EMPLOYABILITY AND EDUCATION: MULTILINGUALISM AS A TRADE

Michael Smith

Overview

Educational context of the 21st century Inspiring Education

Economics of Language Thinking Global, Act Local – The

Language Industry Tools of the Trade The Missing Links

Education in the 21st Century Rationale for Learning International

Languages The value, for Canadian society as a whole,

of learning international languages can be summarized as follows: increased awareness of and sensitivity to

cultural and linguistic diversity improved potential in the Canadian and global

marketplace and workplace enhanced role in the international community.

There are also many personal reasons for learning an additional language or for enrolling in an international language course at school or in a community program. Students who have no previous knowledge of the language may be interested in: more opportunity to communicate directly with

people from other language groups and gain a deeper insight into their culture

a broader range of educational, career and leisure opportunities.

Education in the 21st Century

Education in the 21st Century Students who possess some knowledge of

the language or a family connection to the culture may have different reasons for learning: renewing contact with a heritage language and

culture that may have been lost through assimilation

maintaining a first language that is not the majority language in the community

developing literacy in a first language that is not the majority language in the community.

Education in the 21st Century There is significant evidence to suggest that all

language learners receive some additional indirect benefits from their language learning experience: development of increased grammatical abilities in the

first language—phenomenon of additive bilingualism enhanced cognitive functioning, particularly increased

ability to conceptualize and to think abstractly; more cognitive flexibility; and greater divergent thinking, creativity and metalinguistic competence.

WCP Framework for International Languages 3Y Program, 2001

So what?

“A broader range of career choices.” Fluency or business proficiency after 30-

level? Career choices at HS level? Cultural relevance/fluency? Primary skills?

Do I need to speak German to be an engineer?

Ministerial Paradigm Shift – Inspiring Education

“Technology should play a broader role in the classroom.”

Education in Alberta should be guided by the following principles: “Sustainable and efficient use of resources” “Innovation to promote and strive for excellence” Maximize opportunity to earn post-sec credit

while in high school Competencies vs. Knowledge

Applicable skills are more valuable than fact recitation

Ministerial Paradigm Shift – Inspiring Education

So we want students to leave school with skills but:

“Decision-makers should identify and adopt strategies and structures that optimize resources (financial and human) and minimize duplication” Make it smart, and cheap

Ministerial Paradigm Shift – Inspiring Education

We are now, more than ever, under pressure to ensure maximized ROI for government education funds.

Advanced Education

“In Alberta, we’re focused on investing in infrastructure and growing our highly skilled workforce. By giving the University of Calgary a new, expanded space for its engineering school, we can increase the capacity to educate more engineers who can help us meet our goals and keep building Alberta.” -Premier Alison Redford, Oct. 9, 2013

Advanced Education

“Our government was elected to keep building Alberta, to live within its means and to fight to open new markets for Alberta’s resources.” Multiple Education and Advanced Education Press

Releases in 2013 “Canada’s western provinces are the economic

driver of our country, and we are looking at unprecedented opportunities across the region – and those come with challenges on the skills and labor front.” Press release following summit of western Canadian

advanced education ministers, September 2013

The Economy of Language

BRICS Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa Rapidly industrializing, combined $16billion

GDP Turkey, Indonesia might be added to this

list soon. Over ¼ of the planet’s land Over 40% of the planet’s people

The Economy of Language

BRICS The languages of these countries are

emerging as major business languages, yet some (Portuguese) are absent from the Alberta POS.

The Economy of Language

Online Business ~2 billion people use the internet ~74% of content on the web is in English ~33% of the people who use the internet

read English

This means that the demand for non-English content will increase

Online Language Use

English = 33% of internet users Chinese = 27% (and growing)

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/10414642861388180/

The rest of the top 10 (total ~20%) Spanish, Japanese, Portuguese, German,

Arabic, French, Russian, Korean Others: 20%

Localization

AKA “The Language-Service Industry” Localization is defined by the process

through which a company’s product (usually software or website) is adapted both linguistically and culturally to be viable and successful in foreign markets.

#4 most-rapidly growing industry in the US $20Billion USD in 2011

Common Sense Advisory

Localization

Localization - Roles

Engineers Sales/Marketing Project Managers Graphic Artists Translators/Editors/Terminologists

Localization – Tools of the Trade Computer Assisted Translation (CAT)

Makes use of a personal database for approved/previously translated materials Less cost More speed

Translations are done by humans (usually) Require specialized training to use (aside

from language training)

It looks something like this…..

CAT in the Classroom?

Specialization necessary Made for people with graduate-level

training in translation Cost prohibitive

>$5k/yr/license Alberta currently has no translation

skillset development in any of it’s curriculum Logical next-step/long-term goal for 21st

century learners?

Translation Training in Alberta There isn’t any!! Currently, any post-sec training is done

in Eastern Canada http://www.lexicool.com/

courses_canada.asp Something to have our students aspire

to?

Machine Translation Tools

3 types: Rules-based Stats-based Hybrid

In the beginning…… there was an algorithm

Rules-based translation A computational linguist “taught”

(programmed) a computer with grammar rules and vocabulary and the worst translations imaginable resulted Ex. Systran

Which was then purchased by Yahoo! and then by Microsoft, subsequently became

known as Bing http://www.bing.com/translator

(Systran is still around today, selling hybrids)

Then Google said “let’s let people search for a ballpark translation”

Stats-based translation Programs “read” translated text and come

up with statistics on how those are translated.

Requires a large corpora (body of texts) Like the internet, for example

Remedy for the Language Teacher’s “Face-palm” has yet to be discovered

As more content is added to the internet, these become more and more accurate

Best of Both Worlds

Hybrid Machine Translation Systran sells these now Custom to companies Hundreds of thousands to implement ($$$$

$) Still requires significant corpora

Machine Translation in the Classroom?

Maybe Your novice students will use Google

Translate. Get over it. Cautionary tales – have a few Tell them a few words that will give it away

Tenses they haven’t learned yet (and use perfectly) Synonyms not learned in class Wrong meaning/context (though could be dictionary)

If they tell you it’s from the dictionary, ask to see it.

So you can get a copy for yourself, obviously

Machine Translation in the Classroom?

At higher levels (or in immersion) “Post-editing”

Very common practice in language industry Requires ability to edit in a language Accessible at higher levels in a second

language program, maybe. Make it an assignment

Pre-author a text Translate it online Find the mistakes

If there are any

The grass is…. green

On the next slide, some quick stats about European K-12 equivalent second language programs

Where to now?

Add new language’s to Alberta Ed’s POS Portuguese, Korean

Stress importance of post-secondary language training Translation skills vital for business Specialized career paths

Allow for development of cultural competency Encourage advanced students to use machine

translation prudently, and in controlled situations.

Consider optional status of language courses