You can read more about their improvements at Richard Byrne’s Free Technology for Teachers blog.

If you haven’t seen that page on my website, you might want to check it out. There are links to many bilingual English-learning exercises.

I’d encourage you to read the post at The English Blog, which gives an excellent explanation of the new application.

For my purposes, its addition of Thai will come in handy. Many of our Hmong families and students spent years in refugee camps in Thailand, and some read Thai.

Thanks to Webware for the tip.

It seems to me that the quality of the translation is okay, though I’d still have to go along with Jeffrey Hill at the English Blog who rates Google’s tool as the best among the ones he has tried.  However, the visual interface at Frengly is, by far, the most attractive and accessible to English Language Learners of the translation sites I’ve seen.

I’m additing it to The Best Reference Websites For English Language Learners — 2008.

The U.S. government provides translations in four major languages. CLINIC has recruited community organizations from around the country to do these eleven, and are hoping to do more.

I’m adding this link to The Best Multilingual & Bilingual Sites For Math, Social Studies, & Science and to The Best Websites For Learning About Civic Participation & Citizenship.

I’ll also be adding it to my website under Citizenship.

One, it’s useful for teachers who use the widely-respected and thoroughly researched teaching method called “Preview, View, Review.” In this instructional strategy, the teacher first provides students with a quick introduction to the lesson in the native language; then the lesson is given in English; and, finally, a short summary is provided in the student’s first language.

Two, it’s extraordinarily helpful in providing parents of English Language Learners accessible knowledge of what their children is being taught. This gives many parents who are not able to speak English the ability to better know what is happening in the classroom. They can talk more with their children about academic content and help them with their homework more effectively.

And, three, students can access the materials — sometimes in class or at home — so they can develop a greater understanding of the subject matter and develop more self-confidence.

Because of these reasons, I thought it would be useful to prepare a “The Best…” list of resources that I think provide the best multilingual and bilingual information about content typically taught in schools.

This list is different from The Best Multilingual & Bilingual Sites For Learning English.  There, I focused on sites that were focused on using the student’s native language as a tool to help them learn English.  Here, even though use of native language materials an be used very effectively to assist students develop their English-language skills, these sites are not explicitly designed to do so.  They have only been developed to provide content knowledge to speakers of languages other than English.

In order to make it on this list, the resource must be provided free-of-charge, with no registration required, and be relatively engaging.

The sites that offer multilingual information are listed first in each subject category and then are followed by bilingual (English/Spanish).  Here are my choices for The Best Multilingual & Bilingual Sites For Math, Social Studies, and Science:

MATH

Holt, Rinehart, and Winston has clearly been the major textbook publisher who has tried hardest to provide accessible multilingual information for all subject areas, including math.  Unfortunately, they don’t take the word “accessibility” as seriously in terms of their website and, as a result, it’s periodically off-line.  But they seem to be resolving some of those technical issues.

HRW has a Pre-Algebra Glossary that provides translation of math terms and concepts in multiple languages. They also have similar glossaries for Algebra and Geometry. Also, for less-advanced learners, they have one for Middle School.  Those direct links should work.  However, if the HRW site is having one of its erratic moments, you can also access all of them at the main Math page.

McGraw-Hill has two multilingual math glossaries — one for K-5 and other for grades 6-12.

Harcourt provides a K-6 curriculum in English and in Spanish.

SOCIAL STUDIES

Here again, HRW shines.  They have extraordinary multilingual summaries for each period of United States History.  Again, however, it can sometimes be a little tricky to get through.   Here are the directions that I give to ensure that students and their families can gain access to them:

1) Go to the HRW Social Studies Home Page

2) Click on Holt United States History 2007, which is the third one down from the top.

3) Then click on the chapter you want to read about.

4) At the bottom of your screen you will then see different languages. Click on the language summary you would like to read.

Glencoe has a nice multilingual glossary of U.S. History terms.

Pearson has quite a few elementary level online activities in both English and Spanish that deal with Geography and World and United States History.

HRW has good chapter summaries about Geography, though they’re only in English and Spanish.  Once again, they can be a little tricky to get to.  First go to their Geography home page, then click on the first title. Next click on a chapter and you will see the summary links at the bottom.

HRW has similar summaries in English and Spanish related to U.S. Government. Go to their Government and Civics home page, and follow a similar process to the ones I’ve already outlined to get their bilingual resources.

HRW has a great series of multilingual World History summaries in multiple languages.  However, that page seems to be even more tempermental than their other ones.  It seems to only work about half the time.   To get there, go to the World History main page. Click on the first textbook, and then follow the usual procedure.

The Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC) has just performed a great service for recent immigrants by helping to develop and distribute the new U.S. Citizenship test questions in eleven additional languages.  The U.S. government provides translations in four major languages. CLINIC has recruited community organizations from around the country to do these eleven, and are hoping to do more.

SCIENCE:

McGraw Hill has an excellent series of multilingual summaries for their K-6 Science curriculum. Just click on one of the books, then click on a chapter, and then click on the “translated concept summary.” Here’s an example of what you’ll get.

Scott Foresman has a complete K-6 Science curriculum in both English and Spanish.

(I forgot to mention that Brainpop has Spanish versions of most, if not all, of their movies. Of course, you need to have a paid subscription in order to access the majority of them, but I think they’re worth the price)

Carolyn Zierenberg, a talented teacher at our school, put together a simple multilingual (English/Spanish/Hmong) glossary of academic vocabulary. She’s given me permission to share it on this blog and website.

This Glossary of Commonly Used English Academic Vocabulary took an incredible amount of work to complete.

Of course, a list like this is only effective as a supplement and follow-up to multiple classroom activities where these words are used in a meaningful way in context.

As usual, additional suggestions are welcome.

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I helped them out a little bit by finding some good links that I put on my Bilingual Resources page under Hmong (even though they’re not focused on English-language learning).

The sites include the Hmong Cultural Center (be sure to click on “Visit Our Learn About Hmong Arts Website” on the left of the screen) and Hmong Search, a search engine for Hmong resources.

In addition, I also added some language-learning links to the same section.

Mark Thompson’s English-Hmong Audio Dictionary appears to back working after being down for awhile. I also added a Hmong Text-To-Voice Reader, which will “speak” Hmong text that’s written in it. Developing literacy is one’s home language is a big help to learning a second one.

However, I’ve found that, particularly with newcomers, providing them with access to an Internet resource that provides some native-language support can be a real confidence-booster. Pretty quickly, though, they often move away from those sites of their own accord.

There are quite a few newer “learn-a-language” sites that provide multilingual support from a social network. There are others that offer translation help for a smaller number of languages.

My intent behind creating this latest “The Best…” list was to identify sites that provide teacher-created content; do not require any registration; are free; and, except in one instance (where I identify what my students and I are think is the best bilingual English/Spanish site), provide resources in many languages, including ones that are not widely-used.

You can also find links to the sites on this list, as well as to many others, on the Bilingual Exercises page on my website.

Unlike some of my other lists, I am not identifying them in order of preference. I think they’re all pretty equal.

Here are my choices for The Best Multilingual & Bilingual Sites For Learning English:

Bilingual Quizzes From Activities For ESL Students is a project of the Internet TESL Journal. You can find a ton of quizzes using multiple multiple languages here.

Foreign Languages For Travelers has a narrower set of quizzes, but a wider selection of languages.

Goethe Tests covers vocabulary and language tests in twenty-five different languages.

For an English/Spanish site, there’s no question that Pumarosa, created by teacher Paul Rogers, is by far the best resource for Spanish speakers.

As always, please feel free to provide feedback in the comments section.

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Read The Words lets you convert any text — from a document, blog, or website — into audio with your choice from a variety of voices. You can then embed the voice player into your site.

English Language Learners can easily copy and paste an essay they’re writing to hear if it sounds “right.” They can complete a story or essay, paste it into a Jottit page, and then embed a Read The Words audio player that will speak what they wrote.

It’s easier to use than Scribd, and it eliminates the chance of students accessing inappropriate material (which could happen at Scribd’s site).

I haven’t quite figured out where I’ll be putting the link on my website, but it’s definitely a “keeper.”