![]()
Chapter 1
Understanding multilingualism
| In this chapter you will start to think about multilingualism in terms of whether it is a problem or an advantage in terms of learning and development. |
| You will read something about some of the misconceptions and myths and prejudices that have grown up around multiculturalism. |
| You will consider how attitudes to multiculturalism relate to changing times and factors like immigration, economic stability and prejudice. |
| You will take a brief tour of how policies around multiculturalism and education have developed and changed in the UK. |
| You will read some case studies concerning the policies developed by some schools, settings and nurseries. |
MULTILINGUALISM: AN INTRODUCTION
Did you know that, throughout the world, multilingualism is the norm and not the exception? In South Africa, for example, there are 11 official languages and it is taken for granted that almost everyone will speak two or more languages. In Nigeria there are over 500 languages spoken and in India there are said to be more than 1,600 languages. Yet in the UK, despite the fact that ours is a multicultural society where more than 300 different languages are spoken in London alone, we still tend to regard those who speak English as an additional language as being special at best and odd at worst.
Initially through British colonialisation and later through the development of technology English has become a global language. In many countries throughout the world English is offered as a second or subsequent language and it is largely considered as the language of business, of finance and of the internet. Children growing up in South Africa and in India and in China are expected to become fluent in English if they want to succeed. In this country we continue to be largely monolingual English speakers, expecting the rest of the world to understand our language and not doing much to develop our abilities to speak, read and write other languages.
We do tend to regard this country as an English-speaking country and it is, of course, true that children will need to be fluent speakers, readers and writers of English in order to succeed in the educational system. But the Englishness of this country has had a long history which has involved moving from ‘Old English’ to the language which predominates today. Reid (1993) tells us that French was the language of the ruling classes, of the intelligentsia and of the rich for three or four centuries after the Norman Conquest and English was the language of the uneducated and the unschooled. So English was seen as an inferior language. That is fascinating when one examines some of the things that are said about languages today. Here are some of these for you to consider:
1 Sumiyo’s teacher tells her mother: ‘Try and ensure that you only speak English at home.’
2 A booklet for parents of children in a day nursery suggests: ‘Use English all the time because if your child is bilingual he will be at a disadvantage.’
3 At a parents’ evening the headteacher organises a meeting for the parents of children who have English as an additional language and tells them that the best way for their children to learn English is in small, separate groups, out of the classroom.
4 Thomas has just started secondary school and his father wanted to know what choice of languages there was in the school and said he would like Thomas to be able to learn Turkish. The head of languages told him that they offered German, Spanish and French and would be introducing Mandarin, but Turkish would be ‘of little use’.
5 A university lecturer visiting a teaching student in a multilingual primary classroom asked the teacher how multilingual children were supported in learning English and was told that the main object was for children to learn a lot of words, particularly names of objects.
These comments reveal prejudices, misconceptions and myths not only associated with what it means to know more than one language but also about how children who do should be taught. Let us look at each in turn.
1 Sumiyo speaks Japanese at home with her parents and siblings and with her extended family. She speaks Japanese when the family returns to Tokyo each summer. She speaks English at her nursery. The advice for her mother to speak to her in English threatens to risk that she will lose her first language and, as you will see as you read on, identity is very closely tied up with home language or languages. More than that, for Sumiyo Japanese is the language with which she is most familiar and in which she has come to understand many concepts. Children are well able to use both their first and subsequent languages in their lives and in their learning, and maintaining the first language is really important both to cognitive development and to self-esteem.
2 The second statement about bilingual children being at a disadvantage is straightforwardly incorrect. It may well be true that children who speak languages other than English will take time to acquire English, but they have already learned one or more languages and with this have explored language itself as an abstract system. They have begun to think about language per se. You will see as you read on, that bilingual and multilingual children have been shown to have greater cognitive flexibility and a sensitivity to others.
3 The teaching of English to speakers of other languages is something that is debated widely and passionately. Some educationalists still believe that withdrawal groups (where children are taken out of their classes or groups) to be taught with other non-English speakers is the best way for them to learn. What actually happens is that children in such groups have no models of other children speaking fluent English. They are singled out and made to feel different and often made to feel ‘stupid’ or inferior. The content of these small group lessons is very narrow and based on learning vocabulary. Usually the learning makes little or no sense to the children when it is not situated in anything meaningful to them.
4 The example of Thomas not being able to choose Turkish as a language to study at his secondary school illustrates that there is a hierarchy of languages offered in schools and this relates clearly to the prejudices still held in society where some languages (mainly European languages but increasingly Chinese languages) are seen as desirable and others not. Thomas wants to learn Turkish because he has many friends who are Turkish and because he often visits Turkey with his family. The school regards it as a language of little use.
5 The fifth example, looking at the attitude of one teacher at how best to teach children English as an additional language, highlights an approach that focuses on word and rote learning rather than on learning in context. Perhaps you are familiar with the work of Margaret Donaldson who talked about how important it is for young children to be able to see the point of what they are learning in order to be able to build on their previous experience. Children in the early years who learn things through meaningful activities like cooking or washing the dolls or playing in the home corner or exploring the properties of sand and water are able to see the point of what they are doing and are able to build on what they already know and can do. Children learning to point to a picture of an apple and say the word ‘apple’ are involved in the equivalent of completing a worksheet.
ATTITUDES TO BILINGUALISM: A PROBLEM, A RIGHT OR A RESOURCE?
Some of the statements we have just looked at describe language as a problem. A child in the nursery who speaks French is seen as being advantaged, whereas one who speaks Urdu is seen as having a ‘problem’. This is tied to attitudes to languages and cultures which are themselves tied to racism and prejudice. Currently, in the UK, there is a growing return to a belief that assimilation is the way ahead with the majority language (English) being encouraged to the exclusion of other languages. You may have read some articles in the press recently where high school teachers are favouring a return to this. This notion arises out of the idea that bilingual pupils often experience interference between their languages and this may, indeed, be the case. But what matters is the underlying principle that home languages don’t matter which implies that culture and previous experience don’t matter either. All of us involved in the care and education of young children know that this cannot be so. We know how important it is for us to know as much as we can about ou...
