The Language Island Blog: Language News

Showing posts with label Language News. Show all posts

Monday, March 29, 2010

Big Change for Language Education in CA Schools

On behalf of the CTLA Executive Director Lorraine D'Ambruoso:

ATTENTION WORLD LANGUAGE TEACHERS:

Assemblymember Warren Furutani has returned with his bill - AB 2446. This bill, if passed, will enable students to substitute Career / Technical Education courses for world languages and the arts to meet their high school graduation requirement in this area. We need to become as unified as possible in opposing this bill. Please contact your Assemblymembers ASAP and request that they oppose this bill. Time is critical here.

A special appeal to our colleagues from district 55, representing Long Beach, Carson, Lakewood and Wilmington, etc: PLEASE be sure to contact Mr. Furutani and inform him that you oppose this bill since it takes away a key 21st. Century Skill to enable California's students to compete in the global economy. Legislators respond much more favorably to messages that come directly from their constituents, so it is critical that you contact him. His e-mail address is Assemblymember.Furutani@assembly.ca.gov. DISTRICT OFFICE:4201 LONG BEACH BLVD., SUITE 327, LONG BEACH, CA 90807 TEL: (562) 989-2919 (562) 989-2919

If you do not know who your assembly members are, simply go to http://www.legislature.ca.gov and type in your zip code. And voilà! you will have your contact information. If you have sent a letter to CTA, just modify it for Furutani, or your own Assembly member. If you have time, please cc all the members of the Assembly Education Committee.

Please do this ASAP. And if you need ammunition to support your request, just go to the CFLP web site and download Duarte Silva's new policy brief on the academic and economic benefits of world language and culture education. It is a very powerful and compelling case for world language instruction, and it will have more than you could possibly use.

But if you need more, visit the CLTA web site and read the article Advocacy Chair Nicole Naditz wrote "Skills for the 21st Century" which is also a valuable resource. No, I have not provided a template. We cannot make it seem as if we are all sending the same letter, which tends to happen with sample letters!

Thank you,

CLTA Advocacy Committee

Lorraine D'Ambruoso
Executive Director, CLTA
1636 Fruitwood Ct
San Jose, CA 95125
(408) 264-6996 (Office)
(408) 448-5356 (Home)

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Seeing Language Through Google-Colored Goggles

As The Irish Times puts it, "word is getting out about translation," especially when Google is involved. Google has announced its latest application, Google Goggles, a visual search engine that works with Google Translate to "read" an image with foreign language text and translate it instantly. This is reminiscent of some of the new ATM machines where you can now deposit a check without entering any dollar amount and moments later see an image on-screen of the check next to the blinking message "Would you like to deposit X dollars?" It's a little bit like magic, a little bit like mind reading; in fact, it's almost more believable that a person is sitting inside the ATM, quickly typing in the dollar amounts of checks as they are deposited.

Likewise, The Irish Times points out in their article that Google's language translation technology is still a little too good to be true, and translators worldwide should not be contemplating a career change just yet. While the technology is exciting, and automated translation tools can be a quick way to find out how the word "cat" is spelled in 10 different languages, difficulties occur as soon as you attempt to auto-translate language in context. Don't believe it? Try using Google Translate to give you the correct translation for the Spanish imperative "eat," conjugated as if spoken by a parent to a child. It will provide you with the translation "coma" which is actually the "el, ella, ud" form of the imperative, as opposed to the correct "tu" form of "comer," which is "come." Sure enough, if you adjust your entry to "You eat!" you end up with something closer, "¡Usted come!" But still, it's far from perfect. There's no need to "trick" a human translator, as he or she would be able to see the context that was implied, and translate accordingly. For that reason, at Language Island we still prefer the human to the machine when it comes to language translation.

The verdict: Google Goggles may be a great accessory for busy travelers, but an unfashionable choice when it comes to teaching language effectively to children.

You can read articles on Google Goggles by clicking on the following links:

*Word Getting Out About Translation

*A Hands-On Tour: Google Goggles Visual Search

*Google Goggles to Translate Text in Photos