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Unity in diversity, whether is it linguistic or cultural, should be one of the key points in our teaching nowdays, because multilingual diversity not only helps students broaden their cultural background, but also shows them how to be culturally aware.  Indeed, as one of my colleagues stated here, linguistic diversity also helps them integrate and be able to think and work in a super digitalized society.

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Linguistic diversity is a real fact in today's schools in Spain and it has got many advantages. Many students come from a different background and country. The have to cope with the language spoken in Spain apart from the target language.
Linguistic diversity involves helping students be better prepared for a hyper-digital-border -free world. Proficiency in multiple languages makes them better, more competent managers.
Students can improve their skills in problem-solving, planning and inferencing.

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Bringing diversity in our classes, working interdisciplinary.

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Bringing diversity in our classes, working interdisciplinary.

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There are a lot of benefits in supporting multilingualism in students' classroom. Firstly, it is useful in improving their competences and secondly it contributes to social inclusion and acceptance of all kinds of diversities.

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I absolutelly agree with Nell's presentation. Also, we can, in this situation, open the ,,taste for learning`` other languages, to all students. They can share each-othe their ,,language baggage``.

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Applying multilingualism in the classroom activities not only contributes improving to one of the key competencies moder education should be based on, but it also contributes to social inclusion and acceptance all kinds of diversities which is also one of the goals of the EU policies. By accepting diversities and multilingualism, students prevail prejudices and discrimination

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1st. Making our students important since they feel unique and they feel like that they have the ability to something new when learning a new language.
2nd. Making the rest of the students aware of the importance of languages and other cultures and making them motivitated to learn a foreign language. I would say even me as a teacher

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I think the main benefit of including home languages in the classroom is the increased confidence of multilingual students. We nee to show that all langauges matter and the school language is not more valuable than any other language, it is just the common language that all class members at learning at that time. Teachers can demonstrate that they're also life long learners and don't know everything yet but they are also languages learners and curious towards languages.

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There are a lot fo benefits of embrasing linguistic: ease of communication between students, challenging every day, improving communication skills, increase of interests in different aspects of learning, multiculturality, transformational journey...

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I agree with the Nell's analysis. A student who actively participates in the teaching process, who is involved because the teacher allows it and asks for involvement, is more motivated to learn and work, he tries harder to understand what is required of him. The problem that could arise is related to the possible lack of time to achieve everything that is planned and through the outcomes set in the curricula. Eventually, this could be solved by giving students a part of the content in advance to study it before coming to the class where they will learn more about it.

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I agree with Nell.
As an English teacher of Portuguese native speakers, I prefer that my students express themselves using their own language than be quiet all the time. It's common that students understand a conversation in English but they don't feel comfortable to speak in English. I usually encourage them to take part in the class even in Portuguese and then help them to repeat but in English. Thus they don't feel they are put aside and it's an opportunity to learn new words and expressions in English.

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I agree with her, it's a great idea, but we still can't follow it because of the program we're working on. In our country, the national curriculum is pre-established. Activities of this kind, possibly through extracurricular activities and projects can be carried out.

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VOICU CORINA VALENTINA, ROMANIAYes, I agree with Nell! It is good to reverse the roles from time to time and let the students learn from each other. Students who speak 2 or more languages ​​have access to more sources of information than others and are proud of it. In my lessons I try to incorporate the linguistic knowledge of my students. There are many ethnic Hungarians or Roma in my area. In history classes I urge them to talk about their culture, customs, traditions, I encourage them to present aspects of ethnic culture and to use words from the other language to better describe a habit, a kind of tricks, a personality. . Students are very proud when they speak the other language and somehow feel superior!

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VOICU CORINA VALENTINA, ROMANIAYes, I agree with Nell! It is good to reverse the roles from time to time and let the students learn from each other. Students who speak 2 or more languages ​​have access to more sources of information than others and are proud of it. In my lessons I try to incorporate the linguistic knowledge of my students. There are many ethnic Hungarians or Roma in my area. In history classes I urge them to talk about their culture, customs, traditions, I encourage them to present aspects of ethnic culture and to use words from the other language to better describe a habit, a kind of tricks, a personality. . Students are very proud when they speak the other language and somehow feel superior!

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I agree with Nell's idea, but it is difficult to do it because swe have a curriculum to work on.

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both to try to understand the student in his/her mother tongue and to respond to his/her needs. In addition, it is difficult to include other students in this sharing.

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both to try to understand the student in his/her mother tongue and to respond to his/her needs. In addition, it is difficult to include other students in this sharing.

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The moment you show interest in newcomers' language, you give them a sense of empowerment and the whole class (The teacher included) starts a transformation journey, through which we cultivate respect towards other languages than the dominant ones and appreciation of the previous academic achievements of the newcomers at their homeland. It's not an easy task because it has to face effectively practical matters (time, material, etc) as well as theoretical/political issues concerning the long established but subtle, underestimating approach of languages other than the dominant ones.

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I agree with Nell’s ideas about teacher and pupils switch roles, but it´s a difficult task because we have a curriculum to fulfill.

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I wonder how a teacher communicates and organizes the learning process if they don't share any common language.

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Once you try to learn students' home languages and try to communicate with them in their home language and ask others to do so, students feel valued by their teacher and friends. Communication can break down sometimes because they do not understand each other but it is also a benefit because when this happens they will feel the need to make use of the common language that you teach for a genuine reason, not because they need it to complete a task, homework or any kind activity. It will create a real-life like situation and environment in the class. In a multilingual classroom, one possible challenge is when you don't know a language. Students can whisper or shout things in their home language. You may not understand what they are talking about, etc. This will affect your classroom management negatively. I guess benefits of exploiting multilingualism are more than the downsides of it.

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I totally agree with Nell´s idea. For me, there are 2 main problems: big classes (I have a class with 2 foreign students that as 29 students), and some teachers that refuse to say a word outside Portuguese, because if they are in Portugal its compulsive to speak Portuguese.

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I've always been hesitant with regards to swapping roles with students but I think if we let students teach students might bring about some intresting results.

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I agree with Nell's idea because as I see it could be beneficial if I let the children teach the others or even me. It could increase their self-confidence and communication skills also.
However, I think as a safety net I would defenitely would like to know more than one language because as a non-bilingual it is hard to teach children from different cointries.

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As far as I am concerned, her idea might work better in primary schools. However, where I work, in a high school, we have limited time to develop the curriculum with the competences and everything. Therefore, I think our educational system should be changed in a more modern, multicultural one, which enable teachers to actually work individually and according to the necessities of our students.

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Yes, pupils can teach to their pairs, it's even better and more efficient than when teachers are ! Pupils will the speak more, develop their language skills : it will give them a +++ value of work

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I agree with her, it's a great idea but we still can't follow it because of the curriculum we work on.

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I agree with her, especially regarding the change of roles. We can benefit from this linguistic diversity which reflects a diversity of thinking and visions. But I also see that the curriculum, the educational systems, the time spent in our classrooms can limit these benefits and even create difficulties in taking advantage of this diversity. This is the challenge.

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I agree with it, as learning languages ​​increases students’ ability to think at higher levels such as analysis and linkage, and it is possible for them to have an insight and discover the similarities and differences between languages, and this improves the student’s academic achievement and develops his personality

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I do agree with Nell´s analysis. It´s true that the process of operating in a multilingual classroom facilitates effective learning practices and teaching, and it is a good method to empower our students. In a multilingual classroom not all our students speak the same language so it is a great opportunity to teach them the benefits of learning another language. Once they learn a new language it makes it easier to learn many more, and they can become multilingual. Learning another new language has a lot of brain benefits too, it improves the working memory, wisdom, capacity of concentration… Having contact to students who speaks a different language provides an opportunity to celebrate cultural diversity and enables our students to be more open-minded, grow up as more democratic citizens while adding strength and self-confidence to the individual. It also offer the possibility to study overseas, to have a better job, to travel around the world being able to hold conversations with different community groups. Hence, there are lots of benefits but there are some challenges and downsides too. It requires to change the traditional role of monolingual o even bilingual teachers. There might be a lack of skilled educators and a lot of self-discipline is needed. Multilingualism is a chance to learn from differences but as teacher you might struggle with students who are scared of immigrant students, others who make fun of them because of their accent trying to learn a new language or because they mix the different languages together. Other students would show even a racist behavior, etc. So, as teacher we need to look for effective strategies to avoid these kind of problems and to encourage the new non native speakers  to actively participate in class. Pair work or small groups can be a method to offer all our diverse students the opportunity to get out of their comfort zone and try a new approach of respectful communication with other students.

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I agree with her but I aslo think that not al school systems are open enough to this approach because we are more or less limited withc urriculum demands and unwritten school rules as well. However, we can still make some changes at least in the way we talk to bilingual students and in the way we help them present themselves and their culture, language to other students showig them that diversity is good thing and, maybe, motivating them to learn more languages too.

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My Analysis on the Benefits of Linguistic Diversity

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My Analysis on the Benefits of Linguistic Diversity

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The benefits of linguistic diversity that Nell Foster highlights is not only restricted to primary- and secondary-education students, but students in tertiary education benefit from linguistic diversity as well since every student has the opportunity to help each other out. Whether it is exchanging knowledge about each others' languages and helping each other know the basics to allowing them to play the role of the educator to help the educator learn their language, the community in the classroom and school is strengthened since there will likely be native English speakers who always wanted to learn a new language from a very young age. It is from there that a linguistically-curious student would gravitate to a student speaking their language of interest while the student learning the English language will be able to have a positive role model.

The biggest problem at the moment is support form schools and the locale in which the school is located, where their support for linguistic diversity might either not be enough or no support exists. Even if educators are not licensed to be a bilingual educator, it is still vital to at least know two or more languages as a safety net. With that in mind, due to the fact that if an educator is not licensed as a bilingual educator, non-bilingual educators can slip through the cracks believing that they do not have to learn another language.

—Austin Nicholas Dragoș [United States of America]

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What a great idea! Every school year there is at least an arabic speaker pupil in my class. They usually show a low profile because of their lower competence, both in English and Spanish (it is a bilingual school). I have always wanted to find a way of empowering them and show their mates what a challenge is for them to study in languages with different alphabet, as they usually ask to have the easier exam that we propose these students. I will definitely put this idea in into practice! It will be such a great experience for all of us!

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I agree with her ideas about teachers becoming learners in a multicultural classroom, but I think it is not an easy task; at least in the current Spanish academic system, where both students and teachers have to follow a very strict curriculum with little space to diversity.

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(Photo by JACQUELINE BRANDWAYN on Unsplash)
I totally agree with the analysis proposed, because I think that a teacher should always put him/herself in a learning condition. But sometimes there are some problems: the time, that is always too little; the school curriculum, in which it's you that must find some space for the knowledge of student's different languages because there is no planned space for it; the real difficulty of some european languages that are so different from what we are used to.
Anyway, when students feel confident and accepted and qualified in the class context, they can do their best.

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I definitely agree with all Nell's ideas. The benefits are that children would get the content from the context and see how different we all are and how much more about languages we all know. They would learn to do things in a different way.
The challenges are that this issue which implies a specific sort of work in the classroom is not really covered by Curriculum, at least in my country. I think teachers, especially language teachers should have the possibility to use some hours of thweir work on multilingualism and on how to say or do things differently.
One good example is for students and teachers to switch roles occasionally and it is an excellent opportunity for everybody in the classroom to leran (including teachers).

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In principle I agree with this analysis. However, as a teacher at a vocational school I also must state, that this idea can much easier be realized in a primary school than in my subject, which is mechanical engineering. Especially from the background of all these standards and competencies to be achieved. But nevertheless, I will think about a concept of learning from each other....possibilities to allow more participation for especially these students with a migration background.

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I agree with her ideas. In addition to the importance of not neglecting linguistic diversity among students, it would be good to highlight this linguistic diversity as a positive thing, something from which we can learn from each other.

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I agree with Nell's ideas. It is very important not to neglect the language diversity among your students and to embrase their expression and even giving them the teaching role and learning from them.

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I do appreciate Nell's enthusiasm and definitely agree with her about the importance of the teacher open minded attitude. It becomes helpful to the whole classroom in a multicultural perspective.

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I definitely agree! Children, when they teach other children or adults something, feel important, increase their self-esteem, gain confidence. And the teacher has a different vision of what is happening in the classroom. We all have something to learn.

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I think there are struggles and benifits to having students with different languages in my classroom. Sometimes I think it woul be "easier" if every one had a least one language in common, but it also gives me the opportunity to learn another language and make my students feel appreciated and "seen". I open my classroom to everyone and its always interesting to see similarities and differences between languages.
My pupils love it when I give them the opportunity to go to the front of the class and teach me and their peers some vocabulary.

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I agree with Nell’s ideas. I’d like to leand more about it.

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Nell Foster states that in multilingual class you should switch roles with your students. From her point of view that has highly positive results and time-saving so the teacher should integrate and benefit from this positive diversity.

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I think that this is absolutely the natural concept of a flipped classroom. The student brings to class his/ her awareness and expertise of their native language to share with the other students and be the teacher for a minute or for an hour. I simply love the idea of having my Chinese student starting a new subject for our English class in her own language, even if it is by sharing a Chinese character or telling us the pronunciation of a sentence written in Pinyin.

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Each student needs to be proud and feel appreciated. I totally agree with this teacher and I think I will take this into consideration for future planning of my activities.

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One of the benefits would be building self-confidence of pupil giving them opportunity to express themselves in their language and to show what they learned so far.

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I agree with the benefits that Nell is talking about but can tell from experience that a teacher alone can not deal with the different issues of a multilingual classroom. You need more than one adult in the classroom as bilingual assistants and EAL teachers to maximise the potential of all of the students. Schools also need to provide all students with mother tongue lesson taught by people from their communities. That´s the only way to a proper integration of languages and thus, cultures.

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I think Nell's analysis is totally advantageous, kids from other cultures need to feel proud and valued. Nevertheless, if the mother tongue is used quite often in the class it could students from learning the target language.

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In life and in classes diversity, and not only the linguistic is the way to be.

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I agree as it is a mutual benefit situation, and it helps to built a rapport. In my opinion this type of classroom environment would profit more from, at least, two teachers working together as the high number of students per class decrease / challenge the opportunities to support diferent needs within a classroom.

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Yes, I agree with that, that's exactly what I did. We taught the students to teach us, to teach each other. Children are in control of their own learning process, they feel important, their self-esteem increases, in addition everyone has something to learn.

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Thomas, France  Join the community, build the identity

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Thomas, France  Join the community, build the identity

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" Learning is not just acquiring skills and information; it is becoming a certain person—a knower in a context where what it means to know is negotiated with respect to the regime of competence of a community. " (Wenger, 2012)

Whether it is by flipped classroom or task-based approach, the idea of valuing students "linguistic and cultural capital" also looks benefitial from at least one point of view: it includes all the students in one customed community of practice.

The most probable downside to it is teacher need for time to experiment and adjust, and one questionable mastery of this approach that could decrease the whole learning and teaching efficiency during a certain amount of time.

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I couldn't agree more with Nell Foster! Learners whose native language is valued at school are far more likely to perform to their reserve capacities than those who languish in the classroom. They are given a cognitive, social and psychological boost. Schools that adopt inclusive strategies like translanguaging, CLIL and flipped classroom create a supportive environment for all learners. Teachers who are open to change and embrace diversity enjoy the benefits of professional development and self-fulfillment and become immune to burnout.
On the other hand, multilingualism and innovation may sound frightening to the majority of in-servive teachers with a long experience in traditional education. They are most commonly monolingual and find the new school environments too complex to respond to. It would take them not only extensive pedagogical retraining but also a profound shift in their mindset...

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Yue, China Flipped classrooms and education culture representations

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Yue, China Flipped classrooms and education culture representations

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Flipped classrooms, task-based language learning, among other meaningful approaches to communication and language acquisition, are fully recommanded in European schools.

The first challenge that is obvious to me, is first about traditional representations of teaching and teacher role. In many countries and many places, resorting mainly to flipped classroom and task-based learning to put students essentially in action can be seen as a "lazy" way of teaching, since the teacher's role evoluate to more animation and observation, whereas monologuing in front of the class (which is a very criticized way to teach nowadays) would actually be seen as a demonstration of high expertise. In such an educational context, students could feel that they've learnt nothing from the teacher, since the knowledge seems to come from their own work only. This first challenge is about adopting new ways of thinking.

Some of the downsides could be that while integrating students of different languages and cultures background, we would also worsen the numeric gap between them (conditions of learning vary a lot outside of the classroom) and loose some control over the pace and progression of the class.

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Neil's analysis is strongly connected to what I have highlighted in the previous Padlet: the importance of giving students "voice".

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According to me, Nell's Foster idea to switch the roles from time to time is a great idea to integrate foreign students, I would be interested in trying this strategy.

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I agree with Nell. We have to find a way to understand and support students with different mothertongues so as to intergrate them in the school environment. Their classmates should also take part and learn from them. But how is that possible and what are the limits of that approach? Is it enough for him to take the teacher-role and for how long? Maybe he will reach a threshold that requires other strategies from the teacher and him.

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I agree with Nelly's analysis. For me, it is important that the teacher switches the role from time to time and is open-minded concerning new ways of methods introducing non- mother- tongue- pupils in the learning of subjects, too. I see the challenge for each pupil to reach the acknowledge of subjects in school. The encouragement for themselves is already the way of having understood subjects in their mother tongues. That give them a positive feeling and encourage themselves to learn the new language that is an obstacle- at the beginning of learning..

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I agree with Nell's ideas, students have to be at the centre of their learning activity and teacher has to be coach and mentor. Students have to find their ways to learn...

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I find Nell's statements very interesting and enormously encouraging.
A student who comes from a different country needs support, to feel confident and to embrace the new country as a second home. If we don't give him/her the chance to show their linguistic potential he/she is going to feel rejected and marginalised by the system. As a teacher I do feel that all of us can learn if we embark in this journey, that is, if we give newcomers the chance to have some protagonism and show what they know not neglecting what they've learnt before. It's an asset for all of us: students and teachers.

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I agree with Nell's statements When a student doesn't speak the same language as his/her colleagues, he/she tends to isolate himself/herself. It is very important to make everyone aware that we can all learn from each other.
I would be interested in learning detailed strategies to take on different roles.

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I agree with Nell Foster's ideas: in a multilingual class you switch roles with your students-something tremendously positive-,which could be, on the other hand, time-consuming, so the teacher should be aware of time limits.

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I agree with Nell Foster's ideas: in a multilingual class you switch roles with your students-something tremendously positive-,which could be, on the other hand, time-consuming, so the teacher should be aware of time limits.

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Nell'e tamamen katılıyorum. Onu dinledikten sonra erken yaş kategorisinden başlayıp diğer seviyelere yayma fikrini benimsedim. Böylece çok farklı deneyimler yaşayacak kazanımlar elde etmiş olacağız.

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I really agree with Nell's analysis because givig an opprtunity to the students to learn on their own path is a great chance for them. As teachers we need to focus on student-centered approaches rather than teacher-centered. We need to create an atmosphere where our students can feel secure, engaged and where they can develop their metacognitive skills. For students whose mother tongue is different can easily be distracted when they realize that it will be difficult for them to share their ideas, answers etc... So, with the help of metacognitive skills they are going to realize how to deal with the problem and make progress on their learning journey. On the other hand, the other key points are teaching methodology and resources. As teachers, when we address to a classroom where international students have, we need to use different, useful methodologies that give response to the needs of the students. Also, resources should be arranged, adopted and various that all students can access.

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Actually I don't have a student whose mother tounge is different. But it is a bit disadvantageous for me to let them introduce themselves in their mother tounge. Because I'm teaching English and I want them to speak English.

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I agree with Nell's analysis, students who are from another country and has their own mother language needs to intregate themselves to the class and to feel welcomed. This is very important in order to let them bring their own culture to class. It would be easier for them to learn a new language and to interact with the rest of others. We have to eliminate any prejudices and to see the plurilingual atmosphere as something fruitful. Challenges cannot make us stop this process of bringing opportunities to raise a multilingual atmosphere. We need to think ideas to create a motivating teaching-learning process

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I find Nell's analysis very interesting. I currently have some students who do not have a Croatian background and it is interesting to observe how they interact in the classroom They are shy to speak in their home languages though. But it is a learning process for us all I suppose. The diversity in languages they brought to the classroom will certainly widen our horizons and enable us to learn from their cultures.

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I love Nell's approach to teaching and integrating children with other languages into a new, for them, reality. I absolutely agree that such the approach gives a pupil/child an opportunity "not to be condemned" as Nell has said and lets him/her "participate in lessons". I believe, it's correct from any side.
However, I would distinguish between children and teens, teens and young adults. I suppose, that biological, chemical and as the result, psychological changes which teens/young adults experience have to be taken into consideration when we speak about pupils who are 12 years old and more. Based on my own experience, some of them don't use their mother tongue at school absolutely consiously; some of them had been bullied because of their ill pronounciation previous time and he/she wants to prove someone that he/she could speak English or any other language perfectly.
Of course, I've mentioned negative experience and there is a positive side of not using a mother tongue in the class which teens choose in order to achieve their goal.
I'm sure that when teens trust a teacher and groupmates, their share their language easily and have fun together.
I think my task is to show how different and at the same similar we are. So, language is a good tool to achieve it.
Thanks!

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I agree with Nell. The teacher has several roles: leader, helper, but he is also a student. When a student arrives at a foreign school, the teacher should be aware of the school system from which the student comes, know the script and language in which he writes and reads, the culture and customs of the country he comes from. These are the basic settings that I stated in the book I reviewed, which deals with learning the Croatian language as a foreign language. These are all challenges, but also advantages because a conscious teacher will respect it and try to individualize the approach to the student and both will discover new things and together decide  the speed of learning, get to know their own abilities and possibilities.

It will be terribly difficult for the student at the beginning, as well as for the teacher, however, all that effort and time spent can come like a benefit  in your own life and make life easier in later work.

As a downside, I would state that the student may not have the opportunity to learn at home (parents can not help him because they do not speak the language of the host) but only in class, so it remains up to the teacher how to solve it.

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Nell's ideas have really changed my way of seeing the variety of languages ​​in the classroom, because I have always prioritized that the student who arrives, learns the common language early to get on the same level as his classmates, but I have never valued the possibility of teaching the same content as the rest of their classmates, but in their native language, which, for these students, can be very motivating and inclusive. The downside to this idea is that it would take a long time to prepare the resources and materials in the different language, and more if it is several different languages. Then there should be teachers speaking those different languages ​​to teach the class in those languages ​​and the essence of inclusion would be lost.

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Nell's helped me open my mind. Now it would be interesting to see it in practice and learn about the details. I have set myself a new challenge.

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I agree with Neil's analysis. Students should use the language of instruction not only in the classroom but also in extracurricular activities. art and sports activities or games after class can support language learning.

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I would definitely agree that students benefit from the switched roles, their own metalinguistic awareness while using more languages and so on. But there is actually little linguistic evidence for "the bilingual advantage". Still there are some benefits in research for e.g. executive controll and cognitive enhancement of certain areas which bilinguals do use more than monolinguals (or bilinguals forced to use only one language) but on the other hand there is still no evidence for an direct influence of the bilingualism. Still it is important for many other reasons to include all languages in the teaching process and just acknowledge the diversity and the cultural heritage in the classroom. Therefore, I would say the benefits outweigh the disadvantages.

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I agree with Nell's statements and I would be interested in learning detailed strategies to take on different roles.

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I find The ideas Very interesting in primary school. In secondary schools I find foreign students Must hace access content in their one language but they need tren to acquire the knowledge in The oficial language

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I agree with Nell`s analysis. The variety of languages and cultural backgrounds offer self-esteem and individual awareness.

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Allowing students to speak their home languages in the classroom can probably work better at an early age when the curricular contents aren't so complex, gamification is often used and children learn quickly. At secondary school, it will probably be much more difficult, when not impossible, as these teenagers won't be able to understand the content of the academic subjects, they won't be able to follow the pace of their classmates, and the teachers might feel they are wasting a valuable time needed to help the rest of the students. In the case of university students, it's an admission requirement to know the language of the country. When university students want to join the Erasmus program for some months, universities ask them to have a certain level of English (mainly), French or the national languages

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I agree with Neil's opinions Multilingual children show better cognitive malleability and problem-solving skills. Students in a multilingual classroom will experience a lifetime aid: they will be more adjustable and flexible, having in mind this never-ending-changing world. Their communication skills will be much more comprehensive and having the ability of being a good communicator is just like a “key” to thrive.

As a disadvantage, … well, some languages may be harder to learn!

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I agree that multilingualism in a classroom offers the benefit of teaching students tolerance, open-mindedness, acceptance and familiarisation with different cultural backgrounds. Another benefit is the confidence that students get when they realise their first language is valued and when they are put in the position of the teacher when explaining words or structures in their mother tongue. Of course, as many here have pointed out, it is difficult for the teacher to find the time to engage in the correct activities that will empower bilingual students.

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this creates an atmosphere of diversity of cultural and social tolerance. the students get richer and so does the teacher. which strengthens relationships between students. but this work requires a lot of time and commitment from the teacher

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I agree with Nell's analysis. When a student doesn't speak the same language as his/her colleagues, he/she tends to isolate himself/herself. It is very important to make everyone aware that we can all learn from each other. This will enhance the students' confidence and therefore improve their ability to learn a foreign language and a foreign culture.

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Embracing Diversity
It is crucial that we acknowledge, find out about and embrace the diversity of our classrooms because only then are we being equitable and inclusive (or at least on our way to that). I agree that we need to have students bring all languages of their own database to the table but they must also share them and process in them without any obstacles. There is no challenge if the whole school agrees to this approach and makes room for this as a school objective in their improvement plans.

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Nell is absolutely right in her analysis. Nonetheless, she speaks about 'children' and I guess she teaches in a primary school, where children just start forming their writing skills and their vocabulary and fluent speaking is still in full development.
In high school, things are slightly different, and the main challenge, or even a proper "enemy" is TIME. Students need to reach a certain level of proficiency (B1/B2 at least, in Romania) and, while allowing them to enrich the learning process with their own cultural and linguistic input, they still need to meet the curriculum standards. Graduation examination is quite strict and requires constant effort, not caring a bit about personal backgrounds.

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I absolutely agree with Nelly. The diversity of languages provides us an opportunity to widen our horizons, and to learn more things from other cultures which is amazing

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I agree and once again the role of the teacher has to be re-equated. Looking at him as not having all the knowledge is the way. Redirect learning with a focus on the student and their culture (language) and make it a vehicle for mutual learning, facilitating effective learning practices. The big challenges are time management and the high number of students per class, which in the early years are very dependent.

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Changing roles and giving a chance to students to use their mother tongue is a great idea. but i havent implemented it since I dont know albanian the language most of the biligual or foreign students use in my school up to now. a teacher that used it though learned afterwards that the child used some curse words that she couldnt identify......
this method for me can fight linguistic racism and promote the respect for other people s culture.

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I agree with Foster's point of view, although I haven't experienced it myself.

I think flipping classrooms so that students can teach some concepts to the rest of the group (teacher included) can help them gain confidence and, starting from there, advance in the content of the subject.

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I do agree with Nell’s opinion because it is always a challenging idea to exchange roles with students. I think pupils will develop confidence and cultural/linguistic awareness and also promote tolerance towards different languages. On the other hand, there is not enough time for these kinds of activities in Greek school.

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Although it may be really hard at the beggining, I think that working in a multilingual class might be a really interesting learning environment.

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I agree with Nelly's point of view but I also recognise the difficulties that this task has because it needs time and effort from teacher and the other students.

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I agree with the possibility of exchanging roles with my students. They will feel more involved in the teaching-learning process, develop confidence, speaking skills and self-esteem, contributing to improve the relationship and cooperation in class.

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I do agree with Ms. Foster's opinion. I like the idea of switching roles with these pupils. I think this is great to boost the student's self-confidence and their feeling of being seen as an individual with their own culture and experience. However I very often feel that there is not enough time for activities of this sort. We are constantly pressend to teach the pupils for test and cognitive performance is regarded more important than the "soft" skills. In a rigid school system that expects conformity and adaptation it is hard to see students as individuals who learn in their own way and their own pace.

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I totally agree with Mrs Foster's ideas and analysis. The benefits are obvious. They encourage diversity tolerance and acceptability facilitating the communication

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I totally agree with Mrs Foster's ideas and analysis. The benefits are obvious. They encourage diversity tolerance and acceptability facilitating the communication

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I think it is always a good idea to switch roles with pupils from time to time. Sometimes some pupils are shy and are not willing to participate in certain activities but many of them do start to feel important when assigned a different role. I need to share my personal experience here since, as I have already pointed out, I have a pupil who does not speak Croatian. The first lesson we had together I asked him to teach the rest of the class and me some expressions in his language. He felt happy, more relaxed and less confused. I think this was really helpful.

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I agree with Nell's analysis of the benefits of multilingualism. In addition to facilitating communication and social relationships, it also enhances cognitive functioning.

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Linguistic diversity has many advantages in the classroom. It improves language learning and promotes tolerance. Also it is a challenge for the teacher and the students: some may feel insecure because they don't understand everything.

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I would definitely say it promotes tolerance, cultural awareness, helps boost self-esteem. As for downsides- it is difficult to decide on the right ,,portion" of it, and there could be some negative comments outside the class (which teachers might not be aware of unless someone reports  mistreatment).

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I do agree with Ms. Foster's opinion and anylysis. I think it is a great idea to have a flipped classroom so pupils will be teachers. And what better way to do it tthan on their own language in case they are bilinugal. This will promote tolerance towards different lanugages and will connecte pupils in a classroom more.

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I absolutely agree with Ms. Foster's analysis. There are so many advantages that come with embracing linguistic diversity. Since the other posts have focused on the benefits - I want to summarise some of the challenges I have encountered:
- Kids can be mean. If multiple students share the same native language, some tend to use this to exclude other peers. Additionally, especially the older learners sometimes use their native language to swear and bully other children.
- Sadly, amongst children, and probably also grown-ups, some languages are seen as superior to other languages. Students who speak less superior languages may be bullied due to this.
- Students who only speak the language of schooling might find it difficult to make friends. - in my school, there is one class where the majority of students speak Turkish and only one student speaks only German. It is difficult for this student to feel like they are part of the class, since they are often excluded due to the language barrier.

All of the challenges I've mentioned above could be worked on by focusing on team-building and cultural acceptance. However, this has proven to be rather difficult, because the focus of Austrian schools seems to have been put on teaching content and not so much on social skills & communication.