Being a teacher of very young children I feel it is very important to have 1 common language, and for us it is English. I cannot imagine all my 3 year olds speaking in their different mother languages as since we have so much diversity we would not be able to communicate at all! 

However, their culture and traditions are respected and taken into account when planning different projects. This helps them feel part of the group and participate more. 

Achievements of the individual in word-processing to multilingual speakers reflected on the enrichment cognitive with different competitive languages, in developing affective achieving empathic on respecting the principle of multicultural democratic society toward psychomotor skills development of oral and written expression in every language, communication towards the provision and acceptance of different messaging and social terms with the facilitation of providing vital existential unemployment challenge in the XXI century. CLIL art activities also provide an opportunity to engage with target language culture, which is a very important element of this foreign language teaching methodology. As a CLIL teacher, I focus art history and theory. In my final classes(quinte LiceoClassico) in cooperation with my colleagues (English teachers) I’m creating a English CLIL art activity on the Romantic Age’s artists. Students should create digital learning objects, “a tangible”test of their work, evidence of not only their newly acquired art skills but also their capacity to understand, think and create in their target language. This sense of accomplishment can act as both a reward and a motivator for students. In this framework, comprehension is more important than memorization, and communication is more important than precise grammatical accuracy. CLIL provides a space for students to communicate naturally in the target language, picking up vocabulary in context, and—especially when used with creative subjects such as art—learning how to express their own, original ideas with the target language vocabulary and concepts they have at their disposal. 

 

Language diversity is an asset for the whole class.

Planning bilingual lessons and providing examples from other cultures, improves the thinking abilities of all the students. The language ability of the foreign students can be put to use in lessons to open the mind of their classmates.

But, in general cases, I notice that they do not emphasize their linguistic skills: on the contrary they declare that they are not interested in practice their first language in daily situations.

I start from the conviction that every culture has in itself the enriching aspects for different reasons. Another assumption is that of the importance of the use of language and the sharing of different words, not only of different languages ​​but linked to geography and local and / or family history. Words are vehicles of meanings, first of all deep meanings, linked to affections. When someone feels "not having the words" he generally needs to refocus as he feels in the context in which he finds himself. For this reason, I first play with words and inflections and I encourage the exploration of the sounds and stories of which languages ​​are carriers. It creates an immense joy when in class, together, we find words or understand meanings or experience the faces of another language. But I learned that before feeling ready to talk, often, children (and others) need to listen, to look, to understand if the space in which they express themselves is receptive and respectful.

Children, they need to understand how their words will be acted: will they be heard? Will we try to associate them with useful meanings to communicate? To make beautiful things together? Or will they be taken and used as boring chanting, as a sound barrier? As an object through which to act distrust or ridicule? Because often, children, know that the words - especially those that are worn in the heart along with the memories of the earth where you were grandchildren, friends, cuigini, and from which we had to leave - it is better not to tell if there is it is those who want to listen to them. This is why I believe that the first practice, in all the languages spoken in class, is that of respect, even of the time it takes to speak, even of silence. The complex balance here is above all that of stimulating and involving without forcing, of creating the environmental conditions for a beginning of dialogue.

I completely agree with Dina. We need to develop an approach that supports devoloping conditions which are language hierarchy-free. So we need to find an approach to languages that says:"All these benefits equally appled to all languages". Here is where I see the potential developement of my approach. 

As an English teacher in a country where the mother tongue is Portuguese, I necessary need to plan my lessons. I teach children from the age of 6 to 12 and their level in English is very different. 

I have to adapt the language to younger students – use simple vocabulary, use more body language, animations, but as they are older, about 10 years old, in the 5^th grade, the classes are totally spoken in English. 

Creativity is very important. Develop projects in which students seek and respond alone or in group to their own difficulties. Usually I motivate them to work in small projects about their country culture and then they present it to the class and in the end we do an exhibition. 
Key Words: creativity, research, group work.

Students’ language abilities are an integral part of their prior knowledge and cultural backpack. Therefore, in order to meet students’ needs and work within their Zone of Proximal Development, I strongly believe that we need to closely consider their language background and their interrelated cognitive abilities. I feel lucky to teach in a bilingual setting where multilingualism is highly valued and all teachers are expected to consider as very important the diversity of languages and cultures that children bring into our school, just as asserted by Dr Dina Mehmedbegovic. However, putting theory into practice is not always easy and I know that my sensitivity towards foreign/second languages and intercultural understanding still needs to be backed by rigorous and intentional lesson planning and implementation. 

I teach English in the junior High school and  I like to compare vocabulary or linguistic structures  (Italian and other mother tongue spoken in the class). Students seem curious and they like to find out similarities or differences. I notice that foreign pupils become proud of their language and culture. 

I am aware that is important to take in consideration our student's habilities when we plan an activity or a lesson. But sometimes i think we dream to realise beautiful activities and we forget what are the possibilities of our students, their needs and expectations. Its important to encourage them to share that

, in this case we know them better and we can plan our futures activities.

So far in my teaching experience I’ve never had pupils who could not speak Italian at all; 

but  I have two  9 years old pupils in the same class, with different situations, for they have different social and cultural background. The mother of one of them speaks French and Arabic fluently, and wants his child to read, speak, sing in both these languages (besides Italian and English).She is  aware of the importance of multilinguism 

On the other hand, the other child , whose father comes from Morocco, can hardly  repeat a brief sentence learned by heart in Arabic, and he  has few cultural stimuli and maybe, as  Dr. Dina Mehmedbegovic says in the video, they tend to encourage their children to speak only in the language of the country they live in, to assure their integration. 

I’ve never tried to develop a lesson  involving the use of different languages, as a shared, well planned and systematic approach, but in our school we seize the opportunity in special occasions such as the European Day of Language to do activites that  integrate different languages. Maybe, as a first step,  I could just try to introduce simple expressions, such as greetings, in the languages these ss. know as a classroom routine, to encourage all their classmates to appreciate them. 

1.     I am an Italian teacher in the Secondary High School in Italy, so I usually teach to my pupils their mother tongue. Just when teaching History I could teach with the target language (i.e. CLIL) even though History with CLIL should be taught only by Secondary High School teachers who teach History and Philosophy (while I teach Italian and History)

2.     In my current classes in Schools located on the western coast of Italy (i.e. along the Tyrrhenian Sea) there are very few bilingual learners; there were more when I was working in Schools located on the eastern coast of Italy (i.e. along the Adriatic Sea)

3. Anyway, I’ve been trying all the time including among both my curriculum and my teaching activities aimed at enhancing students’  linguistic abilities and language skills such as watching videos in English or give tests whose structure is similar to language tests (i.e. cloze tests, crosswords puzzles, matching phrases tests and so on). Unfortunately almost none  of my students  like watching videos in English so that they’re always complaining that I am just an Italian teacher , not an English one. I believe they are not still enough used to listening to english speaking people, so we should lead them to this competence by degrees. I even suppose I should highlight and take more care of the difference between bics and calp within the Italian Language while teaching my pupils. 

However, because of the increasing number of foreign students attending my school, I usually try to take a look at the grammar structure and at the phonological structure of their mother tongue in order to help them. As I cannot learn all the languages spoken in the classroom, I cannot understand all their problems. 

I avoid to use translation exercises because I think that it will be harder for them to translate from English into their mother tongue and from their mother tongue into Italian.

Even if managing more than a language could be a good cognitive exercise, I think that their mother tongue should be a resource and not an obstacle for my students, that's why I avoid translations.

I prefer to help them in analysing their common mistakes due to the mother tongue interference.

I’ve just  started doing specific activities in my classes. There are Romanians and Moroccans  and I’ve asked them to compare their verb system with the Italian system, with local dialect  and  also English. The result is that all the students in the class are reflecting and contributing on issues like verb aspect, duration, time and tense. A really interesting exchange! 

I agree with Dina about the benefits of bilingualism and about the important role of teachers to encourage students to learn, read, speak and use two or more languages, in order to development also cognitive potential and functioning for their entire lifelong. For these reasons I try to plan CLIL activities. Last year, I invited some american students to join during CLIL activities. For my pupils it was a great and funny experience because forced them to speak in english to communicate with american guys, so they understood the importance to learn another language like a tool for their life long. 

 

Theaching in a not-bilingual school, I focus only on the principal language and I forget the others one. A bilingual student is a resource that should be taken advantage of.
 I should help them to speak about their traditions, their languages, comparing to our ones… 

In my classes a lot of students come from foreign countries and they speak very well two languages (Italian and their mother tongue) so when we have our CLIL lessons, it becomes very easy to compare the language diversity. 

CLIL lessons are intended to let students acquire the communication skills in a foreign language and develop around topics such as identity/diversity, similarities/differences, etc. Each lesson is not only aimed at acquiring the key competences but also in developing “Life Skills” such as critical thinking, collaboration and creativity.

Moreover CLIL lessons give the students the opportunity to improve their English. 

I teach English in the junior High school and  I like to compare vocabulary or linguistic structures  (Italian and other mother tongue spoken in the class). Students seem curious and they like to find out similarities or differences. I notice that foreign pupils become proud of their language and culture. 

Teachers could use multilingual signs to decorate the walls, include bilingual books in the library, etc. Languages ​​and cultures should be considered in terms of collective resources. The bilingualism of pupils must be valued to allow them to find their place in the classroom.

I really appreciated Dina’s advice. It’s really important to develop reflective teaching practices.
Do my curriculum reflect the learners’ linguistic and cultural richness?
In order to answer to this question truthfully, I have to identify two different levels: the level of my superficial explicit  linguistic attitudes (positive) and the level of my teaching practices (negative).
Considering the first level (linguistic attitudes), I acknowledge the beauty and the value of all the languages spoken by my students, allowing them to speak these languages in the classroom.
With my students, I underline the real benefits of language diversity: the opportunity to discover new cultures (ways of life, thinking and perceiving the world) through different languages (removing an important barrier to mobility) and I really encourage them to study many other languages!.
Considering the second level (my teaching practices), I really need to improve it. So far, I used to teach using only my mother tongue, without encouraging my students to make comparisons between the languages they know and master quite well (in order to develop their metalinguistic competence).
Anyway, I know that I haven’t developed all the aspects of my language awareness yet, especially considering all the activities linked to the assessment.
Last June, during a short course, I discovered that all the tests I had designed were not completely suitable for the students who were not born in Italy. They were not stratified and not “calibratable” in accordance with children’s age, intercultural and linguistic competence.
Luckily, joining this course I am discovering a lot of new activities  I can easily prepare and introduce in my curriculum. I am always happy when I have the opportunity to integrate new teaching strategies within my lessons, especially when they are meaningful and necessary.
 Thanks!.

 I plan my lessons respecting  students’ language abilities and I always believe that encorauge the learners to learn and use more languages is fundamental to stengthen their cognitive skills. Knowing two or more languages ​​improves logic and concentration. 

My intention is to promote the use of english when talking about arguments of technology, or science or maths (non linguistic subjects).