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Multilingual Books February Newsletter

Thanks for reading the Multilingual Books newsletter, your source for foreign language news, information, and product information and specials from Multilingual Books. This is also available as a web page at our website, www.multilingualbooks.com. In this issue: Feature Article - When is bilingual language learning best? Product News - FSI Hungarian Released on CD - Top 10 Products Featured Site - ESLgold Language Trivia Contest - Answer correctly and win FREE language products! Newsletter Specials - Special offers only for our newsletter subscribers! Send to a Friend Please send this along to anyone you think might be interested by clicking the link above. Unsubscribe/Subscribe Information This newsletter is intended as a service to language enthusiasts and customers of Multilingual Books. You have received this because our records indicate you have ordered products from us or have asked to join our mailing list. If this message was unwanted, we apologize and offer an automated unsubscribe service: Unsubscribe, or, send an e-mail from the address you want to unsubscribe to multilingualbooks-unsubscribe@topica.email-publisher.com. If you were forwarded this newsletter and would like to subscribe, we offer automated subscription: Subscribe, or, send an e-mail from the address you want to subscribe to multilingualbooks-subscribe@topica.email-publisher.com. Thank you.		Featured This Issue
		Trivia Contest! Win Language Prizes! Check out our Newsletter Specials featuring: Big Savings on Platiquemos Spanish Course! Act Now! Save $20 on Foreign Language Videos!

Feature Article

Two languages in one child's brain - When is bilingual language learning best?
Public release from eurekalert.org

HANOVER, N.H. - A Dartmouth research team has determined that bilingual children exposed to two languages early in life are not language delayed, nor are they language confused, which fuels the scientific and political debate over when to introduce children to a second language.

Laura-Ann Petitto, Professor in Dartmouth's Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Department of Education, and Dartmouth graduate student Ioulia Kovelman, report their findings at the Society for Neuroscience's annual meeting, November 2-7, in Orlando, Fla.

"We found that if children are exposed to two languages from a very early age," says Petitto, "they will essentially grow as if there were two monolinguals housed in one brain, and this will occur without any of the dreaded 'language contamination' often attributed to early bilingual exposure."

"Some experts say that a second language shouldn't be introduced until a child has a firm grasp of a primary language," says Petitto. "Often people think that later bilingual exposure is safer, but we found that early bilingual exposure is better."

The researchers studied 15 bilingual children exposed to two languages from varying ages. Each age group of young bilinguals was at a different stage in child brain development, including bilingual babies exposed to two languages from birth (group 1), babies exposed to one language from birth with intensive bilingual exposure beginning within ages 2-3 years (group 2), babies exposed to one language from birth with intensive bilingual exposure beginning within ages 4-6 years (group 3), and babies exposed to one language from birth with intensive bilingual exposure beginning within ages 7-9 years (group 4).

"By matching the time of bilingual language exposure to key maturational stages of brain development," says Petitto, "we anchor our findings in the biology of the way the brain grows."

Four cross-linguistic populations of children were studied, including Spanish and French, French and English, Russian and French, and Sign Language and French. The researchers then intentionally studied young children who were receiving their dual language exposure across the three contexts that are most typical of a child's exposure to a new language: some of the children were exposed to two languages in their homes; some received intensive exposure to a new language when they moved into a new language community; and some children spoke one language at home and were then exposed to another language in an instructional classroom setting only.

"We wanted to study how all of the children's basic knowledge of their two languages developed over time and, thus, in our attempt to be as comprehensive as possible, we examined children across multiple languages, ages and contexts," explains Petitto.

The findings also indicate that late exposure to a second language coupled with restricted input, which is common in instructional classroom settings, may never allow a child full mastery in that language. However, a child's two languages can and will flourish, even if exposure comes at a relatively late age if they have extensive exposure to both languages.

The Petitto team is now studying whether bilingual children read better when they are exposed earlier in childhood to their two languages rather than later.

Read the full article at: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-11/dc-tli103002.php

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Product News

FSI Hungarian Released on CD

Multilingual Books is proud to announce our latest FSI (Foreign Service Institute) course CD release: FSI Hungarian! Our exclusive versions have the quality and convenience of a CD along with the top-notch language teaching methods that the Foreign Service is famous for. Each new version has been carefully digitally remastered for greatly improved sound quality as compared to the commonly available cassette courses and is exclusive to Multilingual Books. We now have the following FSI or DLI courses available on CD: Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), Cantonese, French, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Iraqi, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog, and Thai. Plus, coming soon: Turkish and Greek! Find out more about our FSI courses at our FSI page.

More information and ordering for FSI Hungarian...

February Top Products

1. Platiquemos Spanish Course 2. Talk Now CD-ROM Language Courses 3. FSI Arabic Iraqi Dialect Orientation Course - CD 4. Foreign Language Videos 5. The Twisted Doors Book and CD-ROM 6. Multilingual Books FSI Courses - CD and cassette 7. Speech Works ESL Accent Reduction Course 8. Language Littles Speaking Dolls 9. Tell Me More Language Software 10. FSI Philippine Headstart Course

Tell Me More Language Software Platiquemos Spanish Course Language Little Dolls

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Trivia Contest

Last month's trivia questions and answers: Valentine’s Day is near: The perfect time to let a special someone know how you feel - in their native language! Below is the phrase “I love you” in many languages. What is the language of origin for each? Shi ingolth-a - Apache. Maite Zaitut - Basque. Wo ai nei - Chinese. Je t'aime - French. S'as agapo - Greek. Aloha wau ia oe - Hawaiian. Te iubesc - Romanian. Mimi nakupenda - Swahili. Ngi ya thandela wena - Zulu. Thanks to everyone who entered and congratulations to this month's winner, Cindy Pendarvis. This month's trivia question is in the form of a geography "pop quiz": Name the capital cities and languages spoken in each of these countries: Ethiopia New Zealand Pakistan Switzerland Canada Sudan Poland Extra credit: What is the longest word in English? In Spanish? The answers and the winner will be in our next newsletter. Winner will receive their choice of one Talk Now or World Talk language CD-ROM! No purchase necessary to enter. E-mail your entry to: info@multilingualbooks.com

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Featured Website

ESLgold
From the website: "ESLgold provides hundreds of pages of free English teaching and learning materials for both students and teachers." And it's true! A great site.

Check it out at http://www.eslgold.com.

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February Newsletter Specials

Save on 4 Levels of Platiquemos Spanish Course - Plus FREE Bonus Talk Now CD-ROM and FREE Shipping! Platiquemos Spanish Course The world's best Spanish course just got better! Don Casteel, fluent in several languages and a former Foreign Service Officer, is well trained in the FSI method. He has completely revised and improved "the course that works." This 2002 Edition has improved audio with both male and female voices and over 200 illustrations with factoids, and the content is more contemporary than ever. This new version has retained the same grammatical and language content that has made this the most widely sold course on the language market. Eight levels are available to lead you to mastery of Spanish. Once completed you will be able to understand spoken and written Spanish; it will also allow you to actively engage in conversations with an abundant vocabulary of several thousand words. Included as a free bonus is the Talk Now Spanish CD-ROM course AND the Collins Spanish CD-ROM dictionary! This gives you a complete Spanish language learning center for your home, office, or school for a fantastic bargain. Find out more about Platiquemos at our Platiquemos page. Talk Now CD-ROM Courses Talk Now is a beginning-level language course on CD-ROM available in over 100 languages from Afrikaans to Zulu, and is excellent for travelers who must pick up a language in a hurry. Available for Windows and Macintosh computers. We recommend the Talk Now! series for any language beginner who wants an entertaining self-study course to learn basic phrases, colors, numbers, food, shopping, time, countries, and so on. Find out more about Talk Now courses at our Talk Now page. Order any 4 levels of Platiquemos for just $299 PLUS included as your FREE bonus - the Talk Now Spanish CD-ROM course AND FREE shipping for one week only! Use promo code MB-PTN-224 to receive this special. Order today! Platiquemos information and ordering...

EuroTalk Network Editions - 100 Seats for $195! Now you can run Talk Now!, World Talk, Vocabulary Builder, and Movie Talk through your school or college CD server for simultaneous use of these titles on your network! You'll have access to permanent reports for all the activities done by each student in the class for such things as time and sessions spent on each activity and scores in the quizzes and games. These network discs operate on most networks that are in common use in schools and colleges, such as NT, Novell, and Macintosh networks. The prices are highly competitive - pay less than $2 per seat! For a limited time, get any of the EuroTalk Network Editions for up to 100 users for only $195! Save with our newsletter special for one week only! Use promo code MB-ETN-224 to receive this special. EuroTalk Network Editions information and ordering...

FREE Shipping on Language Tree Videos! Language Tree Videos Language Tree is an educational publishing company devoted to teaching languages in a completely accessible and user-friendly manner through videocassette and DVDs. Using advanced techniques and new media that tap into how children and adults are best able to acquire language, their tools enable learners of all ages to quickly and effortlessly gain spoken proficiency. They introduce a breakthrough way of teaching languages, incorporating a unique Multi-Cognition Approach developed by a Stanford cognitive scientist, together with proven language learning techniques. Save with FREE shipping (continental US only) on our entire stock of Language Tree videos for a limited time! Use promo code MB-LTV-224 to receive this special. Language Tree information and ordering...

Save $20 on Foreign Language Videos! We have significantly expanded our foreign language video section, adding many new languages, titles and Spanish children's videos. We offer videos in over 20 languages from Arabic to Vietnamese, and titles from worldwide blockbusters such as Harry Potter, to classic films, to fine lesser-known regional films. We now offer over 500 titles. For a limited time, save $20 when you buy 2 or more foreign language videos! Save with our newsletter special for one week only. Use promo code MB-FV220-224 to receive this special. Order today! Foreign Language Video information and ordering...

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