Eight-year-old Ronika Ranji only speaks German, but she talks to her classmates in Bradford West Gwillimbury very easily.
The Grade 3 student at Chris Hadfield Public School is one of a handful of kids there who use the Google Translate app to complete assignments in class and socialize with peers.
Ranji speaks in German into a smartphone using the app, which translates into English for her teacher and classmates, and vice versa.
She also uses a tablet to take a photo of an assignment, for example, and the app translates it into German. She completes her work in English and German, and her teacher can use the app to translate her answers if she uses the latter.
“I use it a lot. It helps me to understand things,” Ronika said in German, through the app.
Ronika moved to Canada in September, and both she and her mom are learning English. Her stepdad speaks German, which is also her primary language.
Forty-nine per cent of the students at Chris Hadfield Public School speak a language at home that is not English, according to the school’s vice principal Natalie Edgar.
Google Translate is also being used with students at Fieldcrest Elementary School and Bradford District High School.
Stephanie Jones, a Grade 3 teacher at Chris Hadfield, helped run a pilot project with the app last year with a Russian-speaking student.
“(It) worked so well. I love it, so I use it,” she said.
The app helps students understand their work better, and it helps teachers make sure all their students truly comprehend assignments, but the main benefit is the social aspect, she said.
“We use the Google Translate as a tool to support inclusion in the classroom. She’s doing the exact same task as everybody else,” Jones said. “We’re able to have conversations we wouldn’t have been able to have at the start of the year.”
Jones said the school has about 13 smartphones and tablets with the Google Translate app on them, but she would love to see a few in each classroom.
Currently, the technology is used at Chris Hadfield just for students who do not speak English, but she said the app could also help students who have learned English but may be able to explain themselves and their work in a deeper way using their first languages.
“If we had more access to this kind of technology, it would help others,” she said.
In Ronika’s case, Jones said she has flourished with the use of the app, working harder during class and engaging with others more.
Ronika also uses the app during lunchtime so she can have conversations with her peers, and she and Jones use the app with other teachers and students in a special class where they work on English language skills.
“She’s always been very happy, (but) she’s almost become a sponge. She does attempt to speak English a fair bit now,” Jones said. “Her progress is wonderful.”
