Many big companies, museums and councils translate their websites in numerous languages but one organisation leads by a mile. The Jehovah's witnesses website has been translated into a staggering 805 languages and they are still adding more. For obvious reasons that is not the site I use for the following activity but many others can be easily …
Month: January 2017
Portraying Proverbs
A fun translanguaging activity with the more advanced language learners is to explore different proverbs in different languages. A great introduction to this is the painting of Pieter Bruegel the Elder called “Netherlandish Proverbs" in which approximately 112 identifiable proverbs and idioms are hidden in the scene. This easily generates discussion and proverb exchanges for a whole lesson and …
The Multilingual Odd One Out
Show your learners three or four target words in some of the languages that are spoken in the classroom. First ask the students who don't speak that language whether they recognize the languages and perhaps the meaning of the words. If not, ask the students who do speak that language to clarify. At this moment, if time allows, get …
How similar are these words?
Cognates are an obvious bridge to the English language and are particularly common in content areas such as Maths, Science, and Social Studies. However, many English words might also be related through other word forms or word associations. To introduce new content-related academic vocabulary, ask your students to group them in three categories: Cognate, Somehow …
EAL-time 