[BITList] Fwd: ENGLAND!!!

[John Feltham]

A retrograde step.

They should learn English - they live there.

ooroo




The school with 30 languages where teachers talk to pupils through a computer translator
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 5:42 AM on 7th July 2010

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A school where 60 per cent of pupils speak English as a second language has invested in electronic translators for every child so they can communicate with teachers.

Manor Park Primary in Aston, Birmingham, which has 384 pupils of 32 different ethnicities, is the first school in Britain to provide translators for all of its children and to make the tools an integral part of every lesson.

The technology enables teachers to type messages to pupils which are then translated into the 19 native tongues of children with no English.


Helping hand: The Talking Tutor has been given to every pupil at Manor Park Primary School in Aston, Birmingham with half of those unable to speak English

Another 11 languages are spoken by pupils who have some English.

And with figures showing that one in six primary pupils speaks a different language at home - double the number ten years ago - the technology could soon become a permanent feature in many more schools.

The 'Talking Tutor' can verbally translate English into 25 languages including Polish, Urdu, Pakistani and Chinese. A further 200 languages can be translated on-screen.

Teachers type a message into a computer and the virtual tutor then reads the message out to the pupil in their native tongue. The pupil types a response which is read to the teacher by the tutor.

The software claims to be 95 per cent accurate as it uses ' contextchecking technology' which gives the meaning of the message rather than a verbatim translation.

Headmaster Jason Smith said the software had transformed his school and given staff the opportunity to communicate with children.

'We have a very diverse



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1292466/School-forced-buy-translator-half-pupils-dont-speak-English.html#ixzz0syG3HLjn

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