The difficulty of taking a standardized test in a foreign language will happen statewide this spring to about 36,000 students who know a limited amount of English. Illinois will no longer administer the Illinois Measure of Annual Growth in English (IMAGE) test to students with limited English proficiency.

Instead of the IMAGE test, which has pictures and shorter reading passages, students with limited English will take the same state tests their fluent classmates take. Instead of a two-page reading passage with “yes or no” questions, they will have four pages of reading and multiple choice questions. (more…)

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Spanish Class for Spanish Speakers began last month during a new trimester at the West Ottawa Holland school. It’s the first time the course has offered it, but the idea is catching on at some local high schools with high Hispanic enrollments. Similar classes were introduced last year at Holland High, Wyoming Park High and Lee High in the Godfrey Lee district.

The trend started 30 years ago in the southwestern U.S. and is spreading as Spanish-speaking populations grow. About 8 percent of Kent County and 6 percent of Ottawa County residents speak Spanish at home. West Ottawa’s class is taught by Victor Perez, an English as a Second Language teacher and the sole native Spanish speaker in the district’s foreign language department. (more…)

search for : Spanish-speaking population, English as a Second Language

Most people know Spanglish as the language hybrid of Spanish and English. So what happens when you mix Brazilian Portuguese and English? Branglish? The mixture of languages is a normal and necessary part of language acquisition, according to Rosianne Doane, a Portuguese interpreter at Cape Cod Hospital, and other linguists.

Language is, by its nature, dynamic. As cultures and language groups collide, words are borrowed and manipulated to fit circumstances. Words and phrases from different languages are combined as immigrants learn a new lexicon.

“There’s something called inter-language when you’re in between the two languages,” said Karyn Van Kirk, program coordinator for the college transition program for non-native English speakers at Cape Cod Community College. “It’s a natural thing.” (more…)

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Some East Texas schools do not meet state standards for having bilingual educators in the classroom, with some school officials citing the difficulty in finding and retaining those teachers as the primary reason. According to information from the Texas Education Agency, 20 of Region VII’s 96 school districts, including seven local districts, have bilingual education waivers for at least one campus. A district applies for a waiver if it cannot meet state requirements for having bilingual educators. The application must outline the district’s efforts to accommodate and educate students with limited English proficiency. The waiver allows the school to remain compliant with Texas Education Agency standards. (more…)

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The Manatee County Florida Library System has the tools you’ll need to master a new language. A great place to start is in the Children’s department. Berlitz language packs are available in French and Spanish, and each contains a storybook, audio CD, picture dictionary and a parent’s guide. Listen to the story of “The Missing Cat” in French and follow along with the book. Afterward, sing along to children’s songs in French. These packages are appropriate for ages five and up and will help build important language skills.

For those interested in learning English as a second language, the Central Library now has “Rosetta Stone Learning Language Success” software. A computer on the library’s first floor is dedicated to this terrific interactive learning tool. Instructions are available in multiple languages, including German, Spanish, French, Italian and Swedish. (more…)

search for : English as a second language

One of the Sious Fall’s public elementary schools will convert in fall 2009 to a program that not only will teach a foreign language, but will use that second language to teach math, science and social studies. Which school and which language have not been determined, officials said. The school board is expected to hear a committee report and settle those issues in February.

The district hopes the program will be a step toward helping students become international citizens equipped for a world economy that’s facing dilemmas from disease to terrorism. It’s also assumed the program will help children think better in English. (more…)

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The Charlottesville VA school division has received an unexpected increase of just less than $163,000 in Title I federal funds for use this year. According to Harley Miles, Charlottesville’s supervisor of assessment and technical services, this is a one-time increase.

The school division plans to use the funding increase to add more hourly reading teacher positions and a half-time English as a Second Language position. The increase will also be used to buy $40,000 of instructional history and science materials at the elementary-school level. (more…)

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Dramatic growth in the Hispanic community has fueled a sudden interest in Spanish for the pre-kindergarten crowd. North Carolina’s Hispanic population now stands at about 600,000, and nearly 10 percent of the state’s population now speaks a foreign language at home. With Spanish increasingly important in the workplace, classroom and community, many parents are eager to give their children a head start on the new language. In Orange, Durham and Wake counties, more than 100 providers offer Spanish day-care programs, according to data from the Child Care Services Association. Many of these are bilingual schools, with some instruction in Spanish and some in English. But growing numbers are true immersion programs, where everything from story time to arts and crafts is entirely in Spanish. (more…)

search for : Hispanic community, Spanish day-care program