#in my school there was french (native) and english (secondary) and spanish (optional)

[indigostudies]

1 thru 5, 17, and 33 for the asks! ☃️

1: what’s your native language?

i grew up speaking english, putonghua/mandarin chinese, and turkish, though english is what i mainly use in day to day conversations (the pitfalls of having moved to the usa haha).

2: how many languages do you speak?

i can converse in four languages (english, chinese, turkish, and german), and i can get by if absolutely necessary in spanish (i had one mandatory year of it in school after i moved to the usa).

3: what languages are you currently studying?

at the moment i'm focusing on chinese, kazakh, korean, and shanghainese, with kazakh and korean being the ones i'm focusing the most on in independent study currently.

4: how many/which languages would you like to know in the future?

i'd love to gain a proficient level in mongolian, (egyptian or iraqi) arabic, vietnamese, shanghainese, cantonese, thai, korean, kazakh, and kurmanji. i also have vague dreams of learning csl/chinese sign language, but i don't know how much emphasis there is on body language/nonverbal cues, and i am autistic and trying to remember/interpret that has historically been something that's made sign language very challenging for me to learn (i took a year of asl but basically nothing stuck).

5: do your friends speak other languages?

i have friends who speak italian, brazilian protugese, french, fujianhua/fujian dialect, german, russian, and ukranian, off the top of my head.

17: what was/is the first language you want/ed to learn?

german! when i had to choose a language to study in school, my options were french, spanish, and german. at the time, i thought i'd go into finance, and i didn't like how everyone was pressuring me to study spanish, plus i knew i'd never use french for anything but academics if i studied it, so i chose german. my experience was...................less than ideal, since the number of students in each class dwindled rapidly the further on i went, and oversight by instructors was minimal to say the least, with the final half of my studies being essentially self-administered, so it's actually fairly surprising that i can get around using it.

33: do you ever want to have a career in languages?

abssolutely. languages are my biggest passion, and if i could, i'd spend my entire life studying them. i'm also very interested in translation studies, specifically english-chinese/chinese-english, and i'd love to focus on that for a graduate degree. i also plan on getting a master's in kurmanji and a phd in chinese, which means i'll be spending a lot of time with those two languages. out of careers, the ones that interest me most are translation (english/chinese), diplomatic work (in an embassy or consulate in china), and post-secondary instruction (in chinese or kurmanji).

#games #inbox #thanks for the ask! #indigo ink

[diaryofalinguist]

Info

About me/Über mich/Acerca de mí:

- Val

- 18 (01/04/2005)

- UK

- They/she - sie/ihr - ella

- B2 Deutsch

- A2-B1 Español (no estoy segura)

Additional information below/Weitere Informationen weiter unten/Información adicional aquí abajo

For the purpose of practicality, I'll write this in English for now, as it'll be the most universally understood:

My name is Val, I'm 18, I'm from the UK so my native language is English, and I'm currently awaiting decisions from universities in order to study foreign languages. I'm hoping to study German and Japanese as part of my university course, while also taking advantage of university wide language programmes to begin learning Russian. I had about a year of dedicated Japanese study when I was around 12, and I remember a lot of the basics, but nothing meaningful enough to post here or probably even classify as A1, however I can read hiragana and katakana fairly well to this day.

My interest in languages has been an integral part of my life as far back as my memory reaches. Before the age of ten, a family friend conducted at home French lessons with me. I'd say when I got to secondary school and was put into French and German classes my enthusiasm really blossomed. I was pulled out of school at the age of 11 to be homeschooled, and filled the majority of my time independently teaching myself Japanese. I slowly came to a point of being able to have an incredibly basic conversation with others before being placed back into traditional schooling and losing the free time I had for Japanese, and my studying fizzled out.

When I returned to school, I chose German as a GCSE. Despite being behind, I quickly caught up. By halfway through year 10, though, Covid was at its peak, and due to my school's safety measures combined with my mum being high risk, I was pulled out of school yet again. I later returned to do my A-levels there, having no GCSEs or formal exam experience whatsoever. This was when I chose German as an A-Level. Despite these various setbacks, I achieved a high grade I'm incredibly proud of. I'm now completing a voluntary 3rd year of college in order to complete an AS course I began last year as a full A-level. From September this year, I've had the opportunity to join my German teacher's year 11 GCSE Spanish class and will be taking the exam at the end of the year. My only prior experience with the language was the studying I began in June in order to prepare for joining the class. Since October I've also been asked to assist my German teachers in their lower year classes as a voluntary teaching assistant, an opportunity which I'm elated over.

I'm currently hoping to be able to become a language teacher in the future, even likely abroad. I'd eventually like to get a TEFL/TESOL qualification for this as well and gain the opportunity to teach my native language as a foreign one in another country. I'm quite sold on this idea, and I've wanted to be a teacher since I was 8, but I'm still keeping my options open to the idea of translation as well as any other job ideas and opportunities that might strike me in the next few years. As long as I get to engage with foreign languages day to day, I'm interested.

#langblr #deutsch langblr #langblr español #español langblr #langblr intro #intro #pinned post

[just-another-product-of-today]

i think sign language classes should be more generalized

#sign language #ableism #i mean i don't know about y'all #but where i live there is literally nothing offered #without you specifically looking for it #i know it might sounds dumb but #most people won't bother learning something if they have to look for it #i live in quebec #in my school there was french (native) and english (secondary) and spanish (optional) #i'm young but i've never seen yet a single mention of asl anywhere #even optional #and it makes me sad #i'm not deaf or with anything that would technically help me if i learned it #but besides my special interest in languages #i wish i had begun learning it earlier #because it may not be 'useful' to me #but guess what #i'm not self-centered enough to think it's everyone's case #and verbal communications shouldn't be seen as superior to other ones #fuck ableism #that was all

[langernameohnebedeutung]

„Middle schoolers“ is like starting from year 7 or so right?

In my school Latin was the first ‚foreign language‘ we learnt (in year 5) even before learning English (in year 6) so would that mean we were , in american school system terms, elementary schoolers when we started learning Latin? Because that’s so funny to me somehow

I mean...I don’t really understand the American education system and at this point I’m afraid to ask, but we have to face facts: For a country that was never part of the (actual, original, non-knock-off) Roman Empire, Germany is a bit obsessed with Latin. Like, other than Trier, Cologne and the rest of those west-rhine-ian chumps, people here were hanging out in the forests while the Romans were doing their thing. 

I know, I know, language of science, scholarly tradition, the influence of the catholic church on academia and all that - but sometimes I still feel like we’re kinda still compensating from the millennium we spent cosplaying as Rome or at least the fact that we were not part of one of the Ancient ‘Hochkulturen’. 

Like, I actually wanted to know what the guys up in Northern Europe are doing and I found this in a Swedish paper:

“I Tyskland, som ju är ett land mycket nära oss, har latinämnet en helt annan ställning. Mitt kusinbarn på 11 år har just börjat läsa latin jämte de första meningarna engelska, något som inte är ovanligt på det tyska gymnasiet (som är nioårigt). För dem som väljer att studera vidare vid universitet är det därför inte heller ovanligt att man har ett latinstudium bakom sig – det är på många utbildningar nämligen ett krav. Detta medför att det finns fler personer i Tyskland än i Sverige som besitter baskunskaper i latin.”

“In Germany, which is a country very close to us, the Latin subject has a completely different standing. My 11-year-old cousin has just started reading Latin as well the first sentences in English, something not uncommon in German Gymasium (that is nine years). For those who choose to study further at university, it is therefore not unusual at all to have the learning of Latin behind you - it is in many programmes listed as an (entry-)requirement. This means that there are more people in Germany than in Sweden who own basic knowledge of Latin.” 

(Listen, Sweden, not to get on your case but I’m pretty sure there are more of everything in Germany, you might not want to argue with population size here)

United Kingdom, according to Wikipedia: “In the first half of the 20th century, Latin was taught in approximately 25% of schools.[9] However, from the 1960s, universities gradually began to abandon Latin as an entry requirement for Medicine and Law degrees. After the introduction of the Modern Language General Certificate of Secondary Education in the 1980s, Latin began to be replaced by other languages in many schools. Latin is still taught in a small number, particularly private schools.[10] Three British exam boards offer Latin, OCR, SQA and WJEC. In 2006, it was dropped by the exam board AQA.“

I’m not sure what Eastern Europe is doing, but I know Latin is less popular in East Germany because the GDR broke with the tradition and even Poland, despite being super-catholic, is only now bringing Latin back more front and centre: “ After years of being only available as an extended-level subject, Latin and classical antiquity return to the high school curriculum and pupils are to learn that “repetitio est mater studiorum” as of the upcoming school year of 2020/2021.”(x)

I know the Dutch also got the hard-on for the classics, but like...it’s honestly kinda funny to me because jokes and stereotypes about Latin class are such a cultural staple here and to see so many people go: You guys ... had Latin? In Middle-School? - is so funny to me. Our suffering is not universal. There is even material that shows that Southern Germans have a different accent in Latin than Northern Germans because they’re more church-y down there.

In all fairness, we had these ‘clubs’ in elementary school for French (third grade) and English (fourth grade), but those were optional and we just learnt a few very simple words and phrases and when I did a placement in a kindergarten for two weeks for my Sozialpraktikum they also taught the older kids English songs and phrases in little extra groups.

And then in Gymnasium, we started English in fifth grade, chose between our elective third language in 6th (we had Latin and French, because our French teachers boycotted Spanish) and then you could later on (I think in Mittelstufe?) also add the other one as your third language. And then you have those Gymnasien that specifically insist on the classic languages and also teach Ancient Greek, probably also at the expense of teaching living languages.

@zerogravitykitty also said that people got shamed for picking English as their first language at her school because it’s too easy - entirely regardless of the actual usefulness. And I feel like somewhere in this, the essentials of what is wrong with the German and the American language education system are both broken down to their bare essentials. Like you have one school system which just...barely teaches languages at all, and then you have Germany’s very classist, pretentious, very seperatist school system (which is entirely not good enough to warrant that level of snobbishness) where this is kinda symptomatic for our problems: 

At least at university level, if you don’t know the major Ancient authors and poets and some basics of Latin, you get side-eyed, and form what I hear, not just in the Humanities. But at the same time, Realschüler and Hauptschüler don’t even have access to this kind of education, because it is part of Latin-class. So not only do they have the upwards struggle of actually getting an Abitur or Fachabitur to get into university, they're also made to feel unwelcome for not knowing stuff like this. 

When I was in Ireland, when you were quoting literature or source material in your term-paper, you could do that in English - but here, even in English-class, we have to use the native languages (assuming they’re from a chosen, elitist group of European languages) and you definitely have to quote Latin in the original Latin to - I quote my tutor! - show that you read and understood the Latin. While even if you read and understood the Latin, you could still have come to the conclusion: “This will lose none of the information if I write it in German and it would fit into the text much better.” Like, one of our lecturers accepted that we were allowed to add the German quote into the text, if we out the original Latin in the footnote. Good times.

#nonfandom #languages #BundesTag #this was...this was just a fun kinda ask about cultural difference huh #Anonymous

[theasstour]

Question - I know your Norwegian and I’m nosy so can I ask a couple questions? Have you always lived in Norway minus university? Do they teach English in school alongside your own language? And how hard was it for you to learn English? What made you want to study in the U.K.? And is Norwegian culture very different to the U.K.? Sorry if these are invasive I’m nosy ahah, you don’t have to answer if you don’t want x

AJKJASLG go on then, I’m obsessed with myself I’ll answer anything 🤟😌

Norwegian born and raised lmao 🥴 I lived in Norway till I was 19 and then I moved to the UK for uni! We start getting taught English in schools when we’re 5/6. So, we’ll have Norwegian (which is the equivalent to English for an native English speaker), English, and then a third language (Spanish, French, German) when we start secondary school. My 5-year-old cousin can name all the colours in English already, he starts school next week 🥺

English and Norwegian are fairly similar, it’s one of the easiest languages for an English speaker to learn for multiple reasons, so in that sense it wasn’t that hard. We usually start with glossary tests our first year and then move onto writing sentences and then whole texts. Baby steps aksifreoij. Don’t think we start having actual presentations in – and are considered fluent speakers of – English till we’re 11/12. It’s mandatory for us to be taught English from age 5/6 till we’re 16/17, after that it’s optional. After that we’re expected to be able to talk, write, and communicate properly in English.

I’ve always found the English language to be much more eloquent than Norwegian. Norwegian is very harsh and it doesn’t sound nice, and the English vocabulary is bigger than the Norwegian one. I started reading English books when I was 15, I haven’t read a single Norwegian book since (that’s sad but it’s what happens when you end up studying English Lit aijirej)! I didn’t see the point of studying English in Norway, I’d get much more out of studying it in a country where it was the native language and I could completely immerse myself in the culture, the UK just happened to be closest HAJRGJKJ! As for culture, I didn’t experience culture shock when I moved to the UK cos both Norway and England are Northern European countries so the cultures and the way people act and mannerisms are very similar! I found a place I belonged in the UK and I made so many amazing friends, so it feels like a second home to me now 🥺

#HOPE THAT HELPED AND MADE SENSE RGJERIIOWJ #pls do pop by if it didn't!!!1 #answered #long post

[letslearnnorwegian-blog]

hi! could you tell us a bit about the norwegian education/school system? what is it like? do you (and people in general) think it's a good system? do people think it's gotten better/worse over time? if you have some knowledge about different systems, which country's would you compare it to? sorry, this may seem a weird question, but education is a big part of a country's culture and i think it's interesting to know the way it's perceived by people who experience it in first person thank you! :)

Hello! c: 

**!! Quite honestly, I can’t remember any in-depth conversations I’ve had with my friends about our school system, so please keep in mind that what you’re about to read is only my opinion! I also know very little about other school systems around the world (or school system in general, having never really read many articles about them), so ours might be almost identical to someone else’s without me knowning, but I’m still gonna try to cover all the basics just in case it isn’t. ((and if you’ve experienced something else or I’m completely wrong about something, please feel free to add on to this post!))

----------------------------------------------------

The Norwegian Education System

---------------------------------------------------------

General

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You have a right and an obligation to complete primary and lower secondary education in Norway (in other words, Grade 1-10/Age 6-16), which is free. Grade 1-10 is usually referred to as “Grunnskole”. When you complete both, you’re also entitled to upper secondary education qualifying for further studies or a vocation (tertiary vocational education is a short vocational alternative to higher education). Beyond this, higher education is offered at bachelor, master and PhD level. 

The school year runs from mid August to mid June, and consists of two semesters with a Christmas holiday (from mid December to early January) in the middle. Other holidays include the week of Easter, a week of winter break (usually in February), and a week of fall break (usually in October).  

The different municipalities in Norway are responsible for the running and administration of their public schools, and all public classes are taught in Norwegian. According to nyinnorge.no: “Pupils in primary/lower secondary school and upper secondary school are entitled to special tuition in the Norwegian language, tuition in their mother tongue and/or bilingual tuition in school subjects if they do not have sufficient Norwegian skills to follow ordinary tuition.” -- which I can’t really comment any further on, seeing as I’m a native Norwegian speaker. 

Kindergarten is optional, and for kids between the ages of 1-5. The state covers 35-40% of the cost of kindergartens, while the municipality and parents pay the rest. Around 90% of Norwegian children go to kindergarten.

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Barneskole (Primary School)

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Grade: 1-7

Age: 6-12

In the very first grade of Barneskolen, the children spend their days playing educational games, learning social skills and basic education (like the alphabet, basic math etc.). From grade 2 and onwards, children are taught a wide range of subjects-- the one’s I remember having are: math, P.E., religion, music, arts/crafts/woodwork, English (though I don’t think we started English until 5th grade in my school), social studies (which usually also covered history and geography in the same class), science (though more about nature than anything else), and Norwegian. You don’t receive official grades during primary school, but some teachers can write comments and “unofficial grades” on tests (x points/100 points etc).

Pupils who are unable to benefit satisfactorily from ordinary tuition are entitled to special education, and all pupils are entitled to participate in free, voluntary organised homework assistance.

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Ungdomsskole (Lower Secondary School)

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Grade: 8-10

Age: 13-16

In lower secondary, pupils are graded and need to maintain good grades to attend their upper secondary school of choice. When pupils are in the 8th grade, they have to pick a “valgfag” (elective), which is typically a foreign language or additional English or Norwegian studies. Usually, for foreign languages, most schools offer French, Spanish or German (personally, I could only pick Spanish or the additional English/Norwegian, because I live in a quite small town), though options can vary, especially in bigger cities. 

As for the grades, they’re awarded in mandatory subjects before the Christmas holidays and at the end of the school year. After completing lower secondary school, you receive a certificate listing your assessment grades, and you’re also entitled to three years of upper secondary education.

There’s usually “tentamen” (midterm) before the Christmas holidays and summer holidays, in three subjects: maths, Norwegian (Nynorsk and Bokmål, so two separate Norwegian midterms), and English.

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Videregående (Upper Secondary School)

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Grade: VG1-VG3

Age: 16-19

Upper secondary school may be “optional” schooling, but on the job market there are almost no jobs available for young adults who leave school after lower secondary (the same goes for getting into uni/college) which means that upper secondary is practically unavoidable.It’s free, but you may be required to cover the costs of necessary equipment.

It’s typically divived into two routes, which are again divided into twelve programmes; four general studies and eight vocational programmes.:

- Studiespesialisering (General studies) -- Specialisation in general studies with programme areas for media and communication, natural science and mathematics; arts, crafts and design; and languages, social sciences and economics, Sports and physical education, Music, dance and drama

- Yrkesfag (Vocational studies) -- Building and construction, Design, arts and crafts, Electricity and electronics, Healthcare, childhood and youth development, Agriculture, fishing and forestry, Restaurant and food processing, Service and transport, Technical and industrial production

General studies are quite similar to your typical high school, and consists of a three-year programmes that emphasise theoretical subjects and lead up to the Higher Education Entrance Qualification-- which you usually need to get into uni or college. (I took the vocational route, so I can’t really go into detail about general studies :c )

Vocational studies usually follow a typical structure named the "2+2 model": After two years of school (which includes short internships in the industry), there’s an apprenticeship for two years in an enterprise or a public institution. The apprenticeship is divided into one year of training and one year of effective work, followed by a final exam. If you realize you’d rather work as something else, you can still get the Higher Education Entrance Qualification by supplementing a vocational education (by taking the Upper Secondary Level 3 programme, which is basically one year of hardcore general studies).

When you’re graduating upper secondary school you can choose to be a Russ, which, impractically, take place a few weeks before the final examinations of the final year. x.x

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If you want me to cover other things, like higher education (college/uni), folkehøgskole (folk high school), Russ, etc. just send me a message!

#norwegian school #norwegian culture #((well not really but i dont have another tag for this //c\\ )) #Anonymous

[jj-ktae]

1, 2, 4, 9 and 22 for the linguasks? 💖

Aaaah that’s a lot to answer! I love it *o*

1: What is your native language?

My native language is French! The oh so fancy yet super hard French language!

2: Have you learnt any other languages? If yes, what are they? 

I studied a lot of languages at school, but I studied Japanese by myself and I’m also trying to make progress with Korean.

4: Did you learn any languages at school? If yes, what were they? 

First of all I’ve been studying English since primary school, and Majored in English at university back in my younger days *coughs*

I also learnt a ton of languages! Back in secondary school I took Spanish as a second language until the end of High-school, also took Ancient Greek classes and picked Italian as a third language.

Back when I was a university student we had to take an optional class every semester and I always picked different languages so I did Chinese, German and Portuguese. I forgot most of these tho…

9: If you were granted a wish that allowed you to instantly be able to speak any language, which would it be? 

Japanese. The struggle is too real, gurl. I wish I could read it and write it instantly, too haha

22. What language should more people speak? 

Spanish! It’s a beautiful language, I could listen to it every single day and I’d never get tired

Thx for asking, sweetheart!

[drawpforschool]

Interview with Bilingual Educator Magdalena Ruz Gonzalez

As part of our ongoing interview series, this week we interviewed Magdalena Ruz Gonzalez, a leader in bilingual education.   

Magdalena Ruz Gonzalez has been in the field of 
education for more than 35 years, and recently
 retired from the Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE). 
Her work with bilingual children, English learners (ELs) struggling with literacy, and ELs with special needs has 
helped her identify key practices. As a Newcomer Teacher, she witnessed success using  primary language instruction with ELs of limited formal education from the home country. As an ESL teacher, she understood the power of scaffolding materials when the language did not match the ELs home language. As a bilingual teacher, she saw how languages could flourish if properly attended to. She also saw failures and frustrations across the many classrooms she visited as an administrator and as a teacher herself when she was told “English only.”

During her time at LACOE she developed “A Tool for Scaffolding Instruction for English Learners”. Recently, she wrote “Families Learning Together”, a practical literacy guide for preschool through fifth grade to support families’ efforts in their children’s learning by advancing English through the promotion of the home language.

Her passions includes working with districts on ensuring procedural safeguards of interventions, multi-tiered system of support for ELs that include native language and non-biased assessments. She is currently working on an NSF grant with Drawp CEO and Founder Ana Albir around Newcomers and their instructional support with the use of technology and the transfer of English and Spanish.

Magdalena has a Bilingual Bicultural Studies as well as an Elementary Bachelor of Arts, a Master of Education in Reading and 
Learning Disabilities with emphasis on bilingual children 
and has completed coursework towards a doctorate in education and social policy at Claremont Graduate Schools.

You’ve been working in education for more than 35 years, particularly in bilingual education. How did you become interested in the field and how has the field changed over the years?

This is a good question because it is a combination of different events that led to my decision to choose a university that specialized in bilingual education in 1975. In high school, I took French my first two years instead of Spanish. Orally, I could communicate but I had never learned to read in my home language of Spanish. What I discovered in learning French was that once you learn to read in one language, in my case English, you don’t have to learn to read again in the second language. Once my high school offered Spanish 5 and 6, I skipped 1-4 and took the plunge into classical reading. It was not easy, but because I could read classics in English, I could do so in Spanish. This transference is one of the principles of bilingual education! This triggered an interest in languages and hence in bilingual education. Later, bilingual special education became a passion and still is.

The field of bilingual education has had its advocates and there are parts of this country that have always had bilingual education. NABE is still alive and supports bilingual education. Other states or districts have bent to the politics of the time and even eliminated any support in the primary language. Many universities that offered a bilingual credential eliminated this option because of low numbers with the only way to obtain the authorization was through testing. But in the last ten years there has been a wave of support for dual immersion programs which comes from mainstream educators and parents wanting bilingualism for their monolingual English speaking children. This, of course, helps the English learner as they are included as role models of language.

Now, with the current politics, I cannot predict what roadblocks educators and parents will encounter in establishing these programs.

What data do we have about English Language Learners today?  

The 2014-15 national data collected by the federal government (https://eddataexpress.ed.gov/index.cfm) indicates that English Learners (ELs) represent 25% of school age children with a range from states: Louisiana reporting 5% to Connecticut and Pennsylvania with 34%. California held steady at 33%. On ELs attaining English proficiency (Title III receiving local education agency)  national data is difficult to interpret since there is no national criteria on the types of assessments nor criteria thresholds. However, what is reported is New York state with 85% of their ELs obtaining proficiency to the lowest with Maine at 7.8%.

We have less immigrants coming to the US in certain states, and an influx in certain parts where they have never had this experience. For instance, there are far less emerging level ELs entering kinder in some districts in Los Angeles than in the past. These current ELs were born in the U.S. and are coming in at the expanding/intermediate level with some gaps in their vocabulary. The immigrant students with interrupted or limited formal schooling (SIFE) has also been a concern, entering in 2014, since they do not “fit” into the regular school program offered. These students coming from Central America and the Middle East pose a challenge for districts with few resources, especially when they settle in rural areas. Then of course, we have the created “curriculum casualties” our Long-term English Learners- students who have not been able to be successful and are entering the middle/high school. These students have been with the district since elementary. There are many causes as to why this is occurring. In some areas, more than 50% of the 9th graders are these Long Term ELs. Dr. Laurie Olsen has done extensive work in this area.

You recently wrote a book called “Families Learning Together” for families of children who are learning English. Can you tell me more about the book and why you wrote it?

The book supports parents efforts in assisting their child at home with homework. Explanations are given in a simple, straightforward manner with sample templates. For example, steps of how to read with children, how to guide them in editing a writing assignment, and also how to extend assignments in fun creative ways are the many ways parents can support learning. I tell the parents that they are creating mental tools for their children to use at school. The book is written for the parents in Spanish and in Chinese with the idea that they are going to conduct all the activities in the language they know best. I explain that these activities transfer to school, as research points out. The English version is primarily for school site professionals who will conduct sessions with parents on the book or other language groups, including of course English speaking parents.

I wrote this because as teacher, as an administrator and as a principal, I saw the need for parents and families to have these tools. When I would provide these types of mini-workshops, they would learn and tell me how easy it was to apply the lessons with their children.

While working at the Los Angeles County Office of Education you developed “A Tool for Scaffolding Instruction for English Learners.” How does that tool work and why did you create it?

The tool is a set of sentence frames organized by three levels of language proficiency, cognitive levels (instruction) and depths of knowledge (assessment). It was first developed for teachers to use with English Learners so the English version is organized by California’s three levels. The subsequent versions in Spanish, Chinese, and Korean were designed for dual immersion classrooms and also match up to the first three levels of ACTFL.

I wanted to create this because I saw a need for more oral language interaction at the secondary levels. This tool provides teachers a place to start not only orally but also with writing. It can supplement any content. But as teachers, they also need to observe students to determine when to discontinue these scaffolds.

You are currently working with Ana Albir, Drawp CEO & Founder, on a National Science Foundation funded research project to develop a digital transfer tool for newcomer students. What are the goals of this research?

The goals are to determine the efficacy of this cutting-edge digital technology Drawp with scaffold tools for language acquisition.  In particular, the grant will examine the hypothesis that Spanish-speaking students learn more effectively when given native-language educational tools. Research on language transfers promotes this practice. Since these newcomers may have gaps in their primary language, using first Spanish will solidify the concept, for instance a comparison of two ideas, before they use the same sentence frame in English.

- Julie Brannon

Read more about the Drawp for School NSF SBIR Language Transfer Tool research project here.

Drawp for School is a workflow management platform with built-in design tools, swipe-to-share collaboration and unlimited cloud storage. Teachers use Drawp to create, distribute, collect and give feedback on assignments. Students use Drawp’s creativity tools to add drawings, voice recordings, text and photos to assignments. The Drawp for School platform includes a newly launched Drawp Resource Marketplace website that provides teachers with an easy-to-access repository of educational resources to share and download.

For a free 30-day trial of Drawp, visit the www.DrawpforSchool.com website and download Drawp for iPad, Android, or Chromebook, or sign up via the web app for Windows and Mac users.

#bilingual #education #ELL #LACOE #Drawp #Drawp for School #English #Spanish