Tag: culture

The recent shootings of Asian Americans and whether these will be considered hate crimes, tornadoes ravaging the Southwest and elsewhere, and fears of uncertain variants of the COVID-19 pandemic dominated the news during the writing of this piece. Crises, unfortunately, are not new to us. As educators, along with feeling deeply troubled by these, we have had a tendency...

https://youtu.be/VPDgJdDUBV0 As Raul Herrera, says, "I'm finally learning to speak Spanish just for this..."

The Sheikh Zayed Book Award is now open for submissions. The award has a reputation for highlighting the most exciting, and often the most challenging work from and about the Arab world. Each winner receives prize money of 750,000 UAE dirhams ($204,000 USD) to both recognize and further enable their creative and cultural achievements. Writers, translators, academics, and publishers from around...

Univoice Corporation, the developer of a language-learning platform that teaches languages exclusively through music, has started its first learning class in Tijuana, Mexico. This inaugural class focuses on teaching Spanish to English speakers in an immersive, collaborative, and fun environment. The free classes began in August at Espacio Migrante, a cultural center and shelter for Central American migrants, and will...

The Royal Academy of the Spanish Language which is one of the authorities regulating and preserving the changes that occur in the Spanish language, in the 22nd edition of its dictionary (2001), defines language as “System of verbal and, almost always, written communication that belongs to a specific human community.” Learning a new language can...

    Chris Cartwright offers examples showing how improved intercultural competence can motivate language learning “You really cannot teach a language; it has to be learned. Fostering the student’s motivation is not only important, it’s essential,” states international business professor Tim Keeley of Kyushu Sangyo University, in Japan. Dr. Keeley identifies as a polyglot and is “functional” in over 20 and can...

Juliet Falce-Robinson insists on individual style in a skills-based approach to language teaching   The goal of a successful language program is to foment and foster the development of linguistic and cultural proficiency, and thus awareness, that will facilitate dialogue and contribution to a global society. Language teachers continually strive to provide educational opportunities that allow students to become multilingual, multicultural,...

Michael Ballagh questions the rankings race in study abroad participation U.S. institutions of higher education have long sought validation in the rankings system dominated by entities such as U.S. News and Forbes. Less commonly known is the academic “arms race” around the number of students who study abroad; college websites tout these high rates as an indicator of institutional success,...

Yue Meng and Nile Stanley see the educational value in social networking sites If you type “Facebook educational usage” into Google, it will show millions of relevant sites in just .278 seconds. With the popularity of Facebook and other social networking sites, such as Twitter and Renren (China), there is an assumption that such sites are useful in classrooms and...

Last month’s Zurong Dialect Film Festival, one of China’s campaigns to preserve language diversity, received 582 entries featuring various dialects in just its second year. The number of entries doubled from last year, coming from all over the country. Zhao Yuhe received the Best Actress Award at the festival hosted by Zhanjiang, in south China’s Guangdong Province, even though...