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Respect My Name

logo-mnmiCampaign to encourage correct pronunciation of students’ names seeks support

My Name, My Identity: A Declaration of Self is an initiative created by the Santa Clara County Office of Education (SCCOE) in San Jose, California, to promote global awareness of the importance of honoring students’ diverse cultures and languages by pronouncing students’ names correctly. Supported by the National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE) and McGraw-Hill Education, the goal is to recognize students’ bilingual/multilingual abilities as assets and honor their names and identities. According to SCCOE, “Names are a reflection of one’s culture, ethnicity, language and gender, and an expression of who we are and how we prefer to be called. Thus, we are proud to launch this joint initiative and invite you to be part of it.”

To learn more about the campaign, visit https://www.mynamemyidentity.org/, where you can Take the Pledge to show your support for building an inclusive and respectful culture in schools and communities.

You can also share your name story at the Campaign’s Facebook page http://bit.ly/mynmyid or Twitter #mynamemyid.

 

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and English Language Learners (ELLs)

Dr. Wayne E. Wright, Purdue University professor and author of Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners (2015, Caslon Publishing), addresses how the new ESSA is different, and discusses its implications for English Language Learners.

 

Early Spanish Learning Leads to Better English

Preschool skills are transferred from one language to the other

New research from the University of Missouri shows that Spanish-speaking preschoolers experience significant improvements in their English skills when they have a good grasp of Spanish letters and numbers. In another study, the researcher found that behavior traits play a role in English learning. These findings suggest that early education programs that connect children’s word and math skills in Spanish to those in English can increase school readiness for Spanish-speaking children.

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Views on Turkey’s Educator Purge

Last month, Language Magazine published an article outlining the draconian measures being taken by the Turkish government against teachers in the wake of the failed coup attempt. Now, the Middle East Studies Association of North America has called for Turkey’s government to end “moves to dismantle much of the structure of Turkish higher education through purges, restrictions, and assertions of central control.” The demand has been signed onto by an unusually strong and diverse coalition of 45 academic organizations based in the U.S. and in Europe. (See full statement with signatories here.)

Amy Newhall, executive director of MESA notes, “Academic freedom is but one manifestation of broader freedom of expression. Where scholars are at risk, so are human rights activists, journalists, and average citizens as well. Academic freedom is not some high-minded concept, a value that can be set aside or trumped by security concerns, real or illusory.  It is a basic human right that we must value and protect both here at home and abroad.”

In the interests of free speech and fairness, LM is now sharing the other side of the story as presented by Sevgi Demir, an English teacher at Acıbadem College in Istanbul.

The facts in this unedited article have not been verified by Language Magazine and the opinions expressed ares solely those of the author. After the article, Aslı Ü Bâli, a law professor at University of California Los Angeles, offers an alternative view.

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New York Times Launches Free en Español App

ThinkstockPhotos-474939504The New York Times has introduced an NYT en Español edition of its news app for Android that features all of the content available on the Spanish-language website for The New York Times en Español.

The New York Times en Español publishes original journalism in Spanish as well as ten to 15 translated New York Times articles a day. Content includes crónicas (narrative journalism), investigations, opinion columns, reviews, videos and more. Like on NYTimes.com/es, all content on the NYT en Español edition of the app is free and does not count against the ten article a month limit for non-subscribers. The edition of The New York Times en Español for Android is the first Times app available in Spanish.

Users who download or upgrade to the 6.04.1 version of The New York Times app for Android can switch to the NYT en Español edition by visiting the app’s Settings to toggle between English and Spanish versions. The app defaults to the Español edition for users who set their device language to Spanish.

Taiwan to Protect Indigenous Languages

ThinkstockPhotos-501192481Taiwan’s president Tsai Ing-wen has issued the first apology in the country’s history to its indigenous people. Tsai took office in May amid expectations from the island’s indigenous peoples, partly due to her background, as her paternal grandmother is of Paiwan descent—the second-largest Aboriginal tribe of Taiwan. She promised to pay more attention to the struggles of Taiwan’s indigenous people and is following up.

Tsai addressed the 400 years of mistreatment of the indigenous people of Taiwan, including their land being stripped from them, political marginalization, and unethical treatment.

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German Olympics

Banner-FormatNEU2International language learners gather each year to compete in a German language competition: the Internationale Deutscholympiade.

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Millions for Linguistic Research

hand giving money illustration

The Institute of Education Sciences has granted more than $100 million for education research across a wide array of subjects and topics. Over one-fourth of the 57 grants for Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 funded through IES’ National Center for Education Research (NCER) were for projects that concentrated on language and literacy acquisition, including:

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Language Bias

ThinkstockPhotos-475257046Programmers for Google have discovered sexist bias in their machine-induced word embeddings.

There are many nuances and implications tied up in language. Not only do the meanings of words change over time, but also the associations with a particular word. Often, negative connotations of words are difficult to shake, even as a society moves forward away from racist, sexist, or other outdated behaviors. One area in which this has recently been discovered is word embeddings.

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ISLS

The ISLS Family Spanish Camp is the only one of its kind in all of Latin America. It is designed for parents who want their children, ages 2 to 17, to get something special out of their family vacation to Costa Rica. This camp is an enjoyable and educational way to accomplish that.

We combine a number of different age appropriate activities and adventures with fun Spanish classes for all levels of ability from beginner to advance. There are intercambios with local children and all of our campers learn to surf! We have adults classes too, so something for the whole family.

Visit our site here

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LanguageMagazine 2023

Language Magazine