Languages

The National Museum of Chinese Writing in Anyang, in the province of Henan, is offering 100,000 yuan (about $15,000) to anyone who can definitively translate a mysterious ancient Chinese character.The museum has issued a worldwide appeal for help to decipher thousands of characters cut into bones and shells,...

Kristal Bivona examines an approach to overcome the inherent imperialism of European language education As language teachers, we spend hours preparing our classes, planning our class time to the minute, and creating our own activities, hoping...

Kathy Stein-Smith asks what the real story is on the French/English language dynamic in the EU While the 2016 UK European Union (EU) Membership Referendum launched the current public conversation on the status of English in...

Partnership in Pakistan... To promote Chinese language and culture in Pakistan, the Confucius Institute, the University of Karachi, and Islamabad’s Preston University signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to improve the teaching of Chinese in Pakistan. As a first step, the three institutions will jointly launch a free Chinese language credit course that even includes materials. Confucius Institutes adopt flexible teaching...

PandaTree’s new live video tutoring platform gets kids engaged and motivated to learn languages by allowing them to put Mandarin or Spanish language skills to work in authentic virtual settings.Tutors and students see each other onscreen during the lesson while also looking at PandaTree’s proprietary ACTFL-aligned curriculum.The new platform expands the range of materials that tutors can share with...

AEA’s faculty-led Service Learning and Spanish Immersion Program gives students the opportunity to engage with a rural Costa Rican community while practicing language skills. Through faculty-led homestays, organic farm visits, guided rainforest walks, culinary and cultural activities, and a collaborative service project determined by the needs of the community, students learn much more than language. They gain an understanding of...

Despite Russian leaders’ suggestions, Armenian politicians hold firm on opposition to Russian becoming an official language of Armenia. In July, Vyachaslav Volodin, the speaker of Russia’s State Duma suggested to Armenia that they grant Russian official status as an Armenian language. The suggestion is supposedly in hopes of...

The Central State office for Croats Abroad has awarded 215 Croatian language-learning scholarships. The state office is “ a central state administration body competent for the relations between the Republic of Croatia and the Croatians outside the Republic of Croatia.” The scholarships are part of an effort by the...

Stephen Krashen provides the evidence to support his hypothesis of second-language acquisitionThe work of the last 40 years is the result of a war between two very different views about how we acquire language and develop literacy.The comprehension hypothesis says that we acquire language when we understand what we hear or read. Our mastery of the individual components of...

" Metacognition " is often simply defined as "thinking about thinking."According to Merriam-Webster, Metacognition is " awareness or analysis of one's own learning or thinking processes.For example: research on metacognition … has demonstrated the value of monitoring one's own cognitive processes — Colette A. DaiuteAccording to Nancy Chick, CFT Assistant Director At Vanderbilt University, ""Metacognitive practices increase students’ abilities to transfer...