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How important is English for kids?

English has fast become the world’s most widely used and commonly spoken language today and the need to learn English for kids has increased exponentially with this growth. Most countries have now embraced the English language as a common denominator in communication across a plethora of fields, from trade & finance to travel. It is this widespread use that has defined it as one of the most influential languages in the world and as such many parents prefer their children learning English as a second language.

It is important that parents teach their children English as almost every aspect of life now involves and requires some degree of English knowledge. Most businesses that handle international clientele, suppliers and business partners prefer to hire both native and non-native English speaking employees as this facilitates smooth communication in the course of their day to day activities. As such, having an excellent knowledge of English, can greatly improve the odds of finding good employment.

Apart from English for kids and its importance in the commercial arena, English is also critical in travel and tourism.

At least a fundamental knowledge of English is essential when travelling to another country to be able to ask for assistance, make conversation, etc. as part of the daily interaction with the local people.   It is interesting to note that over 900 million people around the world speak at least some level of English. A tourist or businessman with no knowledge of English will find it exceedingly hard to adjust and incorporate them into that particular countries culture.

English is also of vital importance to non-English speaking children when it comes to education. Consider a situation where a teacher does not speak the child’s native language. If both the teacher and student have no common language to communicate, then the child’s entire learning process breaks down. It is a situation that can be further exasperated if the child’s parents do not speak English as well. In the light of this, many parents will inevitably look for ways to teach themselves as well as their children English. One of the best resources available for learning English for kids is English Club TV. A visit to their web page at tv-english.club will give parents an insight into the abundance of learning material for children, especially in their “Kids Module”. Further, the site’s overall design in the format of a TV channel ensures children are engaged, and the learning process is fun and entertaining.

Taken from: http://tv-english.club/articles-en/important-english-kids/

FOR TEACHERS:

Reading images: an introduction to visual literacy

Images are all around us, and the ability to interpret them meaningfully is a vital skill for students to learn.

BY MELISSA THIBAULT AND DAVID WALBERT

“LITERACY” USUALLY MEANS THE ABILITY TO READ AND WRITE, BUT IT CAN ALSO REFER TO THE ABILITY TO “READ” KINDS OF SIGNS OTHER THAN WORDS — FOR EXAMPLE, IMAGES OR GESTURES. THE PROLIFERATION OF IMAGES IN OUR CULTURE — IN NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES, IN ADVERTISING, ON TELEVISION, AND ON THE WEB — MAKES VISUAL LITERACY, THE ABILITY TO “READ” IMAGES, A VITAL SKILL. BUT WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO READ AN IMAGE, AND HOW CAN TEACHERS HELP STUDENTS DEVELOP THE SKILLS TO DO SO THOUGHTFULLY?

Visual literacy is the ability to see, to understand, and ultimately to think, create, and communicate graphically. Generally speaking, the visually literate viewer looks at an image carefully, critically, and with an eye for the intentions of the image’s creator. Those skills can be applied equally to any type of image: photographs, paintings and drawings, graphic art (including everything from political cartoons to comic books to illustrations in children’s books), films, maps, and various kinds of charts and graphs. All convey information and ideas, and visual literacy allows the viewer to gather the information and ideas contained in an image, place them in context, and determine whether they are valid.

Like traditional literacy, visual literacy encompasses more than one level of skill. The first level in reading is simply decoding words and sentences, but reading comprehension is equally (if not more) important: teachers work to help students not only to decode words but also to make sense of what they read. That understanding requires broad vocabulary, experience in a particular content area, and critical thought, and teachers have various approaches and strategies to help students build contextual understanding of what they read.

The first level of visual literacy, too, is simple knowledge: basic identification of the subject or elements in a photograph, work of art, or graphic. The skills necessary to identify details of images are included in many disciplines; for example, careful observation is essential to scientific inquiry. But while accurate observation is important, understanding what we see and comprehending visual relationships are at least as important. These higher-level visual literacy skills require critical thinking, and they are essential to a student’s success in any content area in which information is conveyed through visual formats such as charts and maps. They are also beneficial to students attempting to make sense of the barrage of images they may face in texts and Web resources.

Visual literacy skills are already employed in a variety of disciplines. Observation, as we’ve noted, is integral to science. Critique, useful in considering what should be included in an essay in Language Arts, is also a part of examining a visual image. Deconstruction, employed in mathematical problem solving, is used with images to crop and evaluate elements and how they relate to the whole. Discerning point of view or bias is important in analyzing advertisements and works of art.

Specific visual formats require specific approaches to visual understanding. The articles provided here include media-specific techniques and resources to help students to use the information contained in various types of images, to analyze that information, and to use those types of images to build their visual communication skills.

Taken from: http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/675