Austin TX Global Volunteers to teach English as a Second Language
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The sixth annual Global Language Camp will be held here soon, hosted by the Global Volunteers program. Local volunteers are once again greatly needed to assist the Global Volunteers (who actually pay a fee to come here to help.) Volunteers come to Austin each summer from all across the world for a full week to teach English as a Second Language to children and their families with limited English-speaking ability. |
search for : English as a Second Language
Citizenship classes try out a newer and harder test
| Morning and evening, seven days a week, immigrant students fill the citizenship classes at San Francisco’s City College campus in Chinatown. The scene is repeated at City College locations across the city and at community colleges and adult schools around the Bay Area. Sitting in rows of plastic chairs in a former elementary school classroom, 41 adult students, most from southern China, listened intently earlier this week as teacher Ellen Yeung reviewed questions they are likely to hear in their naturalization interview. | 
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Shud Inglish spelling be simplifeyed?
| English is a complicated language with spectacularly diverse origins, but many people seem to master it as both first and second language. People with learning difficulties such as dyslexia may find it a struggle but I know quite a few who have won the battle anyway; one was diagnosed with severe dyslexia as a child but now teaches in a primary school herself and I’ve never seen her make a mistake. Perhaps we should be looking at the many ways in which we are failing children in school, whether it’s through unsuccessful teaching techniques, lack of resources or lack of motivation in pupils. |  |
Dual-language options put Omaha schools in vanguard
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The Omaha school district is poised to become the only district in the state — and one of only 10 public districts nationwide — to offer a dual-language immersion program for students from kindergarten through graduation. In such programs, each class is taught in both English and Spanish. Each class has an even mix of students whose predominant language is Spanish and students who primarily speak English. In elementary grades, most students work with two teachers; one teaches in Spanish and the other in English. Lessons are not taught twice, but primarily in one language with a preview and review in the other language. |
search for : dual-language immersion program
Immigrants focus of new charter school
| This fall, the New America charter school will open to help those kids who want an education but are still struggling with English. The school will target the large and growing Hispanic population in Eagle County, specifically 15- to 21-year-old students who want to learn English and want to earn a diploma. About 150 students are expected to begin this fall. Finding interested students hasn’t been difficult. It started with a door to door surveys in the Avon and Edwards trailer parks, then stretched to recruiting at churches, barbecues, yard signs, letters and banners. The school will open Sept. 4 on the second floor of the Gypsum Center where a well-known Mexican restaurant and market stay busy bellow. |  |
search for : learn English
Missouri’s English-only amendment will ignore the history of immigrant assimilation
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The possibility that official state business will someday be conducted in a foreign language concerns legislators so much that they’re trying to prevent it. In November 2008, Missouri voters will decide whether to tack an English-language amendment onto the state Constitution. The proposed amendment is a bad idea. We needn’t work to prevent this hypothetical problem, which will almost certainly never materialize on its own. Missourians will continue to speak English long into the future, both in official business and in their daily lives. |
Teacher devotes time to Hispanic children in school, parish
| Today, as schools and parishes throughout the U.S. have adapted to the surge of Hispanics, specialists in English language learning such as Nancy Varnell of the El Dorado School District serve an increasingly important function — not only in their positions as educators, but also in service to the Church. Varnell, who protectively took Hernandez under her wing many years ago, not only helps educate young Hispanics but also coordinates English language classes for Hispanic adults at Holy Redeemer Church in her free time. Almost 30 Hispanic children received confirmation and First Communion before a packed congregation at Holy Redeemer Church on Pentecost Sunday, May 27. The number nearly doubled over the past year, according to church officials. |  |
search for : English language learning, English language classes
Dual-language classes double the learning
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Advocates of dual-language programs say they benefit both English-and Spanish-speakers. Native English speakers more easily learn another language at a young age and become truly bilingual, advocates say, and Spanish speakers learn academics in their native language, ensuring that they understand the material, then transition to English. Although participants overall test lower in English-language skills in first and second grades, they ultimately do as well as or better than their peers in academic achievement by the fifth grade, plus they become bilingual, said Judy Lambert, education consultant for the California Department of Education, Language Policy and Leadership Office. |
search for : dual-language program, Native English speakers