May 2007
Monthly Archive
14 May 2007 07:26 am
Emphasis on second language improving
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It is not new for our country to be bilingual. An interesting reminder to us would be that many settlers/immigrants to this area became bilingual by adding English to their vocabulary. When I was very young, I remember my great-grandmother speaking Swedish. I’ve been told that she and her husband could easily have a private conversation by speaking Swedish because the next couple of generations were not bilingual. There are interesting local heritage festivals, like the Nordland Fest held in Sioux Falls, that celebrate our rich history. |
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13 May 2007 06:32 am
St. Charles Education’s newest facility opens in West Hamilton; teaches English
| Congratulations are in order for an Official Blessing and Dedication Ceremony for St. Charles Adult Education Centres’ newest facility, St. Charles West which was held May 4 at 1603 Main Street West, Unit #3. St. Charles Adult Education Centres were established by the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board in 1985 to serve the educational, training and employment needs of Hamilton’s adult population. St. Charles is an established service provider of English as a Second Language (ESL) programs, Literacy and Basic Skills training, and high school credits. |
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search for : English as a Second Language, ESL
12 May 2007 07:14 am
Tests challenge ESL students
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West Brunswick (N.C.) High School Spanish teacher Ronda Hatcher knows the additional challenges that face students who speak and write English as a second language, and that’s why she helped create a program this year in which her students tutor third-graders at Waccamaw Elementary School in Ash, N.C., in preparation for end-of-grade testing. “My students help them with key vocabulary words, they listen to them read, they help with reading comprehension, and they tutor them in math,” Hatcher said. |
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search for : English as a second language
11 May 2007 06:40 am
How to be an excellent language learner
| A fundamental assumption about learning a second language is that success does not consist of explicit knowledge so much as a feeling for the language–that is, to be able to participate naturally and mostly automatically in interactions with other speakers of the language. Having a feeling for a language includes, as a subset, having the ability to produce appropriate structures (grammar) and forms, but beyond that it includes expressiveness–not only exchanging surface meaning, but also giving and taking humor, shock, banality, beauty, profundity, etc., as required. The effort should be not only to think in the language but also to do everything else, up to and including dreaming in it. |
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search for : learning a second language
10 May 2007 06:57 am
Chinese class gains momentum
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By the time Sayra Jimenez graduates from Muscatine High School next spring, she will know how to speak Spanish, English and even some Chinese. Jimenez, an MHS junior, said Spanish is her first language and she has refined her English skills in English as a second language classes. Next year, she’s taking a Chinese course that was added to the MHS curriculum at the beginning of the 2006-07 school year. “My Spanish is really good,” said Jimenez, 17. “And my English is getting better. I’d like to add a third language.” |
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search for : speak Spanish, English as a second language
09 May 2007 06:40 am
Working towards overcoming language barriers a laudable goal
| It’s good to see a recent story in the Daily Southtown by staff writer Kristen Schorsch about a new system in Oak Forest that will allow police and other city workers to communicate better with people who need their services but do not speak fluent English or any English at all. The city council entered into a three-year arrangement with a California-based company called Tele-Interpreters. The company provides around-the-clock access to interpreters of dozens of languages via telephone. If someone, for example, calls 911 and begins speaking in a foreign language, the dispatcher can call Tele-Interpreters and have the caller’s conversation translated. |
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search for : speak fluent English, Tele-Interpreters
08 May 2007 06:37 am
Learn to reach out to English language learners
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Suppose you have just arrived in a new country, not as a visitor, but as a new resident. You’ve only read and heard about the country and its people. You know very little of the language spoken in the new country. Everything is new and different. You encounter others speaking the new language, but they seem to speak too quickly. What would be the first thing you would want to know? I can only imagine how difficult it would be to decide which question would be the most important to have answered. English language learners have the same problem. There are too many questions to which they want and need answers. Adults who enroll in English as Second Language classes come from a variety of backgrounds, cultures, countries, and languages. The commonality between them is their need to understand, speak, read and write the English language. Language learners are usually highly motivated, attending classes of their free choice, often at some personal sacrifice. |
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search for : English language learners, English as Second Language
07 May 2007 07:00 am
Group seeks to add middle school to Dual Immersion
| A task force of parents, teachers and administrators from Dual Immersion Academy wants to expand dual-language educational opportunities for their students by adding a middle school component to the program. Dual Immersion Academy currently serves kindergarten through fourth grades and will add a fifth grade next school year. Members of the task force proposed the middle school at a School District 51 Board of Education meeting last week. Principal Jose Melendez said the school’s learning format, which integrates a second language, either English or Spanish, into core academic classes, is one that has been proven to work well, particularly for minority students whose second language is English. |
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search for : Dual Immersion Academy, dual-language education
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