September 2007
Monthly Archive
28 Sep 2007 07:52 am
Language instruction can play crucial role
| In 2006, 15.2 percent of residents in Washtenaw County spoke a language other than English at home, an increase of 2 percentage points over the past six years. Within the city of Ann Arbor, those numbers are even higher – 22.8 percent of residents don’t speak English at home. The county’s Asian population is seeing the largest growth, increasing 8.1 percent from 2000 to 2006. In Ann Arbor, Asians account for 17.4 percent of the total population, up from 13 percent in 2000. In Ann Arbor elementary schools alone, about 1,200 students are eligible for English-as-a-second-language support, while many others speak English well but live in homes where languages other than English are spoken. |
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search for : Washtenaw County, English-as-a-second-language
26 Sep 2007 07:49 am
Phoenix Elementary Tweaks ESL Program
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Native English-speaking parents covet the limited slots in the Phoenix-Talent School District’s elementary Spanish immersion program because it gives their children what other elementary schools in Jackson County don’t: bilingualism. Their counterparts, native Spanish speakers, benefit from being able to climb academically in their native language while learning English. For the last seven years, 90 percent of instruction in the program at Phoenix Elementary was delivered in Spanish, but that changed this year after school officials determined that some native Spanish-speaking pupils weren’t learning enough English to succeed at the secondary level. |
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search for : English-speaking parents, bilingualism, learning English
25 Sep 2007 05:57 am
Teacher comes from Spain to teach dual-immersion kindergarten
| Díez Valcarcel, 30, came to Corvallis two months ago from Madrid, Spain, to teach music and Spanish at Lincoln for one year, through a program of the Spanish Ministry of Education. As part of Lincoln School’s Spanish-English dual-immersion program, Díez Valcarcel will teach half of his classes in Spanish and half in English throughout the year. This week, the kindergarten class was conducted, for the most part, in Spanish. “Fuerte! Fuerte!” Díez Valcarcel called out as the children clapped to the rhythm of another selection of classical music. A few times, when frustrated with the task of directing the kindergarteners from one activity to another, he would lapse into English. |
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search for : Spanish Ministry of Education, Spanish-English dual-immersion program
24 Sep 2007 05:54 am
Harrisonburg VA Public Schools Leads Virginia In ESL Education
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Forty-one percent of Harrisonburg’s public school students are in the English as a Second Language program — the highest rate in Virginia. Of the district’s approximately 4,302 students, 1,765 are in the ESL program. According to the school division’s Web site, students in the ESL program in 2006-07 spoke 44 different languages. The Web site says 76 percent of the ESL students spoke Spanish. Superintendent Donald Ford said in four to five years, the school system could see half its students in the ESL program. |
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search for : English as a Second Language, ESL program
23 Sep 2007 07:53 am
All Canadians have a stake in helping immigrants to thrive
| Despite Canada’s best efforts to welcome and integrate new and not-so-new immigrants, there are still studies that suggest we aren’t doing nearly enough. One recent study, for example, found that immigrants’ wages lag significantly behind those of native-born Canadians, and another discovered that English as a Second Language students were dropping out of school in large numbers. Yet there are many more successes than failures. A recent report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development confirms that on one important measure, at least, immigrants are doing far better in Canada than in virtually any other OECD country. |
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search for : English as a Second Language
22 Sep 2007 07:18 am
Language School Continues To Grow
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An Iron Mountain woman is investing in the U.P. and hoping to convince local residents to learn more languages. Danielle Khoury opened the International Language School in Iron Mountain eight years ago to a handfull of students. And it’s been growing ever since. She now teaches 20 hours a week of French, Italian, and English in Iron Mountain, and as of Monday, she also offers classes at the Peter White Library in Marquette. “I remember when I had the idea–many people were skeptical–and I’m surprised today to find out the extent of the diversity in this town. I’m teaching a lot of people English as a second language so a lot of new people that move to our community aren’t native English speakers,” stated Khoury, owner. |
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search for : International Language School, English as a second language
21 Sep 2007 06:01 am
UNCG Attracts $1.4 Million To Improve ESL Curriculum
| UNC-Greensboro will use a $1.4 million Department of Education grant to improve instruction in English as a Second Language in North Carolina. The five-year funding will provide for training in ESL instruction methods for UNCG faculty, undergraduate and graduate students in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, and to teachers in Chatham County and Asheboro City schools. North Carolina had more than 90,000 ESL students in schools across the state as of last October, but not enough trained teachers for them, according to Barbara Levin, a principal investigator on the project. |
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search for : UNC-Greensboro, Department of Education
20 Sep 2007 07:00 am
The University of Arizona’s Center for English as a Second Language Serves As Gateway To The World
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This summer, the center teamed up with the University of Arizona Foundation to bring 15 students from Taipei, Taiwan, to study in its monthlong Summer English Language Immersion Program. The students ranged in age from 15 to 47 and were selected from a pool of interested students at the Kang Ning Junior College of Management and Medical Care in Taiwan. Scholarships for the summer immersion program are funded by an endowment that was created at the UA Foundation in 1995. The $2,500 scholarship includes tuition, accommodations and access to other university services. |
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search for : English Language Immersion Program, Kang Ning Junior College of Management
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