Effective July, 2010, the California Administrative Office of the Courts will begin using the written and oral court interpreter certification exams developed by the Consortium for Language Access in the Courts (Consortium). The decision to adopt the exams of the Consortium was based on the results of a comprehensive study conducted by ALTA Language Services. The report is now available electronically for the public to read here (PDF). Questions or comments about the study and the ensuing move to Consortium exams may be submitted to courtinterpreters@jud.ca.gov.

Overview of What’s New in Testing

Video: (click play)

Watch the rest of the videos here:

California Court Interpreter Exam Videos

ALTA Language Services, Inc. is a recognized leader in language services and language testing in the United States. Currently, we are seeking native to nearly native Iraqi-Arabic linguists, preferably with a strong degree of familiarity with the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) scales, to be a part of a two-day teleconference panel determining the passing score for government listening comprehension tests.

Passing scores will be set according to the ILR scale for the 0+ – 2 levels. The teleconference is currently slated to take place in late July and will last two full working days. If you are interested in obtaining more details regarding participation in the teleconference panel, please contact Jocelyn McFarlane at jmcfarlane[at]altalang.com with an attachment of your current curriculum vitae.

You may also reach her at 404.920.3826.

Would you like to contribute to ALTA’s Beyond Words blog? We were recently ranked by Lexiophiles as this year’s #2 language blog for language professionals and this year’s #9 overall language blog.

Guidelines for Submission
The article must be about language, and should fall into one of the categories that we write about, from the translation business to language and food. It must be written in English (400 to 800 words) and it must be original and unpublished, either in print or online.

If you’re interested, send your submission to guestblogger [at] altalang.com. We’ll review it and get back to you when we’re ready to post. (We will edit and fact-check your submissions.) If you have your own blog or language related website, please give us the address along with a one or two sentence description of yourself so we can link back to you. If you’d rather us link to a Facebook or Twitter account, we’d be happy to do that as well.

Sample Articles

Native Tongues: Speaking in Estonia
World Cup Report: The Languages of South Africa
Speaking Other Languages in Alabama

Here’s an excerpt from translator Tim Park’s recent Guardian article on why translators deserve more credit than they receive. We agree wholeheartedly:

What is it that a translator does?

He reads with maniacal attention to nuance and cultural implication, conscious of all the books that stand behind this one; then he sets out to rewrite this impossibly complex thing in his own language, re-elaborating everything, changing everything in order that it remain the same, or as close as possible to his experience of the original. In every sentence the most loyal respect must combine with the most resourceful inventiveness. Imagine shifting the Tower of Pisa into downtown Manhattan and convincing everyone it’s in the right place; that’s the scale of the task.

Thank your translators today!

The results are in for Lexiophiles’ Top 100 Language Blogs of 2010, and we’re very happy to announce that Beyond Words claimed this year’s #2 spot for Language Professionals, and the #9 spot overall!!

Thanks for your vote, and thanks to the people at bab.la and Lexiophiles (a wonderful language blog in its own right) for sponsoring this contest for the third year!

Each one of the blogs that participated in this competition deserves a shout-out. Please visit them all throughout the coming weeks. You’ll surely find valuable information and entertaining content.

Thanks for reading, listening, and watching.

Voting for Lexiophile’s Top 100 Language Blogs starts today! If you are a fan of ALTA’s Beyond Words, vote for this blog. Also, take a few moments to check out some of the other nominated blogs; Lexiophiles does a great job of compiling the best language blogs and podcasts for their contest every year.

The contest places language blogs into 4 categories: Language Learning, Language Teaching, Language Technology, and Language Professionals. Beyond Words was nominated under Language Professionals, and you can vote for one blog in each category.

ALTA Language Services is conducting a pilot study for non-native English speakers. If you have taken the TOEFL or another spoken language test such as the ACTFL OPI, or the DLPT OPI within the last 6 months, please contact us at lhopkins [at] altalang.com.

ALTA will pay you US$50 to complete a test of your English speaking skills and fill out a short survey about your experience taking the test. All tests are conducted by telephone.

When you write to us at lhopkins [at] altalang.com, please provide the date you took the TOEFL or other validated spoken language test, and your score on the speaking portion.

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ALTA Language Services has provided language testing to U.S. corporations and government agencies for 30 years. For more information about us, please visit our website at www.altalang.com.

Language learners experience a blow to their confidence when they fail to comprehend a native speaker. Many students have experienced something like this: after months or even years of diligent study and practice, they fail to understand someone during a casual conversation, and are too embarrassed or frustrated to ask that person to repeat what was said. Sound familiar? Many language learners try to hide the breakdown in communication. The problem, however, is not something to be embarrassed about — it is often the result of never having practiced speech perception.

Speech perception is the process by which we hear, interpret, and understand the sounds that make up language. While most people think first of the tongue when acquiring new language skills, the ear should not be forgotten. The auditory perception and comprehension of sounds specific to the foreign language you study are vital to communication, and these skills need to be practiced. For instance, many English language learners have trouble distinguishing between l and r sounds in spoken English. This difficulty doesn’t suggest that they are slow learners or lacking in language abilities, but that they have not spent sufficient time practicing listening comprehension with the speech sounds of English.

Research by CDT scientists specializing in hearing and cognition shows that speech perception practice makes learning English easier when paired with existing language training methods. Emeritus Professors James Miller, formerly of Washington University School of Medicine and Charles Watson, former chair of the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences at Indiana University, have drawn from their many years researching speech perception and computer-based training systems, to develop the most comprehensive speech perception training program: Speech Perception Assessment and Training System for students of English as a Second Language (SPATS-ESL).

The SPATS software system, originally developed for the hearing-impaired, was modified for use with ESL. The program works by helping learners to recognize syllable constituents: onsets, nuclei, and codas, as well as sentence recognition. Syllable constituent and sentence tasks are interweaved throughout training. In constituent training, SPATS uses an innovative training algorithm, Adaptive Item Selection (AIS), which focuses training on specific sounds.

From Communication Disorders Technology:

SPATS-ESL is not designed to teach English grammar, vocabulary, or idioms. It is designed to teach International Students with a basic knowledge of English to be able to accurately perceive naturally spoken English sentences and to be able to identify the basic sounds of spoken English accurately.”

According to data from CDT, a vast majority of SPATS-ESL users said that perceptual training should be used in all ESL programs, that perceptual training improved their participation in every day conversation, and that perceptual training improved their pronunciation of English. CDT’s research and perceptual learning products indicate that speech perception training may significantly aid non-native language learners.

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ALTA Language Services, a leader in customized language training for 30 years, has entered into a cooperative arrangement with Communication Disorders Technology, Inc., developers of computer-based speech training systems for persons with hearing impairment and for students of English as a second language. To learn more about the program, please visit our Speech Perception Training page.

There are three teaching methods that dominate the business of language instruction: the Direct Method, the Grammar-Translation Method, and the Audio-Lingual Method. Deciding which is the best method is difficult because each has strengths and weaknesses, and the nature of a student’s goals will determine which is best for that student. Although many language-training sources may speak about exclusive or unique approaches, with few exceptions they are using one of these three methods. We conducted extensive research on the subject of teaching methods for our online language training programs. Here is a description of the three primary language teaching methods along with our analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of each one:

The Direct Method

The Direct Method is also known as the Oral or Natural method. It’s based on the active involvement of the student in both speaking and listening to the new language in realistic everyday situations. The process consists of a gradual acquisition of grammatical structure and vocabulary. The learner is encouraged to think in the target language rather than translate. He or she hears and uses the language before seeing it written.

The Grammar-Translation Method

This method grew from the traditional method of teaching Latin and Greek. The method is based on analysis of the written language using translation exercises, reading comprehension and written imitation of texts. Learning mainly involves the mastery of grammatical rules and memorization of vocabulary lists.

The Audio-Lingual Method

This self-teaching method is also known as the Aural-Oral method. The learning is based on repetition of dialogues and phrases about every day situations. These phrases are imitated, repeated, and drilled to make the response automatic. Reading and writing are both reinforcements of what the learner practices.

Comparing the Language Training Methods

This comparison graph shows the expected results for a typical student applying the same amount of time and motivation to the learning. We scored the value of each method from 1 to 10 in the following aspects: Speed of Learning, Listening Comprehension, Speaking Capability, Writing Capability, and Grammar.

The Direct Method gives the student the ability to communicate quickly because she is encouraged to be creative during practice. It gives, by far, the widest range of capability to understand what another person says to you and in developing your capability to speak. This is the method of choice for instruction with a live trainer and where speaking and listening are most important.

The Grammar-Translation method requires the learner to spend a lot of time understanding the language structure. Listening and speaking suffer because of this. Understanding the structure is helpful in reading and particularly in writing. Grammar and vocabulary are emphasized throughout. This is the method of choice when the student’s goal is to achieve a high level of writing and reading ability in a foreign language, versus speaking and listening.

The Audio-Lingual Method also allows the learner to communicate quickly but within the limited range that the repetition allows. It improves comprehension only if the speaker uses phrases that the learner has studied. Reading is limited, and an understanding of how to use the language is very limited. This is the method that is used when a live trainer is not available.

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ALTA creates customized online language training programs based on the Direct Method and the Audio-Lingual Method. ALTA lessons include initial, interim and final language testing to verify progress. All testing is on ALTA’s 1 through 12 scale or the U.S. government’s ILR scale (Interagency Language Roundtable). The Audio-Lingual Method is used for specialized programs that are not trainer-led, particularly at the lower levels of initial skill.