Taiwan Launches “Mandarin-on-the-Go”

night scene of Taipei Mandarin-on-the-GoTaiwan’s Ministry of Education has announced Mandarin-on-the-Go, a new language-learning program for those wanting to learn Mandarin. Chinese language centers and universities are working with the Ministry of Education to promote study tours where students going to Taiwan can learn Mandarin through interactive study abroad programs. The language and travel packages aim to teach the language in a more hands-on approach in the hopes that the interactive element will help students absorb more of the language.

“’Mandarin On-the-Go’ links culture with real life, and it brings learners and social environments, “travelling” and “learning” together. It puts participants in real environments where they can use the language they’re learning to engage socially: “learning by using Mandarin in daily life”. This also makes it possible for tourism to give a greater sense of understanding and connection rather than superficial impressions. Participants will remember more of what they see and hear, and treasure the increased meaning and pleasure of travel,” the Ministry of Education says on their website.

Each tour has a planned schedule with activities that aim to teach students not only about Taiwan’s culture, but useful vocabulary as well. For instance, the Changhua-Lukang five day package incorporates different tasks each day, such as shopping, ordering items, learning about literature, visiting temples, and learning about traditional cultures.

The packages are: “Enjoying Lifestyle in Taipei,” “Hualien Mini Trip,” “Traveling Changhua-Lukang Township,” and “Let’s Fun Kaohsiung.”

Those interested in the program can visit the Taiwan Ministry of Education website here.

“Fortune” -A New Drama Series for English Language Learners

fortune flyer Two filmmakers from New Zealand have recently completed a new drama for worldwide English Language Learners (ELL’s) that aims to both entertain and teach. The series, titled Fortune, was funded by online crowdsourcing website, Kickstarter, and is estimated to be released this September.

The show’s creators, Ben Woollen and Scott Granville, set out to create this new concept of television (though it will be available online), in which the episodes are shot with two levels of language proficiency. The episode is the same in both versions, only the level of English is different, depending on the viewer’s level. “Fortune follows the same narrative template across two levels with one key distinction – ESL/EFL professionals (English as a Second Language/English as a Foreign Language) work alongside the scriptwriters to modify the linguistic structures within each episode to make the story accessible as well as purposeful in an educational context,” said the creators.

“Traditionally, when people try to deliver English language video content, it gets to a point where it becomes almost unwatchable and then you switch off. We want to give our audience a story they can follow and enjoy so the learning materials aren’t such a chore. We’re quite confident that this particular form of narrative drama doesn’t exist at the moment,” Granville told the New Zealand Herald.

“Our research showed that English language learning content fell into two categories. There is popular content, shows like Friends, which teachers then have to adapt to fit a narrow focus as it’s not designed for teaching English, or the flipside is you get providers with a strong language focus who lose the audience because their video content doesn’t connect with viewers. Fortune covers that middle ground, written with the audience in mind.”

The creators hope to offer their project for free online, as many ELL’s do not have access to free entertaining teaching tools at their levels of proficiency. According to Fortune’s Kickstarter, each episode was also created with the help of TESOL professionals, in order to guide the writers.

Those interested can view their Kickstarter website to watch when released this month.

 

STUDY ABROAD: Germany

Historic town of Berchtesgaden with Watzmann mountain, Bavaria, GermanyJohn le Carré is not the only proponent of learning German. Harald Braun and Kurt Gamerschlag share the benefits of learning the language of Goethe in its homeland.

“There are many reasons to learn German in Bonn, or Germany in general. I’ll name three for any prospective student coming to Bonn:

Bonn is both small and large. With about 350,000 inhabitants, it offers much and at the same time is easy to get around.

Bonn is very international. Numerous UN institutions have their homes here.

Bonn is the former capital. For those interested in history like me, you still get a taste of what it might have been like in the days up until the end of communism in Eastern Europe. The university, in addition, is a powerhouse in many fields, including mathematics and astronomy.

And lastly, the broad mix of Germans living in Bonn makes it pretty easy to understand the German spoken here—until Karneval time rolls around—then you’ll get your fair share of Rhenish dialect, which, to my ears, is wonderful.”

Harald Braun is chair of the nonprofit Braun Foundation for International Exchange (http://www.braun-stiftung.org/en/) which has been fostering international educational exchange since 1987.

“Why

study German in Germany, i.e., why study any language in the country native to the language:

a) for linguistic reasons: you will not only learn the standardized ‘high’ German in school in reading and listening but will, outside the classroom, immediately be confronted with the nonstandardized colloquial and regional version both in accent and dialectic grammar and vocabulary, i.e., a third language you need to adapt to immediately;

b) for sociocultural reasons: I guess that many, if not most, of us learn a foreign language not for diplomatic or career reasons but because we are interested in the language itself and in the culture and people expressed in and through that language. Of course, many aspects of that can be taken in from books, videos, films, i.e., through some sort of medium that has its own view and standard. But nothing beats direct contact with people—good, bad, and indifferent—and with their ways of expressing themselves in the country and culture where they live and talk and write not only to you as a language learner but as persons who are getting on with their lives and business and talk to their neighbors and bus drivers and to the wee free minister.

Dr. Kurt Gamerschlag is academic director of the German Pathway Colleges and Placement Centers for the Braun Foundation for International Exchange.

Study Abroad VLOG #2

Hola! This is my vlog documenting my study abroad experience in Cuzco, Peru! Follow along to hear about my adventures, and watch my Spanish improve!

 

 

 

 

Vietnamese on Rise in Japan

Japan national flagNearly 400 Japanese students of varying ages took the country’s first national Vietnamese language exam last month.

Education insiders said the test reflects Vietnam’s rising importance in the region. The test, which reportedly took two years to prepare, was held in Tokyo, Vietnam News Agency reported.

A source from the Japan College of Foreign Languages said more Japanese people are also choosing to study in Vietnam, so learning the language is important.

More Japanese students are expected to travel to study in Vietnam over the next three years, so similar tests are being scheduled.

Pham Quang Hung, first secretary in charge of education affairs at the Vietnamese Embassy in Tokyo, said that ties between Vietnam and Japan are growing, particularly through investments made by Japanese enterprises.

Demand to learn Vietnamese in Japan is rising, Hung said.

Japan is Vietnam’s largest source of official development assistance, its second-largest foreign investor, and its fourth-largest trade partner. At the end of 2016, Japan had more than 3,200 investment projects in Vietnam with total registered capital of more than $42 billion, according to official data.

Japan is also Vietnam’s third-largest source of tourists, with arrivals in the first five months growing to more than 323,000, according to the General Statistics Office.

Study Abroad Video Blog, Day 1, Cuzco Peru

maccu piccu in cuzco Creative Director of Language Magazine, Leanna Robinson, is currently in Cuzco, Peru to take Spanish classes at a school, Academia Latinoamerica. She will be documenting her travels along the way, and as you watch the vlog you can follow along with her, and watch her Spanish improve! For students interested in studying abroad, watching her vlog may be insightful on what to expect when visiting another country.

Drop in U.S. English Enrollments

Pupils (14-18) in school classroomIIE announced steep declines in U.S. intensive English enrollments during a presentation at the recent NAFSA conference in Los Angeles. In the 2016 calendar year, 108,433 international students studied in U.S. intensive English programs (IEPs) for a total of 1,530,817 student weeks, data from Open Doors show. The number of IEP students fell 19% in 2016, and student weeks fell by 23% from the prior year.

IIE research specialist Julie Baer points out that the relatively short duration of intensive English programs contributes to greater volatility in IEP enrollment compared to international students in degree programs. “Students who travel overseas to pursue degrees are likely to stay for multiple years, while students in language programs of shorter duration are more subject to currency fluctuations and other factors,” she says.
Declines were noted from all world regions, with the largest drops from Saudi Arabia and Brazil, which both experienced reductions in their governments’ large-scale scholarship programs that previously supported large numbers of IEP students. Amid broad declines from most top places of origin, IEP students from Mexico grew substantially, by 40%, due to continuing collaborations between U.S. and Mexican higher education institutions supported by the U.S. 100,000 Strong in the Americas initiative and Mexico’s Proyecta 100,000.

This bright spot in U.S. IEP enrollment reveals the positive impact of government initiatives on facilitating English language training opportunities for students. More data can be found online at www.iie.org/opendoors.

Reward for Translating Ancient Chinese

ancient chinese Buddhist statue at Po Lin Monastery - Lantau Island.The National Museum of Chinese Writing in Anyang, in the province of Henan, is offering 100,000 yuan (about $15,000) to anyone who can definitively translate a mysterious ancient Chinese character.

The museum has issued a worldwide appeal for help to decipher thousands of characters cut into bones and shells, known as Oracle Bones, which date back more than 3,000 years. The inscriptions, resembling modern characters, are the earliest written records of Chin¬ese civilization and record information on many daily aspects of life during the Shang dynasty. So far, less than half of the roughly 5,000 characters found on excavated bones have been translated, so the museum is now hoping that cash incentives and technology will help reveal the meaning behind the rest.

In a notice posted on its website earlier this month, the museum said it would pay 100,000 yuan for a definitive explanation for each uninterpreted character. It is also offering 50,000 yuan for anybody who can provide a definitive explanation for a disputed character. The museum is encouraging researchers to use cloud computing and big data along with traditional methods to generate breakthroughs in understanding.

Oracle bones first became known in the wider world in 1899, when Chinese antiquarian Wang Yirong found the script engraved on “dragon’s bones”, an ingredient used in a type of traditional Chinese medicine.

The discovery triggered wide interest among wealthy collectors, many of whom fell prey to forgeries. It also provoked controversy at the time, because many scholars doubted whether the Shang dynasty had really existed. In the 1920s, many oracle bones were excavated near ¬Anyang, the late Shang dynasty capital, and researchers confirmed that they dated back to the Shang era, the start of China’s Bronze Age, when people learned to how to make weapons and tools with the alloy instead of stones.

Archaeologists have so far unearthed about 200,000 oracle bone fragments and about a quarter of them have inscriptions. Despite being in pieces, favorable soil conditions meant many of the bones were well preserved.

The inscriptions on the bones bear many similarities with modern Chinese writing.

Target Language

Two schoolgirls and boy (4-6) standing at table making paper chainAIM (Accelerative Integrated Methodology) is a compete language-teaching system that uses the following strategies:

Gesture Approach: Through a kinesthetic technique called the gesture approach, the teacher is able to maintain all communication in the target language 100% of class time. No one is singled out, as all receive extensive practice continuously—a wonderful way to reduce the affective filter. Students easily understand words, as the teacher continuously provides comprehensible input—students see, hear, and on occasion also gesture the words and meanings. As a result, they are stored in different parts of the brain for easier recall.

Pared-Down Language: To ensure a target-language-only classroom, high-frequency vocabulary is carefully selected to help students communicate very early in the language-learning process. Pleasant repetition, a necessary component to the acquisition of any language, appears throughout and is one of the reasons AIM guarantees target language only. Students are purposefully exposed to the same words in different contexts in a way that is not meaningless rote repetition, but fun and engaging.

Engagement: This is a literacy-based approach in which story, theater, and drama provide the context. Working with one story over 50 class hours provides the focal point around which many of the activities center and provides predictability, security, and confidence, resulting in great success in maintaining the target language only for the beginner. There is a strong musical component as well—raps, songs, and choreography vary class activities and provide an additional kinesthetic outlet.

Independent Language Manipulation: Taking the story as a starting point, AIM uses a series of carefully designed language-manipulation activities that allow students to experience the thrill of creating meaning independently, remaining constantly in the new language because the activities are based on very familiar vocabulary and contexts.
Over 35 kits are available in French, Spanish, Mandarin, English, and Japanese. Training options include face to face; live online; and self-paced.

View the website here.

Using All Gears

Language Magazine asks developers how technological applications can assist in the teaching of diverse student groups

“We’ve seen firsthand how integrating technology into the curriculum can help drive student engagement and lead to improved academic performance. Adobe supports national programs like Globaloria as well as Adobe Youth Voices, the global signature program of the Adobe Foundation. Both bring students from diverse backgrounds together to collaborate on creative, purposeful projects and learn digital media skills in the process. We’ve seen thousands of innovative projects, from a game focused on nutrition and obesity issues to a stop motion animation movie on child soldiers. The projects draw students in and give them the opportunity to express themselves and master digital skills that help prepare them for higher education and the workforce.”
— Jon Perera, Adobe

“Differentiation of instruction and being able to capture data on student progress. Technology is valuable to identify: which students are struggling, see the specific skills where they are having difficulty, offer differentiated instruction, monitor, adjust and comment!”
— Debbie Hodin, EPS/School Specialty

“Education technology solutions offered by ePals and other companies have played a major role in closing the achievement gap and promoting equity in learning for students globally. When students can safely connect with peers in classrooms worldwide and work on projects collaboratively, it promotes the kind of cultural understanding and authentic language learning that can only come from communication on a personal level. Our teacher-users tell us kids in advanced, at-risk, English Language Learner and other categories are more engaged than ever and are developing the empathy and broader perspectives that Fortune 500 companies say are key to success in the 21 century workplace.”
— Will Jarred / Susan McLester, ePals

“Advancements in technology are allowing educators to focus on the specific needs of individual students like never before. Using a complex set of algorithms, we can now determine why a specific child is behind in an incredibly granular way and what the teacher can do next to help her. This allows students to spend time on the things they need to get better at, not on the things they don’t, and allows teachers to differentiate instruction in a much more meaningful way. Products like i-Ready Diagnostic & Assessment can not only determine discreet levels of detail about a child’s particular needs, but also automatically generate reports that share how to help each child make progress on minute sub-skills with everyone (teacher, principal, superintendent) in real time, which helps determine class, school, and district-level strengths and weaknesses, and allows administrators to make better decisions on where to spend time and resources on a larger scale.”
— Curriculum Associates

“A teacher may have a class that has students that rely heavily on visual learning while another student learns best through auditory learning. The only way a teacher can reach this diverse group is to embrace technology and be open to its possibilities.

Our solutions have been specifically designed with diverse learning in mind.
Splashtop for eno supports whole group learning for visual learners. It is an interactive app that turns a tablet such as an iPad into an interactive whiteboard and lets the teacher or student control the interactive whiteboard content. This makes the classroom a more versatile place for learning.

Regardless of what technology teachers choose, it is key that these tools release them from the front of the classroom and allows them to work side by side with their students and reach each of them individually. Educators need to be creative in their choice of technology so that the end result is reaching a diverse group of learners with less time and money.”
— Polyvision

“Hard-working, dedicated teachers who have spent hundreds of hours on YouTube or Google hunting for reliable materials to complement their lessons will search no more. Pearson’s new Online Learning Exchange will provide access to quality content and approved educator-created materials in one easy-to-find place, saving our teachers precious time and energy. OLE is especially relevant during these tight budgetary times. Schools and districts that can’t afford new, complete instructional programs can capitalize on OLE’s low-cost offerings to fully realize the power of technology in their classrooms and enhance student learning.”
— Lynda Cloud, Pearson

“Technology can help educators reach students at all levels and styles of learning. The key is how it is used. Does the application at hand make it easy for teachers to scale work to lesser or greater complexity? Does it provide support for the visual learner as well as conventional readers and writers?”
— Mona Westhaver, Inspiration Software, Inc.

“Technology is a great asset in the classroom. At LEGO Education, resources combine digital and physical technology, which allow students to manipulate, experiment, take risks, design and redesign. As they work they engage all of their senses; they feel, think, touch, see, and move things … sharing ideas with others as they work and exercising creative problem solving skills. For example, LEGO MINDSTORMS for Education has been the biggest success to date. The system is a cutting edge technology platform that is extremely versatile for both students and educators.”
— Stephan Turnipseed, LEGO

“At SMART, we believe that a technology-enabled classroom in the hands of a teacher well-trained on that technology can be an ideal approach to differentiated learning. For example, a teacher can use an interactive whiteboard to introduce a new concept to the whole class. Then, using an interactive response system such as SMART Response, the teacher can quickly tell if the students understand the concept. If some students need more time on the concept, the class can be placed in smaller groups to explore the subject – perhaps using interactive displays to learn collaboratively or personal devices like iPads to explore related digital content individually. Essentially, the technology makes it easier for students to learn at their own pace, with the teacher as their guide, and for teachers to get insight into each student’s learning so she can pace or differentiate instruction accordingly.”
— Anju-Visen Singh, SMART Technologies

“As to how applications of technology can assist educators in the teaching of diverse student groups, there are a number of answers to that, and here are a few. One is that technology can help provide more personalized learning. One way is through prescriptive assessments, such as our Test Packs, that provide an individualized learning plan based on assessment results. Through the use of a range of media, technology can also help to provide differentiated learning that effectively addresses multiple learning modalities and styles. One more example of how technology helps educators teach diverse student groups is in its ability to provide anytime, anywhere learning for students whose schedules or other factors make learning in a traditional environment problematic.”
— Plato

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