The BBC World Service Trust and mobile giant Sony Ericsson are working hand-in-hand in developing English language learning tools for mobile phones in Bangladesh. The Trust which uses the media to help reduce poverty in the world and promote human rights has recognized that mobile phones will play a major role in India.

Sony Ericsson will be managing most of the work for the BBC and they will create the business plan, service and strategy specifications. They will be in charge of creating technical specifications and the RFP required for the local suppliers to work in the mentioned project. The mobile project will operate with an online learning site and television programs in Bangladesh.

It has been stated that the BBC World Service Trust has selected Sony Ericsson because of its experience in the mobile industry and its understanding of the mobile consumer habits in Bangladesh.

The statement from Ericsson is that their partnership with the BBC World Service Trust allows them to demonstrate their wide range of commercial and technical consultancy competencies. The company’s leadership in mobile systems and services, technology and applications, and understanding of the local market makes their partnership a great combination.

The project between the Trust and the mobile company is a wonderful joint venture since they will be able to cooperate and help improve the lives of many people. Using mobile phones as multimedia channels for learning not only the English language but other topics in other fields as well, can be beneficial to those who are really interested to learn.

This project is good news for those in India who are interested and in the need of learning the English language and other topics as well.

Italy is a democratic republic composed of the Italian Peninsula, Sicily and Sardinia. Known as the cradle of many civilizations, Italy had been the home of the Etruscans and Romans. It was also the birthplace of the Renaissance, astronomy, modern science, opera, and various literary, philosophical, artistic and scientific schools of thought.

Rome, which is the capital of Italy, was the center of Western civilization for many centuries. Nowadays, it remains a powerful city for being a hub of great information. Italy has evolved into a developed country and is among the top listed countries in the world for having the best quality of life,

economy, and human development. The country is also one of the organizers of the European Union and it is also a member of various international organizations such as the NATO, G8, the Central European Initiative, the European Council, and the Western European Union among others.

The beauty of Italy has enthralled the hearts of people all over the world that is why it is the fifth major tourist destination on the planet averaging at 36.5 million visitors each year. The country is the home of forty-four UNESCO World Heritage Sites making it the greatest number in a single country to date. Italy’s historical and cultural heritage contributes a lot to European heritage. The country’s reputation for being a haven of fashion, arts, culture, cuisine, and ancient civilizations make it a very desirable place not only for a vacation but also for learning the Italian language.

Italy is now a wonderful combination of the old and the new. The eclectic mix of architecture, traditions, and populace make it a unique and exquisite location for learning a lot of new things. It is, without contest, an inspiring place to learn the Italian language! Learn Italian in Italy!

A summer camp in Westside Elementary Schools aims to teach young students the Chinese culture as well as the Chinese language.

Children who have just finished kindergarten are still learning all there is to know with the English language and some of them are learning Chinese as well. 250 students will be joining the Excelling in Chinese Language Learning summer camp, which conducts a four-day activity aimed at expanding on what the students may already know about the Chinese culture.

Diane Jackson, the camp instructor, has said that they have made the program very basic for the young children since some of them have had no Chinese experience at all. Whether the camp teaches basic or non-basic material, it is trying to teach students as young as six years old a second language before they have mastered their first. According to those who are involved in the summer camp, even the youngest students seem to have few problems in learning Chinese.

Doris Grotheer, one of the instructors, said that the children do much better than even some adults do. Diane Jackson also said that the young students actually benefit from being at such a young age when they learn a new language. They are surprised at how quickly the children catch on and that the younger they are, the easier it is for them to learn a new language. By the end of the week, the instructors expect that everything the children have been taught they have pretty much taken in their system.

The Mandarin Chinese program has been funded by the Foreign Language Assistance Grant for the past two years. FLAP funded a rotation of two years through the district’s schools. The grant funded teaching positions which the district will not fund after the current fiscal year due to budget restraints. Yuan Yu, one of the teachers funded by the FLAP grant and an instructor in the summer camp, has said that she has enjoyed working with young students and said that learning about the Chinese culture will benefit them in the future.

The United States and China need to learn more about each other and language is the medium that helps people learn more about each other’s culture. The teachers who are working as instructors in the summer camp went through an intense training session in advance of the camp.

The English language is one of the languages in the world which people learn in order to improve themselves and their lives. It may be challenging to communicate in English especially if you are not a native speaker of the language. However, the challenge is easier to face if you learn the language in a place where it is spoken as a native tongue. Why not consider learning English in the language schools in Ireland?

Ireland is country rich in culture, history, and folklore. It is a great destination for English language learning not only because English is its native language but also for the interesting reasons that make it a beautiful country. Since Ireland has become a popular destination for English language learners, it now offers English quality language schools which cater to the needs of those who want to learn the English language.

Most of the towns and cities of Ireland have many excellent quality English language schools. The perfect combination of the urban and countryside areas of the country will inspire you to learn English and explore the wonders of the land. Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway are among the numerous places where the English language schools are located and the atmosphere of each city is unique with an eclectic mix of traditional and modern structures, customs, ideas and people.

The language schools in Ireland have varying methods and programs in propagating the learning of English language. Many offer intensive courses in groups and some offer one-to-one tutorials to those who would want to have a more focused approach to English language learning. Most language schools offer extra curricular activities which immerse language learners into natural settings where they can develop their English language skills by interacting with native English language speakers. Excursions, sports, and other activities which enable them to interact with fellow English language learners and English natives are usual staples in language programs and they could be really helpful in motivating the learners to become fluent in the language.

The language schools in Ireland employ qualified and professional English language teachers and the schools are set in safe buildings and locations with traditional and modern facilities essential for English language learning. Language schools also arrange for the accommodations of the English language learners who enroll in their programs. Accommodations vary from home stay to dormitories to country homes.

If you would want to have a unique language learning experience in a country regarded as one of the best destinations to learn English, prepare yourself and learn English in the language schools of Ireland!

Today I will be introducing Annie, she is an expert language teacher, who has experience in teaching Mandarin and English. She will be writing a post in our blog once every two months, so that we can have accurate and helpful information regarding learning languages.

Also, we will be writing articles in her blog about learning spanish, if you are interested in any of these languages it will be helpful to follow these sessions.

Author: Hanifa (Annie) Cook

The pleasure is mine. I have always thought when you start to learn languages, the entire world population is your community. You will meet people from all walks of life. You willfid yourself immersed in the wonder of human existence because the languages they speak shape their civilisation. My journey to explore the world of languages using the internet as my vehical for transport, has now reached Honduras, Spain on this site where Paul spends most his time.

I come from Singapore and I speak 4 languages, Mandarin, English, Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Melayu. I also speak Hokkien, a Chinese dialect. These languages have been with me for as long as I have lived; I started learning them since I was a toddler. The Asian culture is rich and diverse. There are so many ways to approach learning about Asia that foreigners who intend to come to Asia find themselves preparing months ahead of their travel to get acquainted with the language and culture from numerous books.

It will be my great pleasure to give you tips on how to approach dealing with the Asian languages principally Mandarin, Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Melayu. I will be writing every two months on this. Asia is emerging very quickly in the world economy. Singapore has the world best airport and seaport; China is the world’s most populated country with India coming in 2nd; Malaysia, Thailand and many more countries are coming together more quickly because of globalisation.

Singapore’s national language is Malay and the first language of the people is English, which is also used as the state language to administer the country’s day to day activities. The education system is one of the most successful in the world today. Why? It will take months if not years to discover the secrets behind the success of one of Asia’s best. In this regard, I will focus on language works.

When we work with Asian languages, we need to have to first strike a good balance in our learning skills. You have to start to slow down and work with the pace of the language because Asian languages are poetic, passionate and bound with traditions. Unlike English where a few simple words such as please and thank you can switch a sentence from being direct to formal, the Asian languages attach a greater meaning when these words are used in their language. If you are intrigued with Asian languages, you will have to explore the formal and informal greeting phrases and common expressions. Asian people do not take these phrases and expressions casually; you notice Japanese people bow to one another when they greet, Thai people put their palms together and bow lightly too, Malay Muslims kissed the hands of their elders and those they respect etc. No wonder when you want to travel to Asia, you have to prepare yourself months ahead of your travel!!

I would therefore like to begin writing about greeting phrases in my next article. Please do not hesitate to offer your suggestions and leave your comments! Sampai Kita Berjumpa Lagi. (Until we meet again next time.)

Dear Readers,

The bab.la and Lexophiles team have considered us as one of the best blogs among 473 nominations for the top 100 language blog 2009.

Lexophiles bases itself in three criteria for ranking the blogs for this competition: content, consistency and interactivity.

Content: The content is analysed and determined if it is original, if it has depth of postings and if the authors incorporate multimedia such as videos and pictures.

Consistency: The blogs need to be active, frequent postings give higher schore as well as regularity of postings.

Interactivity: The blog needs to give uptions to the reader to interact with him, not only through the comments but also, by a contact page, twitter, rss-feeds, facebook, share the blog via bookmark button, etc.

Lexophiles arranges this competition by category:

The competition is divided into four categories:

1. Language learning: Blogs about the language learning process, difficulties with or discussion about learning a language.
2. Language teaching: Blogs discussing languages from the perspective of a teacher.
3. Language technology: Blogs discussing technology as part of the language learning process.
4. Language professionals: Blogs by people using languages in their profession, such as translators or interpreters.

We have selected to participate in the first category of Language Learning and 50% of the final score will be based on user voting, so please vote for us by clicking on the link below:

The voting phase starts today and ends July 28.
Thanks to you all!

We have already read many articles on how good learning languages is for young children, and now another research has found out that teaching young children to speak a second language is really good for their young minds.

Barbara Lust and Sujin Yang, researchers from the Cornell Language Acquisition Laboratory (CLAL) have found that children who learn a second language can maintain attention despite outside stimuli better than children who know only one language. Many concerns in the past regarding language learning for young children included language confusion, cognitive deficit or language delay were refuted by the research.

Lust, a developmental psychologist has said that learning a second language is important since it is responsible for selective and conscious cognitive process to achieve goals in the face of distraction and plays a key role in academic readiness and success in school settings. Lust says that “Cognitive advantages follow from becoming bilingual and these cognitive advantages can contribute to a child’s future academic success.”

The researchers say that the most effective ways to learn a second language is to put the young children in situations where they are surrounded by the second language. Yang, who is now a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto at Scarborough and at New York University in Toronto, has stated that they found that children learning a second language in an immersion setting show an overall success rate of grammatical knowledge similar to English monolinguals. They have also found that the earlier that a child learns a second language, the more likely the child will quickly achieve native-like language proficiency.

For more than thirty years, Barbara Lust has been exploring language acquisition in young children across more than twenty different languages and cultures, studying which aspects of language acquisition are learned and which are biologically endowed, when and how language acquisition begins, and how multiple language acquisition affects cognitive development in children.

Lust has said that one of the greatest accomplishments of human development is learning a language. Children are remarkable for being well equipped since birth to accomplish the complex task of learning language. For five years, Lust has been studying the effects of bilingualism in young children with Yang who led a series of studies with children aged from three to six and comparison to adults. The two researchers have already co-authored several papers.

The researchers’ collection of multilingualism projects together with many researches from other laboratories across the world affirms that children can learn more than one language and they will even do so naturally if surrounded by the languages.
Lust, Yang, the CLAL and VCLA (Virtual Center for the study of Language Acquisition) are also looking at longitudinal case studies of several young children acquiring English for the first time at three years of age through immersion in local nursery schools.

Here are some shared tips on how to teach a child a second language:
• Surround the child with more than one language through conversations and social groups using different languages; the earlier you expose children to languages, the better
• Keep home or heritage language when a second language is being learned outside the home
• Promote reading and storytelling in multiple languages
• Expose children to multilingual settings and give them many opportunities to play with children who speak the second language that they are learning
• Present children with fun and interactive language learning atmospheres in both language and often with children of similar age (music, film, dance)
• Maintain a positive attitude toward languages and cultures that children learn.

The British Academy argues that a GSCE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) should be a compulsory requirement for placement at a university. The Academy also says that more must be done to encourage young people to develop language skills.

A report on languages and research says that poor language skills prevent the United Kingdom from remaining a “world-class hub of research” and may damage the country’s economy.

Language Matters, which is the British Academy report, assesses what impact a decline in modern language is having on the United Kingdom as a research base. The report says that a lack of language skills means that UK researchers are less able to compete with their counterparts in other counters. In the global world of research, serious shortcomings and deficits undermine the government’s objective of positioning the United Kingdom as a hub of international research.

The British Academy praises the decision by University College London to require all undergraduates from the year 2012 to have a GCSE or equivalent qualification in a modern language. Students who are unable to meet this requirement will be required to take at least a half-course unit in a foreign language as part of their chosen degree.

The Academy believes that other universities in the UK will follow the example set by UCL. It would encourage students who intend to go to university, but would otherwise have been deterred from language study, to take up foreign language learning. It also sends a powerful message to schools about the importance universities place on language learning. “GCSE and A-level entry requirements for admission to individual courses are for each university to decide in line with their admissions policies,” said a spokesman for the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills in England.

Language learning in the United Kingdom has been in a decline for several years. The British Academy report states that in 2001, twenty-two percent of students in England did not take a GCSE in a language. By the year 2008, the percentage rose to 56 percent. The report said that the government’s then decision in 2004 to make languages optional for pupils in England from the age of fourteen only aggravated the decline.

The report says that A-level language entries had decline by twenty-eight percent between 1996 and 2007. The loss of A-level candidates had led to a decline in the number of students taking language degrees which resulted in the closure of as many as a third of university language departments in seven years.

Students in Wales are allowed to drop languages for Key Stage 4. In Northern Ireland a revised curriculum introduced in 2007 requires students to study a language in the first three years of secondary education but not as GCSE level. Schools in Scotland did not have languages as compulsory courses since 2001.

Schools are expected to offer students the chance to study a modern language no later than Primary 6 until the end of Secondary 3. The government has set a target of all primary school students in England getting a chance to study foreign languages by 2010.

Learning languages is enjoyable and interesting aside form being beneficial. Over the years many people have attested to the importance of learning languages and the role of languages in improving oneself. Many are interested in learning a language but wonder which among the many languages in the world should one learn? A lot of people are already learning English, Spanish, Chinese, Italian, Japanese, French, and Arabic and some are learning German.

German is not the usual first choice a language learner picks among a roster of languages. There are many reasons why one should choose to learn German and the main one is that there a lot of German speakers in different parts of the world not only in Germany, Australia and Switzerland! Why should you learn German? The following are some reasons why you should:

• Travel. Traveling has its various advantages and it will be more enjoyable if you speak the language of the place where you are going. Learning German will equip you as you wander in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria and also in countries in Europe where German is used as a second or third language. Knowing German for travel purposes will help you survive the places you visit by having the ability to communicate with the locals and knowing what the signs and directions mean.

• Culture. If you learn German you will have a better knowledge of the German culture. A rich cultural, artistic, and intellectual heritage awaits you once you know how to communicate in German. Some of the greatest works of art, music, literature, philosophy, engineering, architecture, film and research in the world were created and discovered by German language speakers. Beethoven, Freud, Einstein, Goethe were among the great people who walked the earth and produced significant works in German. Being able to access their works in the original language they are produced and not through translations will make you appreciate their culture more.

• Business. Germany is one of the leading exporters and most industrialized countries in the world. Most German businessmen have knowledge in several languages yet reaching out to them in the German language will give you a better advantage compared to those who cannot communicate in German. Learning German and transacting business with your potential partners or clients in their language will let them appreciate the effort you exert and make them realize that you are indeed serious with business.

• Tourism Industry. Having the ability to communicate in German is essential in the tourism industry. If you are looking forward to work in this industry and in countries where German is spoken, it is better that you learn German in order to have an edge over those who don’t speak the language. You can also serve as a local guide whenever there are German-speaking tourists traveling in your place since you will be able to communicate with them.

Those stated above are just few of the reasons why you should learn German. If you have your own personal reasons and you are interested to learn German in Germany or learn German in Austria, or learn German in Switzerland check out our site for great programs!