The Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee of the United States Senate has released a draft of the new Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which drops the Foreign Language Assistance Act entirely and does not contain any provisions for world languages. The Senate Committee is currently accepting public comment at the email address [email protected].
Write to the US Senate to Protect World Language Education
Tonal Languages Use Both Sides of the Brain
Language learning and processing is usually dominated by the left side of the brain, which is adept at tasks that involve logic and analytical thinking. However, in a recent study that mapped brain information flow while processing intelligible speech in English and Mandarin Chinese, it was found that in Chinese speech comprehension there are neural dynamics between the left and right hemispheres of the brain.
Tanzania Drops English for Kiswahili
Since Tanzania’s independence from Britain in 1961, public education has been bilingual, beginning with Kiswahili – known as Swahili in the West – in elementary school, and switching to English from high school to university. President Jakaya Kikwete and his administration have launched new education guidelines that will make only Kiswahili the language of instruction from primary school to university level.
Levi’s Book of Barnyard Animals / German
Levi’s Book of Barnyard Animals
Levi’s Book of Barnyard Animals presents 21 different animals of the barnyard — bull, cat, chicken, cow, dog, donkey, duck, fox, goat, goose, horse, mouse, owl, pig, rabbit, rat, rooster, sheep, skunk, squirrel, and turkey.
The following list of words are German (Deutsch), in page order with the book.
[sc_embed_player fileurl=”https://www.languagemagazine.com/audio/animals_german_v1.mp3″]
Ente
Huhn
Hahn
Truthahn
Gans
Hund
Katze
Ziege
Schaf
Stier
Kuh
Pferd
Esel
Schwein
Eichhörnchen
Ratte
Fuchs
Stinktier
Eule
Kaninchen
Maus
Using Smart Technology to Preserve Aboriginal Languages
Recently, the New South Wales (NSW) Aboriginal affairs minister Victor Dominello announced $185,000 in funding for the development of an app to support the maintenance and revitalization of five Aboriginal languages local to New South Wales. Like the U.S., Australia has no official language but is largely monolingual in English. However, before the 18th century the country was home to over 350 Aboriginal languages. To this day about 70 of these languages have survived and all except roughly 20 are highly endangered. In response to this, the NSW Government created a plan for Aboriginal affairs in 2013. Called OCHRE – opportunity, choice, healing, responsibility, empowerment – the plan aims to support more Aboriginal students in their schools and communities, especially through the teaching of Aboriginal languages.
How Internet Slang Enters ASL Vernacular
As the Oxford dictionary updates its lexicon with Internet-y terms such as “lolcat” (a photograph of a cat accompanied by a humorous and typically misspelled caption) and “hawt” (an informal spelling of hot), speakers of American Sign Language (ASL) adapt to tech-lingo as well. Change in ASL happens the same way as any other language, with new trends and ideas cropping up organically. The words that stick will be added to the dictionaries. However, ASL doesn’t have one official dictionary.
March 2015
Cutting to the Common Core
Fostering Academic Interaction
Kate Kinsella offers an action plan to encourage second language learners to participate in constructive classroom discussion
Stories Bring It Home
Kate Nguyen and Nile Stanley research resilience in language learners and its relationship to storytelling
Ludic Learning
Ted Martin explains why we need games in the classroom and offers some suggestions
The Cradle of Spanish
Daniel Ward visits the birthplace of the Spanish language
Rapping Bilingualism ’round the Nation
Kristal Bivona interviews GueroLoco — a bilingual rapper, activist, inspirational speaker who’s winning over the country with his words
Last Writes Richard Lederer on how Anne Frank’s diary speaks to us across the years
Promote Youth Literacy with Read Across America Day
Read Across America Day is held on March 2nd, the birthday of children’s author Dr. Seuss, and is celebrated with events and activities designed to promote year-round daily reading. Sponsored by the National Education Association (NEA), this annual reading motivation and awareness program invites children in all communities to revel in reading. Over 3.2 million students and education professionals and 40 national organizations and associations are estimated to participate in this year’s activities.
A Call For Diversity in Mobile App Languages
The mobile app market reached over 1.3 million available applications in July of 2014 and continues to be a booming business medium. Still greatly expanding, the Japanese app market surpassed the United States as the biggest in the world last October, beginning a trend of mobile application globalization.
Google Translate’s Update Forecasts Language Learning Machines
Google Translate, an app that is estimated to perform about one billion translations a day, has officially added two new translation technologies. The Word Lens software, which Google acquired from Quest Visual in May of 2014, has been integrated with Google Translate to perform instantaneous visual translations, and the previously existing real-time conversation mode has been updated to provide faster and more fluid interlingual interactions, all without being connected to an Internet or data source. The Word Lens feature is currently available from English to and from Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, German, and Russian, with additional languages to be added on a rolling basis.
