Linguistic diversity and bilingualism by EUN Partnership aisbl

Silvia, Romania

munteanusilvia2000 — 2021-09-27 10:24:05 UTC

I definitely put to good use my students' language ability. My students love it and respond very well to such activities. For example, I have a new student this year coming from Italy. I asked her to introduce herself in Italian and made the other students translate that in English. Italian is a Romance language, very similar to the Romanian language, so the students managed quite well and were very satisfied with the result.

Ivana M., Croatia

2021-09-27 10:56:25 UTC

Yes, I would say I am constantly aware of my students' language ablity. When introducing new vocabulary, rather than simply saying what the word means, I ask my students to look at the word stem and try to find similar words in other languages they know and then try to guess the meaning. In many cases they figure out the meaning of new words in a really short time.

Marina B., Croatia

2021-09-27 11:58:01 UTC

Mostly I do consider my students’ language abilities when planning lessons, but I must admit I should definitely do it more. Today we did a lesson regarding European Day of Languages - Idioms of the world and my second year students were practising saying idioms in different languages and they had to find equivalent idioms in their mother tongue. Practising pronunciation of idioms in Dutch, Slavic and Hungarian was a real challenge to us all, I must admit, but it was fun! Russian was ok because we had a Russian student acting as a teacher.

Olivia, Austria

2021-09-27 12:37:21 UTC

I am trying to incorporate my students' language skills in our lessons, but it can be quite challenging. I encourage students who share a native language to help each other if they do not understand the instructions given in German or English. I ask students quite a lot how they would translate certain phrases in their mother tongue and whether there are similarities in the translations between the various languages in our classroom. I also encourage students to find connections and similarities between English, German and their native language.

Susana,Portugal

2021-09-27 12:42:44 UTC

Unfortunately my teaching practice is not yet sustained with regard to these classroom practices. However I am attentive and an activity that aroused a lot of interest and admiration of the students was the use of a translator by the students themselves. I think it has become aware of the difficulties that students feel and helped build group spirit in students who arrive at school with a mother tongue different from ours. I feel i can do much more for all students because they all benefit with that richness!!!

Visnja, Croatia

2021-09-27 12:54:10 UTC

I try to incorporate English in my presentations. Many times in photos or schemes I put in it I have words in both Croatian and English just to have them around as I now some of it will stay as flashes in their minds. We wlaos use lots of Latin expressions too.

Ayat Rabee/ Jordan

2021-09-27 13:21:57 UTC

Increasing globalization has created a huge need for people in the workforce who can communicate in multiple languages. Common languages are used in areas such as commerce, tourism, international relations, technology, media, and science. many countries

Roxana, Castilla y León (Spain)

letrarevuelta — 2021-09-27 14:13:42 UTC

Linguistic diversity is a asset in the classroom, and I try to incorporate it to my lessons through dialogue.

Daniela Russo, Italy

2021-09-27 14:20:04 UTC

In my daily practice I already follow some advice from Dina. First of all, I try to plan the lessons, in order to consider the cultural and linguistic identity of my students. Then, I regularly apply conversations and exercises using both their native language and language 2.

Lana, Croatia

2021-09-27 14:28:50 UTC

I think we cannot but not take into account the students' abilities when planning a lesson. There are many students with difficulties or special needs and we not only need to plan the amount of input to teach them, but we also must plan strategies to achieve certain goals carefully.

LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY IS ESSENTIAL for a language teacher. I personally encourage my students to use their mother tongue and think/write in English. We also learn German and French in our school.

eugeniapitis — 2021-09-27 14:38:34 UTC

VA, Portugal

2021-09-27 14:41:05 UTC

Recently, my challenge is to incorporate English into my CLIL classes. It emphasizes the use of new technologies by students in the clssroom and the development of learning through projects.
It is not possible to envolve all the classes and all the students because there are several dificulties that affect teaching and learning.

Karen, Germany

2021-09-27 14:47:52 UTC

I work with a lot of students who speak Turkish or Arabic languages at home. It took me a while to identify their difficulties when trying to produce texts in German or another foreign language, such as English. I have talked to the students and made them tell me about certain features of their mother tongues which helped me developing some awareness and ideas about the obstacles they have to overcome when speaking German or learning a foreign language. However I teach at a school that does not encourage lessons in the students mother tongue (which are offered in the German school system). I have to admit that a lot of colleagues have a hierarchy of languages (in their heads) and that most native languages of our students are not valued enough.

Konstantina, Greece

2021-09-27 15:20:26 UTC

I know how usefull is using other languages in your classroom but I also find difficult to do it in practice. Though I have been trying to do so at my class of literature and I do want to implement at other lessons.

Christos T., Greece

christsapan — 2021-09-27 15:43:08 UTC

I usually try to incorporate some words of my students' first language in our lessons but this is quite difficult. Greek school does not encourage lessons in students' mother tongue. Therefore, it is challenging to identify students’ difficulties when they are trying to produce essays in Greek.

Verónica,Spain

2021-09-27 15:50:29 UTC

Linguistic diversity is essential for a lamguage teacher. It is important to encourage our students to learn as many languages as possible.

Roberta, Italy

roby_filardi — 2021-09-27 15:52:54 UTC

A few years ago I attended a course concerning CLIL methodology and I experimented some units of History of Art in my classes. Despite in my classes there weren't bilingual students, I noticed that CLIL methodology trough Art was a good way that allowed my students to focus better on content and foreign language (English) at the same time, thanks probably new strategies of my teaching. I tried to balance content and language being aware the differences of competence of my students, so I planned different activities in which students were invited to collaborate for learning of a new content of History of art.

Manuel, Spain

2021-09-27 17:00:35 UTC

Linguistic diversity is very important, and I think our students will benefit from knowing other cultural enviroments. It is very likely that a significant percentage of my students end up working abroad, or at least in collaboration with people whose maternal language is not spanish. The sooner they realize there are different cultures, the easier will it be for them to integrate in a globalized world.

Konstantina Eirini Koufou, Greece

2021-09-27 17:23:52 UTC

I use the engl terminology often while in class and some strucures that are common in both languages and idioms when we talk about code switching and code mixing

Gülbahar,Turkey

2021-09-27 19:02:28 UTC

I try to challenge my students with differents languages in easy formats first and then in each class we learn one by one but at the end of the year a lot. Its so satifying to see how much we have learned :)

Mihaela Epure

2021-09-27 19:30:06 UTC

Allowing students to bring in their native language is both enriching and challenging, if not controlled. I always try to create comparisons between English and Romanian, especially when teaching idioms and collocations, since these reflect best a certain type of thinking. Whenever I can, I offer other examples from other languages, too. For example, when expressively saying that a person is distressed, Romanians say (translated into English) "Not all your oxen have returned home". An expression with the same meaning in German translates as "Not all your cups are on the shelf". From Greek, there is an expression of the same meaning translating into "All your ships have drowned". So, when a person is not herself, sorrow can be expressed in association with traditional preoccupations: a community of shepherds, or of housekeepers, or sailors.
I give my students the opportunity to express in their native language such examples of cultural insights.

Constantine, Canada

constantineioannou — 2021-09-27 19:54:38 UTC

Validate their languages and all languages
I have often been involved in dual (or multilingual) language books so that students can continue to process in their first language and then work with peers if needed in order to write English (in some cases French) equivalents. These real stories can be used as super texts in the classroom due to their personal relevance and act as a springboard for other activities that are crafted to allow comprehension. I also think it is important to see the language within the school - adding other languages to signs, posters etc. Why not a bulletin board that says: Al the Languages We Speak Here where there are writings in any language that lives and breathes in the school. Have students of minority languages take pride in the languages they have (instead of focusing on what they don't have) by accessing their knowledge in icebreakers and classroom discussions - have learners of the majority (power culture) practise some of the other languages so that they are also sensitized to the process of the others. It is important that students know that their first (or other) languages that are not the language(s) of instruction are valuable and that we value them.

Mohamed OMRI,Tunisia

omrimed20 — 2021-09-27 21:11:27 UTC

I plan my lessons taking into consideration the cultural and linguistic diversity of my students. They can use their native language to discuss or to help each other and to identify the similiraties and differences between the languages they use.

Carla Dias, Portugal

2021-09-27 21:16:28 UTC

I take into consideration my students' cultural and linguistic diversity when I'm planning my lessons. In classes I also use their native language (Portuguese) in order to establish a better understanding of the English language.

Αphrodite, Greece

2021-09-28 08:41:45 UTC

I take my students' linguistic ability into consideration when planning my english lessons but I would like to learn more about strategies to use to incorporate elements of their mother tongue in my lessons.

Christina, Greece

2021-09-28 12:04:01 UTC

I usually try to find common traces between the target language and the linguistic ablilities of my students. Furthermore I use the linguistic/cultural capital of my students in order to find similarities/differences with the language I teach them (traditions, food, sayings).

MARIA, P. Greece

mpapado66 — 2021-09-28 15:23:52 UTC

We look for common words, common myths, common habits in different languages and nationalities and they are presented by students

Célia Branco, Portugal

2021-09-28 17:18:12 UTC

So far, we’ve learnt the significance and relevance of integrating cultural and language awareness in our classrooms. Now it’s time to have some ideas on how to conciliate that with our curriculum.

it is worthy to pay attention and be sensible in what regards the ethnic background of our students (I consider important to learn the right pronunciation of students’ names, for example). As teachers we should facilitate their involvement in all activities, entrusting differences in traditions and/or beliefs. This is achievable by showing that we really give importance to their emotional / cultural / educational (…) need, incorporating those differences in every classroom activity. Plus, self-testing activities (providing non-graded progress checks, stress-free J) will help them recognize what areas they’ve learnt / need to do better.

Monica, Romania

monicaiordache — 2021-09-28 20:19:29 UTC

I put emphasis on my students needs and difficulties because there are situations where I have to mention some specific information in order to be comprehensive.

Manuela Spain

2021-09-29 04:14:22 UTC

I find relevante to encourage students to learn languages. In my experience I ‘ve found students trata reject to learn any other language but as far as they’re involved in European programmes The idea change

Christine, Germany

2021-09-29 06:56:55 UTC

I usually try to focus on the languages in the classroom during the term and rethink my prepared material to include as many languages as possible to explain linguistic topics. When doing empirical research in my seminars I will also focus on the languages of my students and let them work with their heritage language and some other Ln for contrastive works e.g. I would like to use more scaffolding elements to explain or show e.g. definitions or terminology in different languages. Usually I would use english for translanguaging methods. But there is still more room for innovative concepts for my students.

Ebru, Turkey

ebruozcam — 2021-09-29 08:10:36 UTC

For our students whose mother tongue is different from the language of instruction, we carry out activities that reinforce the language of instruction if we deem it necessary during extracurricular times.

Angelika, Poland

2021-09-29 08:48:24 UTC

It's nice to hear that the first language/mother tongue is also so important for children and then teens, and young adults. I face with situations that teens/young adults from other countries feel discomfort when they use their mother tongue in a foreign society.
I want to say that i haven't thought about the great importance of the first language in the educational process. I've motivated my students to apply/use their mother tongue throughout our lessons but it's been rather intuitively. I've already mentioned that I teach English literature in Poland and it's clear that we read, discuss, write, play, watch, etc in English . It's also clear that English is the foreign (the second or even third) language for the biggest part of my students/learners. I create different activities which let us know how other languages sound. I ask my students to give equivalents to some English phrasal verbs/set expression and translate them word-to-word because it's cool. We read poems and sing some songs which are popular in their countries. Anyway, I've never done it specially to support their mother tongue. The video has changed my vision and i'll create some new activities to enchance the first language of my students.
Thanks!

Sandrine, France

2021-09-29 12:18:53 UTC

This is a really good reminder to promote children's first language in the classroom and to encourage parents to help improve their child's fluency in their mother tongue at home. Children and parents feel valued and there is a positive image of school.

María José, Spain

maestramariajosegarcia — 2021-09-29 15:41:00 UTC

In my classes I try to take into account the variety and linguistic richness of my classroom, but we often have to account for the standards and content of the curriculum and there is little time left for these matters. It is a pity that certain resumes prioritize these aspects more.

2021-09-29 16:51:46 UTC

We need to be aware of the students need and language diversity and decide each activity and exercise according to basic differences

Ida, Croatia

2021-09-29 17:31:19 UTC

In my planning, I often ask myself how will I explain the outcome so that all students understand me, especially those who came from a foreign country. I wonder how much they know Croatian words and how similar they are to Croatian ones, whether they may have the same word root, whether they may start with the same letter. In class planning, I indicate which words are important for a lesson. I encourage them to use their own language.

Ksenija, Croatia

2021-09-29 20:50:54 UTC

In my school foreign language learning is promoted. So, except for English our students learn Italian or German from early age. While learning English we across a lot of similarities or the very differences help us learn some grammatical items. I try to motivate my students to cme up with their knowledge of other foreign languages all while learning English. I also do projects with them, penpal activity for the most part, in which my students actively use other foreign languages they know.

Alba, Spain

2021-09-30 06:55:21 UTC

I teach in a bilingual school where there are many foreign students, I see this as a benefit because you always have to bear in mind your student's background, their mother tongue, their culture, and this is something enriching because they have bigger capacity to connect different languages and they can bring the particularities of their language to class.

DrSuha Ababneh

islambabneh — 2021-09-30 10:54:24 UTC

I try in my teaching to fouce in enhance the communication of my student using there own languge

Özge, Istanbul-Turkey

ozgekoc824 — 2021-09-30 11:05:03 UTC

I apply CLIL methodology for 3 years that's why I love covering the contents which address the whole class -to all of my students-. Because my students can find any topics they are intested in and start the activities easily, or can share their ideas clearly even though I have not had any bilingual or multilingual students in my classroom. On the other hand, this year I will have multilingual students and the points I am learning from this course and my experiences in CLIL methodoly will help me.

Language diversity is important and, in my case this year,in a group of newcomers to our High School( 12 year-old students) a fact. It is not a bilingual group. They are studying English as their first foreign language, but it is difficult for some of them as they are also learning Spanish and, at home, they basically speak Arabic-two of them-or Romanian-one of them, or Galician-one of them. I would like to help them.

2021-09-30 18:25:31 UTC

Antonella Z., Italy

antomakena — 2021-09-30 19:41:55 UTC

I find very important to give value to the presence of different languages in the class. In the morning we use to greet each other in many different languages, the children use the one they want. I use to invite parents to read stories in many languages. The children enjoy very much the listening. it's very important to listen to the different "music", rhythm of languages

Ayşen, Turkey

AysenCalisir — 2021-09-30 20:47:56 UTC

I cannot have such an experience with my students because I do not have class hours, but I always emphasize the importance of language in being a citizen of the world.

Raluca.Romania

raluska — 2021-10-01 16:01:41 UTC

Linguistic diversity is essential for a teacher. It is important to encourage our students to learn as many languages as possible.
Linguistic diversity is a asset in the classroom, and I try to incorporate it to my lessons through dialogue.

Graça Casimiro, Portugal

2021-10-01 16:35:08 UTC

More than ever I have to do this. In Portugal we do have classes with at least 2 or 3 students who are not native speakers of Portuguese; therefore I need them to bridge the differences or the similarities between my culture and theirs, which is very enriching for the class as a whole as students get involved and they also ask questions and broaden their horizons becoming more tolerant in relation to difference.

Emiliana, Italy

emiliana_rufo — 2021-10-02 07:39:54 UTC

I think students have to develop their skills in language learning, especially the ones who grew up in a bilingual family. Languages are important for the future.
I use CLIL methodology in my classes to have a great range of vocabulary to teach my students.

AlexB, Romania

alexandrabercea — 2021-10-02 14:09:58 UTC

I make a constant parallel between my learners' native language and English, during the first years of study, because it helps them understand better and be more interested in learning.

Patrizia, Italy

2021-10-02 16:03:15 UTC

Diversity of languages and of cultures must be seen as a good thing in itself. Each language has its own way of seeing the world and is the product of its own particular history. So it is really important to let students share their cultures.

Catherine, France

catherinecreusefond2 — 2021-10-02 17:05:51 UTC

Language diversity in a class is a real value for pupils, it gives reality to language, to comprehension and social awarness : multilingual pupils can bring curisity to others by speaking in another way, with other words to express the same things. Links between language can be made, e.g days and months, food and various daily routines.

2021-10-02 19:38:49 UTC

Language awareness helps learning different types of languages. Language awareness creates the focus on creativity of the mother tongue and of the language to learn itself, e.g. in proverbs and their interpretations. Concerning the language structures or phonetics I help myself very often in comparisons of different languages, concerning different cultural concepts I often let my students create new forms of "culture" in writing and in speaking.

Ana, Portugal

2021-10-03 08:29:02 UTC

I really try to encourage and integrate my students' linguistic diversity while planning my English and German lessons. Since I believe that giving students "voice" is vital to real learning, I allow lessons to tied to their personal experiences and attempt to build bridges between different cultures and linguistical knowledge.

Carole, France

2021-10-03 08:34:29 UTC

In my school, all the students can speak French, but for some of them, French is not their mother tongue. We try to make them proud of the Language diversity of our school. We often compare the different languages, it's also reinforce the learning of French. The students are encouraged to be language aware because we also teach some subjects in English. Moreover we invite families for special occasions, they can propose workshops in foreign languages.

Yue, China The challenge of European language project and framework.

2021-10-03 08:56:32 UTC

The CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) and related policies or teaching methods and approaches come in a very specific context in Europe, even if its contribution to the overall language teaching and learning is considerable. The challenge is then to see how it can apply to other languages teaching and context, including non-European ones.

I must admit that I've never really reflected and tried effectively to build on linguistic and cultural capital of learners for my class, although I've been early sensibilized to dinstinguish particuliar learners difficulties according to their language and cultural background.

Concrete case examples, also of original foreign classes outside Europe, might inspire and help me to explore further of this teaching approach more efficiently and gain from it.

Thomas, France From course to content, questionning the curriculum

2021-10-03 12:31:47 UTC

In France, teachers have long thrived to meet the requirements of the official academic curricula (including rich and detailed contents of knowledge), in this quest that could become obsessive, they would mainly focus on knowledge mastery over untapped and overlooked competences of the students.

Hence, there has been an evolution in the whole education approach, and curriculum now focuses much more on competences.

But if "the linguistic and cultural capital of [our] learners" becomes part of this new curriculum, the course itself has to be rethought. (from "precise course" to "flexible content" ?)

For example, "new content" (curriculum) has to be clarified and explained globally in all disciplines in school. As for foreign language teachers, since obviously the traditional narrow definition of specific "knowledge" and "competence" in one target language is no longer the sole priority of the foreign language class, training is a necessary prerequisite to implementation of new language and education policies.

The current advice is part of a large education project and a recommanded approach to teaching and learning (language awareness, translaguaging, multilingualism) with a bigger purpose which implications go far beyond the limits of one single "course" or one single teacher's practice.

Stavriana Soubassi, Athens

ssoubassi — 2021-10-03 12:39:35 UTC

I am excited to realise that the mother tongue of migrant students is finally being acknowledged as an essential component of their own (and the whole class's) cognitive reserve complex and skill set.
For decades now I have been using Suggestopedia, an accelerated methodology for language learning, that draws upon cognitive constructivism. So, L1 interference has always been an asset in my foreign language teaching practice. Over the past few years, I have been using the collaborative 3-lingual script-writing methodology for students from diverse linguistic backgrounds. Their scripts are written simultaneously in English (which is my school subject), Modern Greek (the official language of the school) and Albanian/Farsi/Arabic (the most common native languages of our migrant students). This approach has several benefits beyond the inclusive atmosphere including the acceleration of the language learning process since the equivalences across the languages are evident and require no extra explanations.

Gabi Borza, Romania

2021-10-03 15:25:07 UTC

There are few students in my class who speak a second language, but we had an action in which the parents of those children came and showed us how they speak at home. We have only three such cases, but it was a very interesting activity, and the children realized how important it is to know how to express yourself in two or more languages. Many nationalities have always coexisted in Romania (for hundreds of years), I mention those who are in our region: Germans (Swabians), Hungarians, Ukrainians, Czechs, Serbs, Slovaks and Roma, so we are aware of the importance of languages and children are common to hear people speaking in another language.

Kimie, Portugal

2021-10-03 15:46:44 UTC

As I speak English and Portuguese alternately, I intend to include and engage all the class. The new student feels included and the class profits from listening two languages . I get help with the vocabulary from them , whenever I get blanks and we all bond from the experience.

Maria, Portugal

2021-10-03 18:12:33 UTC

I work in a school with a lot of erasmus + projects so I try to speak English and Portuguese with the students

it's a pity

2021-10-04 08:23:03 UTC

I recognize only now, that, despite the fact we have multicultural and multilinguistic classes, we don't support our pupils in their mother tongue. most of the time we look for Italian L2 teachers, or linguistic mediators. I really don't know how to take advantages of their skills, and help my collegues to do the same

Tania - Spain

2021-10-04 13:53:41 UTC

Currently, I don't have any groups with a different mother tongue. However, when I used to have them, I did take them into consideration when the languages were similar to Spanish. I wish I have done more for my kuds buy then.

Inés . Spain

2021-10-04 14:03:48 UTC

I have students in my classroom from many different linguistic backgrounds. I always put into value the languages they speak, specially when there are other Spanish students with less linguistic abilities who think learning another language is not that important. For example I encourage arabic speaking students to teach us sentences in their language during Ramadan. At the beginning of the year I put into value all the languages that can be spoken by the students in my class, presenting it as an added value for those students´ education.

Monica Arotaritei

arotariteimonica — 2021-10-04 17:56:30 UTC

I have never had students with a different mother tongue but I imagine it is very difficult to find a middle way so that we can talk about a win win situation.

Najoua. Tunisia

NajouaSlatnia — 2021-10-04 18:41:31 UTC

I totally agree that we as teachers should take advantage of the linguistic diversity in our classrooms, it has positive results. I really liked this sentence in the course: "The use of two or more languages by our students should be encouraged rather than repressed in the classroom."

Maria João, Portugal

mjvmarques — 2021-10-04 19:59:29 UTC

Well, fortunately this year the ministry of education in Portugal has told us that what really matters is developing skills and I finally feel free to focus on students' abilities. There is now room for letting in the linguistic and cultural capital of my students as it was never before. Actually, in my case, it is the first time that I really have a lot of different nationalities in the same room and I am trying to have this as a plus in the class planning. Especially when we are exploring vocabulary areas, it is also nice to have diferences and similarities being posted. Students are motivated to stand up and go to the board to write words or sentences in their own languages. I will soon promote the "sentences of the day" in a different language to be said, written and posted on the classroom wall. I think this will make the writers really proud and the others will get more and more curious about other students' languages.

Ana Maria Cruz, Portugal

anacruz2 — 2021-10-04 22:50:24 UTC

Class planning should always take into consideration students' cultural and linguistic diversity. Moreover in an L2 lesson, mother tongue should be used to compare and contrast with foreign language proving the grounds for an effective and more meaningful learning.

Cristina Spain

cristina_silveg_1 — 2021-10-05 07:23:47 UTC

Language diversity is very important and we should encourage our students to learn other languages. I have students with other backgrounds and this may help them with their integration.

Glyka,Greece

glyka350 — 2021-10-05 08:39:10 UTC

Taking linguistic diversity into consideration when designing a teaching plan is totally important since cultural diversity is a trend which characterizes most classrooms.

Beatriz Sousa, Portugal

2021-10-05 13:58:05 UTC

I have a few students with a different mother tongue learning english. I often ask them how to say certain things in their mother tongue so that their peers (and myself) can learn something new!
I think it's very important to take language diversity into account when creating a lesson plan and it's also a way to make students feel apreciated.

Alina Bogdan, Romania

2021-10-05 14:05:44 UTC

I really think that the use of several languages by students is beneficial for the whole group and should be encouraged by the teacher. I recently had a student in the class who spoke a different language than the rest of the group; colleagues received him very well and quickly learned a few words in his language to feel comfortable.

Regina, Italy

regina_marrazzo — 2021-10-05 15:13:57 UTC

I've never had students with a different mother tongue, but in some classes I've had students who almost struggle to speak in Italian. So I try to start from their dialect knowledge to build a bridge with the French I teach, not only to show them how deep is the relation between the languages, but also to let them feel confident about learning a new one.

Raquel Santiago, Portugal

prof_raquelsantiago — 2021-10-05 17:24:14 UTC

Language diversity is important and must always be celebrated. This year we celebrated EDL as usual and, in one of my classes, my students learnt a little sign language from a colleague who knows it very well. It was interesting and fun! I always stress the fact that a new language is also a new outlook on life and getting to know a new culture too!

Bojan, Croatia

labojan — 2021-10-06 14:00:14 UTC

Since I work in two schools attended in the national minority language and scritp (Serbs living in Croatia), I am totally aware of the importance of maintaining the language diversity and preserving cultural heritage including language the most.
As Croatian and Serbian are mutually inteligible in more than 95 % of vocabullary and grammar, the fact of language assimilation is more than present among our students and their parents as well. The parents often do not intent to maintain the native language and usually tent to use those 5 % of vocabullary that is different saying "Whatever" or "It doesn't matter". It is also common to parents not to include their children in national minority language classes (Serbian) but in Croatian classes because they do not want their children to burden their children with two languages... So, after waching Dina's video, I'm just going to catch up her words saying about the use of preserving native language for children. :)

Roswitha, Germany

2021-10-06 16:51:49 UTC

As a teacher of Spanish as the third foreign language at a German highschool, I now and then introduce questions (like: „How do you say this in ….“?) to make students think about the structure of different languages in order to invite them to make use of all their linguistic potential and also to encourage them to be creative and flexible when they want to express themselves.

At Christmas time we had a very nice lesson when bilingual students presented a Christmas Carol in their heritage language and summarized the content for the class.

María Teresa,Spain

2021-10-06 18:18:31 UTC

The idea of working with the Spanish and English language at the same time in our English lesson seems to have been a "taboo" topic in Spain for a long time. However, I firmly believe it has been proven as highly beneficial for learners, particularly for low levels. Not only that, in the high school where I am teaching, students are also learning French or Portuguese. Therefore, it is extremely enriching and advantageous in the sense that you can work with cognates in a linguistic level or with different tradititions and customs in a cultural level. Thus without any doubt we must take advantage of this linguistic diversity.

Danijela, Croatia

dmolnarprof — 2021-10-07 07:42:22 UTC

I have very few students whose mother tongue is different from Croatian. I try to be clear to everyone and bring our language closer to students who do not like it. I also find ways to include their language in teaching, but not as often as they might need it to. Sometimes communication in mathematical language seems to them to be like a second language. And when I speak mathematically correctly it’s like speaking in a language that almost no one in the class is native to.

Michael, Germany

Erz — 2021-10-07 17:57:45 UTC

In our classes at a vocational school there are a lot of students, who have a migration background. In addition to many students with Turkish roots, there are also a lot of students, who came to Germany as refugees. But to be honest, I have no experience in integrating their mother tongue into my everyday lessons. To imagine this approach is quite easy concerning a common foreign language like English...

Andrijana, Croatia

Shipwreck1 — 2021-10-08 08:46:23 UTC

As an English teacher, I usually combine the use of our mother tongue -Croatian and English in the classroom. The older students are, I tend to use more English and less Croatian. It is nice to be able to compare two languages with my students and we sometimes reflect on similarities and differences between the two.
My students live in a rural part where at home they also use a kind of the Kajkavian dialect and sometimes we do projects where we include that dialect into our classroom work. They like it a lot, they always teach me something new and we have fun. Recently, we did common English - Kajkavian dialect picture dictionary and it was a beautiful actiity. The parents and grandparents liked it a lot, too.

Federica Carminati, Italy

2021-10-09 14:26:20 UTC

When I set my lessons, especially the grammar ones, I try to consider the other languages my pupils studies (mainly english, german and french) and I make comparison between the grammar structures or between the etymology of single words, to make them think about the origin of languages and the different way languages work. While working with immigrated students, that speak just their family language (not english, but turkish or romanian), I try to highlight the main parts of the speech (such as verbs) and make comparisons too, but it's a lot more difficult.

Emma, Spain

2021-10-09 17:39:05 UTC

As an English teacher in Spain, I always include my students' vision of life and the way they express themselves in the scenario we are facing in the English classes. It proves enriching and meaningful in their learning.
Also, reflecting on how they say things in their mother tongue and comparing it with how they say it in English broadens their language acquisition.

Teresa, Spain

2021-10-09 18:47:12 UTC

When I face a session of the CLIL subject that I teach I try and connect with my students' mother tongue through the cognates as much as I can. Even when my students have been studying English for at least 6 school years, they do not feel any confident about English and they even reject it as they hear me speaking English. They know much more English than they are aware but they need to put it into practice. We spaniards are, in general, very shy about languages and, to try to avoid making mistakes, we do not even try. I lean on cognates and scaffold with the most simple grammar structures and vocabulary to get them practicing English every day.

Prado, Spain

pradodtoro — 2021-10-09 19:03:52 UTC

At many schools immigration is seen as a problem, so is this idea what makes racial and socioeconomic inequality more noticeable. Of course, all the different languages in the world are equally important but people expect that those foreigners coming from abroad will learn their language in order to communicate with them. As a Spanish teacher teaching English to students who are culturally and linguistically diverse I really believe that it is important to create more humane and democratic classrooms where students can learn to use language and literacy in critical and empowering ways.

I also have to admit that for me it is difficult to meet the needs of my linguistically and culturally diverse students, and sometimes it is difficult to incorporate their knowledge and experience into the English classroom practice. At the beginning of the course it is important for me that my students get to know each other, so a useful activity for me is to conduct a critical historical survey in the class. Students have to interview/research each other in order to learn about their backgrounds, dreams and future aspirations, and to find things in common with their partners.

Room Needed for Linguistic Diversity

2021-10-10 03:46:52 UTC

Despite not having my own classroom since I am still conducting observations as part of my educator preparation program, although my lessons include cultural diversity, getting linguistic diversity into the mix and putting it into practice has been a complex area to accomplish. Most of what I know about incorporating linguistic diversity in schools is through literature, where books in the English language combined with another language can help English-Language Learners (ELLs) be active in read-aloud sessions similarly to their native English-speaking classmates. Hopefully, with the help of the MOOC and other related knowledge within my enrolled program, I will be able to apply linguistic diversity onto other academic subjects in the best way possible, even if help needs to be requested since doing it alone does not always work.

—Austin Nicholas Dragoș [United States of America]

Mirela Klarić, Croatia

klaricmi — 2021-10-10 08:55:42 UTC

I teach Croatian language to native speakers so I don't have mush opportunities for practicing language divercity. However, I do encourage my students to use our slavonian dialect in their writing assignements, I teach a lot about our traditional culture. Also, I am trying to be active on eTwinning and involve my students in international projects where they can develope their English speaking and writing skills and through that I try to develop their bilingualism.

Hana Haimour/Jordan

haymourhana — 2021-10-10 12:26:39 UTC

Students at a young age surprise you with their tremendous ability to learn, accept other languages and love to learn them, which increases their abilities to think, relate and interact with society…

TERESA, SPAIN

2021-10-12 09:50:38 UTC

The truth is, I have many students that comes from Morocco. From my point of view, it is quite important to make them part of the class from the very beginning. My technic is to let them tell us all the different aspects they find between Spain and Morocco. This way, they feel they matter. Indeed, sometimes, when we study something that it could be difficult for them interns of understanding as they do not have a clear concept in Spanish either. We try to look for the same concept in the mother tongue. Therefore, the Moroccan students can relate better the concepts, and on the other hand the Spanish students are aware of language diversity and they start to be interested about other languages learning new words.

Dóra, Hungary

2021-10-12 17:56:47 UTC

In my class we have an exchange student from Thailand and I asked him to make a power point presentation about his country and in exchange my students made also a ppt about Hungary. He teaches some words in his mother tongue to us and we tried to teach him some Hungarian words.
As I see it is extremely important to make the students calm and confident about using their native language.

Ifigenia, Greece

2021-10-12 18:00:38 UTC

There are lots of Russsian speaking students in my class so I try to draw parallels between English (which I teach) and Russian. For example, when I teach a new grammatical structure in English I ask my students to describe how the same thing can be expressed in Russian and then we all talk about similarities and differences. I find that to be working well.

Clara, Portugal

2021-10-12 20:45:53 UTC

Language provides a mean for communication among and between individuals and groups. It is a strong vehicle for expressing thoughts and feelings. Inside a multicultural classroom, driven by diversity, language can be a bridge for building relationships, or a tool for creating and maintaining divisions across differences. Having a common language for talking about and across difference is essential for breaking down divisions and working towards achieving understanding and partnership.

Fernando, Spain

2021-10-13 07:41:49 UTC

First I always remember to my students that we have different languages in Spain and this is a great point. Whenever they travel, especially in summer holidays, they hace the chance to check it oun in many different places. Then I have meeting with their families in order to encourge them to use English outside the scholl as much as possible.

Clara, Portugal

2021-10-13 08:29:27 UTC

I believe the starting point is to make the students feel they are welcome, they are the newest member of the family. Of course, the main problem is if they don't speak no English at all, but body language and smiles, help. I ask them to share with us some aspects of their culture and what is their main asset. For example, an Indian student told us he was fond of cricket, so, the PE teacher told all the class that the next week, Raif (the name of the student) would teach them how to play cricket.

Mukadder, Turkey

2021-10-13 19:47:29 UTC

Language ability, i believe, is some kind of talent that you can transfer. It's very clear in classroom that if a student is good at using his/her mother tongue in four skills, that student becomes successful at learning a new language and get better at it faster compared to others. We as teachers have to consider our students' language abilities while assigning them a task, arranging them in groups, setting up the classroom rules, etc. We have to manage the classroom so well that everybody in the class could get benefit from one another's language abilities.

Maria Portugal

2021-10-15 19:47:08 UTC

The students must be encouraged to learn different languages to facilitate their integration in a globalized world.

deniz eryılmaz

dnzkay9 — 2021-10-17 15:25:12 UTC

I try to prioritize situations where they might be sensitive. and I care that the sharing is two-sided

Şermin/Turkey

ayansermin — 2021-10-18 15:10:34 UTC

I try to prioritize situations where they might be sensitive. and I care that the sharing is two-sided

Alina, Romania

2021-10-18 18:08:30 UTC

Learning more languages is important. I take into consideration the mother 's tongue of my students while preparing my lessons in French language. I also involve my students in different etwinning projects where English is the language of communication and I encourage my pupils to speak , write , read in English.

Silvia, Italy

2021-10-19 10:51:51 UTC

their language ability is used in lessons even in small daily activities, as well as in particular events

Voicu Corina Valentina, Romania

voicucorinavalentina — 2021-10-19 14:27:11 UTC

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!

Hoffmann-Bronț Viorica, Romania

vigyorika477 — 2021-10-20 06:31:12 UTC

THE COLORFUL WORLD OF MATH,
My lesson is a lesson in making materials, within the THE COLORFUL WORLD OF MATH Project, International eTwinning Project. The project is conducted in English, and we are learning Romanian here. This is how the English teacher comes to our aid.
We will read, we will gather materials about great mathematicians and their achievements, both Romanian mathematicians and great international mathematicians. We will read curiosities about their discoveries, famous quotes of these people.
We will use interactive games, we will make portfolios, related on these topics. At the beginning we will do it in Romanian, then we will translate using the google translate application and finally the English teacher will make the necessary corrections.

Natália Neves, Portugal

2021-10-20 22:11:01 UTC

I teach English and all my students are Portuguese. Classes are in English and I usually tell them to think in English when they have to speak or write. I believe that those students who have more difficulty in expressing themselves in English are those who use their native language to "plan" their speech and writing.
Although English is the language in the classroom, Portuguese plays an important role because we often compare idioms, stories and traditions.
The younger students love playing card games such as Supertmatik in which they have to know words in English and in Portuguese.

Danijela C., Croatia

2021-10-21 18:40:10 UTC

Unfortunately, I do not have students in the class with different mother tongues, but I believe that I have them, I would gladly accept learning about the new language and culture from which the child comes. As I teach history, in the first class in fifth grade, that’s exactly what we’re talking about in the topic “Why We Learn History”. The students remembered very well why one of the most common answers is to study history in order to get to know other cultures and peoples.

Aybüke,Turkey

etwininng — 2021-10-21 19:35:17 UTC

Languages as cultural heritage include respect for each other. Play is the best way to learn languages in younger age groups

Violeta Ro

2021-10-22 19:04:53 UTC

As teacher practices, I use to follow some advice from the video: planning the lessons, taking into consideration the cultural and linguistic identity of the students; applying conversations and exercises; using mother tongue and foreiogn languages studied; etc.

Cristina, Spain

2021-10-24 11:42:22 UTC

Supporting what it is done in the school is a great tool in order to enhance the foreign and first language.
I always advise the parents to create English learning environments in the house. Even if they do not speak English, they can watch TV in English; use read alouds from Youtube etc.
If they speak English, reading a tale every night is something very helpful

Zlata Hrženjak, Croatia

zhrzenjak1 — 2021-10-24 18:42:42 UTC

AS a foreign language teacher bilingualism I can apply bilingualism in my lessons in the way that I incorporate knowledge of mother tongue in the proces of learning foregn language.

Claudya, Romania

claudia_neacsa — 2021-10-24 18:56:57 UTC

It is important for all of us and our students to use their language skills. Cultural diversity is a very useful tool in education.

Francesca, Italy

furnarifrancesca1967 — 2021-10-25 15:27:58 UTC

As a foreign language teacher I apply bilingualism every day with my students. I tend to involve them in searching for differences and similarities between English and their languages.

Daniela Eugenia Dinu/Romania

danielastoian80 — 2021-10-26 09:21:57 UTC

It is about acceptance and learning. We have to encourage our students to develop their language skills, to accept other languages and to try to practice more.

rasha

rashaalomari448 — 2021-10-26 18:24:17 UTC

Language competence means interculturality, Literacy, communication.

Enrique Labajos Sánchez

2021-10-26 22:52:23 UTC

I often have classes with mixed ability students and the first thing I do is taking into account the situation and discuss about their learning styles, learning strategies, language needs, learning enjoyment, motivation, language strengths and weaknesses. This will help to develop the sense of shared community in the class.
I consider the linguistic and cultural capital of my students.

Elena A., Romania

2021-11-08 18:05:20 UTC

As an English teacher, I try to take into account my students' knowledge of their mother tongue, whether we refer to vocabulary or grammar. At some point, I had students from other nationalities and I tried to incorporate some of their cultural background as well as language bits into our everyday lessons. Also, I constantly check their language abilities through a variety of activities.