese as a foreign language at their home institutions and are generally a mix of elementary and secondary teachers.  All host schools are asked to cover the cost of applying for teaching certification (if this is necessary to teach at the school) and to locate a temporary, two-week homestay for the exchange teacher when they first arrive. In addition to these costs, there are three funding levels available for the grant:

  • Fully-Funded: The host school pays no additional cost to participate in TCLP.
  • Partially-Funded Level I: The host school cost-shares housing for the exchange teacher (i.e. homestay, apartment, rented room). All other program costs are covered by the grant.
  • Partially-Funded Level II: The host school cost-shares housing and $32,000 to cover program costs.

Host schools may apply for a fully-funded grant up to two years. A chart with the full description of the funding levels and the grant’s provisions is available on the TCLP website.

To learn more about the program, you can attend a live webinar on January 4 at 4pm EST to learn about the fully-funded grant, the application process, and to hear from a U.S. school about the impact that a TCLP teacher had on its language program and community.

The webinar on January 4th will be an interactive roundtable with two alumni from the program who have hosted TCLP teachers at their schools and served as mentors for those teachers. Attendees will be able to ask the alumni guests questions about hosting teachers and about their experiences with the grant overall. This roundtable will last approximately 1 hour. There is also a 30-minute informational recording on the TCLP website that goes over the grant’s provisions, requirements and application process: http://tclprogram.org/host-school-application.

Interested parties can apply now to host an Arabic or Mandarin language teacher for the 2018-19 school year. The application deadline for TCLP host schools is Monday, January 22, 2018 at 11:59pm EST.

 

 

Language of Rohingya to Be Digitized

CREDIT: PAULA BRONSTEIN/GETTY IMAGES

The Rohingya—the persecuted ethnic minority currently facing a sweeping refugee crisis in Myanmar—will soon be able to communicate digitally in their own language. Described by the United Nations as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world, the Rohingya population is denied citizenship in Myanmar, and is currently in one of the world’s fastest growing refugee crisis provoked by what the UN describes as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”

The language will reportedly be included in the Unicode Standard—the coding systems that digitizes written script into characters and numbers. While the group is arguably facing matters much larger than language digitization, experts say having a digital script of their own is symbolic for the recognition and survival of the Rohingya people. “If a people do not have a written language of their own, it is easier to say that as an ethnic group you don’t exist,” Mohammad Hanif, developer of the writing system for the Rohingya language in the 1980s told The Guardian.

Anshuman Pandey built upon Hanif’s development after learning of it in 2011, and wanted to give people a chance to use it on computers. “Hanifi Rohingya” may be encoded by the Unicode Consortium, a non-profit corporation that coordinates the development of the Unicode standard. A representative told AFP by email that Hanifi Rohingya was one of the scripts being considered in the next version, but a final decision would be made in February.

“This is a big moment for the Rohingya community,” says Tun Khin, president of the Burmese Rohingya Organization in the UK. “The government has denied our existence for many decades.” With the addition of the Rohingya script, “our identity and culture will be preserved for the future,” Khin explains.

“It is revolutionary,” said Rebecca Petras of Translators Without Borders—a non-profit that provides translation services for charities in crisis zones. “In order for the language to survive, a script is necessary. This would strengthen the language and go a long way to preserve it.”

Taking a Leaf from Biology to Preserve Languages

Biodiversity scientists use language tree to help guide preservation efforts

Scores of indigenous North American languages might not survive the 21st century, so scientists from Canada’s McGill University are proposing to borrow a leaf from conservation biology to preserve as much linguistic diversity as possible.

When setting conservation goals, ecologists use evolutionary trees—diagrams that show how biological species are related to one another—to identify species that have few close relatives; such species are said to be evolutionarily distinct. Similarly, recent advances in the construction of language trees make it possible to gauge how unique a language is.
“Large, well-sampled species trees have transformed our understanding of how life has evolved and helped shape biodiversity conservation priorities,” says Jonathan Davies, associate professor of biology at McGill and senior author of the new study, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science. “The construction of more comprehensive language trees provides an equivalent opportunity for language preservation, as well as benefiting linguists, anthropologists, and historians.”

“The rapid rate of language loss, coupled with limited resources for preservation, means that we must choose carefully where to focus our efforts,” adds Max Farrell, a PhD student in Davies’s lab and co-author of the new paper. “The more isolated a language in its family tree, the more unique information it contains and ultimately contributes to linguistic diversity.”

Tongues on the EDGE

As a case study, Farrell and co-author Nicolas Perrault, now a graduate student at the UK’s Oxford University, used this approach borrowed from conservation biology to generate rankings for 350 Austronesian languages, spoken on islands scattered across Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean. Data were drawn from a language tree of several hundred Austronesian languages published by University of Auckland researchers in 2009, and from Ethnologue, an online database of over 7,000 living languages. (All told, there are more than 1,200 Austronesian tongues today, making it one of the world’s largest language families.)

For each of the 350 languages in the new study, the researchers combined measures of evolutionary distinctiveness (ED) and global endangerment (GE) to produce an “EDGE” score, similar to a metric used in conservation biology.
The language with the highest score was Kavalan, an exceptionally distinct yet nearly extinct language indigenous to Taiwan, where Austronesian languages are believed to have originated some 4,000 to 6,000 years ago. The next-highest scores went to Tanibili, a nearly extinct language in the Solomon Islands, and the Waropen and Sengseng languages of New Guinea.
By building trees for other language groups and applying similar metrics, language specialists could target preservation efforts and help minimize the loss of linguistic diversity in the future, the researchers say.

In Canada alone, for example, there are more than 70 Indigenous languages—most of which are considered to be endangered.

“Languages are the spark of a people, the bearing of cultures, and with their extinction we lose unique insights into human history and the evolution of language itself,” says Perrault. “Their disappearance is a loss to humanity, scholarship, and science.”
Funding for the research was provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

Nicolas Perrault, Maxwell J. Farrell, and T. Jonathan Davies. “Tongues on the EDGE: Language Preservation Priorities Based on Threat and Lexical Distinctiveness.” Royal Society Open Science, Dec. 13, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.171218.

1...209210211...332Page 210 of 332

Subscribe for exclusive content

Language Magazine is a monthly print and online publication that provides cutting-edge information for language learners, educators, and professionals around the world.

Subscribe

LanguageMagazine 2023

Language Magazine