Calculating Your School’s Language Exposure
How long does it take to learn a language? It depends on the language!
Which languages take longer to learn? (according to the US Foreign Service)
Imagine Quote
Jacob Huckle, TIE, February 2023
“Imagine if international schools were spaces in which all languages, accents, and dialects were respecte, valued, and cared for. Imagine if our curriculum were intentionally designed to draw upon the various languages in the classrooms to broaden and deepen learning through diversifying perspectives. Imagine if pedagogical translanguaging was part of the regular practice of every teacher so all students were empowered to use their complete language repertoires for learning. Imagine if students were enabled to maintain and develop all the languages that are important to their identities. Imagine if we fostered every language with care to build belonging and deep, meaningful international mindedness. Imagine if multilingualism was only ever considered an asset and never a problem we needed to fix.”
Exploring a multilingually-minded PYP classroom
- How can your students’ language portraits/profiles feed into your planning, creating learning spaces?
- How can you include your students’ home and family languages and additional languages and literacy in other languages when you plan language engagements?
- How can you use your students’ languages in your classroom to develop cultural identities and international-mindedness?
- How can you create a space that promotes the notion that multilingualism is beneficial?
- How can your students learn their languages, learn about their languages, and learn through their languages?
How Multilingually-Minded Are Our International Schools: Evaluation Tool Questions
Linguistic Landscape – walk around the school
- What languages are visible?
- Is your signage in one language or many languages and which languages?
- Can you hear and see different languages? If so, which and why?
Language Facts
- What is the linguistic diversity at your school? Does everyone have this information? Is this updated regularly and shared? Is it used to plan?
School Documents / Policies / Websites / Social Media
- What do your key documents say about multilingualism and language learning?
- Is intercultural awareness and multilingual awareness in job descriptions or your website?
Curriculum
- Do your curriculum language offerings match a) the languages spoken by the students b) the languages used in the country? If not, why not?
- Can students study their home language as a subject? Does your school hire professional teachers for this? Who pays for this?
- How are multilingual students evaluated/assessed when they have challenges? Does your school use multiple language assessment and evaluation tools with multilingual students? If not, why not?
- Can a student study any foreign language he/she wishes? If not, which languages are on offer?
Community:
- Is there a forum where parents, teachers and students can ask and get answers about multilingualism?
- How are students, teachers, parents being advised about what is typical and atypical language development?
- What are the wider societal attitudes towards multilingualism in your local area and country? Does your school mirror these attitudes or are they very different?
How Multilingually-Minded Are Our International Schools: Quick Quiz
- How many different home languages are spoken by students at your school?
- How many different languages are spoken by teachers at your school?
- Have you seen or heard a language other than your schools’s language of instruction this week?
- How many different ‘languages’ can your students study as a subject?
- Can your students study his or her home language as a language subject a your school?
- Is a commitment to multilingualism written in your school’s documents?
- How multilingual is the region or country where your school is? And is multilingualism and all languages seen as positive?
How Multilingually-Minded Are Our Schools? Multilingual Mindedness is…
- Most of the world is bi- or multilingual
- A multilingual language system is one holistic system not several monolingual systems
- Every language or variation is valued and valuable
- Multilingualism is a resource to the individual and society
- Multilingual language systems are organic and vulnerable to attrition
How Multilingually-Minded Are Our Schools? Spectrum of Multilingual-Mindedness
What does Inquiry-Based Additional Language Learning Look Like?
- students exploring or ‘noticing’ linguistics features that occur in authentic texts (oral and written)
- students analyzing linguistics features that arise from looking at authentic texts or carrying out authentic tasks
- teachers planning language instruction that enables students to meet educational objectives from mainstream educational expectations
- teachers using teaching strategies that encourage active deduction of meaning
- students being provided with opportunities to intellectually engage with language learning
- students and teacher learning together through collaboration, negotiation, and authentic communication
From Caputo, L. (2014). Using inquiry-based learning to teach additional languages in a high school context. In Inquiry-based learning for the arts, humanities, and social sciences: A conceptual and practical resource for educators. Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Seven Types of Multilingual Acquisition in Multilingual Children from High-SES Families Educated in International Schools (Greenall, 2020)
I created the Seven Types of Multilingual Acquisition in Multilingual Children from High-SES Families Educated in International Schools. It is based on Romaine’s ‘six types’ of bilingual acquisition in childhood that can be found in Romaine, S. (1995). The bilingual child. Bilingualism, 181-240.
Type 1: The home connected multilingual child
Parents: The parents have different native languages with each having some degree of competence in the other’s language.
School Community: Neither native language of the parents is the dominant language of the school community. The child is mostly exposed to this language when outside of the home and in school.
Local Community: Neither native language of the parents is the dominant language(s) of the local community. The child is mostly exposed to this language when outside of the home and school.
Strategy: The parents each speak their own language to the child from birth. The parents employ child carers in their languages or a different language. The parents may mix their languages.
Type 2: The Locally-Connected Multilingual Child
Parents: The parents have different native languages with each having some degree of competence in the other’s language.
School Community: Neither language of the parents is the dominant language of the school community.
Local Community: The language of one of the parents is the dominant language(s) of the community.
Strategy: The parents each speak their own language to the child from birth. The parents employ child carers in their languages or a different language. The parents may mix their languages.
Type 3: The School-Connected Multilingual Child
Parents: The parents have different native languages with each having some degree of competence in the other’s language.
School Community: The language of one of the parents is the dominant language of the school community.
Local Community: Neither language of the parents is the dominant language(s) of the local community.
Strategy: The parents each speak their own language to the child from birth. The parents employ child carers in their languages or a different language. The parents may mix their languages.
Type 4: The School-Connected and Locally-Connected Multilingual Child
Parents: The parents have different native languages with each having some degree of competence in the other’s language.
School Community: The language of one of the parents is the dominant language of the school community.
Local Community: The language of one of the parents is the dominant language(s) of the local community.
Strategy: The parents each speak their own language to the child from birth. The parents employ child carers in their languages or a different language. The parents may mix their languages.
Type 5: The Single-Home Language Multilingual Child
Parents: The parents share the same native language.
School Community: Neither language of the parents is the dominant language of the school community.
Local Community: Neither language of the parents is the dominant language(s) of the local community. The child is mostly exposed to this language when outside of the home and school.
Strategy: The parents speak the same language to the child from birth. The parents employ child carers in their languages or a different language. The parents may introduce the school and/or community language into a home language.
Type 6: The Single-Home Language Locally-Connected Multilingual Child
Parents: The parents share the same native language.
School Community: Neither language of the parents is the dominant language of the school community.
Local Community: The language of the parents is the dominant language(s) of the local community.
Strategy: The parents speak the same language to the child from birth. The parents employ child carers in their languages or a different language. The parents may introduce the school and/or community language into a home language.
Type 7: The Monolingual-Home Multilingual Child
Parents: The parents share the same native language.
School Community: The language of both of the parents is the dominant language of the school community.
Local Community: Neither language of the parents is the dominant language(s) of the school community.
Strategy: The parents speak the same language to the child from birth. The child has been educated in other languages that are different from his or her home languages.
Access the full PhD Thesis here:Greenall, Lorna Elizabeth (2020) An inquiry into the typical and atypical language development of young transnational multilingual children in an international school thesis.
exploring multilingualism 