Hit: Foreign language tapes

[Deena <piper_wells@HOTMAIL.COM>]

From: Megan Volmer <volmerm@fort-mill.k12.sc.us>
To: Deena <piper_wells@HOTMAIL.COM>
Well, I can't seem to find what I want, but I thank all
of you anyway for your help.
Just to illustrate the power of this newsgroup, you
should hear the Muzzy
people listed directly down below when you ask them if
they've noticed an
increase in requests for their catalog!  There are a
lot of us interested in this, it seems.

If I do come across the novels on audio tape, I'll post
another hit.  Some people have told me that just
listening to tapes won't help much, but I think it
won't hurt, either, especially with the oriental
languages.

Thanks again,
Deena

===========================================
Sent: Thursday, August 26, 1999 1:13 PM
Subject: Re: Target: Foreign Language audio tapes

| I know this is not in perfect answer to your
question, but I got a brochure
| about Muzzy. It is produced by the BBC and is used to
teach children a
| language. I do not have children, but hope to in a
few years and I was
| very interested for my personal use. The number to
call is 888-248-0480.
| I am sure they will send you a catalog and you may be
interested. I know
| the voices of this cartoon character (on video) is
from a native speaker.
|
| Megan Volmer - volmerm@fort-mill.k12.sc.us
| Media Specialist
| Banks Street Elementary School
| Fort Mill, SC 29715
|
|
| -----------------------------------------------------
--

On page 12 of my Recorded Books (800-638-1304) catalog
there are 15 books under the headings Classic Stories,
Spanish SmartReaders, and Adult Self-Help titles that
are read by native speakers of Spanish.
Susan Grigsby, LMS, The Epstein School, Atlanta Georgia
***I called them and you have to tell them you are a
media specialist or they won't send a catalog.***
==================================================
Recorded Books suggested I contact the Library of
Congress ' National Library for the Blind 800-424-8567
==================================================
FYI: My first course in grad school was
psycholinquistics. There are THREE periods in a child's
life they can acquire language: perinatally, about age
6 and about age 12. The only languages that are crucial
for infant exposure are the oriental languages because
they are tonal. If you don't listen to those languages
as an infant, you can never HEAR the tones, much less
imitate them.
Dr. Carol Simpson ,Asst. Professor, University of North
Texas School of Library & Information Sciences, Denton,
TX
==================================================
I subscribe to "Puerta del Sol", which is a bimonthly
service that offers
audiotapes dealing with current topics in the news
re:politics, art,
literature, entertainment, etc. for that particular
country. The speakers
are all well-known news/interviewer personalities in
Spain. The company
also provides the service in German, French, and
Italian. It helps me keep
up in my listening comprehension and also keeps me
current on Spanish
culture and politics.

There is a website:
http://www.champs-elysees.com/pdshome.html

Hope this is of some help!


Corrine R. McNabb, Librarian
Mountain View Elementary School
Kingsley PA 18826
mcnabber@icontech.com
==================================================
I'll bet your best bet would be to find a native
speaker you could hire
to read and tape the stories. Try the university
population--foreign
students such as those who come through Rotary
International often love
to help. You could even contact a local Rotary Club to
check on this.
Perhaps in exchange for some weekend hosting a student
would help you
out--if you can find the books! You know, I think I
might try this for
my little 9-month old! We have a large hispanic
population here.

Though I can't think of audio tapes, I can think of
some sources that
you could perhaps tape and play. For example, Univision
(cable
television station) airs Plaza Sesamo, an hispanic
version of Sesame
Street. It's great! Also, perhaps she could somehow
capture sound from
one of the radio stations that broadcast over the
Internet. I've
sometimes listened to news from Madrid, for example.
I'm not sure about
the technical side of that!

Will you post a hit on this if you get more ideas?

Diane Volzer
Media Student (on maternity leave)
State University of West Georgia (Carrollton)
Calhoun, GA
dvolzer@cybrtyme.com
==================================================
If you get any replies, I would be interested in a hit
list. I have a 9
month old and would like to expose him to foreign
languages as well. I
only thing I have found are kits at my local library -
a book in
english/spanish and the spanish language tape. These
are limited to mostly
spanish - occassionaly french, but no german, polish,
italian, etc.

Heather Damico
Automation Support Librarian
Erie 1 BOCES
==================================================
Several years ago I purchased bilingual
(Spanish/English) book and
cassette tape materials for the public library I was
working at. There
were several popular titles (a few Arthur books by Marc
Brown - Brown
Publishing Co. as well as some Berenstain Bears
(Berenstain Bears and the
New Baby, I think was one), and Curious George) that
either came in the
bilingual format or came in Spanish (we already had the
English
version). There aren't scads of materials out there but
the number is
growing and most major children's book publishers have
Spanish titles
on cassette tapes.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

Susan Freymiller
NWHS Media Specialist
Nappanee, IN
==================================================
----- Original Message -----
From: Talking Book Club <info@talkingbookclub.co.uk>
To: Deena <piper_wells@hotmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, August 26, 1999 7:31 AM
Subject: Re: Novels in foreign languages

| Regret we don't have any novels in foreign languages,
but you could try
| Grant & Cutler, a bookshop in Great Marlborough
Street, London W1.
| Telephone:0171-734 2012 or fax:0171-734 9272.
|==================================================
----- Original Message -----
From: Elizabeth Bentley
<elizabeth@wardrobe.dircon.co.uk>
To: Deena <piper_wells@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sent: Wednesday, August 25, 1999 3:09 AM
Subject: Re: Target: Foreign Language audio tapes

| I'm not sure whether just playing tapes to a new baby
would have the
| desired effect. Surely we learn languages as children
by matching
| sense with sound. The only resource I can think of
that might have
| the desired effect is a series of video tapes
produced to teach
| languages to small children, called Muzzy. The
original ones were
| made by the BBC to teach English as a foreign
language, but I have
| used the French and Spanish versions, and I'm pretty
sure there is a
| German and Italian one as well.
|
| I believe there is a limit to how many languages a
child can grasp
| anyway. I remember being told of a child brought up
in a European
| household after the war where about 12 languages were
spoken. He
| didn't speak at all until his environment reduced to
about 5 or 6.
| Even 2 (and I agree that early bilingualism is very
desirable and I
| should have loved to be able to achieve it for my
children), can have
| a slightly slowing effect on children's early
language development,
| though I think this is insignificant in the long run.
|
| Anyway, good luck. It would be interesting to know if
you do find any
| suitable resources. I suppose one other possibility
would be
| story-tapes in various languages.
|
| EB
|
| -----------------------------------------------------
--
| Elizabeth Bentley
| Head of Learning Resources
| Northbrook C of E School
| Taunton Road
| Lee, London SE12 8PD
| e-mail: info@northbrook.lewisham.sch.uk
| Tel: (+44) 020 8852 1563
| Fax: (+44) 020 8244 4590
|
| email: sln-owner@egroups.com
|
| ICQ: 11252617
| -----------------------------------------------------
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|

|



Deena Wells
K-12 school media specialist
taking a year off in
Palm Harbor, FL

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