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A film on OhioLINK. Could be helpful for those students studying Biblical literacy. In late-medieval England, English quietly ousted French in law and government but the move to make it God's language meant bloodshed. This enhanced DVD looks at the battle for a Bible in English, a struggle with huge impact on the language itself. Dramatic readings from successive English Bibles show the language's evolution. Location footage and original manuscripts illustrate key figures and events, such as John Wycliffe, the Lollards, and the first English Bible; William Langland's Piers Plowman; Henry V's official correspondence; the role of the Chancery or English civil service; William Caxton's printing press; William Tyndale's translation; and the King James Bible. Can be viewed using a DVD player or computer DVD-ROM drive. (50 minutes, color) Part of the "Adventures of English" series.

This essay will evaluate the factors that have contributed to the increase in the usage and status of the English language in Mongolia since the country's democratic revolution in 1990. The issue of language spread will first be addressed through a description of the economic, social and educational influences that other foreign languages, particularly Russian, have had in Mongolia in the twentieth century. The reasons for the spread of English will then be displayed by discussing the effects of globalism in the mid-1990s and by analyzing a study on the importance of learning English conducted among university students. The various functions that English now serves among the general population will then be categorized according to Kachru's framework of four linguistic functions (instrumental, regulative, interpersonal, imaginative). Lastly, the issue of nativization will be addressed through a brief examination of the lexical and syntactical modifications propagated by Mongolian English users.

A film on OhioLINK. Could be helpful for students researching bilingualism. This menu-powered DVD explores how America's rise as an economic power made it the driving force behind the spread of English in the 20th century. A world tour illustrates how English has mixed with other languages from "Franglais" in France to "Singlish" in Singapore and how the dollar's power, coupled with the lure of consumerism, has made English the international trade language. Bringing it full circle, host Melvyn Bragg returns to the British Isles to survey English as it is spoken there now, measuring the influence of American slang and vocabulary from other languages. Can be viewed using a DVD player or computer DVD-ROM drive. (50 minutes, color)

An experiment using music to teach English-as-a-second langauge to elementary aged children. All the students were native Spanish-speaking first graders. The author explains how the students are expected to learn Spanish writing and reading first but then switch to an English curriculum. She used songs and music to help them transition to English. Overall every student was successfully singing nine songs in English by the end of the experiment. Available on ERIC.ed.gov ERIC #ED371571

This essay is an overview of the theoretical, methodological, pedagogical, ideological, and power-related issues of world Englishes: varieties of English used in diverse sociolinguistic contexts. The scholars in this field have critically examined theoretical and methodological frameworks of language use based on western, essentially monolingual and monocultural, frameworks of linguistic science and replaced them with frameworks that are faithful to multilingualism and language variation. This conceptual shift affords a "pluricentric" view of English, which represents diverse sociolinguistic histories, multicultural identities, multiple norms of use and acquisition, and distinct contexts of function. The implications of this shift for learning and teaching world Englishes are critically reviewed in the final sections of this essay.

A film on OhioLINK. Could be useful background information for those researching bilingualism. Melvyn Bragg begins the story of English in Holland, finding ancestral echoes in the Frisian dialect. What follows is a chapter on survival as the English language weathers Viking and Norman invasions, vying with and eventually absorbing rival tongues. Lively settings such as village pubs and markets bring home the lasting influence of Anglo-Saxon, Old Norse, and Old French. The connection between Christianity, Latin, and an alphabet is explored, as well as the role of the language's first champion, King Alfred the Great. Nobel prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney reads from and discusses the first epic in English, Beowulf. This menu-driven disc can be viewed using a DVD player or computer DVD-ROM drive. (50 minutes, color) Part of the "Adventures in English" series.

A film on OhioLINK. Could be helpful for students researching bilingualism. When Massasoit hailed the Plymouth settlers in their own language, they might have taken it for a sign that English would dominate the New World. Packed with surprising etymologies and intriguing stories, this enhanced DVD traces the dynamic relationship between English and America, exploring the linguistic influence of westward expansion, cowboy culture, slave culture, and encounters with the French and Spanish languages. Key works examined include The New England Primer and Webster's The American Spelling Book. Can be viewed using a DVD player or computer DVD-ROM drive. (50 minutes, color)\nPart of the "Adventure of English" series.

During the 2008 Election, presidential candidates are using social networking sites to reach out to the youth. Demographers are saying this is the year that the "millennials" could determine the election with their huge numbers of registered voters. The candidates are listening and are doing whatever it takes to get the youth vote. The presidential nominees are using the new technology such as Facebook, Myspace, and YouTube to reach out to young adults. This article tells how the candidates are using different forms of technology to reach out to youth voters.

This article by Joanne Jacobs speaks about how students that speak English as a second language are their best students, and their worst students. Some of these work very hard to learn language proficiently and go on to test very highly and be very bright, others are very average and do not pass as proficient in the English language. Jacobs speaks of teachers being horrified by the numbers of students that are not proficient that have been in English speaking school systems since kindergarten. Jacobs has an interesting article and someone looking for a few good statistics would be smart by looking into this article.

Lucas describes in this detailed article that in early childhood there is noun bias. The article speaks of a study that entails 60 Filipino-English bilingual children. The children were different in how they stressed their nouns and verbs in simple sentences or phrases. Remarkably, the results show that only noun bias is shown in bilingual children's English vocabulary. The author goes very in depth with her study, and does not seem to leave anything out that is need.

A film on OhioLINK. Could be helpful for students researching bilingualism. "Amok," "boomerang," "bungalow," "bangle," "dumdum," "plonk," "assassin"?these are some of the many words that have entered English by way of colonial expansion. This enhanced DVD explores how the British Empire in its heyday exported its language around the globe and how different forms of speech and vocabulary, as well as different attitudes to English, developed out of that colonial expansion. Rich variations of dialect, accent, and slang are heard in many samples from India, the Caribbean, and Australia. Can be viewed using a DVD player or computer DVD-ROM drive. (50 minutes, color)

Lems describes the ways music has influenced her classroom. She talks about how her students are adults in an English language course. Through out the article she explains how through music based activities, positive attitude and affect, listening comprehesion, and oral and pronunciation practice helped her students become bilingual.

In this article Soto describes thirteen bilingual children and their own awareness of bilingualism in their lives by sharing conversation with the others. The study is based on 6 girls and 7 boys from Pennsylvania that speak English and Spanish. Soto goes on to speak about how their town's award winning bilingual system was taken away, and the children were very upset when they went to school and could not understand what was going on. The author makes great points and has many sources that lead to many facts in the article. It is a good study within the article that could teach one about the studies that happen within bilingualism.

In this article Pam McCollum discusses two-way bilingual programs and students who study together in two languages. It directly examines how middle school Mexican students that are enrolled in two-way bilingual programs do better in school, and usually use English over their native language of Spanish. The article shows that they analyzed these students very carefully not only in their work, but in informal settings as well. McCollum's article is, at times, a little bit hard to understand, but if read carefully a useful one.

The authors states that studying music can help performances in other non-musical areas, specifically reading. Yet they also caution that the "music-helps-you-do-English-and-math-better" philosophy may be missing some vital reasons to actually study music. They point out the positives of music and literacy but also express concerns about focusing on reading during music education classes. Full HTML available

Smith discusses how the Davis Bilingual Magnet School is very effective in and out of the classroom. The school that teaches children of many different language backgrounds using Spanish and English is highly successful through standardized test scores, performance, and various other things. Through the different teaching methods and the context of studies, students learn very thuroughly and efficiently. Smith's article states good arguments of why this school is effective and makes one believe that the Davis Bilingual Magnet School shows great importance in the city of Tuscon, Arizona.

Oladejo writes this article speaking about foreign language education in Taiwan. It describes that the government is very appalling when it comes to getting input from the public that's concerns determining the language education in Taiwan. The process they use many a times has had complaints, and the public hopes for it to be better. There are many charts that Oladejo adds to his article with results of questionaires sent out to parents. Questionaires conclude many answers that parents have regarding when English should start being taught. The author also uses many other charts to show details in his work, and his article is very well put together.

Li explains through this article the importance of parents helping their children when they are part of a language minority. Studies have shown that if children are trying to learn a second language, it is much easier to do so when their parents are using that language as well. This study was done by the author, Xiaoxia Li, on her daughter, Amy who had come to Li from Mainland China when she was twelve knowing little Enlglish. The article describes the study and the details of how Amy started learning English. Li does a very good job in this article by making everything very understandable and it makes a very good resource for parents that are trying to use two languages in the household.

A film on OhioLINK. Implications of such de facto linguistic hegemony in a world of high-tech haves and have-nots.

A film on OhioLINK. "The world is a mosaic of visions, and each vision is encapsulated by a language." Yet every two weeks, one of the world's approximately 6,500 languages dies out. What is the significance of this loss to those who speak the language as well as for the rest of humankind? Why do some languages become global while others disappear? And how are language and identity connected? In this program, linguists David Crystal, Peter Austin, and Jørgen Rischel search for the answers to those and other pressing questions as they investigate the state-and fate-of Livonian, in Latvia; Dogon, in Mali; Mlabri, in Thailand; Changsha Hua and Naqxi, in China; Pitjantjatjara and Pintupi, in Australia; and Tutunaku, in Mexico. Portions are in other languages with English subtitles. (60 minutes)

Ghislain Savoie speaks about how knowing two languages can give you discipline. He also tells us how knowing a second language can give us the upper hand in getting a job, and also how you get get a job faster, or switch faster if needed.