By Anne Curzan. Two weeks ago I gave a talk to a group of University of Michigan at Ann Arbor undergraduates called “Txtng and the Future of English.” As a linguist who studies the history of the English language, I reassured the students that they are not ruining the English language, no matter what they hear from their parents or teachers or other trustworthy and concerned authorities. Some of the students looked gratified by this alternate perspective; others looked skeptical.
The changes in written English—and to a lesser extent spoken English—caused by texting and other electronically mediated communication (EMC) strike me as more interesting than worrisome. All living languages change, a fact that has worried people for generations. Benjamin Franklin’s distaste for the verbs colonize and notice now seems quaint. The recent rise of LOL and the verb friend seem to many less quaint.
We didn’t start talking or writing like the telegraph more than a 150 years ago, and we’re not going to start speaking or writing entirely in acronyms and other abbrevs now. Read more...

Par Mattea Battaglia. C’est cette année que les conséquences de la réforme du lycée, arrivée en terminale en septembre 2012, vont se faire sentir sur le baccalauréat. Sujet sensible s’il en est, aussi bien pour les enseignants que pour les élèves et leurs parents. Parmi les nouvelles épreuves, les oraux de langues vivantes inquiètent particulièrement le SNES-FSU, syndicat majoritaire parmi les enseignants du second degré, qui, dans un communiqué daté du 21 février, n’a pas hésité à titrer: « bac 2013, une galère pour les élèves et les profs ». « On ne conteste pas le bienfondé d’une évaluation des langues à l’oral, c’est la désorganisation, la précipitation dans laquelle cela se fait qui pose problème », explique Valérie Sipahimalani, secrétaire nationale du SNES en charge du secteur lycée. Lire l'article entier...

Language industry for enhancing employability
More and better work placements for language students
The Language industry promotion and visibility project LIND-Web coordinated by DG Translation has taken an important step towards bringing together the academia and industry to provide better employability prospects for the students in the fields of translation and languages.
The LIND-Web Editorial Board, which is an European Commission expert group providing their expertise in the dynamic and rapidly growing field of the language services (translation, localisation, sub-titling, terminology, ..) will be consulted in the EMT (European Master's of Translation, another project coordinated by DG Translation) selection round to optimise the employability of students in the universities selected as EMT member. To be selected, the candidate universities should make sure that their curricula include elements that will enhance the employability prospects of their students and provide support in eventual work placement programmes.

CELAN, the "Network for the Promotion of Language Strategies for Competitiveness and Employability" has just started its two-year work to encourage dialogue between the business community and language practitioners.
The network's activities include:
    Research on linguistic needs of European companies/SMEs in different sectors;
    Analysis of existing language-related services and tools;
    Development of on-line applications to support the language needs of business users.
CELAN started its activities by launching a blog for regular updates and interaction with readers inside and outside the consortium. Participating organisations are all members of the Business Platform for Multilingualism or linked to such members. The network will engage in information and awareness raising activities to guarantee a Europe-wide reach-out.
CELAN is co-funded by the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Commission. CELAN Blog.

This article was originally published by Kate Borthwick and Alison Dickens on the online Journal of e-Learning and Knowledge Society, volume 9, issue 1.
The Community Café: creating and sharing open educational resources with community-based language teachers ran from 2010 – 2011 and was a collaboration between Southampton City Council and two universities in the UK. The project’s aim was to create, publish online and share a collection of open access digital resources for community-based language teachers in the Southampton area.
The project addressed a particular problem: the scarcity of up-to-date, online resources for community languages. These languages are often learnt in informal situations, and teachers are often reliant on creating their own materials but have limited access to training. Engaging with open practice offers this group the potential benefits of improving their access to resources, enhancing digital literacy and practice, and gaining insights into alternative pedagogical approaches through using existing online repositories.
Additional documents: BorthwickDickens.

MOOCs and Language Learning seems to be a natural fit for each other. I previously wrote about the suitability between Language Learning and MOOCs, and have expanded some ideas on the topic. (I’ve also created a website that tries to communicate the LMOOC vision).
One of the reasons why Language Learning and MOOCs fit so well together is that MOOCs can create interaction. For language learners in non-target language speaking countries, this can increase the amount of target language feedback that they receive. This is a major part of the barrier in trying to learn language in an EFL setting. However, one of the challenges of increasing this feedback, is helping learners develop strategies for increasing this feedback, and guiding them in how to use this feedback effectively. A LMOOC isn’t based in Educational Technology (like many MOOCs are, making them more like conferences), but rather uses educational technology as a means for connecting.
Thus, the two main goals of the exterior LMOOC structure would be Increased Feedback and The Promotion of Autonomous Distance Educational Skills (Learner Autonomy). Read more...

Par Olivier Rollot. Grande école de « management et communication interculturels», l’ISIT a longtemps formé principalement des interprètes et des traducteurs avant de s'ouvrir à d’autres professions. Sa directrice générale, Nathalie Gormezano, analyse avec nous la place que doivent avoir aujourd’hui les langues dans l’enseignement et nous explique comment ses propres élèves sont formés.
Olivier Rollot : On dit tout le temps que les Français sont nuls en langue. Est-ce vrai ?
Nathalie Gormezano : Mais pas du tout. Les Français sont aussi bons en langues que les autres. Nous recevons des jeunes qui ont un bon niveau, sans être exceptionnel, et en cinq ans, nous les amenons à s’exprimer dans deux autres langues que le français aussi bien qu’une personne née avec cette langue. L’apprentissage des langues, c’est comme la musique, c’est une passion, tout le monde peut y arriver en travaillant.
O. R : Vous le dites, il n’y a donc pas d’impossibilité culturelle. Pour autant le niveau en langue des jeunes Français reste faible. Comment l’expliquer?
N. G : Tout simplement parce que la maîtrise des langues étrangères n’est pas encore considérée par tous comme un bagage obligatoire pour trouver un emploi. De ce fait, les langues ne sont pas encore assez valorisées. Suite de l'article...

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