Bilingually Enriched Learners, Page 18

Atlanta Schools Ban Students, Siblings, Friends from Translating and Interpreting for Parents | Bilingually Enriched Learners | Scoop.it

From slator.com - September 4, 2019 3:12 AM

Why language preservation matters? Both Hindi and Tamil are important | Bilingually Enriched Learners | Scoop.it

From timesofindia.indiatimes.com - September 22, 2019 1:04 AM

Nik Peachey's curator insight, July 23, 2019 4:22 AM

This is a great tool with a good free account that can help students learn a variety of languages. Lots of different interaction types.

romeokoensings@gmail.com's curator insight, October 5, 2019 11:31 PM

Lirica is so so cool. To learn another language through music is absolutely exciting. I myself am excited about the possibility to learn another language with Lirica.

Charles Tiayon's curator insight, September 5, 2019 2:57 AM

Atlanta Schools Ban Students, Siblings, Friends from Translating and Interpreting for Parents

24 Hours Ago

Demand Drivers ·

By Marion Marking

On September 4, 2019

While other parts of the US public sector have shown signs of dialing down on providing free language access, at least one State Board of Education has unanimously approved a policy to provide “high-quality communication support services” free of charge to families of students who speak a language at home other than English.

The Atlanta Board of Education in a newly approved Board Policy on Language Access basically directed all Atlanta Public Schools to provide high-quality language services to target families “so that those communications are equal to the communications provided in English.”

The policy document dated August 5, 2019, further stated that such language services must be made “available free of charge to all district parents, staff and students.”

According to an August 27, 2019 article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC), roughly 3,640 students or “about 7% of the district’s 52,000 students live in a home where the language spoken is not English.” The most common language spoken in those homes is Spanish, followed by Chinese, French, Arabic, and Portuguese, the same report said.

Prior to the approval of the new policy, Atlanta Public Schools had already increased their 2019 language services budget by USD 191,203 “to hire additional full-time staff members and pay for more assistance for families who don’t speak English,” the AJC reported back in July.

Minimum Translation Requirements

The new policy requires Atlanta Public Schools to, “at a minimum,” provide written translation of “critical district documents (paper and online), in the top 5 languages of the district,” just as they do for English-speaking parents.

Additionally, translation of school-based documents (excluding classroom-level newsletters, syllabi, etc.) must be provided “from and to English, in Spanish and in any other language deemed appropriate by the school.”

Where providing written translations is not practical, “documents will be orally translated” for parents with limited English proficiency (LEP), and parents can respond in either English or their own language.

Credentialed Interpreters

The Atlanta Board of Education also directed the state’s public schools to use only interpreters who are “approved by and meet all credential and training requirements established by the Office of ESOL & World Languages.” (The office is an arm of the Atlanta Public Schools system that provides “opportunities for cultural and linguistic enrichment” and “envisions a future of biliteracy in which all students will develop and maintain proficiency in at least two languages.”)

The new policy goes as far as requiring that any interpreter used by the school should be “a neutral party” and “not omit or editorialize on the content of the conversation they are translating.”

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Where necessary, schools are required to provide interpretation services for meetings of the Atlanta Board of Education, parent conferences, student disciplinary hearings, among other activities.

Finally, according to the new policy, “Schools may not rely on or ask students, siblings, friends or untrained school staff to translate or interpret for parents.”The Office of ESOL & World Languages responded to over 3,600 online requests for translation and interpretation from June 2018 to May 2019, according to the AJC.

Slator consultant and corporate communications professional who enjoys exploring Asian cities

r Bond

‘Similar to Lyft or Uber’: California Judge Rules Interpreters Are Not Employees in IU Case

by Marion Marking

Ana Cristina Pratas's curator insight, October 8, 2019 3:08 AM

“A lot” is a piece of land, or so said many of my high school English teachers whenever anyone used “a lot” to describe an amount.

Unfortunately, in much of the work we’re asked to edit, “a lot” is used...a lot.

Here are a few examples of how the term is commonly used:

"There will be a lot of drinking after work tonight."
"Our style guide does not appear to be used by a lot of people."
"I try not to ask for a lot of help from the IT Department."
"There’s not a lot we can do about the CEO’s use of run-on sentences."
"I know he says it a lot, but your brother cannot trade you for an iPad."

Its use in formal writing is lazy and colloquial. And as a quantifier, it’s meaningless. How much is “a lot,” exactly?

What follows is a list of alternatives to “a lot.” Consider using these more descriptive words and phrases in your next project.

a good deal
a great deal
a large number
ample
a whole heap
an abundance
bunches
copious, copious amount
endless amount
enormous amount
enormously
excessive amount
heaps
infinite
legion
loads
many
masses
much
millions
myriad
numerous
plenty
plethora
reams
scads
several
slew
surplus
thousands
tons
trillions

Let's give those example sentences another try:

"There will be an excessive amount of drinking after work tonight."
"Our style guide does not appear to be used by a many people."
"I try not to ask for any help from the IT Department."
"There’s not much we can do about the CEO’s use of run-on sentences."
"I know he says it constantly, but your brother cannot trade you for an iPad."

Charles Tiayon's curator insight, September 23, 2019 1:05 AM

There are 780 different languages spoken in India. This conclusion was drawn after three years of thorough research done by People’s Linguistic Survey of India (PLSI). For the past two decades, Dr G.N.Devy has been working intensively to preserve the languages which risk becoming extinct, and it was under his leadership that PLSI conducted this extensive research.

One of the world’s 7,000 remaining languages vanishes every other week and most linguists estimate that 50% of the world’s remaining languages will be gone by the end of this century. Other linguists estimate that commercialization and globalization will bring 90% of the present spoken languages to the verge of extinction. So we should not just be worried about biodiversity, but equally show our concern for preserving linguistic diversity as well.

Language plays a pivotal and indispensable role in preserving culture. Hence every single Scandinavian country has invested heavily in preserving its language. A distinctive linguistic identity has brought economic success, making them richer than the rest of the world. They are lucky that they have not been colonized, and hence they do not suffer from an inferiority complex. While they marvel at English as a second language and top the world list in English fluency, they are simultaneously putting an extra effort into scientifically developing and protecting their indigenous languages. This means formulating explicit grammar rules and developing a clear linguistic standards through language institutions which are given the authority to monitor the foreign words included in the national languages every year. Native speaking writers, authors, poets, etc., are given monetary compensation for writing books and producing quality literature through the ministries of culture.

Without the Danish, Swedish, Icelandic and Norwegian languages, it is impossible to imagine a feeling of belongingness that inspires people to pay almost half of their salary in taxes. It is language that creates the feeling of adherence, mutual respect, and especially trust in each other as fellow citizens. This mutual trust has created societies in Scandinavia which invest in each other, and a unique sense of trust called “tillid” (confidence) has been installed in the minds of all Scandinavians to the envy of the rest of the world. The crime rates are far lower than in the rest of the world and the minds are free to become creative. In Copenhagen, mothers leave their babies in prams in their gardens or outside cafe’s without constant observation, because people do not steal.

Learning English as an international language is considered to be a virtue in Scandinavia, but strictly as a second language. It is, however, equally rewarding to learn German, French, or Spanish. After the Brexit farce, U.K is no longer considered a model country for the world. Europeans in general want to preserve their linguistic diversity.

In India, the debate periodically tends to focus on a mutually exclusive exercise. The choice ought not to be between Tamil or Hindi but on how to preserve both these languages, which are among the oldest spoken languages in the world. Some of the words in the old Nordic languages are directly related to Sanskrit, as they belong to the Indo-European family of languages.

The Scandinavian Vikings worshipped all kinds of gods and idols, quite similar to the civilizational belief system of contemporary India of those times. Preserving the linguistic diversity in India would help build bridges to languages which consider themselves as Indo-European languages. Australia used to be one of the most linguistically diverse areas in the world, with over 250 different languages, but colonization resulted in making most of them extinct. India, despite colonization, succeeded in preserving many of its languages.

Fortunately, India is in the unique situation that it now has two languages, Hindi and Bengali, among the top ten most spoken languages in the world. Hindi can create a bridge between the peoples of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Iran and Afghanistan. There is no competition to the sovereign position of Hindi as being the most spoken Indian language in USA and as the most spoken Indian language outside of India. So Hindi can definitely play a role in the creation of a distinct identity which will motivate the Indian diaspora to keep their cultural roots alive and their interaction with India intact. Those Indians who have not passed on their linguistic heredity have seen their children lose interest in India and Indian culture.

Preservation of the languages of Southern India, like Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, and Kannada can help preserve the tremendous cultural knowledge of food and literature that will be much appreciated when translated. It is a misnomer to consider someone modern just because he or she speaks only English.

We are capable of speaking many languages. My knowledge of Scandinavian languages has given me enormous insight into the the functioning of the Scandinavian societies. Translating Danish into English disrupts so many nuances. This principle applies to many other languages.

For social, cultural, spiritual, and aesthetic reasons, we should preserve languages, and hence the choice is not between Hindi or Tamil. The choice is to choose both at the same time, without losing interest in English.

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

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Atlanta Schools Ban Students, Siblings, Friends from Translating and Interpreting for Parents

Atlanta Schools Ban Students, Siblings, Friends from Translating and Interpreting for Parents

Minimum Translation Requirements

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