During a campaign stop in Colorado, Obama indicated that in order to compete in our global economy everyone should be bilingual or even trilingual. Read more at Obama Urges Education Reform.
What I find interesting about this comment is here we have a presidential candidate who himself has second language experience (Indonesian) and third language experience [...]
Over the next few weeks Coca-cola is going to be raising awareness of other languages – the company will be releasing collectible cans and bottles that will have the company’s logo/name in languages other than English. According to the Atlantic Business Chronicle:
Atlanta-based Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) on May 19 will release Olympic-themed collectible cans and FridgePacks [...]
In How being bilingual can boost your career you can read about the myriad of benefits to being bilingual. This is an excellent article to share in your parent newsletters, with your students, with your school boards.
In today’s global economy, the ability to communicate is key, and as more companies expand internationally, the ability to [...]
Delaware is the latest state to consider adding a world language proficiency requirement for high school graduation. Delaware Online highlights the positive move and support of the World Language Task Force, State Board of Education, etc. Kudos to Delaware!
Google is hosting a competition for students to customize the Google logo. As world language educators, you could have your students enter this contest, focusing on language, culture, global understanding, etc. Why should you consider this? There is great power in being able to generate meaning through visual representation – it requires critical thinking and [...]
Live Mocha has launched – this website combines social networking with language learning. Here you can indicate what language you speak as well as what language(s) you would like to learn. There are synchronous and asynchronous opportunities, the ability to track your progress through various courses, and native speakers who are willing to interact with [...]
the United Nations declared 2008 the International Year of Languages. The February 2008 UNESCO Courier focuses on world languages and culture with several interesting articles.
“The first instrument of a people’s genius is its language,” said the French writer Stendhal. Literacy, learning, social integration….Everything transits through language, which embodies national, cultural and sometimes religious identity [...]
Kiva had record traffic over the holidays. As I was home for the holidays, I volunteered for several shifts. As quickly as loans were translated they were moved to the live side of things. Millions of dollars came through to the budding entrepreneurs in developing nations. Volunteering to translate is interesting – I’ve translated loans [...]
Leaving next week for the ACTFL conference in San Antonio, Tx. The first part of the week I’ll be in Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) training, then I’ll be presenting a session and a workshop with my friend Cherice. Of course the presentations aren’t quite finished – I’ll try to remember and post the urls – [...]
The Michigan Department of Education has released two documents related to the World Language requirement of the Michigan Merit Curriculum:
World Languages Standards and Benchmarks
World Languages Credit/Experience Guidelines
Of particular note is Michigan’s requirement for 2 credits of a world language:
Learners at different ages and stages of development progress at different rates and require different [...]
