Forget Classrooms - Go Online for New Languages

Two things: the importance of bilingualism is growing and classrooms are going digital. Combined, these two things reveal that more than ever people are migrating to the web to learn another language. Studies show that in the U.S. alone there are increasing demands for interpreters or employees well-versed in Spanish, Arabic or Chinese. And public schools and libraries are more than happy to be the frontrunners in accommodating that demand.

According to KFYR-TV, students in Bismarck grade school are using the online program Rosetta Stone to learn Spanish. The program keeps students immersed by receiving instructions via headset and associating pictures with phrases without an English translation. Rosetta Stone is already available to consumers, but it’s a hint of a trend on the increased accessibility of language learning. Seattle public libraries are going for a different approach with LiveMocha, another online language learning service.

LiveMocha and Seattle public libraries are going to be the testing grounds for a nation-wide launch to provide free-language learning services to library patrons. Already the service is available to all 600,000 Seattle library regulars from at home or 28-hosting libraries.

“Livemocha is like a giant World Atlas filled with people and languages, and we encourage our members to become virtual tourists through language and cultural exploration,” explained Livemocha CEO Michael Schutzler.

Digital accessibility is increasingly becoming the new norm— and so is the demand to speak more than one language. Thankfully, the means for meeting the demand are mounting for those with a computer, internet access and a will.

*Source: KFYR-TV,  Tech Flash

Government needs to improve foreign language capabilities

Senators are exploring ways to improve U.S. agencies' ability to understand and translate foreign languages, as experts and government reports express continuing concerns that the foreign-language deficiencies may undermine national security.

"Changing threats to U.S. national security as well as the increasing globalization of the U.S. economy have greatly increased federal agencies’ needs for personnel proficient in foreign languages," the senator's office said in a release.

The concerns come on the heels of two Government

Accountability Office (GAO) reports from 2009 that found that some U.S. agencies were ill-equipped in foreign-language translation. The hearing will be one of many in the years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, which highlighted a shortage of foreign-language expertise in the government.

One GAO report found that the Defense Department lacked a strategic plan for addressing language skills. Meanwhile, the other found that 31 percent of State Department officials in language-heavy posts were not qualified for their positions in 2009, up two points from 29 percent in 2005.

Experts and officials say that agencies have made varying levels of progress in bolstering their language capabilities in the last decade. But they add that there is no single quick fix and that the problem runs deep, with a lack of interagency coordination and not enough emphasis on foreign languages in U.S. education.

"The U.S. education system ... simply has not made the investment in language required to provide the government with an adequate pool of linguistic expertise from which to recruit to meet its needs," Richard Brecht, executive director of the Center for the Advanced Study of Languages at the University of Maryland, said in written testimony at a 2004 House Armed Services Committee hearing.

Homeland Security spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said in a statement that the department, which fulfills its language needs through hiring, training and contracting, "is considering the implementation of a more consolidated approach to the Department’s diverse foreign language needs."

Read more at http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/102833-government-still-trying-to-catch-up-on-foreign-language-capabilities