Beginning in September of 2014, the teacher education program at Boston College's (BC) Lynch School of Education will begin a pilot of a dual-language certification program. Reported in the BC Chronicle today, I hope this gets some play outside BC circles. The Teaching Dual Language Learners (TDLL) certificate will be offered initially to incoming elementary education masters students who possess dual language proficiency in Spanish and English. In addition to completing targeted coursework on bilingualism, biliteracy, and dual-language education, TDLL students will complete placements in partner dual-language immersion programs in the greater Boston area. 

Nice post, with a good video link, that revisits the human 'language instinct', and asks us to consider whether and how language develops when linguistic exposure is absent. The case of deaf children in Nicaragua developing their own linguistic system from limited language input provides good context to consider that "although children require a certain amount of linguistic input at a young age in order to learn language, they're capable of generalizing from incomplete information to something far richer and more complex". 

Melissa Pandika at ozy.com writes a compelling article profiling Helen Tager-Flusberg and the influence she's had exploring the linguistic dimensions of autism, particularly in children. While the article spends time lauding the achievements of Tager-Flusberg as an unconventional autism researcher and, arguably, a feminist crusader in the male-dominated world of psychological research, the focus is squarely on the contributions of Tager-Flusberg in exploring the nature of language, its social functions, and its development as it relates to autism spectrum disorders.

NBC News Latino has a nice portrait on Duncan Tonatiuh, a dual citizen of Mexico and the US, who is a children's book author and illustrator committed to writing books that have a social and political message. He is influenced artistically by Mixtec art and orthography (Mixtec codex) and appears to have deep respect for children, which is refreshing. In the the interview, Tonatiuh remarks, "I think kids are extremely intelligent. But I think that sometimes we don't give them the credit they deserve....Hopefully my books help Latino children realize that their stories and their voices are important." The link includes some images from his books, which are indeed beautiful to look at.