In her native Bosnia, Natasa Brnjos was a college-educated religion teacher who supported her husband’s work as an Orthodox Serbian priest and cared for her three young children. When Brnjos moved to the United States two years ago so her husband could take the reins at St. Petka Serbian Orthodox Church in Longwood, the busy teacher and mother was suddenly paralyzed in a world dominated by English. She could not read or write well enough to teach here or even help her own children with their homework.

Brnjos is one of about 700 students this year at the Adult Literacy League, where a little more than half the students share in her struggle to become literate in English as their second language. The students speak more than 20 languages and represent 37 countries. About 40 percent of the students are native English speakers who never learned to read and write, said Joyce Whidden the league’s executive director. Often, English speakers who cannot read and write as adults suffered from long childhood illnesses or have learning disabilities that were never diagnosed. Others, Whidden said, moved frequently as children, causing them to miss school for extended periods of time. (more…)

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It is a controversial bill that would make English the official language of Metro Government and Tuesday night, tensions are running high as the Metro Council will look at the English-First bill for the third and final time.

On Tuesday, the Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau Board released a statement expressing concerns about a negative effect on the tourism industry. The board estimates that out of 10 million annual visitors to Nashville, 6% to 8% of those are international visitors. Proponents of the bill said it would send a message to illegal immigrants. Schulz said the bill does not relate to illegal immigration, which the chamber opposes. He said, “We see this as more of a legislation that is indicative of this community and how this community is seen around the world.” The measure has religious leaders concerned as well. Bishop of the Diocese of Nashville, David Choby, has urged council members to vote against the measure saying, “We’re very concerned that the tone of the discourse has become harsh.” (more…)

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The Springdale second-grade teacher who has achieved success in bringing students who speak English as a second language up to grade level. received the $15,000 award. Governor Mike Huckabee today presented $15,000 to Justin Minkel of Harvey Jones Elementary School in Springdale AK for being named the 2006-2007 Arkansas Teacher of the Year during a ceremony in the Governor’s Reception Room at the State Capitol in Little Rock AK.

Up to 16 teachers are recognized as regional Teacher of the Year winners, thanks to a grant from the Walton Family Foundation to the Arkansas Department of Education. Winners are selected at the state level from teachers who are nominated by their local school districts. This year, Minkel was one of four state finalists from a competition involving 24 applications from 13 of the 15 regional service cooperatives and Pulaski County. One teacher is selected from each region and receives a cash award in the amount of $1,000. The Arkansas Teacher of the Year winner receives an additional $14,000. (more…)

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The Monroe Excellence in Education Foundation honored several teachers at a reception last night with grants for a variety of projects that will benefit students in Monroe.

Bilingual Family Literacy Packs; Monroe Middle School and Monroe High School; Sarah Ackerman, ESL teacher; will reach ESL students representing four countries in grades six through 12. Funding will be used to purchase bags, books, journals, magazine subscriptions, movies and other materials to help improve the literacy of bilingual families.

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One hundred and twenty-one school districts in Texas are under orders to improve classes for children learning English as a second language. Many of the parents of those children say the improvement is not happening, and they took the state of Texas to federal court. The Equal Educational Opportunities Act of 1974 is the federal government’s promise to give all children a fair chance in school, regardless of language barriers.

The parents in this case say Texas is not keeping that promise to almost a million students. The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), and the GI Forum are the groups representing the parents. They say the parents are concerned about their children’s education. They see their children failing classes and being held back a grade, not because they are not capable students, but because classes designed to teach the children English are failing. (more…)

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Teenagers at a school in Manchester were overjoyed when they were told they could drop French this year. Out of 100 pupils just 15 signed up for the GCSE. So few showed an interest in German that the school decided not to offer it at all. Grace Hallows and her friend Sam Mottershed were among the handful who carried on. ‘My Dad said he really regretted not listening in French lessons when he was at school,’ said Grace, 14. ‘He said it would look good on my CV and be useful for skiing.’

Language teaching in England and Wales is in crisis. Fifty leading academics have written to The Observer this weekend to express alarm about the slump in the number of teenagers taking GCSEs in foreign languages. A letter signed by professors and heads of language departments from dozens of top universities, including Oxford, Cambridge and the London School of Economics (LSE), calls for the government to reverse its controversial policy allowing pupils to drop languages at 14. The move, that came into force two years ago, embedded the notion that ‘languages do not matter, that English is enough’, the letter says. (more…)

Young immigrant students in North Jersey and elsewhere are catching up with their English-speaking peers within a few years. But those who arrive here during their middle- and high-school years are failing at alarming rates, educators and state officials say. The performance gap — in part a result of a dearth of programs and qualified teachers for adolescents — could carry consequences for the region, experts say.

The program, called LEADS, builds students’ confidence by not overwhelming them with material they may not be ready for and by giving them challenging but achievable goals, teachers say. The program is a districtwide initiative in Passaic for fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade students. It is starting to make a difference in classrooms at School 5, where the student population is nearly 90 percent Hispanic and every child qualifies for free or reduced lunch. Last week, two fifth-grade teachers and an aide led small groups of students, most of them new arrivals from the Dominican Republic and Mexico, in Spanish and English lessons that touched on the same theme: exploration. The lessons ranged from teaching students about Christopher Columbus’ arrival in America to the difference between the English words “lake” and “like.” (more…)

One of Florencio Castro’s duties as a cook is to decipher scribbled orders from waiters. Sometimes it isn’t the hasty handwriting that makes the orders hard to read, but the language they are written in: English. Castro, who speaks English but hasn’t mastered reading or writing it, doesn’t want to mess up the orders from customers at Encore Family Restaurant in Palmetto by giving them the wrong food.

Castro is one of a growing number of Latinos and other immigrants in Manatee, Sarasota and Charlotte counties who are trying to learn English, both to fit in and do well at work, but also to prepare for the possibility that English-only laws could take hold in the United States. To help them, various organizations and agencies across Southwest Florida provide free or low-cost English as a second language programs. The classes have seen increased immigrant enrollment since the firestorm surrounding the United States’ immigration reform debate last spring. (more…)

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