Innovative Technology Sites to Bridge Content for Multilingual Learners
Links included!
Are you thinking, “How can I adapt all the content for differing levels of Multilingual Learners (MLs)?”
Some schools are not structured in a way that provides content area subject courses for MLs at the beginning levels of English proficiency. You can certainly provide some comprehensible input but can only scaffold so much for those at WIDA levels 1 and 2 (pre-production and early production stages), especially in upper elementary, middle, and high school. This doesn’t mean you ignore or give up, of course. Luckily, technology has come a long way in helping to provide tools for content area translation so that MLs can get some content connected to the goals of the day.
Powerful Practices for Supporting English Learners: Elevating Diverse Assets and Identities (2021), written by Fern Westernoff, Stephany Jones-Vo, and Paula Markus, contains some fantastic ideas for using technology to bridge access to content for MLs. I’ve adapted and added to this valuable list of resources focusing on using technology that supports implementing other languages in the content classroom. These resources can provide tools for aligning with a translanguaging stance even if you don’t speak the languages of your MLs.
Here is the list:
o Binogi Canada (www.binogi.ca) is an online resource supporting secondary students in learning mathematics and science concepts through content in their dominant languages. They currently provide free online animated lessons in many languages, including Arabic, Dari, English, Finnish, French, German, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Somali, Swedish, Thai, Tigrinya, Turkish, and Ukrainian. Topics include the periodic table of elements, multiplication of decimals, food webs, and fractions. This viewing process allows MLs to access the science in their dominant language for initial conceptual understanding. With this base, they can better connect to the concepts of the class. They can also use closed captioning in whatever language might work for them.
o Google is probably the most common technological tool for educators. What might be new to you is that they provide a convenient tutorial called Google Tools for English Language Learners (https://www.techlearning.com/tl-advisor-blog/google-tools-for-english-language-learners). Some highlights include being able to translate documents into other languages though it's always good to have a proficient speaker look it over before you send it to parents. For quick, in-class translations to help with content, it's okay if it's a little.
o Most are familiar with Khan Academy (www.khanacademy.org), but you may not know that they offer a lesson in various languages. The video lessons in all areas of the curriculum are accessible with subtitles.
o Mentimeter (www.menimeter.com) is an online, interactive presentation tool accessible in three languages: English, Portuguese, and Spanish. It is also possible for students to contribute to a class-generated word cloud by providing words in their dominant languages by typing on their smartphones or iPad keyboards. Students can participate in polls, surveys, and short quizzes, unlike static PowerPoints. When studying vocabulary, MLs can contribute and discuss words from various languages.
o Scribjab (www.scribjab.com) This website and iPad application allows MLs to read and create digital stories (text, illustrations, and audio recordings) in multiple languages. ScribJab creates a space for children to communicate their stories and come to an enhanced appreciation of their multilingual resources. The software developers were two education professors, Kelleen Toohey and Diane Daganais, who have worked with MLs for years. The originators of ScribJab are two Simon Fraser University professors (Kelleen Toohey and Diane Daganais) who have worked in language education for many years. ScribJab promotes reading and writing stories in all languages and allows students to word process their books in a variety of languages. It also includes a drawing function so students can add their colorful artwork to the stories they have written.
o Vacaroo (https://vocaroo.com/) is a tool that can audio record and generates a matching QR code of the recording. How amazing is that! So, students, teachers, parents, or other school personnel can record their voices on then upload them on QR codes that can be mounted on books, magazines, letters home, or other material. The best part is that the app can playback and record audio in any language so that MLs can engage readily.
I believe any technology is only as effective as the educator implementing it.
Since interaction and integration are essential for MLs' learning, I encourage these tools to be used in pairs and small groups or with the class as a whole rather than putting MLs off to the side on a computer. Too often, this is the solution teachers decide on when they don't have other more comprehensible and interactive strategies.