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This is a great set of language resources and games for learning Mandarin Chinese. Topic range from greeting, family, eating, parts of the body and more. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Mandarin+%26+Chinese+culture

The great firewall of china comes to the US via Bing. It looks like Bing is filtering Chinese language searches in the US to match more what someone would see INSIDE China. This is pretty disturbing but also points to the challenges of creating different "filters" by country and also knowing where people are coming from (due to the use of proxies.)

If you need "proof" of the merit of journalism programs, look no further than the "enemy" that has been the excuse for killing many journalism programs -- test scores. Read this NCTE position paper about journalism in the curriculum which states: "It is important to note that a body of research provides data showing that students who participate in journalism programs do better on testing and college language arts courses. In Journalism Kids Do Better (Dvorak, Lain, Dickson), research shows students who take journalistic writing courses score higher on the Advanced Placement English Language and Composition exam than students who take only AP or honors English courses. They also score higher on college entrance exams such as the ACT. "We've done a number of research studies that show that high school journalism is equal to or exceeds standard English [courses], Dvorak said. "Journalism students' writing skills, their sensitivity to audience, their use of grammar, punctuation, spelling, their concern with accuracy, their use of sources -- all of these things tended to be significantly higher in their performances."" I would also argue that many students who are not reached by AP or honors courses can be highly engaged in journalistic pursuits. If you want a strong writing program, make sure you have a school newspaper. Share this with your newspaper and annual staff advisors to help reinforce the merit of journalism programs with your board of education and administrators.

Guide to getting started with languages with younger pupils.

Introducing the language of Shakespeare

language arts warm ups for every day

language arts warm ups

language lovers, tools, resource, games, tests... great site!

Excellent blog resource concerning the need for Modular style programming versus Procedural style regardless of the language being used. Good reference for educators teaching programming languages to students.

"I've written extensively about how I use online video games with English Language Learners. They're great language-development activities when students play them by following "walkthroughs" (instructions on how to "win"). Here are four new ones, along with their walkthroughs:"

Game Classroom is an educational games website catering to the K-6 market. Game Classroom offers mathematics games and language arts games. Games can be found by selecting a grade level and then a subject area. Both the mathematics and language arts categories are subdivided into specific focus areas. Some of the games are unique to Game Classroom and some are games that are used on other sites.

"This blog has been set up to keep you up-to-date about the Language Teacher Education (LTE) Group at the University of Manchester. "

Ted Talks for Language Lovers.

Blog post written by speech language pathologist

This is a beautifully designed resource for learning English through the learner's native language. Because the resources teach the same English, it is ideal for using with English classes with learners from all over the world. The flash resources are great and the lessons are arranged in categories. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/English+As+An+Additional+Language

Timeline Tool 2.0 Recently improved from Timeline 1.0, The Timeline Tool 2.0 is a web- based tool that allows an instructor to construct an interactive timeline with audio and visual effects.  Multimedia Learning Object Authoring Tool enables content experts to easily combine video, audio, images and texts into one synchronized learning object.  Handwriting Toolis a language learning tool designed to help students learn to write and use asian characters. Vocabulary Memorization Platform Image Annotation Tool allows instructors to upload images and quickly create text boxes referring to parts of a diagram, painting, or photo. The tool will provide a link to the annotated image which can then be distributed to students.  Language Pronunciation Tool

New longitudinal study. "University of Montreal researchers now believe parental behavior may play a factor in the link between verbal frustrations and aggression. Physical aggression in toddlers includes frequent hitting, kicking, and a tendency to bite or push others. "Since the 1940s, studies have observed an association between physical aggression problems and language problems among children and adolescents. It was also demonstrated around ten years ago that physical aggression problems arise in early childhood when language develops."

"I have always believed that reading has a significant impact on our understanding and appreciation of the world. As both a life-long passionate reader and an experienced English Language Arts teacher, I have witnessed first-hand the impact that reading has on the ability of learners in terms of comprehension, grammar, empathy, confidence, vocabulary and expression. This has however, only ever been phenomenological through informal observations in the classroom, and in an effort to incorporate sustained silent reading (SSR) as a regular, valid and essential practice, I have embarked upon this research in order to determine the impacts that daily reading has on middle-school learners, not only in terms of English Language Arts, but also across the curriculum."