Metaglossia: The Translation World

Oaxaca de Juárez, 25 de agosto. Con el objetivo de mejorar la traducción de textos en lenguas originarias para su aplicación en la elaboración de materiales y exámenes del modelo educativo bilingüe el Instituto Estatal de Educación para Adultos (IEEA) realizó el Taller para Traductores de Lenguas Indígenas.
Con la participación de más de 25 traductores de las diferentes lenguas indígenas del estado, a quienes les entregó un reconocimiento por su labor, el director general del IEEA, Rogelio Rodríguez Ruiz, mencionó que el propósito es que a partir de "los resultados que tengamos en Oaxaca, el Taller se lleve a nivel nacional para que se apoye al desarrollo de materiales en otros estados."

Bourse d'étude pour enseigner l'occitan: c'est le moment!

CAMEROUN : En Février 2012, Mr. Etienne Lonfo recevait du PACC un Mini Laptop pour l'enseignement de la langue Ngiemboon.

To learn a language like French, Spanish or German, most students simply register for a course. But for languages not offered by the University, students must put in extra effort to create a class from scratch.

Progressivement, cette composante de la richesse culturelle de notre pays disparait. Et les efforts des pouvoirs publics et des promoteurs privés peinent à inverser la tendance.

As a language teacher, I have been following the furore about African languages being axed from schools with great interest. I have been reading and trying not to be cynical about every new article announcing that yet another school will no longer offer isiZulu or isiXhosa in the foundation phase. There have been interesting comments made on this topic which I find hackneyed, and it is an issue we really need to stop evading in this country. Why are we surprised that African languages are being marginalised in South Africa, especially in our classrooms?

Seeing as there are distinct systems of education in this country — one for the rich and one for the poor — there are different arguments for teaching African languages (other than Afrikaans, for example, isiXhosa or isiZulu) depending on the system of education learners are in.

Julie Sedivy is the lead author of Sold on Language: How Advertisers Talk to You And What This Says About You. She contributes regularly to Psychology Today and Language Log. She is an adjunct professor at the University of Calgary, and can be found at juliesedivy.com and on Twitter/soldonlanguage.
Due to a migratory childhood (born in Czechoslovakia, and eventually landing in Montreal via Austria and Italy), English was the fifth language I had to grapple with in my tender years. On my first day of kindergarten, I spoke only a few words of English. I could see that my teacher had some concerns as to how well I would integrate linguistically; my stumbling English was met with pursed lips.

Lawrence Summers says the emergence of English as the lingua franca makes learning other languages less vital. Does he have a point?

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In a recent essay in The Times, Lawrence Summers, the former president of Harvard University, wrote about preparing American students for the future. In the essay, he said that international experience was essential, arguing that English’s emergence as the global language makes the investment in other languages less essential.

Does he have a point? Even though Americans aren’t as monolingual as you might think, is learning a language other than English a worthwhile investment?

Le projet « Elan-Afrique » qui été lancé hier dans notre capitale est fondé sur le bilinguisme et va faire la promotion de nos langues nationales à côté du français

« Ka denmisen ka donniyaw sinsi a fakan na walassa a ka se ka kan were faamu ». Traduction de la langue nationale bamanan en français : développer la connaissance de la langue nationale chez les enfants en vue de leur faciliter l’apprentissage d’autres langues. Cette préoccupation est largement partagée par les autorités en charge de l’éducation en Afrique et l’Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) qui viennent de procéder au lancement d’un projet dénommé « Elan-Afrique ».

By Melissa Flores Finding a interpreter who speaks Triqui, Mixteco and Zapotec - the indigenous languages of the Oaxacan region of Mexico - can be a challenge.

Namibia's commitment to English as the main language of education has been undermined by revelations that 98% of the southern African country's teachers are not sufficiently proficient in the language.

Leaked results of government tests carried out last year indicated that all but 2% of teachers need to undergo further training in basic English.

Up to 30 languages are spoken in Namibia, 14 of which have a full orthography, but in 1990, when the country gained independence from South Africa, Afrikaans, which had functioned as a lingua franca, was jettisoned in favour of English. Though spoken by a small minority, the adoption of English as the language of school instruction was seen by the new government as a break with the colonial past and a means of unifying the country.

But experts say that the government has failed to provide adequate training to teaching staff for whom English is a second and even third language.

De l’avis de cette universitaire, «le monolinguisme ne mène qu’à l’isolement». La problématique de la non-maîtrise des langues étrangères par la nouvelle génération en Algérie a été abordée de différentes façons par les intervenants. «Pourquoi les étudiants ne lisent-ils pas ?», s’interroge Fatma-Zohra Nedjai, enseignante à l’université de Tizi Ouzou. «Parce qu’ils ne comprennent pas», conclut-elle. Mme Nedjai s’est attardée sur les raisons de ce rejet de la lecture et la non-compréhension du sens des textes lus. C’est ainsi qu’elle s’est intéressée aux contes et à leur apport pour le développement des facultés mentales chez l’enfant. «Les contes aident l’enfant à mieux appréhender le monde qui l’entoure», affirme l’universitaire qui s’appuie sur l’analyse de M’Kidech, un conte populaire algérien. L’intervenante explique le rejet de la lecture par cette faille (absence des contes) dans l’environnement scolaire. Elle insiste sur le rôle que joue le conte dans le renforcement linguistique.