Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - Feb 7, 2012, 9:37 pm
// // // ]]> Fluency in more than one language is considered to benefit the overall development of an individual. There has been a lot of debate on this issue but finally, bilingualism has been proven to improve the cognitive and mental abilities of a person. Nevertheless, there is still confusio...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - Nov 1, 2011, 11:28 pm
... the United States and Puerto Rico multiple times. Julia de Burgos had two marriages, both of ... . She suffered from depression leading to her being an alcoholic and sorrowfully died of pneumonia. Julia de Burgos’ work was always and has always been astounding. My favorites include To Julia...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - Oct 31, 2011, 5:52 pm
This month we hosted a contest for a logo for the Multilingual Mania blog. To date we received a total of 29 submissions for the blog header and logo design. We are at a loss at this point of which one to pick because we want all of them! We really value your feedback, so we wanted to show you the t...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - Oct 26, 2011, 8:57 pm
Our second entry for our second annual student writing contest for Hispanic Heritage month is from Diana Vargas, a seventh grade student from Texas. Do you admire a Latino person that has done something good for society? A person who you admire a lot, because he did or makes something that inspire...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - Oct 25, 2011, 9:34 pm
Our first entry for our second annual student writing contest for Hispanic Heritage month is from Priscilla Dueñas, a twelve year old student in the seventh grade at Lincoln Middle School. Sonia Sotomayor, Supreme Court Justice About Sonia Sonia Sotomayor was born on June 25, 1954. She is the 11...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - Oct 19, 2011, 3:01 am

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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - Oct 10, 2011, 10:28 pm
This week’s Parent to Parent interview features Ana L. Flores, co-founder of Spanglishbaby, an online community of parents raising bilingual children. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your family. Are you monolingual? Multilingual? In which way are you raising bilingual children? I was b...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - Oct 4, 2011, 12:02 am
Jen is a British mother who is raising her children to speak German, French and English. She blogs about her experiences with raising trilingual children on her blog Trilingual Trio. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your family. Are you monolingual? Multilingual? In which way are you raisin...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - Oct 2, 2011, 7:00 pm
For years, the focus on Brown v. Board of Education and the African American Civil Rights Movement has colored the desegregation discussion entirely in black and white. What few realize is that it was Mexican American children in California who also paved the way for black students in Kansas to def...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - Sep 27, 2011, 12:39 am
Cordelia Newlin de Rojas is a multilingual mama who is raising her child trilingually in English, Spanish and French. She is the author of the blog Multilingual Mama as well as a frequent contributor to Inculture Parent magazine. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your family. Are you multili...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - Sep 25, 2011, 11:26 pm
Please join us in urging  Governor Brown to support the Seal of Biliteracy! Sign our petition below! In the past we have highlighted the Seal of Biliteracy, an award of distinction that recognizes high levels of proficiency in English and another language. Many school districts in California have ...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - Sep 19, 2011, 11:53 pm
Jenean Flanagan is a mother who is exposing her daughter to Spanish, French and Mandarin. She also owns Peninsula Lango, which teaches Spanish, Mandarin and French to preschool and elementary aged children. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your family. Are you monolingual? Multilingual? In w...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - Sep 14, 2011, 11:22 pm
Every year September 15 marks the start of Hispanic Heritage month, a month of celebration which runs from September 15-October 15 of each year. This year we will be hosting our second annual Hispanic Heritage Student Writing Contest where students in grades 3-12 write about a Latina or Latino who h...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - Sep 13, 2011, 12:48 am
Our first interview to kick off the Parent to Parent interview series is with Deonne Knill, a mother of a second grader who is in a Spanish immersion program. Deonne is also a school board member of Arco Iris Spanish Immersion School. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your family. I am a mot...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - Sep 8, 2011, 1:25 am
On Monday, September 12, 2011 Multilingual Mania will be launching Parent to Parent, a weekly interview series of parents who are raising bilingual children. Every Monday, the Parent to Parent interview series will feature one parent each week who will share their personal experiences, tips, and res...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - Sep 2, 2011, 1:43 am
There once was a time when I really underestimated the potential of my English language learners. When I first started teaching, I was placed in a fifth grade bilingual classroom, and my students had previously been transitioned into English-only instruction in the fourth grade. Who would have thoug...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - Aug 30, 2011, 11:54 pm
It’s not uncommon these days to find families with parents speaking different tongues. With advancement in global communication, we see people of different cultures and even countries interacting and coming together. One of the results of this is growing multicultural and multilingual families. Th...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - Aug 24, 2011, 3:25 am
A story out of Denver highlights a growing trend in the United States: linguistic racism. The tale, as reported by ABC 7, involved the arrest and detention of a number of legal immigrants by ICE. Their crime: the individuals arrested were all speaking Spanish. The Colorado American Civil Liberties U...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - Aug 17, 2011, 12:42 am
The Seal of Biliteracy is a special recognition that promotes and validates bilingualism and biliteracy in English and another language. The Seal of Biliteracy has been implemented by many school districts in California and is currently spreading to other districts throughout the nation. There are m...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - Aug 14, 2011, 8:07 pm
As bilingual educators, we know how hard it is to get your hands on multilingual materials and books. Luckily we are hosting a giveaway of a set of 32 emergent reader books in Spanish for educators as well as parents who are raising bilingual children. This set of 32 Spanish books consists of fictio...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - Aug 9, 2011, 12:44 am
I have had a complicated love-hate relationship with homework all of my life. As a child I hated completing it and when I would complete it, I just ended up losing it or throwing it away by accident. I was always the child whose mother or teacher would find her homework squished up in the bottom of ...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - Aug 3, 2011, 1:21 am
I wish that I could give you all the dirt on what a drama-filled day that I had at work today, but I can’t. I pride myself on being a professional who tries to stay above all the drama and tries to remain professional even during times of great conflict. I’m really angry and perturbed over some ...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - Jul 29, 2011, 7:09 pm
Here’s a story where multilingualism evolved into polylingualism… American travelers are quite comfortable filling out immigration forms, standing in line, and smiling at the officers manning immigration windows. I don’t mind this process myself, though I’ve had interesting experiences wher...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - Jul 19, 2011, 7:39 pm
For me it’s an honor to be bilingual. Ever since I was young I loved the idea of being able to speak two languages and communicate with other people. Being bilingual has not only helped me in my family, but also in my community as I performed my community service hours for the Community Service pr...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - Jul 19, 2011, 7:29 pm
Para mí es una gran dicha el poder ser bilingüe. Desde que era pequeña, me encantaba la idea de poder hablar dos idiomas y el poder comunicarme con las demás personas. Ser bilingüe no solo me ayudó en mi familia, pero también en mi comunidad mientras hacía mis horas de servicio comunitario p...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - Jul 7, 2011, 1:38 am
The World Wide Web and modern communication technologies have been connecting people around the globe, and technology is further changing how we interact. Languages seemingly play ever less of a role as we all come together in one global techno-culture, and gain ever more technological crutches to a...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - Jun 24, 2011, 9:52 pm
We wanted to share some pictures from a classroom demonstration that we recently conducted in a first grade Dual Immersion classroom. Although the students receive 80% of their instruction in Spanish, we modeled a Project GLAD Science unit during their English language development time in order to d...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - Jun 24, 2011, 1:40 am
Last night I laid in bed until 3:00 in the morning, feeling a little down. I couldn’t stop thinking about all of the myths, misconceptions, and comments that I hear people constantly making about bilingual education. What is most frustrating to me is that many times I hear these comments made by m...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - Jun 22, 2011, 11:16 am
We sometimes underestimate the power of advocacy. This letter from Karen Nemeth is an excellent tool to help you get started in advocating for language learners: Letter to Administrators about Dual Language Learners in Preschool (a template you can use – by Karen Nemeth) Dear: I appreciate the...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - Jun 20, 2011, 12:15 am
// I refuse to refer to any immigrant as “illegal” or “alien,” especially one who was brought to the United States as a young child, much like I was hauled from southern Illinois to Chicago at the tender age of two. Had southern Illinois been southern Mexico, for example, that’s what I ...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - May 25, 2011, 10:51 pm
This week we have been modeling strategies with Dual Immersion teachers and wanted to share a few photos with you. After working with a group of bilingual teachers, we also later visited their classrooms and took tons of pictures! Bilingual teachers don’t have many opportunities to visit other bil...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - May 18, 2011, 7:18 pm
// It’s amusing how some of my Caucasian family members expect Asiatic people, be it Chinese, Japanese, or Korean, to magically communicate among other Asian cultures. The stereotypically slanted eyes lends an assumption of universal communicative ease. Okay, sarcastically amusing. So this was ...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - May 17, 2011, 1:45 am
// The Seal of Biliteracy is a special recognition that has been adopted by school districts in an effort to validate and promote biliteracy in English and another language. In response to the veto of similar legislation at the state level, a coalition of language organizations promoted the imple...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - May 13, 2011, 1:02 am
// One of the big advantages of multilingualism is that it expands one’s horizon – and a look beyond the horizon helps find new ideas. Unfortunately, when one compares between language skill in the USA and Europe, for example, it becomes clear that the same problems apply – though with quite...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - May 8, 2011, 3:50 pm
On an every day basis, mothers all around the world give all of themselves to their children, and rarely take any time out to nurture themselves. Multilingual mamas have a double duty- all of the typical responsibilities that motherhood entails, while at the same time constantly putting in the dedic...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - May 5, 2011, 2:43 am
On April 2nd, 2010, Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 42 Amway salespeople on their way to a convention after an undercover agent heard them speaking Spanish at a restaurant in Omaha, Nebraska. In November, the American Civil Liberties Union filed an ethnic stereotyping and racial profil...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - May 4, 2011, 3:31 am
Dear Bilingual Educator, I’d like to extend a huge thank you for everything that you do to make this world a better place for multilingual and multicultural children. It’s definitely not an easy job, but each and every one of you is touching and influencing the lives of countless children on a...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - May 4, 2011, 2:44 am
Last year we made the list of Lexiophile’s Top 100 Language Blogs of 2010 and were ecstatic about it. We’ve luckily been nominated again for the 2011 awards, and we’ll let you know when the voting begins because we would really love to make the list again! This year Lexiophiles is changing up...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - May 2, 2011, 1:42 am
We are so excited to be hosting April’s Blogging on Bilingualism Carnival! We have found a lot of new blogs that we plan on following and adding soon to the Web Resources section of our blog. A blogging carnival is an excellent way for us to share the multilingual love out in the blogosphere. If y...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - Apr 27, 2011, 1:06 am
This month we are hosting April’s Blogging Carnival on Bilingualism, a great opportunity for bloggers to share their favorite posts that they have written about topics associated with bilingualism. We realize that the month of April is practically over, but we just realized that April came and wen...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - Apr 6, 2011, 11:47 am
Today I answered an “Ask an Expert” question over on Spanglishbaby for a mother who had a question about which type of school she should choose for her children. She had always assumed that her children would be placed in a Spanish-English Dual Immersion program, but her husband recently express...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - Apr 6, 2011, 3:00 am
Multiplatform Program Highlights National issues in Education NEW YORK, April 5th, 2011 – As part of its partnership with the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, Vme will air a special Oppenheimer Presenta premiering April 8 at 10pm, “Los hispanos y la educación ...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - Apr 5, 2011, 2:34 am
Australia has been very welcoming to immigrants for quite some time now. In fact, the country’s immigration program has been going strong since the end of World War I, all the way into the 21st century. Though it historically started off as a penal colony for the English, today’s Australia is on...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - Mar 31, 2011, 11:45 pm
Happy birthday to us! Happy to us! Happy birthday, dear us, happy birthday to us! We can hardly believe that we blinked for a minute this week and totally missed our second birthday here at Multilingual Mania! Although we are four days past our two-year birthday, we are still happy as heck that ...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - Mar 31, 2011, 10:10 pm
More than any other field of knowledge, the study of languages suffers from some pernicious clichés. Sure, you can excuse yourself from knowledge of higher mathematics in a similar way, citing a lack of talent and too little a need, and everybody will understand because it is difficult to learn ind...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - Mar 29, 2011, 11:08 pm
Culture Week permitted the opportunity for non-multilingual youths to peek into the lives of multilingual classmates. The proverbial veils parted to expose life’s inner workings for a “foreign” family. Although the extra attention garnered during those days fostered jubilant feelings, or thoug...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - Mar 17, 2011, 11:21 pm
Linguists estimate that the world loses another endangered language about once every two weeks. While some of this language extinction is natural, much is due to what scholars call linguistic imperialism: the imposition of a majority language by a dominant group of people as a means of taking or m...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - Mar 15, 2011, 1:15 am
It’s been a couple of weeks since my last post about the affective filter about how it’s been significant to my overall language learning. New thoughts bring to mind the following story: My cousin studied Spanish for four years in high school and three years at the university. Despite having sp...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - Mar 10, 2011, 9:41 pm
Foreign languages are increasingly becoming part of homeschool curricula for a variety of reasons. Typically, to be effective, the parent or parents need to learn the language with their child. This is especially the case with young kids, because they need to interact with other people in their seco...
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Multilingual Mania posted an article on Multilingual Mania - Mar 9, 2011, 2:15 am
This week we attended “National Conversations on English Learner Education”, a forum hosted in Los Angeles by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA). The forum was facilitated by Dr. Rosalinda Barrera, OELA’s Assistant Deputy Secretary, and Juan Sep...
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