English Language Learners / Dual Language Learners / Multicultural Education Support – Language Lizard Blog

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Families, Schools,

THE BILINGUAL CHILD MONTH IS HERE AGAIN!

It is that time of year to celebrate: The bilingual child month is here! We are delighted to have the opportunity to celebrate this wonderful month with you! Being bilingual is fun and fabulous – what a perfect reason to celebrate it! The best part of this celebration is that it doesn’t take much effort to focus on bilingualism: share a bilingual book with your students, visit an international district in a nearby city, or hang out together talking about the different............. CONTINUE READING
Families, Libraries, Schools,

BILINGUAL BOOK PROMOTION LAUNCHED ON INTERNATIONAL LITERACY DAY!

To celebrate International Literacy Day, Language Lizard is launching its Bilingual Book Promotion which will last until the end of October.  Visit the Language Lizard website to learn more about this promotion and how you can receive free bilingual books! The theme for the 2012 International Literacy Day is literacy and peace. As the UNESCO website states: “Literacy contributes to peace as it brings people closer to attaining individual freedoms and better understanding the world, as well as preventing or resolving............. CONTINUE READING
At Home, Families,

TOP BILINGUAL BOOKS FOR SUMMERTIME READING

When it comes to choosing bilingual books to share with our little ones during the summer, the choices seem endless. Who can decide on just a few when there are so many to choose from? To help you pick the right bilingual books for your family this summer, we have put together the following lists based on some popular topics. We hope you will find just the right books to make your summertime as enjoyable (and bilingual) as possible. Feel free to head............. CONTINUE READING
At Home, Dual Language, Families,

BILINGUAL CHILDREN: SUMMER TRAVEL ACTIVITIES

Summer is a wonderful time of year to travel: Children are out of school and the warm days beacon for lazy hours at the beach or walks through cool forests. Whether we are traveling by land, air or sea, we can make bilingualism part of every bilingual child’s summertime adventures. Both parents and teachers can engage bilingual children in fun travel activities, whether it is during a bus ride with a summer class or as a family on the way to visit............. CONTINUE READING
Dual Language, ELLs / DLLs, Families,

BILINGUAL CHILDREN: BENEFITS OF LEARNING TO READ IN THE HOME LANGUAGE

We only learn how to read once. This is true for all of us: monolingual, bilingual or multilingual. Once we figure out how literacy works, it is with us forever. The best part about bilingual children learning to read is that once they figure it out in one language, they can transfer their literacy to their other language(s)! It is a feat that can be mastered in leaps and bounds in any of a number of languages once the process is underway. As............. CONTINUE READING
At Home, Families,

TEACHING CHILDREN LANGUAGES: BENEFITS & STRATEGIES

The benefits of bilingualism has been a hot topic in recent years. Magazines, newspapers and blogs extol the fascinating ways in which the bilingual brain effortlessly manipulates more than one language at a time, working more effectively and efficiently than a monolingual one on specific types of tasks. Thanks to their brain’s more robust executive control system (which comes from switching off the language that is not needed), bilinguals are believed to have better skills in tuning out distractions, which means that............. CONTINUE READING
Families, Schools,

$300 BILINGUAL BOOK GIVEAWAY!

Language Lizard is giving away $300 worth of bilingual book gift certificates! There are four different ways to qualify for this giveaway so make sure to go to Language Lizard’s BILINGUAL BOOK GIVEAWAY page and find out how you can enter. It is easy! With books in over 40 different languages, you are sure to find something perfect for your children, your students and/or your school! So enter today! Good luck!   .......... CONTINUE READING
At Home, Community Support, Families,

SUPPORTING BILINGUALISM: 4 REASONS PARENTS SHOULD SPEAK HERITAGE LANGUAGES AT HOME

Although the United States has been dubbed “the graveyard of languages” for its lack of heritage language support, today’s children’s futures need not be so bleak. Given the right encouragement, immigrant families can pass on the best of both worlds to their children: a home language in addition to the community language. For many decades there has been a common misconception that immigrant families will help their children most by completely switching to English in the home. The belief is that the............. CONTINUE READING
At Home, Classroom, Families, Schools,

BILINGUAL CHILDREN: 5 TIPS FOR USING LANGUAGE IN CONTEXT

There are so many wonderful ways for our children to learn languages today. Online programs offer interactive multimedia opportunities that we could have only dreamed of having when we were young. Bilingual books and DVDs can be found in many libraries around the country, and children’s language learning classes abound. What parents and teachers sometimes forget is the value of context when it comes to learning a language. Flash cards and online vocabulary games can be fun, but they don’t offer the............. CONTINUE READING
Families, Schools,

TRADITIONS AROUND THE WORLD: CELEBRATE AUTUMN

Display for Día de los Muertos (or Day of the Dead in English), a holiday celebrated mainly in Mexico and by people of Mexican heritage living in the United States and Canada. The holiday is dedicated to the remembrance of friends and relatives who have died. The air is becoming cold and crisp. Leaves are turning a vibrant gold, red and purple. Pumpkins dot the countryside and hay rides are a dime a dozen. Autumn is in full swing. In addition to the............. CONTINUE READING
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