Posted on NYTimes.com
IN Edgemont, a high-performing Westchester school district, children as young as 7 could recite colors and days of the week in Spanish, but few if any learned to really converse, read or write. So this fall, the district canceled the Spanish lessons offered twice weekly at its two elementary schools since 2003, deciding the time and resources — an estimated $175,000 a year — could be better spent on other subjects.
Class consolidation in Yonkers resulted in the loss of four foreign-language teaching positions, and budget cuts have cost Arlington, N.Y., its seventh-grade German program, and Danbury, Conn., several sections of middle school French and Spanish.
And in New Jersey, the Ridgewood district is replacing its three elementary school Spanish teachers with Rosetta Stone, an interactive computer program that cost $70,000, less than half their combined salaries.
“There’s never a replacement for a teacher in the classroom,” said Debra Anderson, a Ridgewood spokeswoman. “But this was a good solution in view of the financial constraints.”
After years of expanding language offerings, suburban districts across the New York region are now cutting back on staff and instructional time, phasing out less popular languages, and rethinking whether they can really afford to introduce foreign tongues to their youngest students while under constant pressure to downsize budgets and raise achievement in English and other core subjects.
But such cuts have dismayed and frustrated some educators and parents, who say that children need more, not fewer, foreign language skills to compete in a global marketplace.
“In many cultures, a lot of business does not get done around the business table, it gets done in side conversations and social situations,” said Marty Abbott, director of education for the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages and a former high school Spanish and Latin teacher. “If you can’t participate in those discussions, you get left out.”
Foreign languages play an increasingly prominent role in urban schools that serve diverse ethnic communities. For instance, the New York City schools offered courses in Haitian-Creole, Vietnamese, and Portuguese last year, and opened the first public school dedicated to Arabic language and culture in Brooklyn in 2007. Last week, the city’s first Hebrew-language charter school opened, also in Brooklyn.
Advocates for foreign-language instruction would like to see the lessons integrated into the core curriculum rather than treated as electives easy to ax at budget time. They also say that instruction should begin as early as possible — ideally in preschool — because academic research shows that younger children are more accepting of other cultures and better able to master the pronunciation and intonation of foreign words. Some even contend that learning a foreign language can foster cognitive skills that lead to higher standardized test scores in other subjects.
On Long Island, more than 200 residents of Long Beach signed petitions over the summer opposing the district’s decision to phase out a dual-language English-Spanish program at Lido Elementary School that had served as a model for other districts.
“I think it’s a terrible shame,” said Sebastian Arengo, a software engineer, whose 6-year-old twin daughters are in the program. “It’s at the right age for kids to speak both languages, and it’s also a great way to bring the English-speaking and Spanish-speaking communities together here in Long Beach.”
Robert Greenberg, superintendent of the 4,000-student Long Beach district, said that the program had been created mainly to help Spanish-speaking students learn English through bilingual classes, but that it has evolved into an immersion program for those who want to learn Spanish. “I have Latino families wanting me to teach their children Spanish, but that’s not the intent of the program,” he said.
Separate from the dual-language program, the district has provided 90 minutes a week of Spanish instruction to all kindergarten and first-grade students since 2007, and plans to expand that program by one grade every year. “We made an instructional decision that we’re teaching all children Spanish rather than a few,” he said.
Many superintendents say they remain committed to teaching languages, but simply cannot afford to do more at this time. In Rockland County, the 9,400-student Clarkstown district spent about $60,000 last year to hire a full-time Spanish teacher for one of its 10 elementary schools but postponed plans to do the same at the other schools this fall “until we determine the economy is getting better,” said Meg Keller-Cogan, the superintendent.
In Connecticut, the New Hartford district cut its one foreign language teacher at Ann Antolini Elementary School from full time to three days a week to save $35,000. Fewer hours mean that Spanish will no longer be taught to third and fourth graders. “It was just for budget reasons and it was a very painful decision,” said Philip O’Reilly, the superintendent, adding that other staff members had hours reduced — and two were laid off — to cut costs.
Some educators said they were re-evaluating foreign-language programs not just because of finances but to update them and incorporate new technology. The Ridgewood district, which started twice-weekly Spanish lessons at its elementary schools in 2005, said its interactive software, made by Rosetta Stone, allows students to learn at their own pace.
The 10,400-student Arlington district decided to phase out German — leaving Spanish, French and Italian — because it was the least popular choice among students; last year, 44 seventh graders enrolled in introductory German compared to more than 300 in Spanish. The district also phased out Russian more than a decade ago.
“It was a low-fill, high-cost area of instruction, and if that wasn’t taken, something else would have been,” said Frank V. Pepe Jr., the superintendent.
The district will continue to require every student to study a foreign language in seventh and eighth grade; nearly a quarter of all students study a language through their junior or senior year, according to district officials.
“I’m not pleased we eliminated German,” Mr. Pepe said. “I’m not pleased at all.”
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Meet Us at the Treehouse!
We are excited to announce two classes at The Treehouse Social Club(www.thetreehousesocialclub.com) at 426 South Robertson Boulevard, Los Angeles!
Mandarin for Little Ones is offered for 2-6 year olds, and is scheduled for Tuesdays, 3:30-4:30pm and Saturdays, 9:00-9:45am beginning the week of September 14.
Please email me for more information or to register.
Mandarin for Little Ones is offered for 2-6 year olds, and is scheduled for Tuesdays, 3:30-4:30pm and Saturdays, 9:00-9:45am beginning the week of September 14.
Please email me for more information or to register.
Back to School
It's been a very busy summer personally and professionally! Since I last blogged in June (shame on me!) We took a wonderful 2-week trip to Northern California where we visited my family in the Bay Area and our good friends who live on a gorgeous 90-acre property in Sonoma.
Global Noodle held it's first trial series of Foreign Language Learning Playdates in Mandarin, and we were able to test our curriculum with a 2 to 5 year old target age group of boys and girls. We developed new games and activities that were popular with active 4 year old boys and learned that arts and crafts were definitely a highlight of each class.
At the end of July, for my daughter's second birthday, we spent a weekend in San Diego with two other families, visiting Legoland, Seaworld and Balboa Park -- what a fantastic time.
Global Noodle then held it's first Spanish summer camp in partnership with Playball California! We had 12 kids, ages 3-6 at Palisades Recreation Center during the week of August 24-28. We sang songs, read stories, played games, did arts and crafts, and had a great time (please email me for additional information about our curriculum).
We are now preparing for classes at The Treehouse Social Club in Los Angeles (http://www.thetreehousesocialclub.com/) and various preschools throughout Los Angeles.
It's been a great summer, but I must say that I am looking forward to sending the kids back to school so that I can work on getting our web site up and running and expanding our services, products and geographic reach. Stay tuned for more news this fall!
Global Noodle held it's first trial series of Foreign Language Learning Playdates in Mandarin, and we were able to test our curriculum with a 2 to 5 year old target age group of boys and girls. We developed new games and activities that were popular with active 4 year old boys and learned that arts and crafts were definitely a highlight of each class.
At the end of July, for my daughter's second birthday, we spent a weekend in San Diego with two other families, visiting Legoland, Seaworld and Balboa Park -- what a fantastic time.
Global Noodle then held it's first Spanish summer camp in partnership with Playball California! We had 12 kids, ages 3-6 at Palisades Recreation Center during the week of August 24-28. We sang songs, read stories, played games, did arts and crafts, and had a great time (please email me for additional information about our curriculum).
We are now preparing for classes at The Treehouse Social Club in Los Angeles (http://www.thetreehousesocialclub.com/) and various preschools throughout Los Angeles.
It's been a great summer, but I must say that I am looking forward to sending the kids back to school so that I can work on getting our web site up and running and expanding our services, products and geographic reach. Stay tuned for more news this fall!
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Unraveling how children become bilingual so easily
Posted on Yahoo News
By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer
Tue Jul 21, 3:08 am ET
WASHINGTON – The best time to learn a foreign language: Between birth and age 7. Missed that window?
New research is showing just how children's brains can become bilingual so easily, findings that scientists hope eventually could help the rest of us learn a new language a bit easier.
"We think the magic that kids apply to this learning situation, some of the principles, can be imported into learning programs for adults," says Dr. Patricia Kuhl of the University of Washington, who is part of an international team now trying to turn those lessons into more teachable technology.
Each language uses a unique set of sounds. Scientists now know babies are born with the ability to distinguish all of them, but that ability starts weakening even before they start talking, by the first birthday. Kuhl offers an example: Japanese doesn't distinguish between the "L" and "R" sounds of English — "rake" and "lake" would sound the same. Her team proved that a 7-month-old in Tokyo and a 7-month-old in Seattle respond equally well to those different sounds. But by 11 months, the Japanese infant had lost a lot of that ability.
Time out — how do you test a baby? By tracking eye gaze. Make a fun toy appear on one side or the other whenever there's a particular sound. The baby quickly learns to look on that side whenever he or she hears a brand-new but similar sound. Noninvasive brain scans document how the brain is processing and imprinting language.
Mastering your dominant language gets in the way of learning a second, less familiar one, Kuhl's research suggests. The brain tunes out sounds that don't fit. "You're building a brain architecture that's a perfect fit for Japanese or English or French," whatever is native, Kuhl explains — or, if you're a lucky baby, a brain with two sets of neural circuits dedicated to two
languages. It's remarkable that babies being raised bilingual — by simply speaking to them in two languages — can learn both in the time it takes most babies to learn one. On average, monolingual and bilingual babies start talking around age 1 and can say about 50 words by 18 months. Italian researchers wondered why there wasn't a delay, and reported this month in the journal Science that being bilingual seems to make the brain more flexible.
By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer
Tue Jul 21, 3:08 am ET
WASHINGTON – The best time to learn a foreign language: Between birth and age 7. Missed that window?
New research is showing just how children's brains can become bilingual so easily, findings that scientists hope eventually could help the rest of us learn a new language a bit easier.
"We think the magic that kids apply to this learning situation, some of the principles, can be imported into learning programs for adults," says Dr. Patricia Kuhl of the University of Washington, who is part of an international team now trying to turn those lessons into more teachable technology.
Each language uses a unique set of sounds. Scientists now know babies are born with the ability to distinguish all of them, but that ability starts weakening even before they start talking, by the first birthday. Kuhl offers an example: Japanese doesn't distinguish between the "L" and "R" sounds of English — "rake" and "lake" would sound the same. Her team proved that a 7-month-old in Tokyo and a 7-month-old in Seattle respond equally well to those different sounds. But by 11 months, the Japanese infant had lost a lot of that ability.
Time out — how do you test a baby? By tracking eye gaze. Make a fun toy appear on one side or the other whenever there's a particular sound. The baby quickly learns to look on that side whenever he or she hears a brand-new but similar sound. Noninvasive brain scans document how the brain is processing and imprinting language.
Mastering your dominant language gets in the way of learning a second, less familiar one, Kuhl's research suggests. The brain tunes out sounds that don't fit. "You're building a brain architecture that's a perfect fit for Japanese or English or French," whatever is native, Kuhl explains — or, if you're a lucky baby, a brain with two sets of neural circuits dedicated to two
languages. It's remarkable that babies being raised bilingual — by simply speaking to them in two languages — can learn both in the time it takes most babies to learn one. On average, monolingual and bilingual babies start talking around age 1 and can say about 50 words by 18 months. Italian researchers wondered why there wasn't a delay, and reported this month in the journal Science that being bilingual seems to make the brain more flexible.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
For kids, two languages can be as easy as one
Posted on Babycenter.com
Thu, Jul 9, 2009 (HealthDay News) -- European researchers are contesting the assumption that bilingual toddlers have more trouble learning language skills than children who know just one language. "While the remarkable performance of children acquiring one language is impressive, many children acquire more than one language simultaneously," said study author Agnes Melinda Kovacs, a research fellow at the International School for Advanced Studies, in Trieste, Italy. "As bilingual children presumably have to learn roughly twice as much as their
monolingual peers [because they learn two languages instead of one], one would expect their language acquisition to be somewhat delayed. However, bilinguals pass the language development milestones at the same ages as their monolingual peers."
The finding, which appears online July 9 in Science, came from a test of the responses to verbal and visual cues from 64 babies who were 12 months old. They came from monolingual and bilingual families, although the study did not specify which languages the families spoke.
The toddlers were exposed to two sets of words that had different structural characteristics. After each word, the children viewed a special toy on either the left or right side of a screen, depending on the word's structure. They then were presented with words they had never heard before but that conformed to one of the two verbal structures. No toy followed.
Researchers determined whether the infants had learned the word structures by measuring the direction of their gaze after hearing each new word. Judging by their eye movements, the bilingual kids did better in recognizing words than their monolingual peers. "We showed that pre-verbal, 12-month-old, bilingual infants have become more flexible at learning speech structures than monolinguals," Kovacs said. "When given the opportunity to simultaneously learn two different regularities, bilingual infants learned both, while monolinguals learned only one of them." This means, she said, that "bilinguals may acquire two languages in the time in which monolinguals acquire one because they quickly become more flexible learners."
According to the study, the cognitive pathways developed during the learning of two languages might make bilingual children more efficient in acquiring new information. Earlier research has often confirmed the benefits of learning more than one language. In a 2004 Canadian study, for
example, researchers found that bilingual speakers were more proficient at dealing with distractions than those who spoke only a single language. That ability was even more pronounced for older people, suggesting that multilingualism might help elderly speakers avoid age-related cognitive problems.
A significant percentage of humanity speaks more than one language. In the United States, more than 18 percent of the population aged 5 and older speaks a language other than English at home, according to the 2000 U.S. census.
One child psychologist who read the Italian study found the results intriguing and said she would like to see further research on how children learn different languages, especially ones with different tonal structures, such as Chinese and English. "We now know, thanks to [functional MRI] studies that allow us to observe the working brain, that learning does result in discrete changes in 'wiring,'" said Marta Flaum, whose practice in Chappaqua, N.Y. specializes in diagnosing and helping children with dyslexia and other language handicaps. "It would make sense that learning a second language affects brain changes as well." However, Flaum said, "we know that the young brain is more plastic than the older brain, making it easier to learn at an earlier age."
Thu, Jul 9, 2009 (HealthDay News) -- European researchers are contesting the assumption that bilingual toddlers have more trouble learning language skills than children who know just one language. "While the remarkable performance of children acquiring one language is impressive, many children acquire more than one language simultaneously," said study author Agnes Melinda Kovacs, a research fellow at the International School for Advanced Studies, in Trieste, Italy. "As bilingual children presumably have to learn roughly twice as much as their
monolingual peers [because they learn two languages instead of one], one would expect their language acquisition to be somewhat delayed. However, bilinguals pass the language development milestones at the same ages as their monolingual peers."
The finding, which appears online July 9 in Science, came from a test of the responses to verbal and visual cues from 64 babies who were 12 months old. They came from monolingual and bilingual families, although the study did not specify which languages the families spoke.
The toddlers were exposed to two sets of words that had different structural characteristics. After each word, the children viewed a special toy on either the left or right side of a screen, depending on the word's structure. They then were presented with words they had never heard before but that conformed to one of the two verbal structures. No toy followed.
Researchers determined whether the infants had learned the word structures by measuring the direction of their gaze after hearing each new word. Judging by their eye movements, the bilingual kids did better in recognizing words than their monolingual peers. "We showed that pre-verbal, 12-month-old, bilingual infants have become more flexible at learning speech structures than monolinguals," Kovacs said. "When given the opportunity to simultaneously learn two different regularities, bilingual infants learned both, while monolinguals learned only one of them." This means, she said, that "bilinguals may acquire two languages in the time in which monolinguals acquire one because they quickly become more flexible learners."
According to the study, the cognitive pathways developed during the learning of two languages might make bilingual children more efficient in acquiring new information. Earlier research has often confirmed the benefits of learning more than one language. In a 2004 Canadian study, for
example, researchers found that bilingual speakers were more proficient at dealing with distractions than those who spoke only a single language. That ability was even more pronounced for older people, suggesting that multilingualism might help elderly speakers avoid age-related cognitive problems.
A significant percentage of humanity speaks more than one language. In the United States, more than 18 percent of the population aged 5 and older speaks a language other than English at home, according to the 2000 U.S. census.
One child psychologist who read the Italian study found the results intriguing and said she would like to see further research on how children learn different languages, especially ones with different tonal structures, such as Chinese and English. "We now know, thanks to [functional MRI] studies that allow us to observe the working brain, that learning does result in discrete changes in 'wiring,'" said Marta Flaum, whose practice in Chappaqua, N.Y. specializes in diagnosing and helping children with dyslexia and other language handicaps. "It would make sense that learning a second language affects brain changes as well." However, Flaum said, "we know that the young brain is more plastic than the older brain, making it easier to learn at an earlier age."
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Emerging Economies Meet in Russia
"By some predictions, the four nations, Brazil, Russia, India and China, a group referred to as the BRIC group, will surpass the current leading economies by the middle of this century, a tectonic shift that by this reckoning will eventually nudge the United States and Western Europe away from the center of world productivity and power." -- NY Times, Jun 17, 2009
Of course this is nothing new, but we continue to be reminded that we need to prepare our children for the future. Learning what the U.S. government calls "critical languages" -- languages important for "promoting understanding, conveying respect for other cultures, economonic competitiveness and national security issues" -- is important.
Think about adding exposure to foreign languages as a priority to your child's list of standard extracurricular activities -- music, art, sports -- your children will thank you later.
Of course this is nothing new, but we continue to be reminded that we need to prepare our children for the future. Learning what the U.S. government calls "critical languages" -- languages important for "promoting understanding, conveying respect for other cultures, economonic competitiveness and national security issues" -- is important.
Think about adding exposure to foreign languages as a priority to your child's list of standard extracurricular activities -- music, art, sports -- your children will thank you later.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Truly a Small World
I have been keeping tabs on the organization, Edutopia, a non-profit foundation created by George Lucas (yes, that one) to help improve public education through innovative thinking and access to the best technology tools and knowledge resources available.
This particular article, Kids Create – and Critique On – Social Networks, was inspiring. A large part of what I’d like to do with Global Noodle is utilize technology – and social networking in particular -- to create opportunities for learning foreign languages for kids in middle school and high school that go way beyond the classroom.
Have any thoughts on this? I'd love to hear from you.
This particular article, Kids Create – and Critique On – Social Networks, was inspiring. A large part of what I’d like to do with Global Noodle is utilize technology – and social networking in particular -- to create opportunities for learning foreign languages for kids in middle school and high school that go way beyond the classroom.
Have any thoughts on this? I'd love to hear from you.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Global Noodle Plays Ball
Fresh off the press! Global Noodle has teamed up with Playball California to create super awesome summer camps! Our action-packed, innovative learning experience is like no other! Your 2-7 year old will play sports such as soccer, basketball, baseball & field hockey, create fun-filled arts & crafts projects and will learn Spanish through songs, games and activities TOO!
Ages: 2-7 years
Location, dates & hours:
Palisades Recreation Center
Week of August 3, M-F, 9:30am-2pm
Week of August 24, M-F, 9:30am-2pm
Cost: $255 per week
Ages: 2-7 years
Location, dates & hours:
Palisades Recreation Center
Week of August 3, M-F, 9:30am-2pm
Week of August 24, M-F, 9:30am-2pm
Cost: $255 per week
Mother's Beach, Marina del Rey
Week of August 31, M/T/W, 9:30am-2pm
Cost: $165 for 3 days
Please email me to register or for more information at: (310) 804-5079 or ptay@globalnoodlestudio.com
Friday, June 5, 2009
Foreign Language Learning Playdates
This summer, I’m pleased to offer a series of foreign language learning “playdates,” where our native speaking teachers will lead a group of children through art & craft projects, music & movement and simple fun & games in Mandarin or Spanish.
Each playdate is an hour of exposure to another language in a playful and enjoyable home setting that has been prepared for indoor and outdoor preschool fun. Each participant will receive a handbook to take away so you can integrate songs, vocabulary and phrases into your day-to-day family life.
6 week session: July 6th – August 14th
Toddler Playdates (12-36 months)
Mandarin & Spanish Playdates: Tuesdays & Thursdays, 10:30-11:30am
Preschooler Playdates (3-6 years)
Mandarin Playdates: Tuesdays & Thursdays, 3–4pm
Spanish Playdates: Mondays & Wednesdays, 3-4pm
Fees: $275 for 6 week session (12 classes)
Location: My private home in Venice, CA
Please call or email me to register or for more information: 310.804.5079 or ptay@globalnoodlestudio.com
Each playdate is an hour of exposure to another language in a playful and enjoyable home setting that has been prepared for indoor and outdoor preschool fun. Each participant will receive a handbook to take away so you can integrate songs, vocabulary and phrases into your day-to-day family life.
6 week session: July 6th – August 14th
Toddler Playdates (12-36 months)
Mandarin & Spanish Playdates: Tuesdays & Thursdays, 10:30-11:30am
Preschooler Playdates (3-6 years)
Mandarin Playdates: Tuesdays & Thursdays, 3–4pm
Spanish Playdates: Mondays & Wednesdays, 3-4pm
Fees: $275 for 6 week session (12 classes)
Location: My private home in Venice, CA
Please call or email me to register or for more information: 310.804.5079 or ptay@globalnoodlestudio.com
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