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language learning

Twig Education Announces Launch of Twig Create Multimedia Makerspace

The company is offering a limited number of invitations to educators to engage students in knowledge building and understanding through creative agency and inclusion.

“The pandemic has shed light on the need for student agency and inclusion, along with an emphasis on content-rich knowledge to support language learning effectively in literacy, history, social science, and science applications,” said Catherine Cahn, the CEO of Twig Education. “Twig Create inspires students’ enjoyment of the filmmaking process to help them develop a desire to deepen learning, resulting in dramatically reduced learning loss.”

Through inclusive topic- and standards-aligned tasks, Twig Create’s digital features empower students to build knowledge and develop language proficiencies through film and voiceover editing using music, visual and video sources, and text. The Twig Create makerspace encourages students’ creative agency in a number of ways:…Read More

Rosetta Stone Announces Winners of the Emergent Bilingual Educators of the Year Award Program

Rosetta Stone Inc. announced the 10 winners in its first Emergent Bilingual Educators of the Year award program. A total of $20,000 in grant donations and $75,000 in subscriptions to the Rosetta Stone® English for Education language learning program were awarded to teachers of English learners (EL).

Victor Machado, an ESL teacher at East Side High School in Newark, New Jersey, won the $10,000 grand prize, along with a schoolwide semester’s subscription to Rosetta Stone English. The two runners-up are Timothy McGrath and Virginia Valdez. McGrath is a K-5 ELL teacher at West View Elementary School, a small inner-city school in Knoxville, Tennessee, and Valdez is a kindergarten teacher at Minnie Mars Jamieson Elementary at Chicago Public Schools. Each won $5,000 grants as well as the schoolwide semester’s subscription to Rosetta Stone English.

Machado was nominated by the Bilingual Department Chairperson Brian Donovan who submitted an essay describing how Machado helps his students. Donovan wrote of Machado: “He is able to synthesize all the tools required to educate a student and turn his class into a fun engaging ESL lab, where technology is used to leverage student achievement and where students take ownership of their education.”…Read More

Language supports for offline schools worldwide

Lingoda, Europe’s leading online language school, is supporting offline language learning institutions across the world facing the sudden transition to remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of the #StayHomeKeepLearning initiative, Lingoda is offering free access to all its language learning materials, full assistance in setting up online classes, and masterclasses and guides on running a successful online class experience.

Over 2000 fully digital lessons in English, German, French, and Spanish are now accessible for free. Ranging from A1 to C1 CEFR levels, the curriculum covers a range of skills – grammar, speaking, reading, exercises – and topics of interest.

For institutions unfamiliar with online tools, Lingoda offers full support in setting up classes in an online environment. They can also request to participate in dedicated live masterclasses about how to teach successfully online run by Lingoda experts in remote teaching. The masterclasses will be in English and German, will take place online on selected dates, and will include a Q&A session where participants can directly ask their questions. Masterclass attendees will also receive via email a guide containing best practices and specialized know-how about online language teaching.…Read More

Online language learning tools available free

The rapid transition to virtual classrooms due to COVID-19 is presenting many unexpected difficulties for educators, students, and parents. For instance, we know that the interactive nature of foreign language instruction makes it particularly complicated subject to recreate from home.

To help, Lingvist is offering its platform of online language learning tools free of charge until July 31, 2020. That means educators of all types, including tutors, teachers, private language instructors, or parents homeschooling their children, can take advantage of the following resources for free until July 31:

  • Their vocabulary learning tool, powered by a spaced-repetition algorithm.
  • Lingvist Classroom – aggregated statistical tracking that allows educators to monitor the progress of all of their students in one place.
  • Course Wizard – a course creation tool that allows you to custom-build activities based on vocabulary in your syllabus or from an excerpt of text. The process takes only seconds and assigning it to your classroom is easy. Available only in certain language pairs.
  • Blended Learning Guide, with suggestions on how to make the most of Lingvist in your virtual classroom.

Educators are some of the most resourceful and creative professionals, so Lingvist hopes that this will enable them to continue on from any location during this unprecedented challenge.…Read More

An Overview of our Supplemental ELL Curriculum

Our digital English language curriculum is designed to help schools and districts to improve learning outcomes for non-native English speakers in grades 4-10. Watch this overview video to learn more about our ELL curriculum and how we are helping student expand their English language skills.

Things might be looking up for online language learning

A recent report notes that a decline in U.S. foreign language learning could have negative impacts on the U.S. workforce, but new forecasts indicate the demand for online language learning tools could increase thanks to the prevalence of mobile devices.

Technavio analysts forecast the online language learning market in the U.S. to grow by almost 9 percent during the 2017-2021 forecast period, according to the firm’s latest report.

The research study covers the present scenario and growth prospects of the online language learning market in the U.S. for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, Technavio analysts consider the revenue generated from the sales of foreign language learning products and services provided by online language learning providers.…Read More

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Report warns a decline in language learning could spell bad news for U.S.

A diminishing share of United States residents speak languages other than English–a trend that could have important consequences for business, international affairs, and intellectual exchange, according to a new report from American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

The Academy’s new report, The State of Languages in the U.S.: A Statistical Portrait, summarizes the nation’s current language capacity, focusing on the U.S. education system. A joint venture of the Academy’s Commission on Language Learning and Humanities Indicators, the report draws on the most recent national, state, and local data sources available to draw a more complete picture of language use in the nation.

“This very important work is ongoing and we look forward to the Commission’s final report and recommendations that will be available in February [2017],” said Jonathan F. Fanton, president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.…Read More

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School system makes world languages available to military and ELL families through digital access program

Tennessee’s Clarksville-Montgomery County School System (CMCSS) is on a mission to bring language learning resources to its diverse community and student body of more than 33,500. As CMCSS also serves military families stationed at nearby Fort Campbell, many students have brought world language experience gained while overseas to the classroom, contributing to the more than 40 languages now being spoken in the district and the need for a comprehensive single solution to meet CMCSS’ diverse language learning needs.

To improve and broaden language learning resources for its students and community, CMCSS today announced it has partnered with Rosetta Stone Inc. (NYSE: RST) to extend its world language program to military families and adult learners, in addition to supplementing traditional language learning instruction to its middle and high school students and English-language learners.

“Because so many different languages are spoken in our school district, it is critical that the language needs of our highly diverse community are effectively addressed through a proven standardized program,” said Dr. Kimi Sucharski, District Accountability and Data Analyst, Clarksville-Montgomery County School System. “We are proud to be able to offer these languages and resources to our students, especially for our international and English-language learners, from such a trusted and reputable partner. Our students are so comfortable working in an online environment – this just made sense.”…Read More

7 digital resources for students learning English or any other language

In classrooms all across the country, old-fashioned textbooks and stodgy lesson plans are sucking the life out of language learning. These classes leave so many learners apathetic or frustrated as they recite scripted dialog or memorize an endless litany of verb conjugations. Who said that language learning had to be so boring?

These days, thanks to digital technology, we have the resources to resuscitate language learning and make it the adventure it should be.

There are many advantages to digital language learning over classroom instruction, including access to content at any time, in any location, and current technologies make content interactive, as opposed to stuffy foreign language textbooks.…Read More

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