We can help you
- reduce costs ,
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With our bespoke solution to instant communication across languages
If you
- communicate with members of the public
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Then contact us at info@emasuk.com or 0845 009 4939
Some times we go to schools and they ask us quite rightly how will it improve our children’s learning. What they cannot believe once we talk them through how everything fits together is how reasonable the cost is as it allows all staff in the school to have access at home or at school 24/7. When compared to the £900 single pupil premium for primaries at £624 and secondary’s £1124 it is less than two pupils premium for the whole schools use making it great value for money. Schools using the whole package are finding that their children are developing academic language quicker thereby making them more confident when being entered for tests and exams.
The following article helps explain why the use of first language to gain second language acquisition helps. In the Fischer school in America and the area that it is affiliated to
the state mandates, once 20 or more non-English speaking students are present in a school, that school must provide education to them in their native language. Research indicates this makes them better learners later on, Johns said.
“Instruction in their native language (will give them) a solid basis for learning in their early years” and will narrow the achievement gap in middle and high school, he said. Students are assessed throughout the process so they can migrate out of the bilingual program as quickly as possible.
“Compliance with the law is not optional,” he said, citing case law from 1974 that determined students have a right to have material presented to them in their native language. Without that early on, students grades tend to “flat-line” in middle and high school, he said.
“The rate of progress slows tremendously, and research shows it sometimes receding,” he said. “That happens because students have enough social language that they can kind of keep pace, but the rigors of middle school are much more, and the need for instructional knowledge is much greater and they can’t keep up. This is often the early point in which children make the choice to drop out. They become more marginalized and separated from their peers … with dire consequences.”
“I think you’re going to see more bilingual (across the district). It’s a trend across the country. We’re becoming more and more diverse,” Pruneau said.
Thanks for this story to http://elmhurst.patch.com/groups/schools/p/parents-continue-to-share-concerns-about-fischer-school-superintendent-promises-better-communication
I was only saying yesterday that due to a problem we have had with some translators/interpreters recently i.e. they are not academically up to the level needed for schools to support children with the academic words and phrases they need, maybe the use of online tools and bespoke services like ClaireTalk, Talking Tutor and Two Can Talk will be increasingly used in all areas of society. My thinking was that actually being aware that the translation rate is 95% plus makes us as teachers/business people and managers aware and look for the possible error, so rather than it being a negative it is actually positive for the people using the system. The alternative is if you put all of your faith and trust into a translator and cannot check if they use incorrect terms or words we believe the system is working until we get a nasty jolt.
It was therefore with interest that when this arrived in my email box today it seemed as though a message was being sent that maybe I was on the right lines. It appears that young people are using these technologies on a daily basis.
Online Tools Stats
http://edudemic.com/2013/05/how-online-translation-tools-are-now-being-used/
Any language teacher knows that online translation tools can be a double edged sword. The technology that enables students to quickly and easily look up a word or phrase can suddenly turn into a tool they use to try to translate entire papers for them. Double edged sword aside, online and mobile translation tools have come a long way, and are being used more than ever, especially with the availability of mobile technology. See some of the trends in online translation tools.
Online tool Users
Users of Clairetalk, Terry and Two Can Talk are already part of these statistics.
If you are interested in finding out more contact us via info@emasuk.com or 0845 009 4939.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Todays story about the Newcastle United players who use an interpreter seems really daft. How can they be playing as a team if they cannot communicate well enough with their team mates to learn and understand the nuances that bind good teams together its not just the words but the tone, sound, speed and delivery as well as body language that their team mates will pick up on to know what is needed for that vital pass or goal.
The great thing about Terry aka Talking Tutor, is that these players can practice in the privacy of their own homes the words and phrases they would like to say, and then integrate better with their team mates. Additionally they have the personal benefits of making themselves feel part of the team as they must feel a little isolated and all for the price of less than them playing 30 seconds on the pitch. (based on their weekly wages).
To see more of this story which suggests the use of an interpreter made them lazy
Oliver Bernard believes Newcastle United’s French players got lazy by not learning the language sooner
Manager Alan Pardew revealed that he decided to ban any translators from the dressing room over the last two weeks of the season.
And he laid down the law to all the non-English speaking players at United when he told them that they must return for pre-season being able to communicate with all their team-mates.
The firm message from the club is that every single playershould speak English. It is a philosophy Bernard fully backs.
He said: “It’s vitally important that the French lads at Newcastle United speak and understand English.
I was very interested in last weeks Education Guardians language week. Mainly because I was looking for inspiration but there doesn’t seem to be much particularly around the value of bilingualism and supporting teachers to teach their pupils who are bilingual. It also seems that teachers are too entrenched in things that were not hugely successful in the past yet they just repeat the process without changing their thinking and integrating tools to support them.
As Rosemary Campbell Stevens says if what we have been doing for the last twenty years hasn’t worked, then we need to change the rhetoric or my favourite by Albert Einstein ‘ We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them’.
Perhaps the report is right when it says:
That the UK is not a place where bilingual ability is valued is demonstrated again in the attitude to the tens of thousands children who do arrive at school with abilities in another language, he observes.
“The potential for children to reach high levels of competence in these languages is not recognised or supported by government – in the new national curriculum, there is no mention of bilingual learners who have the opportunity to learn languages at home and no plan for how these languages could be shared in the classroom.” In a country which has attracted migrants from across the world, this means that in two or three generations, children with migrant heritage grow up to be monolingual, or only conversationally functional in the language spoken by their parents or grandparents.
It also seems to me that there is a lot of store set on academics but not on what happens in classrooms where policy and strategy have to be interpreted with the children that you have in front of you. It is also interesting to note that during our existence academics have started to shift more towards bilingualism as they see that when used effectively bilingual learning supports and moves the child’s learning on. Perhaps this is prompted by real results and where previously our members, our teachers, school and classrooms were ignored as they can now see that this is where real change is happening the tide is turning.
Schools employing this new ethos are seeing results daily on real children in their classrooms, this includes the learners learning academic English quicker by up to 70% or to achieving 100% level 4 SATS, but lets not also forget that these teachers are feeling confident that they can actually help. Despite all this it also saddens me to see all this innovative and exceptional work recorded in this article as:
But apart from a few scattered initiatives – Interesting we are not even mentioned yet we were the first to go down this route. http://www.guardian.co.uk/teacher-network/2013/may/13/languages-uk-schools
Who knows next time we may feature!
Being bilingual isn’t easy as the writer of the article below says. Often the children and adults feel that they are not part of any culture. Not part of their first language culture as they no longer live in the country and not part of the second culture as they have not grown roots in the country where they presently live and also have no history on first arrival.
This bilingual thing … they say that it’s a both curse and a blessing. Watakushigotode kyōshukudesuga (私事で恐縮ですが, A thousand pardons for having the gall to talk about myself), but I think of it more like a stigma
It was tougher for boys. My brothers learned very quickly that scoring 100 in English earned no respect and kept girls (the pretty, fun ones especially) away. What counted was stuff like getting the regulā (レギュラー, starting member) slot in the yakyūbu (野球部, baseball team), or owning one’s very own baiku (バイク, motorcycle) and letting it rip on some bōsōzoku (暴走族, motorcycle gang) strip in Chiba or Shonan. Failing in both, my brothers decided to delete their entire pasts and pretend they couldn’t speak a single word of English. The ploy worked. In a few months their facial expressions and body language had completely changed. If the school had given out awards for assimilation, my brothers would have taken home every one.
For girls, the big obstacle to assimilation was our penchant for freedom and having a good time. Now of course, tanoshimukoto (楽しむこと, enjoying oneself) is a phrase bandied about by everyone from shōgakusei (小学生, grade schoolers) to daijin (大臣, Cabinet ministers). But 30 years ago anyone who behaved too freely and got around was under suspicion. A real Japanese was supposed to kurō (苦労, suffer), don’t ask why. As a kikoku jyoshi (キコク女子, returnee girl), I just didn’t get it. And by the time the office memo about the suffering thing came around, it was too late.
This is why celebrating their first language and using it to support them to learn English in context is a radical but humane and linguistically correct way for us in the 22nd century to be moving. This allows them to feel part of the community whilst they settle in but also helps them to communicate with officials, schools, businesses in a far better way than with the methods previously used.
If you are still not convinced read the story below and have a look at our YouTube video showing what we have to offer to support contextual learning of English, to support keeping the first language alive which leads to better communication for all. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEdVSgz5YOk
Interestingly, being a hāfu (ハーフ, half Japanese) has never had the same stigma of being a kikoku. A hāfu was the coolest thing a nihonjin (日本人, Japanese person) could be. Just witness the number of mixed-race idoru (アイドル, idols) and tarento (タレント, celebrities) crowding the media (my favorite is Anna Tsuchiya).
Technology for Inclusion
Come and talk to us and see how all the resources support inclusion and language development of Children whose first language is not English. Also listen to Dr Rona Tutt http://www.ronatutt.webspace.virginmedia.com/ a great specialist in SEN and SEND.
To be kept up to date or to find out more contact Janet at janet@centralenfieldclc.org.uk
