The TESS reports: A new study has shown how bilingualism benefits children in the classroom.
The Edinburgh University research builds on previous studies showing that speakers of two languages find it easier to block out potential distractions, enabling them to focus better on a range of tasks.
Read the full article online at http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6009432
A range of statistics relating to pupils in Scotland’s publicly funded schools has been published.
LTS Spanish Language podcasts: Immigration - Language barriers in the playground
Salvadorean Nancy Arévalo remembers what it was like to be in a new country where she didn’t speak either English or the Mexican Spanish spoken by everyone else in the playground.
You can subscribe to the podcast through iTunes
0r watch and download on MFLE website
or even watch and subscribe through YouTube if you like.
National Qualifications (NQ) have added the following resources to their resource database:
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is warning employers to make sure their workers’ language skills are good enough for the work they are doing, reports the BBC.
It follows a £25,000 fine imposed on a Telford company after a woman broke her arm in a factory machine.
Magna Specialist Confectioners of Stafford Park admitted breaching Health and Safety regulations. The company was also ordered to pay nearly £5000 costs at a hearing at Shrewsbury Crown Court on Friday.
Speaking after the hearing, HSE Investigating Inspector Guy Dale said he believed the fact that the injured woman used English as a second language may have been a factor in the accident. He suggested that an employee’s understanding of written and spoken English should be checked before they started work.
Mr Dale said it was a fundamental expectation that employees should be able to work in safety.
Read more on the BBC website.
The growing number of ethnic minority families in Glasgow means that more than 100 different languages are now spoken in homes across the city, reports the Evening Times.
A report by the Scottish Government shows that in 2007 there were 8853 city pupils whose home language was not English 511 more than the previous year. Research shows there are 102 different languages spoken at home by city youngsters. The most common after English, Gaelic, Scots, Doric and sign language are Punjabi, Urdu and Arabic.
Read more on the Evening Times website.
Hazel Blears has said learning English must be ‘an absolute top priority’ for migrants to the UK, the BBC reports. The Secretary of State for Communities also said local authorities should ‘think carefully’ about whether documents needed to be translated.
She told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show the ability to speak English was ‘fundamental’ for migrants to the UK.
Gordon Brown has previously said people who want British citizenship should be expected to learn the language.
Ms Blears said: ‘If you want to get on, if you want to get a job, if you want to look after your family, the ability to speak the language is fundamental.’
Read more on the BBC website.
Now recruiting for its eleventh year of training, the CILT/British Council Graduate Teacher Programme (GTP) continues to be one of the most prestigious teacher training programmes for native speakers of French, Spanish and German in the country.
The GTP is an employment-based route, where native speakers receive ‘on-the-job’ training in one of more than 40 training schools based around England, combined with regular training and advice from CILT in one of its training centres based in London, Birmingham and Manchester.
CILT works closely with the British Council, in collaboration with European partners, to recruit graduates who are native speakers of French, Spanish or German, particularly those with some experience of teaching, for example as language assistants.
This year’s course will run from September 2008-August 2009, and will qualify trainees to become language teachers in English secondary schools.
This deadline for this year’s applications is 28 March 2008.
Find out more on the CILT website.
Language Festivals was a two-year Lingua 1 project that was designed to raise interest in the learning of foreign languages by members of the general public. The project was a direct result of a Contact Seminar hosted by the British Council in London in June 2004. The project was funded from October 2005 until September 2007.
The partners in the project represented six key European languages - Czech, English, French, German, Italian and Spanish - and also a wide range of teaching institutions. The Czech partner was a private adult education school, the English partners public sector colleges, the French partner an NGO (non-governmental organisation), the Austrian partner an adult folk high school, the Italian partner a public sector vocational school and the Spanish partner a public sector specialist language school.
Find out more and read the results on the Language Festivals website.
The TESS reports that the demands of teaching pupils with languages as diverse as Nepali and Lithuanian are putting strains on schools even in rural Scotland, prompting the two largest teaching unions to demand more government support.
The Educational Institute of Scotland and the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association have made separate pleas for more English as an additional language specialists, better resources and more professional development.
Read more on the TES website.
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