#LanguageIsLimitless
This week’s Google Alert introduced me to a new Facebook group that was created to support and encourage world language teachers called #LanguageIsLimitless. This group was created by Carnegie Learning as a place for teachers to share ideas with one another and share their challenges so that experts from Carnegie Learning can offer resources and support. It is modeled after the successful LONG + LIVE + MATH Community which was started in October 2017 and now has over 7,000 members. The mission and vision of #LanguageIsLimitless includes powerful statements such as “We believe that learning a language is critical to a student’s success in an increasingly interconnected global society” and “We believe in expanding our students’ worldviews and shedding a light on the products, practices, and perspectives of other cultures and our own.” Joining the #LanguageIsLimitless community not only gives one access to the Facebook group, but members also receive a monthly newsletter by email with a blog of strategies to use in the classroom.
I requested to join the Facebook group and was accepted in less than a day. This group was just started in February, but there are already a few valuable articles and videos that have been shared. I belong to several Facebook groups for world language teachers and German teachers. Given the recent school closures and the uncertainty of how long we might be closed, these groups are a great resource for teachers to share ideas and online resources with each other for remote teaching and learning. One of the more interesting items that stuck out to me on the #LanguageIsLimitless Facebook page was an infographic titled “Ranked: The 100 Most Spoken Languages Around the World”. Not only did the infographic give the information in the title, but it also compared the total speakers of each language to the number of native speakers of each language. It was no surprise to me that the English language had the biggest difference between those two amounts, meaning that many people are considered proficient in the English language but it is not their native language. In fact, only 33% of English speakers are native speakers, compared to the 2nd most spoken language of Mandarin Chinese where 82% are native speakers, the 3rd most spoken language of Hindi with 55% native speakers, and the 4th most spoken language of Spanish with 86% native speakers. This data supports the topic of last week’s unit of “English as lingua franca”, where the English language is used as the common means of communication for speakers of different first languages.
Resources:
Carnegie Learning Launches Community to Connect World Language Educators. (2020, March 12). Retrieved from https://finance.yahoo.com/news/carnegie-learning-launches-community-connect-130000304.html
Ghosh, I. (2020, February 15). Ranked: The 100 Most Spoken Languages Around the World. Retrieved 2020, March 17, from https://www.visualcapitalist.com/100-most-spoken-languages/?fbclid=IwAR0NGvLTzy0y3jF5T-rRdlH4bHuaX0qHSyRGnPg3sxxARsiZsYzh6RY9GF4
And bam, a new language community to join! Thanks for sharing. After reading your blog post, I immediately went to my phone to find the group and join it. I love finding new resources and as a result of this blog project, find myself enjoying reading articles and other blogs relating to language teaching. I like how this is connected to Carnegie Learning too! These communities, as you mentioned, are great during these uncertain school closure times. I like reading the ideas presented by other teachers, but I must admit that I am beginning to feel overwhelmed by all of the resources and lack of explicit direction about how this online optimal enrichment should look. Thanks for sharing! Hope to connect with you in the FB group too! :)
ReplyDeleteThis Facebook group sounds to be an extremely useful resource, especially now! I love how there is a newsletter piece on top of the information that is shared in the group. I'm in a few Facebook groups for primary teachers and I find them to be so helpful with new ideas and helpful tips. This group sounds like it's right up that alley. I never really paid much attention to infographics until a previous course, now I live for finding them. They catch the eye and serve information in quick pieces. Definitely helps bring this full circle when researching or needing information. Thanks for sharing your new group!
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