The past fall, English as a New Language (ENL) teachers at Pine Bush Central School District started using a tool that can break language barriers within seconds as a way to efficiently help their students communicate.

Timekettle WT2 Plus Translator Earbuds are devices that translate both verbally and in writing what a teacher is saying and how the student replies; each earbud costs around $200. These earbuds will be used for students who are considered newcomers, which is any student who arrived within the country during the last two years.

Maureen Curtin, secondary ENL leader at Pine Bush Central School District, explained that, while the school district only started using the earbuds this fall, the use has been successful. The earbuds use student’s home languages to build their knowledge of the English language, which makes it easier for students to not only participate within their courses, but the school community. This is known as “translanguaging,” a method of using different languages to communicate.

Here's how the earbuds work: the classroom teacher wears one earbud and the student wears the other. The technology is attached to the student’s Chromebook. As the teacher speaks, the student hears the lesson in the language of their choice. On the Chromebook, the text comes through in both English and the student’s specified language. There are 40 languages to choose from with a reported 95% translation accuracy. The devices were used first in select science and math classes at Circleville Middle School as part of a pilot program. Additional devices were then delivered to Crispell Middle School and Pine Bush High School.

“I think it’s great because the student feels that they can participate... and we also can see if they are struggling in the subject area even when it’s in their own language,” Curtin said. “Then we can really modify assignments more, and we can put in more support to make them successful, because that is our goal, that every student should be successful, regardless of the language.”

Curtin said the students cannot be held back a school grade based on their language proficiency and that it takes around five to eight years for students to be proficient in any language.

“We do notice that some students usually enter the district with a learning disability in their first language,” Curtin said. “So sometimes they [the students] will come with an IEP from their home country or something similar to what we would have here, and then they would have a meeting to determine if they need to continue with special education services.”

Curtin said some students come experiencing missed education because of circumstances that are going on in their homeland, like war or natural disasters.

“Depending on where they live in their country, too, sometimes they might live in the mountains and miss school a lot, or they’re helping with work at home. So that gets tricky because their first language never developed.”

Curtin said the school gives students time to acclimate to their new environment and recognizes that students may have trauma and may be experiencing cultural shock. Curtin said the ENL teachers plan to use the earbuds in parent-teacher conferences too.

“For the parents, it helps them because it’s immediate translations within a couple of seconds,” Curtin said. “So it helps bridge the gap between school and home. And parents feel that they’re part of the community as well, because that can be challenging, when there is a language barrier per se, where parents really feel that they’re not connected to the school.”

Curtin said these headphones are important for the entire community.

“It’s beneficial for our other students to see how important education is and for them to support our ENL students who had just come, and they understand how difficult it [learning a language] can be.”