Minority and Majority Languages in school

Q. How do schools in my area respond to the minority cultures and languages? How could this be improved?

I have had three school placements/experiences so far on my Degree programme. All of which have differed greatly in respects to place, size, the children, the staff, the ethos, the atomosphere and their approach to different topics.

In my first year at University I worked in a school within a large town. The catchment area was made up of many different races...and this was reflected in each class. Within each class there would be a range of lanugages spoken, but predominantly it was an English speaking environment.

In my second year I worked in a very small village school, which consisted of mainly same-family generations. Here, the majority of the school was white-middle class.

In my third year I was lucky enough to work in a greatly diverse environment; where many different cultures, languages and abilities were included. Over 35% of the school was made up of children with Special Education Needs (SENs)...and this greatly affected their deliverance of the curriculum, the morals/values and beliefs established, and their approach to including and celebrating every diverse need/quality.

In my experience, class teachers can sometimes be scared of languages that are not their mother-tongue being used in the classroom, as they do not understand what is being talked about. For me, I believe all lanugages (of a minority or a majority) should be celebrated and included in the classroom, whilst developing the majority language as a base/common ground. If you have a child who speaks fluent Spanish...then you could use this to your advantage...by using their expertise to develop your own and the other children's understanding of this language. You could ask their parents to come into the class and give us short lessons in the basics of speaking spanish...or the teacher could print out vocabulary and place it around the class. Particularly in the Early Years and Lower Key Stage (ks1), the teacher could print off: rules, days of the week, numbers, Objectives and vocabulary in each of the languages in her/his class as a means of support for the children who are learning another language.

In schools I have seen:

• a teacher take the register in another language to help a new child understand that routine,
• a particular religion to be celebrated as requested by a child,
• basic vocabulary in english and other languages displayed in class,
• the basics of spanish, french and german being leaned in class to help children socialise with EAL children,
• Bilingual books...story books written in two or more languages alongside each other,
• PSHCE - How would you feel if....lessons. Trying to help monolingual children to understand what it is like to be a learner of english.

EAL (English as an Additional Language) is a huge part of education at the moment...at University we are always talking about how to help these children, and how to include them more effectively into the classroom (Push-in). This is called Inclusion, and it covers any type diversity. In working with the participants on this course I have come to apprectiate how difficult it is for those who speak English as a second or third or fourth language etc to communicate and learn in an academic setting where English is the dominant language...and I believe this experience (and the observatiosn I am making) is going to make me a better teacher...and more able to deal with EAL children in my class in the future!