Month: February 2016

Writing Systems

On By Mrs. NgaizaIn LinguisticsLeave a comment

This video looks into our written languages! Ever wonder where they came from?  Or why did writing systems develop? How have they changed as time has passed? This video goes through the varieties of systems that we developed and how different alphabets have evolved over time.

Source: Writing Systems

25 Ways to Find or Create Comprehensible Input

On By Mrs. NgaizaIn Linguistics, Uncategorized1 Comment

This article was a great find that gives ELL learners ideas on how they can learn the new language. Some of these ideas I would never have thought to recommend to an ELL student.

One great idea from the article was:

Dubbed Movies: Finding your favorite movie dubbed into the language you are learning can be an excellent source of comprehensible input. Your interest is high,  you have great amount of background knowledge and you can watch scenes or the whole movie again and again.

Click this link to see all  awesome ideas!

 

25 Maps that Explain the English Language

On By Mrs. NgaizaIn Linguistics, UncategorizedLeave a comment

English is the language of Shakespeare and the language of Chaucer. It’s spoken in dozens of countries around the world, from the United States to a tiny island named Tristan da Cunha. It reflects the influences of centuries of international exchange, including conquest and colonization, from the Vikings through the 21st century. Here are 25 maps and charts that explain how English got started and evolved into the differently accented languages spoken today.

Click the link below to get to the article by Libby Nelson on March 3, 2015:

http://www.vox.com/2015/3/3/8053521/25-maps-that-explain-english

worldlangauges.jpg

An Interesting Map Comparing Educational Levels of States in the USA with Other Countries

On By Mrs. NgaizaIn Current NewsLeave a comment

Ever wonder how your education compares with other countries? Well, the educated people at Home Snacks made a map of the United States comparing each state with a foreign country that is said to have similar education levels, using the United Nations Development Program index. Understanding this map will take knowledge of both United States and world geography, which means you’ll be most likely to get it if you live in the Northeast.

Are you surprised?

Americans like to think they’re the best when it comes to just about everything, when measured against other nations. While we’re certainly the richest, most freedom loving, and pretty much the bodyguards for the poor and defenseless, we’ve known for years that we’re certainly not the smartest country on earth.

Recently, we ranked 28th when it came to math and science scores, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

We’re really smart, people. Just not the smartest. And we’re working on it.

We thought it would be cool to align each state’s educational attainment to a country of similar intelligence.

We used the U.S. Census to get the numbers on each state’s high school graduation rate, and then compared those numbers to the education index of each country in the world, provided by the United Nations Development Program

Many things stand out. For instance, most of the northeast – considered the ‘smartest’ region in the United States – is very similar to Europe’s education levels. Check out the map below.

Source: An Interesting Map Comparing Educational Levels of States in the USA with Other Countries