Under President Biden’s budget request for fiscal year 2024, the Department of Education would receive $90.6 billion in discretionary spending, a $10.8 billion (or 13.6%) increase from FY23. It also requests “a name change to the Office of English Language Acquisition to the Office of Multilingual and English Learners, promoting the Office’s Director to Assistant Secretary, and adding staff capacity, to elevate the federal obligation to English Learners and strengthen Title III’s program administration.”
Significant budget increases are being sought for Title I (+$2.2 billion) and Title III (+$305 million), but the House Republican majority is unlikely to agree since it will not approve a debt ceiling increase without concessions on federal spending.
According to officials, top education priorities include expanding access to free pre-K, making community college free, creating a path to doubling the Pell Grant, and subsidizing tuition at HBCUs and other minority-serving institutions.
Within the $305 million increase requested for Title III (Language Instruction for English Learners and Immigrant Students), the president proposes to spend $100 million on educator professional learning, with $90 million going toward multilingual educator pipelines and professional development in multilingualism for existing school staff and teachers and $10 million for postsecondary fellowships to improve multilingual educator preparation. Also included is $25 million to support a new Raising the Bar on Multilingualism program to assist districts in scaling high-quality dual language learning and instruction.
NWEA, a not-for-profit research and educational services organization serving K–12 students, has released a new study focusing on the identification of gifted and talented (GT) students who are English learners (ELs) and/or students with disabilities (SWD). Using data from the 2017–2018 Civil Rights Data Collection, the Stanford Education Data Archive, and the researchers’ own coding of individual states’ policies toward gifted and talented education, these key themes emerged:
• The study confirms that ELs and SWD are identified at rates that are one eighth to one sixth of their representation in the overall student population.
• State mandates for schools to offer services, requirements for formal gifted education plans, and regular audits for compliance are correlated with much higher rates of gifted service availability and equity for ELs and SWD.
• The top 5% of schools with the highest equity of EL students identified as gifted were relatively lower achieving and had higher enrollments of students from low-income families.
• The top 5% of schools with the highest equity of SWD identified as gifted were similar in size, achievement, and SES to the overall sample but were smaller than the average school in the sample and had smaller, if more equitable, GT enrollment.
“One of the clearest takeaways from examining these data is the correlation between state policies and the more-equitable identification of gifted and talented students,” said Dr. Scott Peters, senior research scientist at NWEA.
States that had specific policies and mandates had greater enrollment in gifted and talented programs by ELs and SWD. For example, if schools were required to have and maintain formal plans for gifted services, they were ten percentage points more likely to offer services. In addition, those same schools were 23 percentage points more likely to offer gifted services if their home states proactively conducted audits for compliance.
However, Peters added, “Where the data got more complex and less clear is in the characteristics of schools who identify GT English learners and students with disabilities at higher rates.”
The findings challenged typical stereotypes of schools that had the most proportional rates for ELs and SWD in GT programs. For ELs, these schools were smaller, had lower average socio-economic status, had more students eligible for the free and reduced-price lunch program, were located in lower-achieving districts, and were lower average achieving themselves. For SWD, the characteristics were less clear, with the only standout being that the schools were smaller than the average school in the sample and had smaller, if more equitable, GT enrollment. In addition, equity went up in schools in states that had GT under the Office of Special Education.
“These findings suggest there is much more that needs to be studied about how these schools found success identifying English learners and students with disabilities for GT programs at greater rates,” said Dr. Angela Johnson, research scientist at NWEA and co-author of the study. Learn more about the study at https://edworkingpapers.com/ai23-742.
It’s impossible to deny that technology has ushered in a plethora of language-learning options that learners can access from the comfort of their own homes. Many of these options come in the form of apps that gamify learning and provide a framework for learners to absorb their target languages in easily digestible pieces. These apps can be extremely helpful when working with popular languages such as French, Spanish, or Italian, but have not fared so well when working with Asian languages. In many instances, apps fail to provide learners with appropriate grammar rules for them to grasp concepts such as sentence building and instead function more like glorified phrase books. The most notable aspect missing from this form of learning is the human connection. With online tutoring, students receive direct instruction on phonology, grammar, and conversation.
People choose to learn languages for many reasons: to connect to heritage, to learn more about a culture, and for professional development, to name a few. One of my favorite reasons to learn a new language, however, is for travel. As an avid traveler, I often desire to be able to communicate at least at a very basic conversational level in the target language of the country I am visiting. Traveler learners, like me, are often left to choose between clunky self-guided textbooks and phrasebooks or sleek apps. However, undertaking a target language that requires more nuance—for instance, a tonal language—requires more attention to detail. Over the past month, I have been taking online Flexi Classes to learn one such language: Vietnamese.
Flexi Classes offers instruction in ten languages: Simplified and Traditional Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Cantonese, Shanghainese, Taiwanese Hokkien, Russian, and Italian. With the exception of Italian, all of these languages are notoriously difficult for English speakers to learn, and especially in the instance of languages such as Vietnamese, language-learning resources are few and far between.
Further, a wide majority of resources only offer Vietnamese in the northern dialect, which varies in phonology and vocabulary from the southern dialect. I was able to access instruction in the southern dialect with native southern-dialect Vietnamese speakers—something that is virtually nonexistent elsewhere. In many Asian languages, there remains a lack of quality instruction and organized curriculum available. A major hurdle that learners of Vietnamese face is pronunciation. Many travelers will pick up a guidebook, learn a few phrases, and attempt to order some phở or a bánh mì only to be faced with a very confused-looking Vietnamese worker.
This is because the pronunciation of tones, consonants, vowels, starting consonants, diphthongs, triphthongs, and ending consonants all make a huge difference in how words are pronounced and therefore understood. Unlike a language that one can more or less jump into with some basic pronunciation concepts, languages such as Vietnamese and Mandarin require a nuanced and complicated understanding of pronunciation before one can begin to have even the most basic conversations. I therefore decided to start my Vietnamese journey there, in the thicket of phonology, in order to approach reading, grammar, and vocabulary with a relatively greater sense of ease. For this reason, it was imperative to have face-to-face classes on a platform such as Flexi Classes to get pointed instruction and feedback on these specific and precise aspects of the language.
Each Flexi Class broke down these individual topics, and while they were technically group classes with a possibility of up to four students, I was often the only student in each virtual class. Students have the option to either follow specific tracks with specific teachers or to choose individual classes based on topic. As a creative director myself, I have a keen eye for design and user experience, and I was impressed by the sign-up interface for classes. There are options throughout the day and night, giving learners in any time zone access to classes at a time convenient to them—I typically sprung for evening classes, which was morning time in Vietnam. Each class came with a downloadable PDF and audio file, which I could access before the class to prepare, with new words, sentence structures, dialogues, and roleplays, along with slang and local flavor. The classes are one hour long each, which I found to be the perfect length before getting the dreaded language-learning-induced brain fog. The well-instructed classes are organized and structured, which offered me a relaxed, laid-back approach in which I didn’t have to worry about how I was going to learn and instead could focus on what I was learning. Students can study anywhere, any time, and have complete flexibility to cancel, re-book, and change classes.
According to a report by Technavio, the global online language-learning market size is estimated to increase by $29.96 billion from 2021 to 2026. However, the offerings are typically fragmented and leave students to do most of the heavy lifting in terms of curriculum organization. The leading drivers of this online-learning explosion are cost benefits and flexibility of language choice. The necessary software and hardware are the minimum requirements for online language-learning programs. Other benefits include easy registration, flexibility of timing, customized learning materials, live chats and forums, immediate feedback on quizzes and tests, and self-paced learning. Thus, the low cost of online language learning, coupled with its benefits, will drive the growth of the global market.
However, this doesn’t come without its own challenges—namely the quality of instruction. Many online tutors lack qualifications and interesting learning materials, and self-learning options such as massive open online courses (MOOCs) fail to offer the direct feedback that is available in learning face to face (through a screen) in real time. Because my professors are native speakers from southern Vietnam—the region I am going to visit—they were able to offer unique local perspective and insight, as they are integrated into the culture that the language they teach belongs to. This helps avoid inaccuracies, biases, and missed nuances during instruction. The classes are also similar to in-person immersion classes I have previously taken, in that students are required to speak and interact with the professor and learning materials during the class. While challenging, this method of learning is much more effective than sitting silently and listening as instructors review materials. It also opened the classes up to questions and improvised learning.
Learning a target language before travel can provide lessons on the history and origins of the language and culture and help foster cultural sensitivity, global insight, and an inclusive community wherein students are more sensitive toward differences—and similarities—between themselves and the people they will be interacting with abroad. Flexi Classes provided language basics, skills and tools for comprehension, and an understanding of culture and history that will lay the foundation before my travel—and further language-learning journey—in Vietnam.
Leanna Robinson, Language Magazine’s creative director, will be working from Vietnam for the next few months. She will be keeping readers up to date with her progress on her vlog on our Instagram @langmag.
When we decided to choose a tutoring partner, our students were just returning to campus after learning remotely during the global pandemic. It was pretty clear that unfinished learning was going to need our full attention. Teachers were delivering instruction virtually and face to face at the same time, for example, and faced steep challenges as they tried to navigate those complexities.
Knowing that the educational technology learning curve was very stressful for many of our teachers, we started looking for ways to provide additional support for students without putting even more burden on our teachers. Our superintendent, Dr. Scott Muri, had successfully used virtual tutoring at a previous district and wanted to implement a similar effort in Ector County, but with a twist.
We first began our work with Harvard University’s Center for Education and Research Policy as part of a project to develop win–win partnerships between tutoring providers and the district with an approach called outcomes-based contracting—likely the first outcomes-based tutoring contract in the history of K–12 education.
We received training on what these contracts would look like and how they would work. Both our district and the Harvard University team had certain criteria that needed to be met during this process. For example, we wanted students to receive high-impact tutoring three times a week for 45-minute sessions. As long as those conditions were met, we would pay bonuses to our tutoring partners when the students excelled, or bonuses would be held back if the academic goals for students weren’t met. And if we didn’t keep our end of the deal, such as by making sure students attended the sessions and were engaged and participating during their learning time with tutors, then our tutor partners were paid the base pay that we had agreed on.
Dr. Muri leveraged this concept to drive high-impact tutoring on scale to more than 3,500 Ector County ISD students, with measurable and repeatable academic gains thanks to our tutoring partners. We wanted to engage with tutoring partners who shared our commitment to supporting students and teachers in order to close the learning gaps that were present.
We initially had approximately ten vendors to choose from. Our district selected those we felt were the best fits with our students and teachers and invited those potential partners to present their solutions to our principals at a group meeting. Each vendor had 15 minutes to present their program, and then our principals made their selections. Here are six key traits that we used during our process as we whittled the list down to FEV Tutor and Air Tutors, which we ultimately selected as our tutoring partners:
Choose a platform that utilizes high-quality instructional materials. Your virtual tutoring partner should be using high-quality instructional materials aligned to a school’s or district’s curriculum and a research-based platform. You have to make sure that they work for students and they’re not just ancillary materials that aren’t even aligned with state and/or national standards. Also, make sure the virtual instruction is at grade level. These are some critical points to keep in mind when you’re choosing and working with a virtual tutoring provider.
Seek out quality instructors. We also wanted to make sure that we had quality tutors; we didn’t want just anyone tutoring our students, and we did not have time to waste to drive student outcomes. Having quality tutors was also important because they’d be using our data to detect the learning gaps for specific students. We didn’t want to have to “teach the teachers” how to do this for every student who was enrolled in the tutoring program.
Pair students with specific tutors. We wanted students to be able to work with the same tutors on a regular basis, versus having a new one for every session. This would allow students to build relationships with their tutors and feel more comfortable in the tutoring environment.
Review the provider’s safety protocols. We reviewed the protocols that the vendors had in place as far as student safety. All of FEV Tutor’s associates have to pass an FBI background check, for example. To other districts that are picking a partner, I’d say certainly ask about the safety checks that they have in place for their employees; you want to make sure it’s a safe environment for your kids.
Find a partner who will go the extra mile. One of our top considerations when selecting a new educational partner is whether they’re willing to get in there with us to solve the challenges. Other key factors include:
Do they have the data to prove that their program is successful with students in this type of learning
environment?
What kind of measurements are they going to have? (You must have a way to show learning progress and know how they’re going to monitor progress.)
What kind of feedback are they getting from the student and the teacher, which ultimately reveals where the tutoring is working for them?
Create a consistent, predictable schedule during the school day. Based on our past experience during the pandemic shutdowns, we knew that we wanted virtual tutoring. We also knew that we wanted “live” tutors and targeted instruction that was delivered on a consistent and predictable basis during the school day. We’ve found it best to schedule tutoring time during the day—and not before or after school. Elementary students may have the flexibility for tutoring before or after school, but secondary students are involved in sports and extracurricular activities that wear them out. They just skip out and go home, so it’s better to engage them while you have them. Looking ahead to next year, we may expand the tutoring schedule to include acceleration and/or intervention.
Getting Started When we started our virtual tutoring program, we offered it to all of our K–12 students. The first year the program was in place, we learned that the younger students weren’t very engaged in this type of environment. This school year, we decided to start it in second grade and go right up through high school.
We started with just math and reading. Our tutoring company was really good about making sure those students—especially those in the younger grades—understand those foundational skills. This is important because any third grader whose education was disrupted by the pandemic probably missed out on many foundational skills in first and second grade. The same goes for any fifth grader who may be struggling with reading due to learning gaps that may have surfaced in third and fourth grade as a result of remote learning.
To any district that wants to start using virtual tutoring to fill in pandemic learning gaps, I would advise using a phased-in rollout. In other words, don’t try to roll it out at the same time across all of your campuses. This is important because regardless of how good the tutoring partner and your IT department are, technology issues will emerge that need to be addressed. And there just won’t be enough people on staff to cover all of your campuses when the platform first rolls out. You don’t want a student’s first experience with new technology to be frustrating. This year, we started using the tutoring at our highest-need campuses and dedicated a two-week window to working with them to make sure everything was up and running. Then, we moved to the next phase, and so on. We had it all up and running well within five weeks, and we began seeing our students learning, which led to closing their gaps almost immediately.
Lisa Wills is the executive director of curriculum and instruction for Ector County ISD in Odessa, Texas .
One of the tools teachers of multilingual learners have at their disposal to move learning forward for their students is scaffolding. The term has been around a long time, introduced by Wood, Bruner, and Ross in 1976. Scaffolding in teaching and learning is the intentional, deliberate, and purposeful use of supports as students learn and develop a new concept or skill. The evidence of impact on student learning is quite strong. There have been four meta-analyses on scaffolding, with an overall effect size of 0.58, which is an above-average influence and one that should accelerate student learning. However, to move from research to reality and actualize the potential for scaffolding to accelerate student learning, we must implement scaffolding in a way that offers the right level of challenge for students. For example, there is a risk of under-scaffolding, over-scaffolding, and failing to remove the scaffolds once learning has occurred. In this article, we’ll describe a model of scaffolding that is based on over 3,000 studies on the approach to scaffolding proposed by Wood and his colleagues.
Importantly, Wood et al. did not study multilingual learners. Their investigation focused on young children, noting that learners could not benefit from scaffolding unless “one paramount condition is fulfilled” (p. 90). That condition requires that students understand that there is a viable solution to the problem or situation they have encountered. In the words of Wood et al., the learner “must be able to recognize a solution to a particular class of problems before he is himself able to produce the steps leading to it without assistance” (p. 90). Note that they say a solution to a particular class of problems, rather than the solution to a specific problem. In other words, scaffolding is not limited to students figuring out the answer to a specific task but rather encompasses learning how to think about a type of challenge that they have been given.
In the world of deliberate practice, which has an effect size of 0.79, this is known as a mental model of expertise. Students need to have an idea of what success looks like so that they understand where they are headed in their learning. A mental model might be a concept, framework, or worldview that you carry around with you. Let’s say you want to play netball, a sport popular in Australia. Without a mental model of what this game looks like, it’s hard to engage in practice, accept supports (scaffolds), or respond to feedback. When you have the concept of the game in mind, you are significantly more likely to allocate your resources to performing well.
Mental models also allow us to set goals or agree on goals with others. And having goals for learning is an important aspect of scaffolding. The goals are what we are scaffolding toward: the mental model. Thus, we argue that without clear mental models of expertise and a worthy goal, scaffolds will fall flat. Students may complete tasks yet not learn from them when their teachers fail to recognize the value of these first two requirements of scaffolding.
Once the prerequisites of a mental model and goals are met, teachers have essential information about where to place the scaffolds—in other words, where the specific supports are needed to move learning forward around a particular concept or skill. Teachers must carefully consider the placement of scaffolds to ensure they do not over- or under-scaffold. And we have choices (see Figure 1) in terms of the placement of scaffolds based on the tasks students are completing and the specific needs of our students. Front-End Scaffolds
One option is front-end scaffolds. These occur in advance of the task and are designed to reduce the cognitive demand on the learner as they engage in the task. Preteaching vocabulary is an example of a front-end scaffold.
The idea behind this front-end scaffold is that learners will develop proficiency with specific terms or the language associated with a particular concept or skill. Thus, when they later engage in the lesson, they will already have exposure, experience, and some level of expertise with the terms or language. Frontloading content and skills is another example of front-end scaffolding, as is showing a video to build background, reading the text to students aloud, or providing anticipation guides.
The challenge with relying exclusively on front-end scaffolds is that they can reduce the rigor of the learning if used indiscriminately. For example, telling students what the words mean in advance might reduce the need for students to use their developing word-solving skills such as morphological analysis. Similarly, explaining the main ideas of a text to students may reduce their need to actually read the text.
Distributed Scaffolds In addition to front-end scaffolds, teachers can use distributed scaffolds. This moves from just-in-case to just-in-time scaffolding. Dixon (2018) notes: Just-in-case scaffolds are provided to students before they attempt a challenging task. Just-in-time scaffolds are provided when a student’s struggle becomes unproductive or they otherwise demonstrate they need help because they are unable to move forward.
Distributed scaffolding relies, in part, on teacher actions that guide and support student thinking during the thinking. These just-in-time scaffolds require that the teacher do or say the just-right thing so that the student does the cognitive work. As an example, when teachers question, prompt, cue, and explain, they are engaged in distributed scaffolding. Let’s look at each of these individually. Questions activate prior knowledge, elicit information, foster elaboration or clarification, or require students to link divergent information. Questions help the teacher to deterxmine what learning stuck and where the student is stuck in the learning process. Questions can also provide students with an opportunity to stop and think, unlocking ideas or information they had not previously considered. Prompts are statements or artifacts that help the student focus on the cognitive or metacognitive processes needed to complete the task. Prompts can include exemplars, templates or frames, or statements that activate background knowledge, procedures, or reflection. Cues are hints that focus the learner’s attention on something that might have been missed. They are more direct than prompts and are designed to divert the student’s attention to a s ource of information that will help them solve a problem or highlight an error or misunderstanding. The range of cues includes verbal, gestural, visual, and environmental. Direct explanations and modeling are used to provide students with missing information, especially if prompts and cues are insufficient. Essentially, the teacher provides students with the missing information and shows how to use it. Of course, teachers must monitor students’ understanding. As Thompson (2009) offered in terms of moving to this level of support, teachers should be “giving explanations, examples, or the answer; explaining the answer; referring to a previous discussion; posing a leading question for the student; and planning what the student should do next” (p. 427).
Back-End Scaffolds A third option is to employ back-end scaffolds, which are used after the learning tasks have been completed. Sometimes, back-end scaffolds are used to correct misconceptions or errors that occur during the learning. They can also be used to solidify students’ understanding following the lesson. As an example, graphic organizers can help students organize information and remember that information. Similarly, study skills are a useful back-end scaffold that allows students to move from acquiring concepts and skills to consolidating those concepts and skills. In addition, feedback is an effective back-end scaffold when it is more than corrective (right/wrong) information that students can use to take action. As Vrabie (2021) noted, feedback comes in at least three forms: Appreciation: Recognizing and rewarding someone for great work. Appreciation connects and motivates people, and it’s vital since intrinsic motivation is one of the critical factors for high performance. However, appreciation is only effective if the appreciation is directed toward something over which learners have control. Coaching: Helping someone expand their knowledge, skills, and capabilities based on evidence gathered during the learning experience. Coaching is also an opportunity to address feelings, which helps balance and strengthen relationships. Evaluation: Assessing someone against a set of standards, aligning expectations and informing decision making.
Note that each of these can occur after the learning event and serve to push learning even further in subsequent learning experiences. The ultimate benefit of back-end scaffolding comes from the learner integrating the graphic organizers, study skills, and feedback into where they go next in their learning.
Peer Scaffolds A fourth option teachers have is to use peer scaffolding, which is especially useful when it comes to emotional scaffolding. Meyer and Turner (2007) state that emotional scaffolding includes “temporary but reliable teacher-initiated interactions that support students’ positive emotional experiences to achieve a variety of classroom goals” (p. 243). When teachers create conditions for students to support one another, learning is enhanced because peers make the learning environment safe for making mistakes and using those mistakes as learning opportunities.
Peer tutoring and peer learning have a positive impact on learning, with an effect size of 0.55 (www.visiblelearningmetax.com). There are a lot more peers than there are teachers, and we can leverage peer-to-peer interactions to support all learners. Imagine the possibilities when students learn to scaffold for their peers. And it’s free. Establishing within-class, across-class, or grade-level tutoring programs formalizes the peer support that should be occurring in every classroom.
Returning to our model of scaffolding (figure 1), we are left with fading the scaffolds. As we mentioned at the beginning of this article, there is a risk of failing to remove scaffolds once learning has occurred. Scaffolds are supposed to be temporary. But how do we know when scaffolds should be removed? One way to test the need to fade scaffolds is wait time. When teachers provide students with sufficient wait time, they can observe students’ responses and decide if additional scaffolds are necessary.
Of course, if the only scaffolds offered to learners are front-end scaffolds, we may find it hard to use this approach to notice when to fade, as the right level of challenge may have been removed from the student (i.e., over-scaffolding). If the only scaffolds offered to learners are back-end scaffolds, we may also find it hard to use this approach due to the frustration of the learners (i.e., under-scaffolding). Thus, a variety of scaffolds generates more evidence to use in determining when to fade a particular scaffold.
In addition, teachers must decide if they are going to use a least-to-most or a most-to-least model when it comes to planning and fading scaffolds. The question is, based on what students are learning, should we start off with the least intensive scaffolds and add them as needed? Or should we begin with the most intensive and back off as students demonstrate success? There is rarely a one-size-fits-all answer to the least-to-most or most-to-least approach.
What works with one set of concepts and skills may not with another set. What works with learners now may not work with learners later. But the wrong answer is to forget to fade the scaffolds and unintentionally create learned helplessness or not provide scaffolding at all and create unproductive failure in the classroom. After all, we want students who own their learning and can apply what they have learned in a variety of settings. Scaffolds are a path to get there, but they are not the destination.
References Dixon, J. (2018). “Providing Scaffolding Just in Case.” DNA Math. www.dnamath.com/blog-post/five-ways-we-undermine-efforts-to-increase-student-achievement-and-what-to-do-about-it-part-3-of-5 Meyer, D. K., and Turner, J. C. (2007). “Scaffolding Emotions in Classrooms.” In P. A. Schutz and R. Pekrun (Eds.), Emotion in Education (pp. 243–258). Elsevier Academic Press. Thompson, I. (2009). “Scaffolding in the Writing Center: A microanalysis of an experienced tutor’s verbal and nonverbal tutoring strategies.” Written Communication, 26(4), 417–453. Vrabie, D. (2021). “The Three Forms of Feedback: Appreciation, coaching and evaluation. CTO Craft.” https://ctocraft.com/blog/the-three-forms-of-feedback-appreciation-coaching-and-evaluation Wood, D., Bruner, J. S., and Ross, G. (1976). “The Role of Tutoring in Problem Solving.” Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 17(2), 89–100.
Nancy Frey and Doug Fisher are professors of educational leadership at San Diego State University and teacher leaders at Health Sciences High. They are the co-authors of Confronting the Crisis of Engagement: Creating Focus and Resilience for Students, Staff, and Communities (Corwin Press, 2022).
John Almarode is a professor of Education in the College of Education at James Madison University. At James Madison University, he works with pre‑service teachers and graduate students in multiple programs. He also works with schools, classrooms, and teachers on the translation and application of the science of learning to school and classroom environments, focusing on what works best in teaching and learning.
According to a new study, speakers of tonal and non-tonal languages may perceive music differently.
Research conducted by The Music Lab – a collaborative department from The University of Auckland and Yale University, revealed that tonal language speakers have a better ability to differentiate subtly contrasting melodies, while non-tonal speakers are more astute to rhythmic differences.
The study compared almost half a million people, speaking 54 different languages, from 203 countries and concluded that the advantages experienced by each set of speakers – melodic perception for tonal speakers and rhythmic perception for non- tonal speakers, was equivalent to approximately half the cognitive boost gained by music lessons.
Dr Courtney Hilton, a cognitive scientist at Waipapa Taumata Rau (University of Auckland) who co-led the research, says “We grow up speaking and hearing one or more languages, and we think that experience not only tunes our mind into hearing the sounds of those languages but might also influence how we perceive musical sounds like melodies and rhythms”.
Focusing on music and psychology, The Music Lab is a University of Auckland and Yale University collaboration investigating how the human mind creates and perceives music.
The researchers first investigated pitch and inflection. Non-tonal languages like English often use pitch to inflect emotion or to signify a question, however raising or lowering pitch never changes the meaning of a word. Contrastingly, tonal languages like Mandarin use sound patterns to distinguish syllables and words.
Participants included speakers of Mandarin, Cantonese, Thai and Vietnamese (tonal) and speakers of English (non-tonal) and were then given musical tasks varying in difficulty, to distinguish differences in melody and rhythm. The musical examples included some mismatched beats and mis-tuned vocals.
Results suggested that the type of language spoken impacted melodic and rhythmic perception, but did not affect people’s capacity to recognise whether vocals were in tune.
Research co-leader Jingxuan Liu explained “Native speakers across our 19 tonal languages were better on average at discriminating between melodies than speakers of non-tonal languages, and similarly, all 19 were worse at doing the beat-based task,”.
The evidence that tonal speakers are at a slight disadvantage when discerning rhythm, came as a surprise to researchers, but it could be explained by an overriding perception for pitch.
“It’s potentially the case that tonal speakers pay less attention to rhythm and more to pitch, because pitch patterns are more important to communication when you speak a tonal language,” says Hilton.
Questions remain as to whether different languages inherently affect musicality, and the team conclude that environmental and cultural variables must be taken into account.
“Prior studies mostly just compared speakers of one language to another, usually English versus Mandarin or Cantonese,” says Liu. “English and Chinese speakers also differ in their cultural background, and possibly their music exposure and training in school, so it’s very difficult to rule out those cultural factors if you’re just comparing those two groups.”
“We still find this effect even with a wide range of different languages and with speakers who vary a lot in their culture and background, which really supports the idea that the difference in musical processing in tonal language speakers is driven by their common tonal language experience rather than cultural differences,” she adds.
Despite promising evidence that there is variation in musical processing ability between speakers of tonal and non-tonal languages, researchers maintain that there is scope for more study into these smaller-scale patterns and environmental variables. Similarly, more research is needed to understand the cognitive mechanisms and developmental pathways behind the differences.
Haitian Creole has faced dismissive attitudes and linguistic bias for years. Some people have seen it as a “broken” version of French rather than a distinct language with its own grammatical structure, vocabulary, and pronunciation. As the owner of a thriving translation company with an exclusive focus on Haitian Creole, I disagree. Haitian Creole is a modern, functional language that keeps growing in importance. It has a rich cultural heritage and a growing presence in the global community. As we celebrate Haitian Heritage Month, it is important to recognize the significance of Haitian Creole in preserving and promoting the Haitian identity and culture.
Haitian Creole, known to Haitians as Kreyòl Ayisyen or simply Kreyòl, is a creole language that developed in Haiti during the 18th century as a result of the contact between European colonizers, African enslaved people, and the indigenous Taino people. It is a unique blend of languages and has become an integral part of Haitian identity and culture.
After Haiti won its independence from France in 1804, French became the language of the government, education, and official communication. However, most Haitians spoke Haitian Creole in their daily lives, and the language continued to evolve and develop. It wasn’t until 1987, with the ratification of the Haitian Constitution, that Haitian Creole was recognized as an official language alongside French. This was a significant milestone in the country’s history and helped to legitimize and promote the use of Haitian Creole in all areas of public life.
A Growing Presence and Recognition
The widespread use of Haitian Creole extends beyond the borders of Haiti, as many Haitian immigrants and their descendants have brought the language with them to other countries, particularly the US. Today, there are an estimated 10–12 million Haitian Creole speakers worldwide. It is the primary language used in everyday communication among Haitians, as well as the language in which most Haitian music and other cultural expressions are produced.
The growing importance of Haitian Creole is evident from various indicators, including its recognition as a minority language in the US and inclusion in the US Census. Moreover, it is one of the top twelve languages spoken in New York and is the third most spoken language in Florida after English and Spanish. This highlights its widespread use and significance in these states. The New York State Language Access Law requires government agencies to provide translation and interpretation services in the top languages spoken in the state, including Haitian Creole. This further underscores its importance and the need to ensure access to essential services and information for its speakers.
It is important to note that the recognition of Haitian Creole as an important language has implications for the broader society as well. By recognizing and providing language access services for the language, society acknowledges the diversity and richness of its linguistic landscape, promotes inclusion and equity, and helps to bridge language barriers that can hinder access to essential services and opportunities. Its growing importance also reflects the larger trend of linguistic diversity and multilingualism in the US, highlighting the need for language access policies and practices that meet the needs of all speakers, regardless of background or language proficiency.
Haitian Creole: A Living Language
A living language is a language that continues to evolve and adapt to changes in society and culture. It is not static or frozen in time but dynamic and constantly changing. A living language adopts new terminology and changes with the times to reflect the changing needs and experiences of the people who use it.
Haitian Creole is a living language that has undergone significant changes over time. In addition to its general evolution, the language has also been shaped and influenced by the contributions of young people, artists, poets, writers, and other members of Haitian society. Through music, literature, and other forms of creative expression, these individuals have added new words, expressions, and styles to the language, further enriching its cultural significance and relevance. The creativity and innovation of these individuals have played a significant role in Haitian Creole’s continued growth and evolution as a living language.
Neologisms in Haitian Creole
One indication of its vitality is the creation of neologisms, which are newly developed or coined words that start to come into mainstream usage. Neologisms can take many forms and may be entirely new or formed of existing words. After the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010, causing widespread destruction and loss of life, Haitians invented the term goudougoudou to describe the event. The term is an onomatopoeic representation of the shaking and rumbling caused by the earthquake and is now widely used among Haitians to refer to earthquakes.
In addition to events, neologisms in Haitian Creole are also being influenced by music and social media. For instance, we have words like rabòday and bòdègèt as new slang terms for dancing, which became popular through music and dance trends. There are also new expressions like krèm mayi (corn cream), which describes someone considered too soft. Moreover, some English words have been borrowed into Haitian Creole, such as twit (tweet), layk (like), vayb (vibe), tchalennj (challenge), estrit (street) and ay (high). Finally, a recent term is foulay, which is believed to come from the English “full of lies,” and it refers to someone who is not worthy of trust.
As a living language, Haitian Creole reflects Haiti’s changing social and cultural landscape and the Haitian diaspora. It continues to be an essential tool for communication and community building.
The Role of Translation in the Growth and Evolution of Haitian Creole
As a Haitian language and culture consultant with over 15 years of experience, my passion for communicating in my own language led me to establish Creole Solutions. Our company provides translation services and support to organizations serving Haitian communities, translating about five million words annually for clients in healthcare, technology, NGOs, and government agencies.
Translation plays a vital role in the growth and evolution of a language. Through our work, we are providing translation services to our clients, helping to make information accessible to Haitian communities in their native language. This, in turn, helps to promote the use and understanding of Haitian Creole.
In addition to making information accessible in Haitian Creole, our work at Creole Solutions contributes to the growth and evolution of the language’s vocabulary. When it comes to translation, especially technical translation, there may not be direct equivalents for certain terms or concepts in the target language. Therefore, we often need to invent new terms or find creative ways to express the meaning of the source text in Haitian Creole. This process requires a deep understanding of the source and target languages and the translated subject matter. As we continue to translate more materials, we are also helping to enrich and expand the vocabulary, contributing to the language’s growth and evolution over time.
Recent Milestones in Haitian Creole Translation
Haitian Creole has seen significant growth in its recognition and importance as a language in recent years, reflected in several key milestones in the translation industry. For example, in 2022 the United Nations–Haiti website became fully localized in Haitian Creole.1 This development makes important information more accessible to Haitian communities in their native language, which can help promote the use and understanding of the language.
Another significant milestone was the 2022 publication of a New York Times article in English, Haitian Creole, and French.2 This highlights the language’s growing importance in media and journalism and demonstrates that it is a modern language that continues to evolve and grow in relevance.
Major tech companies like Facebook have also recognized Haitian Creole’s significance and made their interface available in the language for users. This not only makes their platform more accessible to speakers but also promotes the language’s continued growth and development. Furthermore, Haitian Creole is one of the languages offered by Google Translate. This shows that the language has gained enough recognition and significance to be included in such an important translation tool, further cementing its status as a growing language. These milestones are critical steps toward promoting and preserving Haitian Creole as a language with a rich cultural heritage and a growing presence in the global community.
Overcoming Challenges in Translation and Communication
My work has given me valuable insights into reaching Haitian Creole audiences. One of the challenges we face is the low literacy rate among the Haitian population, which makes it necessary to use different modes of communication to reach them effectively. My company mainly offers translation services, but we understand that these modes alone may not always be enough to convey a message to native speakers effectively.
Recently, we have been involved in large-scale efforts to train the growing workforce of Haitian immigrants in sectors such as hospitality, healthcare, and construction in the US. While these workers need to learn about safety rules and workplace expectations, printed manuals may not be the most effective means of communication. Instead, we have worked with companies to produce fully translated and voiced-over educational materials in video format. These materials can be viewed from any location. They can be replayed as often as necessary, allowing workers to learn at their own pace and in their preferred mode of communication.
Plain Language Principles: Ensuring Accessibility and Understanding
One of the biggest challenges in reaching all Haitian Creole speakers is ensuring that the message is understood by everyone, regardless of their literacy level. We strive to overcome this challenge by using plain language principles in our translations. This means that we simplify complex concepts and use clear and concise language that is easy for a wider audience to understand. We also pay close attention to cultural nuances and ensure that the message is preserved in translation.
In addition, we often face challenges when translating technical or specialized terminology. For example, in the medical field, translating the pain scale can be particularly challenging, as it involves conveying a subjective experience through a numerical system. In such cases, we work closely with subject-matter experts to ensure that the terminology is accurately translated while still being understandable for the target audience.
Another challenge is ensuring that our translations are of the appropriate length. Haitian Creole is a language that tends to be longer than English or French, which can sometimes pose a challenge when translating marketing or advertising materials. However, we have developed strategies to address this challenge, such as using concise language and strategic formatting.
Overall, our goal is to ensure that our translations are accessible and understood by all Haitian Creole speakers, regardless of their level of literacy or familiarity with technical jargon. By using plain language principles and cultural sensitivity, we can bridge the gap between languages and help our clients effectively communicate with their target audience.
A Vision for Haitian Creole
My passion for promoting the Haitian language and culture has driven my vision to further evolve Haitian Creole into a modern language that can serve a new generation of Haitians who have made their homes in countries other than Haiti. My ultimate goal is to build a language service consultancy that provides translation services and advises clients on the best ways to prepare materials for a Haitian audience and effectively reach them in various fields.
To achieve this vision, I understand the importance of staying up to date with the latest trends in language services and adapting to the evolving needs of our clients. I constantly strive to offer new and innovative solutions to language barriers that will help promote Haitian Creole’s growth and development.
At the same time, I recognize that the challenge of promoting the language lies not only in making it accessible but also in ensuring that it is understood and embraced by all Haitian Creole speakers. Therefore, I prioritize using plain language principles in our work to ensure the language is accessible to all literacy levels.
My ultimate vision is to see Haitian Creole become a respected language in the global community and a valuable tool for international communication. With my expertise and dedication, I am committed to contributing to its growth and evolution while helping bridge cultural and linguistic gaps in the world.
A Testament to the Resilience and Adaptability of the Haitian People
The story of Haitian Creole is a powerful testament to the strength and adaptability of the Haitian people. Despite centuries of oppression and adversity, Haitians have continued to build and evolve a language that reflects their unique cultural identity and heritage. Through the creative contributions of artists, writers, and everyday Haitians, Haitian Creole has become a living language that adapts to new experiences and reflects the evolving needs of its speakers.
Recent milestones in its recognition demonstrate the growing importance and significance of the language in our global community. By promoting and preserving Haitian Creole, we not only honor the contributions and resilience of the Haitian people but also enrich our understanding of the world’s diverse linguistic and cultural landscape. As we celebrate Haitian Heritage Month, let us recognize the enduring legacy of Haitian Creole and continue to support its growth and evolution. Let us amplify the voices of Haitians and their language and work toward a more equitable world that values and respects the diversity of languages and cultures.
Marleen Julien has a background in international development and came to the translation industry driven by her passion for language and community development. From the beginning, giving native speakers of Haitian Creole access to a wide range of authentic materials in their own language has been her highest priority. She is dedicated to raising the quality standards of Haitian Creole and creating business opportunities for Haitians. Dynamic and multitalented, Marleen directs the day-to-day operations at Creole Solutions. Her children’s book Nan Jaden Amoni was published in 2022 and was praised widely in the Haitian community.
Scientists in Leipzig, Germany have found evidence that the language we speak affects the connectivity pathways in our brain, potentially framing the way we think.
A research team from the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences used magnetic resonance tomography (also known as magnetic resonance imaging/MRI) to study the brains of native German and Arabic speakers, finding differences in the neurological wiring of language areas in each group.
Doctoral researcher Xuehu Wei compared the brain scans of 94 native German and Arabic speakers, choosing the two languages based on their extreme differences. The MRI scan results conclusively showed differences in brain connectivity.
Beyond high resolution imaging and mapping, the scans can determine exact connectivity pathways between different areas of the brain using a technique called diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI). DWI works by measuring the concentration of water molecules to generate contrast.
Results showed that the axonal white matter connections of the brain’s language network adapt to the processing requirements, difficulties and patterns of a person’s mother tongue.
Researcher and author Alfred Anwander explained “Arabic native speakers showed a stronger connectivity between the left and right hemispheres than German native speakers.” – This strengthening was also found between semantic language regions and may be related to the relatively complex semantic and phonological processing in Arabic.”
As the study progressed, data suggested native German speakers displayed stronger connectivity in the left brain hemisphere language network. The team concluded that their findings may correlate to the complex syntactic processing of German.
This study is one of the first in academic history to document neurological differences in the brains of different native language speakers. The research team hope it could lead to a greater understanding in cross-cultural processing differences in the brain.
Brain connectivity is modulated by learning and the environment during childhood, which influences processing and cognitive reasoning in the adult brain. Our study provides new insights how the brain adapts to cognitive demands, that is, the structural language connectome is shaped by the mother tongue.”, says Anwander.
In their next study, the research team hope to analyze longitudinal structural changes in the brains of Arabic-speaking adults while they learn German over six months.
Indiana lawmakers are supporting a bill to require Science of Reading (SoR) curricula in all the state’s schools, following the example of neighboring Ohio, where Gov. Mike DeWine has proposed spending $162 million to require Science of Reading to be adopted in every school district.
“I think (the bill) is purposely aggressive because we’re in the middle of a crisis and we don’t have time to wait,”, commentedRep. Jake Teshka, (R-South Bend).
Recent proposals have culminated in House Bill 1558, authored by Rep. Jake Teshka, R-South Bend, which creates its own definition of the Science of Reading in state law and requires schools to adopt such curriculum. It also creates a Science of Reading grant fund and includes teacher preparation and licensing requirements for the approach.
“The future is bleak for kids who can’t read,” Teshka said last month in the Senate education committee. The bill previously passed the House 91-0.
“When you look at the long-term outcomes of underperforming, as it comes to reading, you look at things like the average enrollee in the Indiana Department of Corrections only reading at a sixth grade level,” he continued. “You look at the fact that students who struggle with literacy drop out of school at exponentially higher rates, which leads to worse public health outcomes, with more strain on our economy.”
The measure requires that starting in the 2024-2025 school year, the State Board of Education and Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) would be required to adopt academic standards for reading that are based on the science of reading.
The bill also requires teachers to show proficiency in science of reading instruction and to obtain a science of reading certification in order to be licensed to teach in an elementary school. Currently, school districts across the state can decide which core reading program to use. The bill attempts to define the science of reading as the successful integration of research-backed concepts such as phonics, vocabulary instruction, and reading comprehension.
Trained literacy coaches would specifically be tasked with helping teachers at schools to get kids up to par for the IREAD exam.
Last August, Indiana announced a $111 million investment in literacy through a partnership with the Lilly Endowment — the state’s largest-ever financial investment in literacy.
The funding is intended to support science of reading training for teachers, as well as incorporating science of reading methods into undergraduate teacher preparation programs.
IDOE also launched a partnership to place reading coaches in schools across the state to support K-2 teachers as they put science of reading instruction to use.
Already, more than four dozen schools across the state have piloted Science of Reading instructional coaching, according to the education department. IDOE expects to expand the optional trainings to 60% of Indiana elementary schools by the end of the 2025-2026 school year.
However, some critics argue that the science of reading method doesn’t do enough to provoke the kind of thinking that enables deep comprehension in realistic reading situations. “We must teach comprehension as a multidimensional experience,” wrote educators Jessica Hahn and Mia Hood in EducationWeek. “
Indiana has recorded a declining literacy rate since 2013, which was accentuated by the pandemic. Only 81.6% out of the 65,000 third graders at public and private schools in Indiana passed the 2022 exam. The state education department’s goal is that 95% of students in third grade can read proficiently by 2027.
Sen. Aaron Freeman, R-Indianapolis has insisted on making SoR mandatory in all schools, “Our teachers are doing everything they can. They’ve just been given the wrong product to teach our kids. It’s time the state adopts what is called the science of reading.”
The measure would prohibit schools from using the three-cueing model. “We got off the track. We got off sounding words out. We got out of phonics. We got out of breaking words down, knowing how to sound those words out. And we started doing something else. We started guessing,” Freeman said of three-cueing. “The most important thing we’re going to do is teach kids to read, and we need to give them the appropriate tools to do it.”
Sen. Andrea Hunley, D-Indianapolis, a former school principal, emphasized that state schools should be better-funded, overall, before adding new literacy requirements, while the Indiana State Teachers Association (ISTA) said they also support statewide science of reading requirements, as long as schools have the money to make it happen and credentialing for teachers is clarified.
The legislation is now under consideration in the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Lawmakers are increasing efforts to make it harder to stay in France long term if you don’t speak French. A new immigration bill presented on February 1 outlines measures to introduce a compulsory language test for anyone applying for a Carte de séjour pluriannuelle multiyear residency permit in France.
At present, there is no language test for Cartes de séjour; however, the application process and informal interviews are all carried out in French, and a “contract of republican integration” must be signed—requiring applicants to have a moderate working proficiency in the language already.
Language tests are required for those applying for citizenship, and applicants need to demonstrate an intermediate DELF B1 level of spoken and written French throughout the interview process.
In July of last year, the French minister of the interior, Gérald Darmanin, announced plans to make this change, at the request of the prime minister. He said, “At the request of the prime minister, we will double the credits for integration, and we will condition in particular the multiyear residence permit for a foreigner who spends several years on the national territory [on mastery of] the French language, either for naturalization or for a regularization examination.”
Until February 2023, the bill had not been debated, and as it stands, it does not seem to be winning the approval of the right or left. Although the proposed test comes with intent to toughen immigration processes, the minister of the interior has also said renewal processes will be easier for long-term residents.
An “automatic” renewal for those holding multiyear Cartes de séjour will be carried out for residents who “cause no problems and have no criminal record” to eliminate the need to wait in line at the prefecture. It is unclear when the changes will take place.
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
Cookie
Duration
Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional
11 months
The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy
11 months
The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
