Talking Points #2

Virginia Collier - Teaching Multilingual Children

This artical is about..

-Teaching

-Learning

-Cultural Backgrounds

-Diversity

-Language

-Understanding

-Guidelines

The author argues that teachers need to acquirer ways of teaching so that the students individual language spoken is appreciated both inside and outside the classroom.

1. "Teachers should be aware of the special kind of speech that mothers and fathers use automatically with their children, and try to emulate this." When Collier says this she is trying to promote the idea that relating to the child’s home life will not only make them more comfortable but also use it as a learning technique to inspire the child.

2. "On the other hand, teachers are responsible for facilitating academic language development." Meaning, it’s important to support students to use the language they know as well as getting them involved in learning the more dominate langue that is most often being spoke in the classroom.

3. "Don't teach a second language in any way that challenges or seeks to eliminate the first language." By saying this, she suggests how important is it to promote the child to pursue their first langue and to not put them in a position where they would have to choose one or the other.

This article easily caught my attention. Collier talked about the importance of never to pressure the child or make them uncomfortable even when introducing the different ness of an unusual language. She tries to explain to teachers that if this is taught the wrong way the child will almost immediately become uncomfortable and will disregard the new langauge. This can also result in the child being less confident and a lot more skeptical about learning a second language. In addition, she spoke about the importance of the family life; if family members are not supportive of these teachings styles and they do not encourage the child to peruse the learning process then it also plays a big part in how the child will view the language. She explained the importance of ‘code-switching’ and how it should be accepted and not penalized. This is when the student more then one language when communicating, breaking up random words and switching up the speech in the middle of a sentence. It may seem very confusing at first but once the teacher understands what the child is trying to clarify it motivates both parties to keep this a consistent way of speaking. Eventually the student becomes comfortable with the new language and fortunately the code-switching slowly vanishes. Various languages are spoken differently all over the world; they also come with diverse backgrounds and cultures to follow. The essential thing to do is to welcome the new language, to embrace it and learn from it.