Lingo: A Language Spotter's Guide to Europe

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This led us to choose the Alien Detective Agency series, with its appealing characters, suitable for both KS2 and KS3 (ages 8–14) as ideal books to support children to build fluency in reading English or just relax and enjoy a story in their own familiar script. Our authors Roger Hurn and Jane West were immediately keen to be on board and support the project further. She touches on the general fascination that existed in the 18th and 19th centuries with criminals, and writes at length about the language they used. Why is that?

Domke, L. M. (2018). Probing the Promise of Dual-Language Books. Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts, 57 (3). https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/reading_horizons/vol57/iss3/3 (accessed 16 June 2019) For me, of course, Partridge is the great mentor. I may not agree with everything he did, and as his successor I have naturally tried to improve on his foundations. But without his example I would have never even considered that slang was something to which I could enthusiastically devote my professional life. Why Bilingual E-books Make Target Language Reading Practice a Snap They’re practical and convenient What of the old dream of a pan-European language? Dorren explains, with a kind of fond amazement, the bizarre workings of Esperanto. It turned out to be not a best-of compilation of all the nicest parts of continental tongues; instead, with incomprehensible perversity, it decided to borrow some of the most difficult aspects of existing languages and mash them up into something that sounded alien and wrong to everybody. For a potential borrowing, he chooses sardonically: “Esperinto – somebody who used to be hopeful, but no longer is. A word that sums up neatly the mood of most Esperanto speakers.”

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Well, the sky’s the limit, really. You could simply use dual language books to tell a story in one language or the other. You could cover up the target language, leaving the more familiar words accessible, and ask the reader to retell the story in his or her own words. You could single out individual words or phrases, or particular word groups, like nouns or verbs, and encourage the learner to memorise them. You could cover up the more familiar language, and ask the learner to translate from the second language (often, but not always, English). Or you could use them as a bedtime or afternoon story, to help and comfort new arrivals to a country, particularly when so much around them might be confusing and unfamiliar. And while everyone has their own language learning style, and some people may prefer hearing a story to reading it, dual language books are an essential tool in our bilingual language learning virtual cabinet.

It’s now almost a year on from the invasion of Ukraine and sadly it seems that this conflict is not about to end any time soon. The UK has welcomed almost 200,000 Ukrainian nationals [1] so far and had offered school places to 20,500 children by the end of September 2022 [2]. Many of these children arrived with limited English and teachers and support staff were understandably looking for appropriate resources to ease their transition into school. You started your professional life writing for the underground press, and then books on the counterculture in the 1960s. How did you end up specialising in slang? Whatever your situation, dual language books offer a bridge between cultures, generations and divisions. Next up is Julie Coleman’s A History of Cant and Slang Dictionaries. This is a substantial academic work published in four volumes by the Oxford University Press. Your next book is something quite different. Set in the 1990s, it’s a true account of a West Baltimore family destroyed by drugs, co-authored by David Simon who went on to create the critically acclaimed HBO drama The Wire. Why did you choose this book?

First, while looking at what’s out there, consider all types of books. Don’t limit yourself to just one “scholarly” source or even a language learning text. With bilingual e-books, all reading genres are represented. Choose something that piques your interest. Start slow Slang is difficult because everything about it defies simple classification. Nobody knows the etymology of the word slang. If you take slang to a linguist they try to define it within the boundaries of what they know as linguists, and very soon they discover they can’t find a specific register into which it falls. For instance, FluentU pairs short videos by native speakers with bilingual subtitles. Instead of pausing to look up words in a dictionary, you can also just hover over the subtitles to see the meaning of any word. There are transcripts for each video, and you can save new words in flashcards for later review. Mantra Lingua’s own patented PENpal technology also means language teachers, parents, guardians, librarians and storytellers can all add sound to the texts of dual language books, increasing the levels of familiarity for readers or listeners.

Since many dual language books are picture books, you might think that they are mainly aimed at children, but that isn’t always the case. A picture, so the saying goes, is worth a thousand words, and dual language books have also been used in recent years to disseminate information on agricultural techniques in Papua New Guinea, for example. Many parts of the NHS also produce dual language resources to help patients access healthcare services in the UK. The book is set in Baltimore. If you went to another American city where there are people selling drugs on corners, would the slang be radically different? Doppeltext is an excellent resource for bilingual e-books—particularly if you enjoy works by famous authors or well-known pieces of literature. Books are available in French, German, Russian and Spanish, and translated text fragments appear in English. Six titles that have proved hugely popular with primary and secondary schools. A mix of fiction and non-fiction titles were selected especially with refugee children in mind, featuring positive stories and non-fiction with a wide appeal that avoids potentially triggering subject matter. These books are expertly levelled and use simple short sentences and controlled language — ideal for language learning. Japanese learners will be impressed with the stunning drawings in “Yuko-chan and the Daruma Doll: The Adventures of a Blind Japanese Girl Who Saves Her Village” because they beautifully portray the sweet story. The tale is told in English with the Japanese kanji directly below the corresponding text. French Bilingual E-books

Dual language books (or DLBs for short, as they are sometimes known) are books in which the whole book is written in two languages throughout, in as close a translation as possible. In many cases, the content of the dual language book or story is written in one language on one side of the open book, and the second language on the other side. The pictures allow you to see the language used in context, as well as breaking up the text. In recent years, however, improved computer technology means that electronic dual language books, or ebooks, have appeared, meaning language learners can dip into libraries on computer, tablet, and Smartphone. In some cases, the dual language book is also accompanied by sound files, so that not only can learners see the words, they can also hear the correct pronunciation. You could argue that dictionaries are dual language books, although in practice most dual language books tell a story or impart information. You may also sometimes hear them described as parallel texts although these are also sometimes used to transpose an older type of language into modern words, as with Chaucer or medieval French. For language learners, anything that increases the potential for trouble-free reading is a resource that needs to be explored. You can even use the same bilingual approach for other types of media in your target language. Because bilingual resources make stories in your target language way more accessible and hassle-free, they’re truly an ideal tool for language learners. Italian language learners will fall into the rabbit hole with Alice in “Alice nel Paese delle Meraviglie” (“Alice in Wonderland”)—and have no problem at all understanding every bit of the adventure! I doubt Lewis Carroll could have imagined that this beloved tale would ever be available in a format that provides both English and Italian text side-by-side.