July 2007
Monthly Archive
31 Jul 2007 07:58 am
Dual language program showing success
 |
Despite its grant running out, Midland ISD has plans to continue its dual language program citing success. The program mixes non-English speakers with non-Spanish speakers at South, DeZavala, Crockett and Travis elementary schools. There are currently 543 students in the program, said Maria Mata, MISD bilingual/English as a second language director. Students are paired with a bilingual and non-bilingual teacher. They plan lessons together and decide what they will cover. The learning is continuous with youngsters being taught in Spanish one day and English the next, for example. |
click here for article
30 Jul 2007 07:01 am
Public Services In Dire Need Of Spanish Translators
| Local courts, police departments, schools and other public agencies are facing increasing needs for translators and other workers proficient in foreign languages to ease communications and make it easier both for non-English speaking users and the agencies themselves to conduct business. Among the agencies where the need for translators is greatest are the courts, which are experiencing an explosion in the number of users who are non-English speaking ranging from witnesses to defendants to women applying for restraining orders against husbands. |
 |
click here for article
29 Jul 2007 06:59 am
Friends finds profit in teaching foreign language
 |
Communikids opened in 2005 with Spanish classes for 20 children. Now it has 200 students in 30 classes, and has added French, Chinese, Arabic and Italian. Each 10-week course is about $300. The partners plan to open a second location in Falls Church this fall, and a third, in Ashburn, in January. Their goal is five locations in five years; they’re even considering franchising. The three founders are co-directors. Jeannine, who is not a native Spanish speaker, handles contact with the public, registration and planning. In addition to teaching, Raúl designs the curriculum. Mariana teaches and is responsible for educational materials. All three interview and hire teachers; Raúl and Mariana train them. |
click here for article
28 Jul 2007 04:27 am
Students broaden their experience of the world including understanding English as a second language
| Go sea kayaking in the Sea of Cortez, picking up leadership skills along the way. Explore historic villages on the Germany-Poland border while becoming fluent in German. Soak up Japanese traditions for a year while teaching English as a second language, or live in Senegal, West Africa, learning about Muslim culture. Ben Schweers of Mt. Lebanon during his stint at a National Outdoor Leadership School in Mexico’s Baja California. We’re not parroting a travel brochure here, just listing how several recent Pittsburgh-area high school graduates spent the year between high school and college — or, in one case, the year after graduating from college and plunging into the job market — as a way of figuring out what to do with their lives. |
|
search for : English as a second language
27 Jul 2007 07:49 am
A foreign take on primary school English
 |
The question of whether English should be made a compulsory subject at primary schools has been the subject of much debate in this newspaper. The debate has principally produced three schools of thought. First, the sanseiha (supporters’ group), consisting largely of Japanese education ministry personnel and their advisers, advocate that English instruction should be extended to the primary school level. It maintains that younger minds at that stage can acquire a second language better and more effortlessly, at least with regard to the pronunciation patterns of English. One does not have to be an English supremacist to see the predominance of the language in every domain of Japanese life. Advertisements and lyrics in pop songs often have one or two English words in them. Japanese universities entice foreign students by telling them that they can study in English; no other foreign language is a medium of instruction. English is known for its vast impact on the katakana corpus. In practice, Japan has adopted English as a second language. |
click here for article
search for : English as a second language
26 Jul 2007 07:36 am
Helping refugees with learning English shows Vermont at its best
| As 100 more Burundian refugees will arrive in the Burlington area in the coming months serves to underscore the importance of programs like the summer English language program offered at H.O. Wheeler school that will help the new arrivals make it here. For schoolchildren learning English, not just refugees, the long break between the end of school in June and the beginning of the new year in late August is a critical time. Schools often ease into the beginning of each school year, a recognition that students often need an academic jump-start after two months of summer vacation. The backsliding can be even more severe for those struggling with English who might spend the summer in a household where another language is spoken. |
|
click here for article
search for : English language program
25 Jul 2007 07:43 am
Help from teachers who are specially trained in teaching English as a second language will be beneficial
|
Anderson University is on the threshold of pioneering a new educational format that will aid teachers of students who don’t have English as their primary language. An $800,000 federal Department of Education grant will be used for a Professional Development Academy. The goal of the center is to prepare teachers to teach English to people who don’t speak the language, and the mission is to provide instruction that accelerates limited English proficient students, leading to keeping students in school and encouraging their enrollment in colleges and universities. |
click here for article
search for : prepare teachers to teach English
24 Jul 2007 07:28 am
Summer classes giving Spanish-speaking children a head start
| Something special happens during the summer. Spanish-speaking students - the majority of them Mexican immigrants - converge in one building just to study the English language. Some are brand new to the country, while others have been here for a while. Irving Primary School hosted about 140 of these kids in the summer program that ended Tuesday. The Journal Star visited with four children who attended Irving this summer - the Espinozas and two brothers who just arrived in June - to learn what it’s like to move to a strange land, go to school before you even know the language, and hope to make friends while doing it. |
|
click here for article
— Next Page »