making languages count clare allison – king edward vii school caroline norman – languages...
TRANSCRIPT
Making Languages CountClare Allison – King Edward VII School
Caroline Norman – Languages Sheffield
Today’s Presentation
Local contextIntroduce the projectBilingualismMainstream School SettingComplementary School SettingPartnership workingPractical stepsAchievements, recognition and challengesNext stepsComments and questions
The Sheffield Context
The Sheffield Context
120 languages are spoken in Sheffield
24 linguistic communities
Arabic, Urdu, Bengali, Cantonese, Mandarin and Somali
Tigrigna and Dari
Languages Spoken in Sheffield SchoolsAfricaans Chichewa Gaelic Kannada Malayalam
Romanian Telegu
Akan Creole German Karen Maltese Russian Thai
Albanian Czech Georgian Katchi Mandang
Samaon Tigre
Amharic Dugbane Greek Kikuyu Mongolian
Serbian Tigrinya
Arabic Danish Guarani Kisi Nahuati Shona Tok Pisin
Armenian Dutch Gujarati Korean Ndebele
Sindhi Tswana
Azeri Ebira Hausa Krio Nepali Sinhala Tumbuka
Balochi Edo bini Hebrew Kurdish Norwegian
Slovak Turkish
Bemba Efik Hindi Lango Nzema Slovenian Umbundu
Bengali Esan Ishan Hindko Latvian Pahari
Somali Urdu Uruba
Berber Ewe Hungarian Lingala Panjabi
Spanish Urhobo
Bulgarian Fang Iban Lithuanian Pashto
Swahili Vietnamese
Burmese Finnish Igbo Luganda Persian
Swazi Visaya
Catalan French Italian Luo Polish
Swedish Welsh
Chaga Fula Japanese Lusoga Portuguese
Tagalog WolofYidish
Chechen Ga Javanese Malay Romani Tamil XhosaZulu
The “Our Languages Project”
www.ourlanguages.org.uk
Multi-agency project
Partnership working between mainstream and complementary schools
Paul Hamlyn Foundation
http://www.phf.org.uk/landing.asp?id=3
Bilingualism
Common Myths
Bilingualism is a barrier to learning“Academic language proficiency transfer across language such that
students who have developed in L1 will tend to make stronger progress in acquiring literacy in L2”
(Cummins, J 2000)
Forget your Mother Tongue
Bilingualism is socially divisive
“I am proud to speak Chinese but am sometimes bullied for that reason by
racist people in my school”
“Chinese helps me learn German and science”
The Mainstream sector
Why aren’t more mainstream schools accrediting home language?
Lack of AwarenessLimited Capacity
Lack of linguistic expertise
Why should the mainstream care?
The studentThe school
The community
The Complementary Sector
Complementary Schools
Lack of recognition/statusSometimes small and vulnerable
Work in isolationLack of resources/venue
Restricted access to training opportunities
Complementary SchoolsHave huge linguistic and cultural
knowledgeParticipation of families
Run and trusted by the community
“Complementary schools provide a reassuring environment or ‘safe space’ for multilingual practices…a
space that is generally lacking in other domains of contemporary British society”
(Li, Wei 2011)
Complementary Schools
“[Complementary] schools provide children from minority communities with dedicated and hard-working role models
from their own cultural backgrounds”(John Lyons Charity, Supplementary Schools: A new approach)
Collaborative Advantage
Collaborative Advantage
Mainstream Schools Students from many linguistic
communities
Complementary SchoolsStudents from many different mainstream
schools
Collaborative Advantage
HoLA combines the expertise of both sectors
We facilitate partnership working between both sectors
HoLA takes a strategic city-wide approach to provide practical support
Practical steps
Practical Steps
Consultation of stakeholdersBuilding replicable modelsTraining of mother tongue expertsIntensive language courses and mock examsFeedback, predicted grades and adviceCity-wide approach to oral exams
Practical Steps
Consultation of complementary school tutorsBespoke training programmeMentoring programmeTeaching and learning resourcesPaid employmentRecognition of linguistic expertise
Participation
Children’s University Credits, Certificates and Award CeremoniesWorking with languages that have no accreditationAdding to city-wide dataOutcomes Star
The HoLA Project so far…
517 students are having their language learning recognised and rewarded by the Children’s University
113 students last academic year supported by the HoLA Project gained a national accreditation in their home language (Arabic, Chinese (both Cantonese and Mandarin), Bengali, Dutch, Greek, Japanese, Persian, Portuguese, Russian and Urdu
12 Complementary schools are directly involved in HoLA, with many more being indirectly supported through the project
Recognition
Recognition
European Language Label 2012Mary Glasgow Trust Award 2012Association for Language Learning (ALL)Flagship project for PHFRequests for advice and support (regional and national)
Next steps
The HoLA Project – Next StepsContinuing to support accreditation on a larger scaleDevelopment of work with primariesImpact analysisNational disseminationCampaigning and lobbyingSharing what we have learned“My Language too please”
Challenges
Are we reaching the right students?
Lack of literacy
Measuring impact in a meaningful way
Summary
Any questions or comments?
ReferencesCummins, J (2000) Language, Power and Pedagogy. Bilingual Children in the Cross.re. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Li, Wei (2011): Multilinguality, Multimodality, Multicompetence: code and mode switching in minority ethnic children in complementary schoolsThe Modern Language Journal, Vol 95 10/2011 pp. 370-383
Blackledge, A (2001): Literacy, schooling andideology in a multilingual state, Curriculum Journal, 12:3, 291-312
For further informationClare Allison
HoLA Project ManagerKing Edward VII School
Caroline NormanComplementary Schools Manager
Languages [email protected]
www.languages-sheffield.org.uk