Oggi l’inglese si impara giocando con le mani. I bambini di due scuole medie ai Parioli e al Fleming lo fanno già.

All’Alfieri di via Salaria e al Petrassi di via Nitti due insegnanti intraprendenti hanno deciso di aiutare i piccoli alunni ad apprendere una nuova lingua facendoli divertire. In 20 lezioni parlano l’inglese come se avessero studiato per tre anni. Certo, il libro di testo non va in soffitta, ma viene affiancato dalla conversazione con le mani.

Paola Reggio e Anna Piermattei sono due giovani professoresse che hanno inventato il cosidetto «handmade english», l’inglese fatto con le mani. La mente associa il linguaggio ai gesti e i bambini apprendono più in fretta.

L’anno scorso l’Unione europea ha premiato le due insegnanti romane con il Label per le lingue, il premio per i progetti più innovativi e creativi d’Italia. Il sistema è semplice: gli ausiliari dei verbi si dividono in due gruppi: quelli che si scambiano («swap») e quelli che cadono («drop»). I primi (have+participio passato, will+verbo, be+ing) sono accompagnati da due dita della mano alzate in segno di vittoria, i secondi (do, does, did) vengono rappresentati con la mano aperta. La «s» della terza persona singolare, invece, viene raffigurata con la mano che disegna un serpente.

Per capire il sistema basta fare un salto alla scuola Alfieri. I bambini della IA e della IE sono entusiasti: «Pensavamo fosse noioso imparare l’inglese – racconta Laura – invece ci divertiamo. E associare le frasi ai segni con le mani ci aiuta».

via Il Tempo – Roma – L’inglese si impara con le mani

Sempre più genitori cercano un’offerta adeguata. Finalmente ci si è accorti che qualcosa è cambiato. Attenzione però a non essere eccessivi”. A parlare è Vincenzo La Froscia, presidente dell’Associazione nazionale dei pedagogisti italiani (Anpe) del Lazio.

Si può parlare di fenomeno “bilinguismo”?

La scuola italiana viene molto influenzata dai filoni politici che la governano e questo ministero ha puntato molto sulle lingue straniere, fino a promuovere la diffusione persino di quelle orientali nelle aule scolastiche. Le scuole pubbliche però soffrono delle scarse risorse economiche e non tutte hanno i fondi per adattarsi alla domanda.

Quali sono le ragioni di questa corsa alle scuole bilingui?

Innanzitutto perché la domanda viene direttamente dal mercato. La società italiana è molto arretrata, da questo punto di vista. Per questo è giusto finalmente iniziare a chiedersi cosa vuole il mercato del lavoro. Attenzione però: a volte si pagano molto certe scuole, ma non sempre si ottiene il riscontro che si cerca.

via Cruciale per il lavoro, ma solo se c’è la qualità – Il Sole 24 ORE.

A simple way to respond would be to say ‘any’: Shakespeare has contributed so much to the English language, in vocabulary and now-famous sayings, that any of his plays provide a worthy start. Romeo and Juliet for its star-crossed lovers? Hamlet for its questioning of mortality? Much Ado About Nothing for its comedy? Othello for its study of evil? Henry V for a lesson in politics? For the novice, there’s a good case to begin with Macbeth. Why? Because the tragedy of Macbeth – in which greed for power corrupts and ultimately destroys, remains an essential moral tale. What’s more, it’s easy to follow, there’s witchcraft and gore aplenty and it contains some of the Bard’s most recognizable lines, from ‘Double, double toil and trouble’ and ‘Is this a dagger I see before me’ to the heart-rending ‘Life’s but a walking shadow’ speech near its fateful climax.

via Shakespeare for beginners – Telegraph

Chinese newspapers, books and websites will no longer be allowed to use English words and phrases, the country’s publishing body has announced, saying the “purity” of the Chinese language is in peril.

The General Administration of Press and Publication, which announced the new rule on Monday, said the increasing use of English words and abbreviations in Chinese texts had caused confusion and was a means of “abusing the language”.

Such practices “severely damaged the standard and purity of the Chinese language and disrupted the harmonious and healthy language and cultural environment, causing negative social impacts,” the body said on its website.

“It is banned to mix at will foreign language phrases such as English words or abbreviations with Chinese publications, creating words of vague meaning that are not exactly Chinese or of any foreign language,” it said.

“Publishing houses and the media must further strengthen the regulated use of foreign languages and respect the structure, glossary and grammar of the Chinese and foreign languages.”

GAPP said companies which violated the regulation would face “administrative punishment” without offering specifics.

English abbreviations such as NBA (National Basketball Association), GDP (gross domestic product), CPI (consumer price index) and WTO (World Trade Organization) are commonly used in Chinese publications.

via China bars English words in all publications – Life & Style – The Independent

Were you to run perhaps the most famous line in literature, the opening sentence of Anna Karenina, through Google Translate from Russian to English, this is what you would get: “All happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

The translation, which approximates to the best “human” version of the sentence, looks like a triumph for what used to be called artificial intelligence and now is called, less ambitiously, machine learning. The computer can understand language, we are invited to think. Run the subsequent lines of Anna Karenina through the system, though, and the picture, along with the grammar, is not quite so clear.

“All mixed up in a house Oblonskys. Wife found out that my husband was in connection with the former in their house, a French governess, and told my husband that he could not live with him in the same house. The situation is now lasted three days and were painfully conscious of themselves and their spouses…”

It’s just about explicable, if we know the original, but barely readable. The reason for this discrepancy lies in one of the nuances of Google’s system that allows interested users to improve translated texts where they can. Somebody has obviously got to the first line of Tolstoy’s masterpiece and put it right. What follows is more representative of what the system is capable of.

Ever since computers were a reality, the possibility of using their logistical power to break down barriers of language has been something of a holy grail in machine learning. The initial – unsuccessful – attempts were based on the principle that all languages could be distilled into two components: a lexicon of words with specific meanings, and a set of rules of grammar and syntax by which those words were linked together. The cold war prompted ambitious efforts by American intelligence agencies to understand the “code” of the Russian language on an industrial scale. It produced mostly gibberish.

The first significant breakthrough in the potential of mechanised translation came in the early 1990s when IBM produced a model that abandoned any effort to have the computer “understand” what was being fed into it and instead approached the task by installing in the computer the comparative versions of as much translated text as possible and having the system compute the probability of meanings of words and phrases based on statistical precedent. The approach was pioneered by Frederick Jelinek at IBM, who, distrusting models that grew from analogies with human learning of grammar, insisted: “Whenever I fire a linguist, the performance of our system improves.”

A decade or so later, though, the statistical-based system was becoming severely limited, particularly so when it attempted translations from languages in which there was comparatively little text to “learn” as reference. It was at this point that Google entered the field in earnest. The impetus for Google’s translation machine can be traced, corporate legend has it, to a particular meeting at the company’s California headquarters in 2004. One of the search engine’s founders, Sergey Brin, had received a fan letter from a user in South Korea. He understood that the message was in praise of the innovative scope of his company, but when Brin ran it through the machine translation service that Google had then licensed it read:  ”The sliced raw fish shoes it wishes. Google green onion thing!”

continue reading via Google Translate and the battle for accurate translations by computer | Technology | The Observer.

From medieval manuscripts to text messages, many things helped make English the global language it is today and it just keeps on changing, says author Michael Rosen.

The need for an international language has always existed. In the past it was about religion and intellectual debate. With the technologies of today, its about communicating with others anywhere in the world in a matter of moments.

Two events, separated by nearly 400 years, show how this need has always been present.

Firstly, sitting in front of me I have a copy of the celebrated book Utopia, by Sir Thomas More. This particular edition is published in 1629 in Amsterdam, not in English, not in Dutch, but in Latin.

The second event was a talk I recently had with a German scientist. He said that he knew of scientific conferences taking place in Germany, where all the people attending were German and yet the conference was conducted in English.

Pride

The Latin of this edition of Utopia was a written code, though its most accomplished users could adopt it to conduct intellectual and religious debate.

During the previous 1,300 years it had been the main language of the Western Christian tradition – the language of prayer, hymn, sacred texts and religious debate. It was also the language with which Renaissance scientists spoke to each other.

However, this hold on religious and intellectual minds was broken by the rise of national cultures. The peoples of the countries where Latin was being used, spoke their own languages and dialects.

Once these came to be written down, more and more people started to ask their churches and religious authorities to speak, write and deliver some, most, or all religion in those local languages.

Two of the most famous texts to come out of this was the King James Bible soon to celebrate its 400th birthday and Martin Luther’s German Bible, from a little less than 100 years earlier than the King James.

Part of this process to establish the power and influence of these local languages was the effort to produce standardised forms for them, so that teachers, merchants, lawyers, ministers of religion and politicians could write to and for each other in ways that were instantly comprehensible.

This seemed then, and now, to require consistent ways of presenting the language on the page – spelling and punctuation – and consistent ways of delivering the grammar of the words and sentences.

As a result, standardised English writing became a powerful tool in the hands of government, church and school in asking the peoples of the British Isles to see themselves as one.

Esperanto

But nation went on speaking to nation in peace, war, trade, migration, religion and the world of ideas. A lot of effort went into the production of foreign language dictionaries, grammars and translations of important, or the most interesting books.

Throughout this time one of the most significant events in the history of world languages was happening: English-speaking soldiers, sailors and colonisers were travelling to, and settling in countries right the way across the globe.

Latin was once used as a global language. Only in the places that either kept their independence or where the Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Dutch had done the same, was English not spoken.

If the 20th Century can be described as a savage flowering of the demands of nationalism – including pride in national languages and literature – it also saw the rise of utopian dreams about international co-operation as seen first by the League of Nations and then the United Nations.

However, in these places it wasnt so much that nation spoke unto nation, as interpreter spoke unto interpreter. In response, inventors of international languages tried to bring about world peace with their inventions, the most famous of which is Esperanto. It didn’t catch on sufficiently for the worlds politicians to need or want to learn it.

Slowly, another international language emerged, spoken by diplomats, scientists, artists, business people and many more. Benefiting from the legacy of the British Empire, and the rise in influence of the most powerful member of that Empire – the USA – English or kinds of English is being spoken all over the globe.

continue reading via BBC News – How English evolved into a global language.

La perfomance degli studenti italiani resta sotto la media Ocse, ma rispetto al passato frena la caduta: arriva, infatti, una crescita lenta in lettura, ma anche in matematica e scienze: «Un risultato eccezionale», ha dichiarato il ministro dell’Istruzione, Mariastella Gelmini, commentando l’ultimo rapporto Ocse-Pisa (Programme for international student assessment), sulle performance dei ragazzi nella lettura, in matematica e nelle scienze, presentato a Parigi.

In Italia i dati sono stati illustrati nella sede dell’Invalsi, a Frascati (Roma). «Migliori risultati nell’istruzione sono un forte segnale precursore di futura crescita economica», ha detto il segretario generale dell’Ocse Angel Gurria, mentre per il presidente dell’Invalsi, Piero Cipollone: «Stiamo convergendo verso l’alto, a testimonianza che se si lavora nelle scuole si può migliorare a prescindere dai tagli».

L’indagine è stata svolta nell’aprile 2009 e ha interessato 74 paesi (nel 2000, all’esordio di questa pubblicazione, i paesi erano 35), di cui 34 membri Ocse. Per l’Italia hanno partecipato 1.097 scuole e 30.905 studenti, 15enni scolarizzati.Tra le nazioni industrializzate, Corea e Finlandia sono ai primi posti, ma il top assoluto é della provincia di Shanghai in Cina. In più: le ragazze nella lettura (accesso, interpretazione e valutazione di testi) sono più brave dei ragazzi in media di circa 39 punti, equivalenti a un anno di scuola. E, in genere, i sistemi scolastici migliori, risultano quelli in cui gli studenti hanno buoni risultati indipendentemente dal background socio-economico e che i sistemi con le migliori performance sono quelli che tendono a dare priorità agli stipendi degli insegnanti rispetto alle dimensioni ridotte delle classi. Scuole pubbliche e private raggiungono risultati simili una volta che si tiene conto del background. Le scuole con una buona disciplina e migliori relazioni studenti-insegnanti raggiungono migliori risultati nella lettura. Tuttavia, la percentuale di studenti che dicono di leggere per piacere è calata dal 69% del 2000 al 64% del 2009.

via La scuola italiana frena la caduta e inizia a riprendersi (ma lentamente) – Il Sole 24 ORE

From arctic birds to nicknames, the influence of Wales on the English language has been underestimated, says a Celtic Studies expert.

Compilers of the new online version of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) say penguin, Taffy and cariad are examples of Welsh words adopted by English. Poet Dylan Thomas is also responsible for 635 entries, they said.

Prof John Koch of the University of Wales said: “The two languages have lived side-by-side for 1,500 years.”

The OED, first published in 1884, this week relaunched itself online. It claims to be the only English dictionary that tries to trace the first known use of every sense of every word in the English language. And to prove the point its compilers have pointed to the number of entries that originated from Welsh.

The earliest recorded use of ‘penguin’ can be traced back to Wales, they said.

Apparently in spite of the fact that most penguins have black heads, the OED’s compilers said Welsh coined the term from pen meaning head and gwyn meaning white.

OED quotes the first written citation from 1577: “Infinite were the Numbers of the foule, wch the Welsh men name Pengwin & Maglanus tearmed them Geese.” [sic]

According to the OED the word ‘Taffy’, a nickname for a Welshman, has its roots in the pronunciation of Dafydd, it says.

‘Cariad’, a Welsh term of affection, is referenced as far back as the 13th century, from caru, meaning to love or woo.

Edmund Weiner, deputy editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, said Dylan Thomas was one of the most cited authors in the OED Online.

“His rich use of language has resulted in being acknowledged as the source of words and phrases such as ‘moochin’, a difficult or disagreeable person.

via BBC News – How the ancient Welsh language helped shape English

There has been growing interest in the role of literature in the English language classroom, and discourse and resources for teachers have grown exponentially over the past year or two. Following on from the highly successful conference on the role of children’s literature held in Hildesheim, Germany, in February 2010 and also to connect various disparate groups of teachers and teachers-in-training concerned with using literature, the British Council are launching this forum.

The format is simple enough. Each month we will invite either an experienced voice from the world of ELT, or an author or poet with experience of writing for and working with young people, to field a discussion. Each discussion will be moderated, and will last around three weeks. To start the proceedings we are delighted to have Alan Pulverness as our guest contributor.

We look forward to hearing what you have to say on the topics raised by our guest contributors and anticipate a lively exchange of ideas and opinions.

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/literature/blog

via Children’s literature in ELT | TeachingEnglish | British Council | BBC

Poland’s civil aviation authority is investigating whether nearly 200 pilots cheated in their English language exams.

The authority has suspended the language certificates of 185 pilots in Poland as it endeavours to find out if they used foul means to pass their fourth-level English test.

Under new international regulations that come into force at the beginning of March, only pilots who have passed the exam will be able to fly international routes.

Suspicions were raised when many pilots passed the exam in Germany – despite failing to pass in a spectacular fashion only a month before. Experts from the aviation authority claim that it was impossible for candidates to improve their language skills in such a short time.

via Polish pilots investigated for cheating English exams – Telegraph