June 2007
Monthly Archive
22 Jun 2007 07:11 am
CMS Struggling To Serve Students Who View English As Second Language
| Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools need to do a better job helping students who don’t speak English, or the entire district could lose big bucks, officials said Wednesday. Those students are scoring lower than other groups. If that continues, the federal government may cut CMS funding for English As Second Language. No Child Left Behind, the federal act, requires the school system to attend to the needs of these students. The progress as a district is measured by the progress of individual sub-groups of students. |
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search for : Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, English As Second Language
21 Jun 2007 07:16 am
Learn English and celebrate multilingualism
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California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said last week that to get ahead, Spanish-speaking immigrants should avoid Spanish-language newspapers and TV. “You’ve got to turn off the Spanish television set,” he said at the 25th annual National Association of Hispanic Journalists convention in San Jose. “It’s that simple. You’ve got to learn English.” Yes, of course, today’s immigrants to the United States should learn English – and they do. As in the past, the further away from the first generation of immigrants, the more likely later generations are to speak English. |
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search for : Spanish-speaking immigrants, Spanish-language newspapers, Hispanic Journalists, immigrants
20 Jun 2007 06:57 am
ESL Students Get More Time To Learn English Before Big Tests
| Until now, city students learning English as a second language had to take important standardized tests in reading and math in English, even if they have been in the United States less than a year. Schools Commissioner Joel Klein announced Tuesday that’s about to change. “I thought it was a mistake to require everyone to take the exam after the first year,” said Schools Chancellor Joel Klein. “The federal government has now changed that, and in New York, at least, we’ll be able to exempt students for the first two years.” |
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search for : English as a second language
19 Jun 2007 06:46 am
Virtual world of opportunities awaits language students online
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Since the start of the Japanese academic year in April, around 50 U.S. and Japanese students and 20 teachers have been sharing the specially constructed virtual island. They are working on joint projects in preparation for a planned visit to Japan by the U.S. students next April. When one Japanese student wanted to get hold of an in-world computer translating machine he asked the American students for help in his best broken English. Two pupils from the U.S. school led him to a place where he could get the tool, then spent about 10 or 15 minutes explaining how to click, copy and activate the translation device. “All this was done in English, of course,” recalls Flesuras, “and by the time the Kyoto Gakuen student finally got what he wanted, he decided he didn’t need it after all.” |
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18 Jun 2007 07:26 am
Fluent in Politics, but Will It Translate?
| With the United States growing more diverse, and the world pushed closer by globalization, fluency in a second language might not be a bad job skill for a president. Other leaders have found it useful. Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and Vladimir V. Putin, the Russian president, speak each other’s language, she from growing up in East Germany, he from K.G.B. work. Tony Blair, the departing British prime minister, speaks French. Most Middle Eastern heads of state speak English. |
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search for : fluency in a second language
17 Jun 2007 08:58 am
Professionals try second careers as teachers
| Professionals who initially may have bypassed teaching in pursuit of more lucrative, powerful or prestigious careers are now looking to trade in expense allowances, 24-hour connections to the office or the continuing threat of pink slips for such “feel-good” roles. The appeal is showing up at both ends of the career arc: In a 2005 survey of 1,000 50- to 70-year-olds, one in five said they were “very interested” in moving into jobs that benefit their communities, education among their choices. |
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16 Jun 2007 08:05 am
Two Guys Restaurant hosts meal for ESL students
| For the past five years, Valeria Auer, owner and proprietor of Two Guys from Italy restaurant in Moorpark, has hosted the graduation reception honoring seniors who are also second-language learners. Auer served the Italian lunchtime buffet for the students after regular lunchtime hours, with a waitress and busboy present to serve. The event organizers decorated the restaurant in honor of the students. Martha Mihalovits, who teaches English as a Second Language and history at Moorpark High School, has worked with her English Language Development department to plan and implement this special event each year and to recognize the accomplishments of these seniors. |
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search for : English as a Second Language, English Language Development
15 Jun 2007 08:09 am
Ottawa students literacy rates beat provincial average
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Jennifer Adams, superintendent of curriculum at the public board, said staff and administrators have worked on the concept of cross-curricular literacy skills at the primary, junior, intermediate and secondary levels and it’s the impact of those efforts that is being seen in the board’s literacy test results. “The job of teaching literacy is no longer left to the English teacher. It’s very much a full-team approach at the school level,” she said. Special needs students in both local English-language boards had success rates that surpassed the provincial average. However, English as a Second Language students in the Catholic board had a 32% success rate, which falls short of the provincial average of 39%. The public board had a 40% success rate. |
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search for : English teacher, English as a Second Language
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