Bilingual education in Georgia: World Language Academy in Georgia.

Article by Dan Carsen for PRI, about World Language Academy in Georgia.

Here you can read an excerpt:

«She’s learned a lot about cultures and about bilingual education since then. Her students’ (and the whole school's) test scores are very good, even though the tests are in a language in which her kids are taught just half the time:

“My students are on third-grade reading levels here, but they’ve only really gotten half of their day in [English], and they’re still meeting – actually more or less exceeding – where they’re supposed to be,” she says.»

Acerca del día de Acción de Gracias (Thanksgiving)

Artículo en el periódico español ABC (escrito por César Cervera) acerca de la significación del Día de Acción de Gracias, datos históricos sobre los acontecimientos de los primeros colonos españoles e ingleses y otros detalles sobre la presencia europea en las tierras actuales de EE.UU.

Conoce España 1

Historia de España, el Castillo de Loarre.

Artículo (Misterios en el castillo de Loarre) de Mónica Arrizabalaga  en el periódico ABC  acerca de la publicación del libro «El Castillo» de Luis Zueco.


Fotografía de Fabián Simón, en ABC.

Aquí os dejo unos fragmentos del artículo:

«Loarre es el prototipo de los castillos de España», explica este novelista e historiador, vicepresidente de la Asociación de Amigos de los Castillos de Aragón. «Aquí no tenemos los castillos del Loira o el Rhin, más palaciegos. Los nuestros son castillos militares, que es para lo que realmente servía un castillo, y si se piensa en un castillo militar, Loarre cumple con todos los requisitos de lo que es un castillo español», añade el escritor que explica cuáles son estas características. La primera, «una ubicación que al verlo dices: ¡madre de Dios, cómo lo pudieron construir allí!», la cumple Loarre con creces. A mil metros, en la montaña pirenaica, es un nido de águilas, un lugar estratégico que podría defenderse hasta sin castillo como de hecho ocurre en la novela.

Los muros, pasadizos y salas de este castillo, donde se rodó parte de la película de «El reino de los cielos» de Ridley Scott, se mantienen hoy tal y como estaban en el siglo XI,sin luz eléctrica ni paneles informativos. Un lugar donde resulta fácil imaginar a Eneca, Fortún y la multitud de personajes de esta novela histórica de Zueco, que abarca el periodo en que se levantó la fortaleza, entre el año 1027 y el 1082.


Cerca del Castillo de Loarre, Murillo de Gállego:

 

Desde el Castillo de Loarre, a 1 hora y 10 minutos en coche encontramos Alquézar:

  

Dual-Language Programs Are on the Rise, Even for Native English Speakers

Dual Language Programs becoming more popular in the U.S. Read this article by Elizabeth A. Harris published in The New York Times online edition.

Here you have some extracts from the article: 

“I want two things,” said Gov. Jack Markell of Delaware, a Democrat. “I want students from Delaware to be able to go anywhere and do any kind of work they want to do, and I also want to attract businesses from around the world, to say, ‘You want to be in Delaware because, amongst other things, we’ve got a bilingual work force.’ ”

"For native English speakers, there is relatively little research on how dual-language programs affect their performance on standard metrics like state tests.

But Jennifer Steele, an associate professor at American University’s School of Education who is finishing research on Portland’s dual-language programs, said her work had found performance increases for both native English speakers and English-language learners in some grades and certain subjects once they reached late elementary school."

«[...] “If you set the tone from the beginning, then they kind of know, ‘Hey, I’m going to get it in just a second, let me see what she’s doing,’ ” Ms. Menendez said. “They are sponges. They start attuning.”

To help them along, language at Dos Puentes is color-coded, especially in the lower grades. In one classroom, a label near a jar of pencils read “sharpener” in royal blue and “sacapunta” in fire engine red. On a poster, the words “read quietly” had a blue border and “leo en voz baja” a red one. As a kindergarten teacher sang in Spanish with her students, she made sure to use a red marker as she wrote on a dry erase board.»

«Sean Reardon, a professor at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education who has researched dual-language programs, said there might also be a difference depending on what two languages are being taught. While Spanish and English are phonologically similar, sharing an alphabet and many sounds, character-based languages like Chinese are quite different, he said, and that might make it more difficult for students to follow along.»

Hispanic Heritage Month: The Foundation of America's Civil Rights Movement

Read the article Hispanic Heritage Month: The Foundation of America's Civil Rights Movement, by Stephen Balkaran, Professor of Political Science.

An extract from the article:

«As anti-Hispanic rhetoric continues; it has taken away the best of who we are and what we can become as a nation and Americans. The immigration debate has now generated so many divisions in our society that it has become the "civil rights debate of 21st Century." Never in American history has an issue divided a nation of immigrants but more so left us scrambling for our true national identity. Civil Rights remain the pinnacle of debates, the protection of rights for all Americans, regardless of color, race, gender, age, sexual orientation and defending these rights against discrimination have long been important issue for all Americans. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, arguably one of the most important pieces of legislation in our country's history which ensured that legal barriers be torn down; which theoretically, should have eliminated barriers of discrimination against all Americans in our society. Despite this important legislation very few understand the historical foundations of the modern-day civil rights movement and the Hispanic influence. »

Lee el artículo en español de "La Razón" (a su vez procede de Europa Press) titulado «Los bilingües tienen más materia gris en el cerebro», acerca de los hallazgos realizados en el estudio Neuroanatomical Evidence in Support of the Bilingual Advantage Theory (in English).

Original Article:

• O. A. Olulade, 
• N. I. Jamal, 
• D. S. Koo, 
• C. A. Perfetti, 
• C. LaSasso, 
• and G. F. Eden:

Neuroanatomical Evidence in Support of the Bilingual Advantage TheoryCereb. Cortex first published online July 16, 2015 doi:10.1093/cercor/bhv152

• Abstract
 
• Full Text (HTML)
 
• Full Text (PDF)

Te recomendamos además el vídeo  «The benefits of a bilingual brain», por Mia Nacamulli, en el canal de Youtube TED-Ed.

 

Read the article Hispanic Heritage Month: How Hispanics Are Defining and Redefining America by Stephen Balkaran, Professor of Political Science at Quinnipiac University. Article published on Huffington Post.

Read these extracts from the article (the underline has been added by me, it is not part of the original article):

« During the American Revolutionary War, Bernardo de Galvez, governor of the Louisiana Territory, sent gunpowder, rifles, bullets, blankets, medicine and other supplies to the armies of General George Washington in support of America's cause. Once the war began, Galvez, along with support and reinforcements from Spain's Cuba, Mexico and Puerto Rico.

What would our country's political history be without Hispanics? What would Manifest Destiny and America's expansion be without the role of Hispanics and the carving of America's great Western frontier? The Hispanic presence in the election of President James Polk in 1844 and his future policy of annexation of Texas, the stolen land, the creation of the artificial border, the Alamo, the great Southwest, and the Compromise of 1850 all help define our American history. What would America be like without the importance of The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican War, where the United States gained not only Texas, New Mexico and Upper California, making way for the vast expansion of American land, but also a cultural history like no other? Our Civil War would not be the same without the presence of Hispanics, often removed from our history books. Some 20,000 Hispanics fought in the Civil War, some serving in the 1st Florida Cavalry, others serving in the Union forces in Connecticut, New York and Massachusetts. From the first battle in Fort Sumter to the last battle in Palmito Ranch, Texas, their allegiance served in America's defining war over the issue of slavery. Hispanics have always met the challenge of serving America with commitment and admiration in the midst of the great American Split. »

Check out "9 misconceptions about Latinos in the United States", by Omar Villegas on BuzzFeed.

Te recomiendo este vídeo de: famosos hablando español, hispanohablantes hablando inglés, plurilingües, y más...

Here are some excerpts from the article US now has more Spanish speakers than Spain – only Mexico has more by Stephen Burger on The Guardian (http://www.theguardian.com) 

«The report says there are 41 million native Spanish speakers in the US plus a further 11.6 million who are bilingual, mainly the children of Spanish-speaking immigrants. This puts the US ahead of Colombia (48 million) and Spain (46 million) and second only to Mexico (121 million).»

«The Index of Human Development ranks Spanish as the second most important language on earth, behind English but ahead of Mandarin. It is also the third most widely used language on the internet, although less than 8% of internet traffic is in Spanish. The report says that Spanish is the second most used language on Twitter in London and New York. It also comes second on Facebook, a long way behind English though well ahead of Portuguese, Facebook’s third language»

Excelente entrevista a Phillip M. Carter, Assistant Professor en Florida International University, donde habla de la actual situación del bilingüismo en Florida. Durante la entrevista toca temas tan importantes --entre otros-- como los programas bilingües (Dual Language Programs) y la pérdida intergeneracional del español en los EE.UU.

Escribiré más sobre este tema en los próximos días.

Notes and experiences on Dual Language Programs.

Read this article by Joe Levitan on "Education Week", with the experiences, policies and research on Dual Language Programs and bilingual students.

Other excerpts from the main article:

«Supporting ELL students' first languages has other benefits. In a speech in February, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said that foreign-language learning and the development of other skills not directly related to reading and math are "essentials, not luxuries" for public education. The contradiction here is stark: We have new Americans who already speak a "foreign language" that would provide the nation with greater international competitiveness in business and a useful edge in geopolitics, yet these students are hampered in developing those skills by state and national education policies. Without actively and continuously cultivating bilingual skills in bilingual students, we are limiting our nation's language resources.»

«Multiple language abilities are a resource for all students. Instead of viewing students who do not speak English as a first language as deficient, we should help students develop both first-language skills and English skills.»

More cognitive benefits of Bilingualism.

Research shows how some cognitive skills developed by bilingual students make them better communicators. 

This is an excerpt from the original article by Anthony Rivas on "Medical Daily": 

«For the study, researchers from the University of Chicago recruited 72 children aged 4 to 6 who fell into one of three language categories: monolinguals (exposure to little, if any, other language besides English), exposures (those who spoke mainly English but were exposed to other languages), and bilinguals. Each child participated in a communication task with an adult that involved moving objects around in a standing grid placed between them on a table. On the adult’s side, some of the squares were blocked so the objects could only be seen from the child’s side — the kids understood this because they first played the game from the adult’s side».

Benefits of joining a Dual Language Program. (From KBTX News)

Palabras españolas en el léxico inglés de EE.UU....

...y en la lengua inglesa en general.

Babbel nos ofrece una lista de palabras españolas --que incluye, pero no se limita, ciudades, ríos, estados, etc.-- que forman parte del caudal léxico estadounidense. Algunos de estos préstamos léxicos habían sido previamente añadidos al español provenientes del árabe o, posteriormente, a raíz de la colonización de América.

Veamos aquí algunos ejemplos extraídos de Babbel:

Goals and challenges for U.S. Education

Richard A. Carranza, superintendent of the San Francisco Unified School District, speaks to "Education Week leaders to learn from" about the challenges for U.S. students, focusing in foreign-language learning as an asset.

Read the article by Madeline Will here.

Excerpt from the article:

«Another goal is to graduate students who are globally aware, culturally competent, and multilingual. The district has already made important progress toward that goal, with 850 graduates (out of 3,400) last year earning a “seal of biliteracy” on their diplomas for demonstrating their mastering of two languages, Ms. Wong said.»

Data figures, misconceptions and myths of education in US

 
Watch this  video about PISA report results --focusing on US-- and the conclusions which can be drawn.

PISA stands for "Programme for International Student Assessment".

Link to the article --by "Wheelerwife" HubPages author-- WHY SHOULD YOU MAJOR IN SPANISH.
http://wheelerwife.hubpages.com/hub/Why-you-should-Major-in-Spanish