Monday 9 November 2015

Google Translate - Bridging Communication Barriers

When I first began at my current school about 2 and a bit years ago, I had a new student who had just arrived from Russia and had little to no English. She was too old for flash cards constantly and I didn't want to make her feel like I was treating her like a child. One day I was talking to my Director of Education Technology about it and he suggested Google translate - a simple solution that had astronomical impact. 
Within minutes, we were able to communicate by typing and setting the two languages as English and Russian. This also was great for a few of my Japanese students who had trouble 'finding the right words' in English. 
This year, Google Translate has evolved again to include a feature I am in love with - voice talk. Now you can use speak to text and it will translate to another language in text OR it will translate and speak the translated text. This helps to eliminate the time to actually type in the text when you use the voice option. 

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