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Content Type: 1
Title: Could Bilingual Education Mold Kids’ Brains to Better Resist Distraction?
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Could Bilingual Education Mold Kids’ Brains to Better Resist Distraction?
By Samara Freemark and Stephen Smith
September 19, 2014
For decades, psychologists cautioned against raising children bilingual. They warned parents and teachers that learning a second language as a child was bad for brain development. But recent studies have found exactly the opposite. Researchers now believe that when people learn another language, they develop cognitive advantages that improve their attention, self-control and ability to deal with conflicting information.
… In our contemporary, multitasking society, notions have changed. A bilingual person with a strong executive control system may have an edge. “Everything that we do that requires focused, selective attention — ignoring salient distractors that are trying to compete for attention, shifting between two things that we are trying to do at the same time, manipulating information — that is all frontal lobe, executive function stuff,” Bialystok said.
In functional MRI scans of test subjects doing the flanker task, researchers can see that the part of the brain that is believed to house the executive control system uses less blood flow in bilinguals. It’s not working as hard.
Researchers have also discovered that bilingualism may provide some protection for the brains of aging people. Studies show that the onset of dementia occurs later in the brains of bilingual people. The executive control system, researchers say, is the last one to fully develop (think teenagers) and the first to decline, but strengthening it may slow that decline.
Read the full article at http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/09/could-bilingual-education-mold-kids-brains-to-better-resist-distraction/
Source: KQED
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Content Type: 2
Title: You Can Advocate for Funding for Language Learning
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From http://capwiz.com/actfl/issues/alert/?alertid=63318091
From the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages:
Send a message to Congress that language learning is important! As the federal appropriations process for Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 moves forward this fall, it is imperative that Representatives and Senators hear from their constituents about the importance of strong funding for language programs. Back in July, the Senate Labor, Health, Human Services and Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee released a draft bill and report language that included just over $81.1 million for the International Education and Foreign Language Studies program. We encourage you to send a message to your Representative and Senators letting them know that you strongly support the Senate LHHS subcommittee appropriations draft funding, and hope they will fight for language learning as the FY15 appropriations process moves forward.
Go to this website to send a letter to your Congressmen: http://capwiz.com/actfl/issues/alert/?alertid=63318091
Source: ACTFL
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Content Type: 1
Title: Radio Feature: Why Do So Few Americans Learn a Second Language?
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From http://nhpr.org/post/why-do-so-few-americans-learn-second-language
Even as the world becomes more globalized, and most Americans agree that learning a second language is desirable, the majority never do learn a second language beyond the requisite couple years of high school. New Hampshire Public Radio looks at some of the arguments for moving toward a more multilingual society, and some of the barriers to achieving that.
Listen here: http://nhpr.org/post/why-do-so-few-americans-learn-second-language
Source: New Hampshire Public Radio
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Title: Article: “Language Learning Is Weaving a Rope”
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What is the role of natural aptitude in language learning? What metaphors are most likely to inspire the work it takes to become multilingual? Michael Erard , the author of Babel No More, suggests the metaphor of weaving a rope in this recent article from Schwa Fire: http://stories.schwa-fire.com/weaving_a_rope
Source: Schwa Fire
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Title: Workshop: Teaching Ghana: A Primer for Teachers
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From http://www.primarysource.org/teaching-ghana-2014
Teaching Ghana: A Primer for Teachers
One-Day Workshop
Course Date: November 3, 2014
Time: 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Location: Primary Source, Watertown, MA
Ghana today is a leader among West Africa's emerging democracies and growing economies. What would elementary and middle school educators who are interested in teaching about Ghana need to know in order to integrate the subject into their curriculum? What elements of Ghana's history, geography, culture and society would enable students to learn math, arts, and literacy skills and the culture of a modern West African nation? Join us for this one-day workshop as we present information to expand your knowledge of Ghana while providing rich curriculum resources and unique best practice teaching techniques currently being used in local classrooms. Young adult and children's literature from and about West Africa will also be highlighted.
Especially for educators of grades K-7.
For full workshop details go to http://www.primarysource.org/teaching-ghana-2014
Source: Primary Source
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Content Type: 1
Title: Graduate Course with Study Tour to India for K-12 Educators
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From http://www.teachindiaproject.org/India_Immersion.htm
Graduate Course Announcement - India: Immersion
A 3 credit graduate course offered by the Teach India Project through Cambridge College, MA, from April to August 2015
Includes a travel study tour to India from August 2 to August 15, 2015
Course Description: The purpose of this immersive course is to provide, through a travel study program, the opportunity for K to 12 educators to become sensitized to the needs of multicultural students and prepare to work with an increasingly diverse student population. Participants will travel to India where they will visit schools, observe local teaching methodologies, stay with local families and visit cultural sites.
Participants will have direct contact in real life situations with people who are culturally different from themselves; gain insights into the characteristics of a local community, gain experience of what it is like to be different from most people one is around and reflect on one’s own biases and affective responses. It is expected that teachers will become better prepared to teach culturally diverse students, engage those students’ communities and enhance their careers in the process.
For full details go to http://www.teachindiaproject.org/India_Immersion.htm
Source: Teach India Project
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Title: E-Books for Young Chinese Learners
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From http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/teachlearn/dclt/StarTalk_ChineseEbooks
In summer of 2013, the NYU STARTALK Immersion Training Program for Teachers of Chinese (1-6) for pre- and in-service teachers of Chinese welcomed 38 teachers to NYU for training leading to certification in Teaching Chinese (grades 1-6). The teachers participated in the graduate level summer course “Teaching Foreign Language to Elementary School Children” (FLES), which leads to NYS state certification extension in foreign language to grades 1-6. Follow-up training sessions will concentrate on immersion education.
A series of pattern stories based on culturally important stories from the Chinese-speaking world were developed by participants in the StarTalk project. The stories were professionally illustrated (by renowned illustrator Denis Bellocq), narrated, and published in iBook format using Book Creator software.
Eight stories developed during the 2013 StarTalk program are available here. The pdf version can be downloaded and printed; the narrated iBook version can be downloaded and opened in iBook on an iPad or compatible device.
Access these E-Books at http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/teachlearn/dclt/StarTalk_ChineseEbooks
Source: NYU
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Title: Chinese Learning Resources from CCTV
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From http://english.cntv.cn/learnchinese/
The CCTV website is full of resources for learning Chinese: a wide variety of series for beginning, intermediate, and advanced learners. Explore the wide variety of videos and supporting resources at http://english.cntv.cn/learnchinese/
Source: CCTV
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Title: Exhibition at the Getty Museum: Tokyo
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In Focus: Tokyo
August 5–December 14, 2014 at the Getty Center
Drawn from the Getty Museum's collection, this one–gallery exhibition of photographs presents four responses to the dense, hyperreal megalopolis that is Tokyo. Although a kaleidoscopic vision would seem to be required to represent this stratified, vertical capital, the Japanese photographers featured in this show have found a way to portray their city at human scale.
Shigeichi Nagano observes the interactions of community within a perpetually rebuilt environment, as he has since the 1950s. Masato Seto focuses on the hard–won leisure of local couples escaping the cramped quarters of high–rise living for the scarce green space of public parks. Daidō Moriyama haunts the burgeoning neighborhood of Shinjuku for fragments of nightlife that he renders in exaggerated contrasts of black and white. Mikiko Hara adopts a quiet, daylit, snapshot style to spontaneously capture anonymous portraits of her young contemporaries in the streets and subways.
For more information about the exhibition go to http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/focus_tokyo/index.html
Source: J. Paul Getty Museum
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Title: Funding for Programs of the Japan Foundation
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From http://www.jpf.go.jp/e/program/index.html
The Japan Foundation invites individuals and organizations that are planning international exchange projects and activities to participate in programs of the Japan Foundation. The Japan Foundation carries out its programs and activities in the three major areas of Art and Cultural Exchange, Japanese-Language Education Overseas, Japanese Studies Overseas and Intellectual Exchange, as well as Strengthening the Cultural Exchange in Asia. Successful applicants are provided with grants, research scholarships, Japanese-language training programs, and other forms of support.
The Japan Foundation Program Guidelines for Fiscal Year 2015 (April 1, 2015 to March 31, 2016) outline the full array of the Japan Foundation's applicable programs. Access the guidelines at http://www.jpf.go.jp/e/program/index.html
Another program is the Exhibitions Abroad Support Program, which is designed to provide financial assistance to exhibitions introducing Japanese art and culture to audiences outside of Japan. Learn more about applying for funding from this program at http://www.jfny.org/arts_and_culture/exhibitionsabroad.html
Also open for applications is the Institutional Project Support Program, which is designed to encourage innovative and sustained growth of Japanese studies in the United States. Each institution should formulate convincing proposals that enhance the teaching of Japan, the quality of research on Japan, the quality of equipment and materials (including libraries), and provide opportunities for students and faculty to travel to Japan. The deadline for this program is rapidly approaching (November 3). Learn more at http://www.jfny.org/japanese_studies/institutionalsupport.html
Source: Japan Foundation
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