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Libraries & Schools Get E-Rate Boost

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler announced that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will work to improve the federal E-Rate program to facilitate access to internet and digital resources for schools and libraries.

His remarks follow an announcement by President Obama that a host of high-tech companies have pledged $750 million in devices, content, services, and new teacher and principal professional development to increase digital learning opportunities.

Chairman Wheeler noted actions the FCC will undertake over the coming year to modernize the federal program, including focusing on high-speed connectivity to every school and library, updating how the FCC manages the program by streamlining the overall application process to make it easier and faster for schools and libraries to apply for and receive funds, and ensuring sufficient resources are made available to meet any modernization goals beginning with a $2 billion investment.

Chairman Wheeler remarked that we “have a problem that must be fixed” when there is digital inequity for our students and communities with a majority of our schools and libraries connected at internet speeds on par with the average U.S. home.

As the way we consume information and literature becomes increasingly mediated by technology, and less about printed books, public libraries have been taking strides to re-imagine their roles in communities. Libraries today are using cloud-based storage so that users can access digital holdings from anywhere. Libraries have traditionally been sites for storing unique collections and local histories, which today libraries are digitizing and making available online. Furthermore, libraries play a key role in bridging the digital divide. Libraries are the only place where many students to access free access to computers and the internet. As libraries revolutionize their services, insufficient broadband and internet speed pose a challenge across the country.

February 2014

February 2014 Cover

Teaching Across the Board
Margarita Calderón explains why developing a whole-school approach to English learners’ academic achievement is key to Common Core implementation

Learning by Extension
Jonathan Harper explains how to build a community-based teacher-training program online

Venerable Vulnerability
Loic Bourdeau on the Modern Language Association’s 129th annual convention

Fighting for Freedom
Natasha E. Feghali believes that student autonomy requires strong leadership

Cutting to the Common Core: Changing the Playing Field
In the first installment of a two-part article, Jeff Zwiers, Susan O’Hara, and Robert Pritchard present essential shifts for teaching Common Core Standards to academic English learners

Advantages of U.S. Prep School Homestay
Staying with a family is a popular option

Global Grade School
Not only do the increasing number of international students attending secondary schools benefit from the experience, so do their local peers

Celebrate Spain’s Cultural Diversity
There’s never been a better time to take that much-anticipated study trip to Spain

Last Writes Richard Lederer says ‘Happy Valentine’s Day’

First Chinese Degree in Nigeria

The inexorable rise of Chinese in Africa is continuing with Nigeria’s University of Lagos starting its first degree program in Chinese. At least 25 students have been admitted into the University of Lagos in south

Chinese new year lanterns

western Nigeria to study the Chinese language at degree level in the institution. Duro Oni, the university deputy chancellor in charge of management services, disclosed this while speaking at the annual Confucius Institute Spring Festival Gala held to celebrate the Chinese New Year on Wednesday.

Oni told China’s Xinhua news agency that the students would be required to spend the first year in Nigeria while the second and third years of the course would be spent at a university in China, with the final year back in Nigeria.

He said learning to speak the language had become necessary because China was the new partner for economic growth and technology development.

Cantonese Backlash in Hong Kong

An article on the Hong Kong Education Bureau’s website claiming “Cantonese is not an official language” has been removed after criticism. The article, posted on the Language Learning Support site last month, aimed to promote the importance of bilingualism and trilingualism as the city “develops alongside the rapidly growing China” and “the daily usage of Mandarin [in Hong Kong] becomes common.”

It said, “Although the Basic Law stipulates that Chinese and English are the two official languages in Hong Kong, nearly 97% of the local population learns Cantonese (a Chinese dialect that is not an official language) as their commonly used daily language.”

Education sector lawmaker Ip Kin-yuen said the bureau had “done wrong,” because it was not its business to define which language was official. But he commended it for quickly removing the article and apologizing.
Horace Chin Wan-kan, assistant Chinese professor at Lingnan University, said the bureau had fueled mainland Hong Kong tensions: “The bureau’s move is to promote teaching Chinese in classrooms using Mandarin, which violates the bilingualism and trilingualism policy.”

The Basic Law says that as well as written Chinese, English may be used by the executive, legislature, and judiciary. But there is no rule about verbal language, such as Cantonese.

Eric Cheung Tat-ming, principal law lecturer at the University of Hong Kong, told the South China Morning Post that the law related only to the written word in terms of “official languages.”

“There have never been attempts to define what ‘official languages’ means in the oral context,” Cheung said. “And in Hong Kong courts, as well as other official circumstances, the choice of the spoken language has been one based on commonality, so Cantonese is preferred.”

To say Cantonese was not an official language therefore had “no legal justification.”
It would have been safer to call Cantonese “a nonofficial language in the People’s Republic of China,” Cheung added.

Pearson Pays $700 million for Brazilian English Schools

With its $721 million acquisition of Brazil’s Grupo Multi, Pearson has become the market leader in English language education amongst adults in Brazil. Grupo Multi provides English-language training through a variety of language school chains, most notably Wizard, Microlins, Skill and Yazigi. Grupo Multi serves over 800,000 students across 2,600 franchized schools for children, adolescents, and adults.

Pearson’s investment in Brazil comes amidst slowing in its North American market, with fewer textbook sales as a result of lower freshman enrollment in the U.S. According to its annual report, 76% of Pearson’s sales were in education.

According to a press release, “the acquisition supports Pearson’s strategy of focusing investment in fast-growing economies, digital and services business, and education programs that can deliver a greater and measurable impact on learning outcomes.”

Brazil is among the largest English learning markets in the world, with 2.8 million students of all ages and an estimated worth of $2 billion. It is expected to continue to grow with an expanding middle class and affordable English courses available through franchised schools. Furthermore, English in Brazil is relatively poor compared with other countries. As Brazil prepare to host the World Cup this year and the Olympic Games in 2016, Brazilians are signing up for English classes more than ever.

John Fallon, chief executive of Pearson, said: “Brazilians’ appetite for learning English as a global language of business and trade shows every sign of continuing to grow rapidly as Brazil becomes a global player in commerce, travel and a host of other industries.

Over the past twenty-five years, Grupo Multi has become the most respected English learning company in Brazil by offering high quality affordable English language learning that has made a real impact on the lives of its students. We intend to sustain and grow the business, helping many more young Brazilians to acquire the English language skills that will help them succeed in their careers.”

300th Anniversary of Spanish Royal Academy

The first session at the Real Academia Española (RAE), or Spanish Royal Academy, was held in Madrid on 3 August 1713. The institution is celebrating its 300th anniversary in 2013 and 2014 with a program of special exhibitions and activities culminating in fall 2014 which offer a great opportunity to discover more about the Academy’s history, tradition, and evolution.

During its last 300 years of safeguarding, preserving and enriching the Spanish language, the Spanish Royal Academy has taken into account cultural and social changes and has adapted to modern times and new technologies. The RAE has pre- pared the program to celebrate its anniversary based on this idea. Events started at the end of September with the “Language and the Word. Three Hundred Years of the Spanish Royal Academy” exhibition, set up in the Spanish National Library, which will run until fall 2014, when a new edition of the Spanish Dictionary will be published and the “The Future of Dictionaries in the Digital Age” international symposium will take place.

Some of the activities for this year of celebrations include the “The Face of Letters” photo exhibition, which features images of writers and members of the academy; or the “Language Comics” project, which offers a series of dramatized readings of Spanish classics, performed by important actors and directed by José Luis Gómez. There will also be an open day at the Spanish Royal Academy, literary routes, a book club and a school writing competition. Furthermore, conferences, recitals and concerts will take place at the Lope de Vega House-Museum in Madrid.

Other special events for the 300th anniversary include the Borau-RAE Award to the best film script written in Spanish, a special course at the School of Hispanic Lexicography, and new editions and special publications of different works and documents. Lastly, in November 2014, the Guadalajara International Book Fair (Mexico) will pay tribute to the RAE in celebration of its anniversary.

UNESCO Welcomes AF Lyon

The Alliance Française de Lyon has joined the 250 clubs affiliated with the French Federation of UNESCO Clubs (Fédération Française des Clubs UNESCO). Since 1956, when they first appeared in France, UNESCO clubs have been encouraging the diffusion of UNESCO’s values. The clubs are characterized by the international and intercultural dimension of their thinking and are places offering lifelong education with international solidarity and cultural heritage.

This fresh Alliance Française de Lyon affiliation is generating new energy. Future actions developed will combine Alliance Française de Lyon missions with those of UNESCO in order to:
■ promote and spread local and international francophone cultural practices and expressions,
■ encourage dialogue among cultures, particularly by setting up international artistic projects through the Alliance Française network covering 136 countries,
■ promote a culture of peace, democracy, and human rights through exchanges and cooperation with the network of UNESCO clubs present in 80 countries.

This label will bring the Alliance into a synergy with the city of Lyon, which is celebrating the 15th anniversary of its inclusion on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. Through its linguistic and cultural actions, the institution is recognized as a player in creating the conditions for dialogue among civilizations, cultures, and peoples based upon respect for UNESCO’s values.

Situated at the heart of the cosmopolitan district of la Guillotière, the Alliance Française de Lyon is one of the cradles of cultural and linguistic diversity in Lyon. The institution advocates dialogue, tolerance, and respect between cultures. These essential values perpetuate the long local tradition of humanism that was born in Lyon in the 16th century and echoes the spirit of UNESCO, in which culture and education are seen as the best ways of “building peace in the minds of men and women everywhere.”

Believing that learning a language goes beyond being in class with an instructor, that we learn through social actions, Alliance Française de Lyon is offering online learning tools so as to discover the UNESCO missions and values through self-learning methods.

Spain Honors Latin American Authors

Two prestigious prizes out of Spain, the Premio Cervantes and the Cadiz Cortes IberoAmerican Freedom Prize, were awarded to authors from Latin America.

Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa, winner of the 2010 Novel Prize in Literature was unanimously selected by the jury for Spain’s Cadiz Cortes IberoAmerican Freedom Prize, as the recipient of the 2014 award.

The jury praised the writer for his “untarnished defense of liberty, both in the press and in politics, and his efforts to maintain the perfection of the Spanish language through his literature,” the Cadiz municipal government said in a statement.

The author of “Conversation in the Cathedral” said nothing could please him more than to “receive this honor, which at the same time is a mandate to act with rigor, honesty and coherence.”

The Cadiz municipal government established the Freedom Prize in 2009 to pay tribute to “people or public or private institutions that are notable for deepening, disseminating and extending freedom in the Ibero-American sphere. Last year, Uruguayan President Jose Mujica was the winner of this Spanish award.

Meanwhile Elena Poniatowska became the first Mexican female writer to win the prestigious Premio Cervantes in Literature.

The jury act cited “her brilliant literary career in many genres, especially in narrative and her exemplary dedication to journalism. Her work is notable for her firm commitment to contemporary history. She has written emblematic works that describe the 20th century from an international and comprehensive perspective. Elena Poniatowska constitutes one of the most powerful voices in the Spanish-language literature of today.”

The jury members included José Manuel Caballero Bonald, winner in 2012 members of the Spanish Royal Academy; the Paraguayan Academy of the Spanish Language; the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (CRUE); the Union of Latin American Universities (UDUAL); and the Instituto Cervantes among other institutions. Their verdict also highlighted her brilliant career in different literary genres.

Elena Poniatowska’s work includes novel, essay, chronicle and interviews in over 35 books that give testimony of a life dedicated to literature. Her books published by Planeta are El universo o nada (Seix Barral, 2013); Leonora (Seix Barral, 2011), winner in 2011 of the Biblioteca Breve prize; Octavio Paz. Las palabras del árbol (Joaquín Mortiz, 2009); La herida de Paulina (Planeta, 2007) and Amanecer en el Zócalo (Planeta, 2007). And on her, this publishing house has also released Elenísima, a biography by Michael K. Schuessler (Booket, 2013).

Cutting to the Common Core: Academic Language Development Network

Susan O’Hara, Jeff Zwiers, and Robert Pritchard explain the mission of the Academic Language Development Network

The Academic Language Development Network (http://aldnetwork.org) is a collaborative project, co-housed at the University of California Davis and Stanford University. The Network focuses on research-based teaching and assessment practices for developing the complex academic language, literacy, and thinking skills that support the learning of the Common Core State Standards, Next Generation Science Standards, and new ELD standards. One of the main purposes of this network is to share ongoing research and effective professional development resources for building system-wide capacity to meet the instructional needs of academic English learners. To read the full story, click here.

It’s All Geek to Me

New Mexico state Sen. Jacob Candelaria (D) proposed a bill that would allow computer programming to satisfy the state’s foreign language requirement.

“Districts could still teach Latin, French or Spanish, but it provides the incentive for them to incorporate (computer) coding into their curriculum without it being an unfunded mandate,” Candelaria told The Albuquerque Journal.

Candelaria’s Senate Bill 148 doesn’t require that students learn a specific computer code, but rather a “modern, widely used” language. If signed into law, Candelaria’s bill would be implemented by Fall 2014.

While Texas already passed similar legislation, Kentucky has made a move to allow computer programming language courses to be accepted as a foreign-language credit in public schools. Senate Bill 16 also amends Kentucky law to ensure that state universities accept computer programming as foreign-language credits for admissions.
The stated intention is to help Kentuckians better compete in the high-tech information age but its negative effect on Kentucky’s language learning efforts have largely been neglected.
Sen. David Givens (R-Greensburg) made the case for the change claiming that unfilled computer programming jobs start at $60,000 to $75,000 a year. See video:

However, back in New Mexico with its robust Spanish-speaking population, Albuquerque Public Schools Board President Marty Esquivel is skeptical of Candelaria’s efforts.

“I think we in a society should stress being bilingual,” Esquivel explained.

The efforts to make computer programming codes a foreign language go all the way to the U.S. Congress, where Rep. Tony Cardenas (D) from California introduced the 416d65726963612043616e20436f646520 Act of 2013, or the hexadecimal code translation of the America Can Code Act of 2013. In the bill, Cardenas cites the statistic that only 2% of STEM graduates are computer science majors, while 60% of STEM jobs are in the computer field.

“The very name of this law demonstrates that programming is simply another language,” said Cárdenas in a press release. “Learning and communicating in a foreign language can have a tremendous impact on a student, both culturally and educationally. Computer programming creates a similar impact, while also providing a critical skill in today’s global economy.”

A key aspect of the bill would be to redefine computer programming as a critical foreign language and including this new definition in the America COMPETES Act.

“American students should continue to receive the understanding of other cultures that foreign language learning creates, but we should also be preparing American kids to compete in the world marketplace,” continued Cárdenas. “Millions of jobs are being created in America, and all over the globe, requiring some level of coding knowledge. Let’s get American kids ready to compete for American jobs.”

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