falarcompaulo / Pixabay

 

I’ve shared many resources on supporting Students with Interrupted Formal Education (SIFEs), students with low literacy in their home languages, and students who come from cultures who are pre-literate (see The Best Online Resources For Teachers of SLIFEs and The Best Resources For Supporting Spanish-Speakers Not Literate In Their Home Language).

I’ve also shared a number of resources to help content teachers who have some ELLs in classes that mainly have English-proficient students (see The Best Sites For Learning Strategies To Teach ELL’s In Content Classes ; The Best Videos For Content Teachers With ELLs In Their Classes – Please Suggest More and The Best Advice To Content Teachers About Supporting English Language Learners).

And I’ve also share resources on how to use technology to support both situations, along with other edtech resources at THE BEST SITES FOR LEARNING ABOUT GOOGLE TRANSLATE & OTHER FORMS OF MACHINE TRANSLATION.

Today, though, I thought it would be useful for me, and possibly for other teachers, to share more specifically about tech tools for providing simultaneous translation – both via text and via audio.

These kinds of tools can benefit English Language Learners, especially in content classes, who are Newcomers or who are in a predominantly English-proficient class.

As technology improves, I’ll be updating this list (I list some tools at the bottom that would be specifically helpful for communicating with families):

Microsoft PowerPoint: PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 can transcribe your words as you present and display them on-screen as captions in the same language you speak, or as subtitles translated to another language.

Google Meet: Google Meet offers a translation feature for business and educational users.

ZOOM FINALLY JOINS THE PARTY & ADDS SIMULTANEOUS TRANSLATION VIA CAPTIONING IN MULTIPLE LANGUAGES

Microsoft Translator for Education can be a very helpful tool.

Waverly Labs launches a translation app called Forum with support for 20 languages is from TechCrunch, and it’s about a new app that supposedly provides real-time audio translation.

Here are tweets in response to a question I asked a couple of months ago:

 

Here are some other comments I received in response to a question I asked at Facebook. I received permission to reprint them here:

Jaimie McGrath Dini:

Snap and read is an extension that can translate and read any text. Co-writer is so that students can do speech to text. Microsoft immersive reader will read text aloud and translate. Microsoft app also has a classroom setting where kids can join and get live translation through their device in written and spoken form. Google app has a conversation feature.

Microsoft Translate app will do live translations written and spoken. You download the app and the teacher sets up a classroom. The kids join and turn on audio. As the teacher is instructing the kids have on headphones with their devices and hear her lesson translated in real time. Its good but of course there are errors. It only works on the app though.

Vince Sturgis:

[Microsoft Translate] will work in a physical classroom, but the students will need to have their own devices (a Chromebook, phone, etc.) in order to see/hear what you are saying in their language. You’ll also need to have a device (tablet or phone — the presenter has to initiate “Converse” mode from the app) and keep it near you as you speak, so it can transcribe and translate everything you’re saying. I’m going to try wearing a little clip-on microphone this year so that I don’t need to carry my iPad around with me everywhere.

Jennifer Lassel:

Timekettle WT2 Edge/W3 Translator Device – Bidirection Simultaneous Translation, Language Translator Device with 40 Languages & 93 Accent Online, Translator Earbuds with APP, Fit for iOS & Android 

These really work. A colleague ordered them and we tested them with a Spanish speaking student and a French speaking student.

Alexandria Virginia:

Waverley Labs has something similar, called the Ambassador. I haven’t tried it with students just because I haven’t had them long, but they seemed to work well when I tested them out listening to a video in Spanish (that’s the only language I know well enough to get an idea of its accuracy).

Finding Young EAL Learners’ Voices: Using Google Translate in class

 

Many of the tools I’ve mentioned can help facilitate communication with families, as well.  Here are a few other of those kinds of tech tools:

Talking Points

Remind

Parent Square

GOOGLE’S NEW “INTERPRETER MODE” MAKES IT EASIER FOR TEACHERS & PARENTS TO TALK IF THEY DON’T SPEAK EACH OTHER’S LANGUAGES

Yous lets you do a web-based video call with someone who speaks a different language.  Then, when you speak, the audio automatically is transformed into a chat in that person’s language.  If you keep your calls to five minutes, it’s free to use (you have to pay for longer periods).

CONNECT NEWCOMERS’ LAPTOPS TO TRANSLATION FROM YOUR PHONE is from Letters to a New ESL Teacher.

BIG NEWS FOR ELL TEACHERS, STUDENTS & THEIR FAMILIES – GOOGLE ANNOUNCES VIDEO DUBBING FEATURE FINALLY (ALMOST) HERE