Rebecca Sheehy

SLM 521

Elective 10

Translation

There are many different settings in the school day in which Internet translation services would be useful. I have listed five incidents to demonstrate the need of such services.

1. Over the past few decades, the US has seen a dramatic change in its diversity, especially in the larger cities. This causes a problem for the school systems because there are many students who are attending schools and cannot speak much or any English. Teachers are not trained in every language to modify instruction for every individual in his/her class. Translation programs, therefore, would be very beneficial to the teachers in their attempts to teach to every child, despite which language they speak. Teachers would have the means to create worksheets and assignments in the child’s own language. Perhaps then less and less ESOL students would be classified under Special Education.

2. Another situation would be during IEP, 504, or Parent-Teacher meetings. Many times the parents of a child who speaks another language speak less English than the child. If the parents do not speak much English it will be very difficult to share information about the child. This causes much confusion on all parties at the meeting. Many times translators are brought in to help facilitate the meeting, but their services can become pricey. With the decrease in funding from the government, schools all over the US are not going to be able to afford translators. Translation programs would be a less expensive way of servicing these families.

3. Translation programs not only provide an “administrative” role, they can also be employed in the classroom for student use. One way is for students whose first language is a language other than English. They can use these programs when they do not understand what is being said in class or what they are reading in a text. All they would have to do is type in the phrase they are having difficulties with and translate it to their native language for better comprehension.

4. A second use for translation programs in the classroom would be with students who are studying a foreign language. Students can type in the English text of what they want to know and translate it into the language they are studying. They can also use it if they are having difficulties in trying to translate a passage from another language into English. Without having to ask the teacher every time they hit a barrier, the students can use the program and find the answer immediately. It is also beneficial in learning sentence structures in foreign languages.

5. The last way that I am going to discuss is a social advantage. Many students who are not in classrooms where other students do not speak the same language as they do often find it difficult to make friends. There is no way of communicating between students of differing languages unless one is somewhat proficient in the other’s language. With the use of translation services, a German child and an English child or a Spanish child and an Italian child can hold a conversation.

English	German	Spanish
The new craze in dieting is low carbohydrate foods. Companies are quickly adopting the idea and producing their own low carbohydrate foods. Almost everything you can dream about is now available; from salad dressing and yogurt to bread and brownies.	Die neue Verrücktheit, indem sie Diät hält, ist niedrige Kohlenhydrat-Nahrungsmittel. Gesellschaften nehmen die Idee schnell an und erzeugen ihre eigenen niedrigen Kohlenhydrat-Nahrungsmittel. Fast alles, über den Sie träumen können, ist jetzt vorhanden; von der Salatsoße und Jogurt zu Brot und Heinzelmännchen.	La nueva manía en hacer dieta es la comida de hidrato de carbono baja. Las compañías adoptan rápidamente la idea y producen su propia comida de hidrato de carbono baja. Casi todo con el que usted puede soñar está ahora disponible; de aliño para ensalada y yogur al pan y niñas exploradoras.