Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Did You Know video
The "Did You Know" video was eye-opening. It really goes to show how far the educational system in this country has to come just to keep pace with other countries. Aside from the technology issues that we have to address in order to compete, I have always felt that one of the U.S' weaknesses is that most of our citizens are single lingual and are students, although taught another language in school, are really not bilingual due to the school system. Most truly "bilingual" students are bilingual because another language is spoken at home. In most other countries citizens are at least bilingual and many countries are multilingual. I have a friend from Italy who speaks 5 languages, English, Italian, French, German, and Spanish---and this was not uncommon in his country. Although giving this some extra thought, maybe we don't have to be bi or multilingual, if we communicate via computers, there are programs that will automatically translate the information into the receiver's language. Things that make you go hmmmm....
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4 comments:
Great posting! You are so correct. Technology can bring a new dimension to bilingual teaching.
Take a look at this link:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FCG/is_3_31/ai_n6332801
I checked out the website and particularly liked an research paper that delved into the reasons why Taiwanese students do so much better in math than American students. Surprisingly, the Taiwanes students "fear" the repercussions of what will happen if they fail and American students tend to become demotivated b/c of their parents' and society's attitudes towards (dislike of) math! Interesting!
That is interesting.
Also, if you notice...this is a new field of research. Something to think about when you continue your education and research (possibly doctoral school?).
I was very impressed with ths video also.It was very insightful. I was also very impressed by the statement you made, "if we communicate via computers, there are programs that will automatically translate the information into the receiver's language." You certainly are atuned to the pulse of the internet. Yes they don't call it the World Wide web for nothing!
I very much enjoyed reading your blog on this "Did you Know Video."
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