I’ve been unfortunately tied up with my “day job” these last weeks, and haven’t had the time I wanted to dedicate to relating some of what we discussed at the Expert Seminar on Early Language Learning in Friesland. I’d like to pick up the thread now with some thoughts on teacher-training.
The reason I was invited to speak at the seminar is my work on teacher-training for bilingualism. Over the last years, I’ve worked with a variety of schools, doing everything from one-off seminars on bilingualism, to working with the British School of Amsterdam on a project that has now stretched over two years, and is still going strong. So, what are we doing together, these teachers and administrators and me?
We are working very hard on developing a program, or programs, to help schools and teachers better understand and integrate language learners into their classrooms. Aside from the mostly-expat population I work with, the fact is that the EU has the second-largest migrant work force in the world (after the US). At last count, there were (legally) over 48 million migrant workers in EU countries. Why does this matter for schools? It matters because it means that more and more classrooms are hosting children who do not speak the language of the school – some not at all, and some not well enough to learn. However, very few teacher-training programs have any modules or courses that address language acquisition, bilingualism or teaching language learners.
This has created a situation in which teachers are uniformed and not capable of fully meeting the needs of these children, through no fault of their own. The talk I gave in Friesland was based on this problem – how can we (policy-makers, teacher-trainers, researchers) begin to make changes that will result in system-wide teacher-education for bilingualism? A small part of the solution would be people like me (and I am not alone!), and schools who are open to having their teachers acquire knowledge and make positive changes. A larger part of the solution must come from an institutional level – changes to initial teacher-training programs, and changes to in-service teachers programs.
If you have a child in a school where they are learners of the majority language, your job is to talk about bilingualism, with your childrens’ teachers, and with the administrators. Find out what they know, what their school policies are about language use (do they have a majority language only policy?) and share your knowledge and opinions as well. As I have mentioned before, one of the primary tasks of a parent raising bilingual children is to have an open and on-going conversation with educators working with their children. So, this week, go and talk to a teacher about bilingualism!
Monthly Archives: February 2012
More talking about bilingualism in Friesland….
Seven things I learned in Friesland
1. Friesans are Dutch, but not. And Frisian is like Dutch, but is not Dutch. In fact, it’s closer to English than to Dutch. I feel that I should have learned this much earlier in my Dutch experience – professional shame on me!
2. Friesland has almost 50 trlingual primary schools – Frisian, Dutch and English. It’s a great program, and it’s working.
3. Researchers and trainers across Europe are at work on programs meant to bring foreign languages (what “foreign” means is another topic…) to school children from earlier ages.
4. There is an institute in the Netherlands doing fantastic work with children with communication issues (Kentalis). They have staff who understand and work with families dealing with language issues in bilingual children.
5. The results of the Poliglotti4.eu research program show that EU teachers want more training in working with language learners.
6. There are families in the EU that are monolingual, and so dedicated to the idea of bilingualism for their children that the parents are undertaking the job of learning and teaching their children another language (Google “Hocus and Lotus”.
7. There is a whole network of like-minded people out there, ready and happy to talk about bilingualism with me, in my Year of Talking About Bilingualism!
Filed under Introduction
Serious talking about bilingualism…
A fitting event for my “Year of Talking About Bilingualism”, today I came to Leeuwarden, in Friesland, not in hopes of seeing the famous Elfstedentocht (11-cities ice race), but to attend a conference on multilingualism in Europe. This first evening was an informal reception and I was in a group of people who wanted to do nothing more than talk about bilingualism. Participants have come from all over Europe to discuss their work, on subjects as varied as teaching writing in Norwegian to teacher-training for Irish-language schools in Northern Ireland. It promises to be two more days filled with new research, policy discussions and collaborative learning.
Stay tuned, and I’ll updated on interesting subjects over the next few days.
For more information on the seminar, go to http://www.mercator-research.eu/home
