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September 2014
 Please note that this edition of eNNELL News is being provided to all current and past members of NNELL as a courtesy and appreciation for your support of our organization.
Table of Contents  

Become a NNELL State Representative

As a national organization, NNELL operates through a network of state representatives. You could help NNELL to continue with its mission by becoming a representative of your state. As a State Representative, you will serve as an advocate for early language learning, heighten public awareness of foreign languages in elementary and middle school education, serve as state representative for NNELL to your state language association and ensure that foreign languages in grades K-8 are recognized as a priority matter in your state. If you are interested in being more involved with NNELL and its advocacy efforts, please read the description for this position or contact NNELL's National Networking Coordinator, Marcela Summerville (msummerville@nnell.org)

 
Download PDF to view responsibilities
      
 
 

Renew Your NNELL Membership!

Renew your NNELL membership today because we have more exciting things planned for the 2014-2015 NNELL membership year! These include opportunities to:

  • Engage in the new webinars series.

  • Write an article for the upcoming issues of Learning Languages: Teaching for Global Competence and Developing 21st Century Leaders through Language Instruction.

  • Network using social media.

  • Participate in the upcoming board elections.
    If you renew before October 1, you will receive one FREE webinar from the 2012-2013 or the 2013-2014 series.

Click here to renew your membership in less than 5 minutes.

Your partner in early language learning,
Rita Oleksak
NNNELL President

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Revision of Bylaws Update

The vote on the revision of the bylaws is closed and the results are in! The revised bylaws have passed with well over the two thirds of the votes necessary. The revisions are accepted and will be implemented immediately. A special thank you to the members of the Bylaws Committee: Marcela Summerville, Dorie Perugini, Kate Krotzer, and Katherine Olson-Studler, for their time and commitment to this project. In addition to this, we thank the members for their input throughout this process and voting.

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Lead with Languages Initiative

Lead with Languages is a new campaign powered by ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) that will launch in early 2015. The Lead with Languages campaign has produced a video that emphasizes the importance of learning new languages. NNELL believes this video is a great resource for you to share with your students, and school community. To watch this video, and learn more about Lead with Languages, please visit www.leadwithlanguages.org.  

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Why Your Kids Should Learn a Foreign Language

Early Childhood Education Zone has created a great infographic that outlines the importance for children to learning a second language. This infographic is full of statistics and research that support beginning language instruction as early as possible. NNELL hopes you find this infographic useful in advocating for early language education!

 

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School Teaches Children a Rainbow of Languages

Two Russian-American women just opened the doors of "The Rainbow of Languages", where they offer foreign language immersion classes to babies as young as six months, children, youth, and adults. Both women enjoyed raising their own children bilingually and recognize the benefits of learning languages early in life. The school, located in Greenwich, Connecticut, offers a curriculum based on second language acquisition research with an emphasis on using the language through games, music, storytelling, dramatic acting, and arts and crafts. The school teaches classes in Russian, Spanish, French, Mandarin and Modern Hebrew. Italian, Arabic and Japanese instruction will soon be added. No English is allowed! Group lessons with five or fewer students cost $50 per hour and all classes are taught by native speakers. In addition to the immersion program, The Rainbow of Languages offers "Magic Carpet Nights" for children. During these three-hour workshops that are conducted in English, children are virtually transported to a foreign country, where they learn about the local culture and language through art, games, storytelling and movies. One of the co-founders stated "The research shows that kids who learn another language are much better at school, and they become more open-minded because they are learning about different cultures."  

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How We Kill Languages and Fail Our Cleverest Children

In this passionate article from an Australian TESL instructor, the author suggests that while governments focus limited educational resources on encouraging older students to pick up a new language, they are ignoring a valuable natural resource: existing bilingual speakers. As research has shown, bilingual speakers are more cognitively flexible and better at problem solving than their monolingual peers. However, when non-English speakers arrive at school, there is usually no support for their native tongue. According to the author, these students are judged solely on their ability to learn English and as a result, their competency in their native language diminishes. By focusing solely on advancing English language skills, the benefits of bilingualism diminish. The author envisions an educational system that provides language specialists at each school to help teachers incorporate linguistic and cultural adaptations to curriculum. In doing so, non-native English speakers can remain connected to their language and grow in more balanced bilingualism rather than pushing out their native language in favor of English.

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Website: Learn Chinese - Chinese Vegetables Vocabulary

In this website children follow learning vocabulary for ten vegetables in Chinese: vegetable, broccoli, lettuce, cucumber, tomato, potato, carrot, onion, bean, and spinach.

 

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Website: Fun for Spanish Teachers

This website has plenty of online resources for teaching Spanish to young learners. Free teacher tips and teacher resources include games, songs, flashcards, calendars, and more that you can download. Some materials are available for purchase.  

 

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App Review: Haiku Deck

This free app is a way to practice the names of the bones and organs in the body in Spanish. Answer the question "Where is the _____" by tapping the corresponding organ or bone. Incorrect answers are buzzed and correct answers are applauded.

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App Review: Learn Spanish

This free app provides audio practice for identifying vocabulary in Spanish for animals, fruits & vegetables, shapes, colors, numbers and the alphabet. Users listen to the audio instructions and then tap the correct image. When the correct image is tapped a larger version of the picture is presented.

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App Review: Naoplay Kids: Chiffres

This app is good for reviewing the numbers 0-9. For free you hear the pronunciation of the number when you press on the star with the number. Games and exercises cost $1.99.

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  Thank you to JNCL-NCLIS and NNELL members Janine Erickson, Tammy Dann, Kristel Saxton, Heather Hendry, Alice Charkes, Zhihong Li, Dr. Sally Hood, and Dr. Kennedy Schultz for their contributions to this publication. 

If you would like to share an interesting article, app, or teaching tool with the NNELL community in our next eNNELL News edition, please contact Dorie Perigini.

     
National Network for Early Language Learning | info@nnell.org | www.nnell.org