The World in the Classroom: Developing Multilingualism in an Irish Primary School

1. The World in the Classroom: Developing Multilingualism in an Irish Primary School Bernadette O’Rourke (Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh) Michael Cronin (Dublin City University)

2. What kinds of multilingualism should be developed through schooling? What languages should be used for education in multilingual communities?

3. Irish Context: Effects of Celtic Tiger • Emigration ---- immigration • 250, 000 • 50% foreign national

4. Changing Linguistic Landscape • Eastern Regional Health Authority 130 • Translation & Interpreting Services 210 • Census of population 1 in 10

5. Schools as Sites of Linguistic Diversity • Deficit model • 2 years language support • Mother-tongue not recognised

6. Community Language – ‘Handicap’ or ‘Problem’ • …there has to be a massive reform of the [Irish] educational system. The State sector has to be expanded and we have to have a doctrine for coping with foreignersspeaking foreign languages in our schools. For example, there is good reason to outlaw foreign languages being spoken in the playground because the playground is the primary area for them to learn about the culture of the school and the society they are in. It is good to have foreigners in Ireland but it’s not good to have them create a separate culture in their schools…

7. Language Rights • Any credible educator will agree that schools should build on the experience and knowledge that children bring to the classroom, and instruction should also promote children's abilities and talents. Whether we do it intentionally or inadvertently, when we destroy children's language and rupture their relationship with parents and grandparents, we are contradicting the very essence of education (Cummins 1999).

8. ‘The World in the Classroom’ Project • Action research • Inner-city primary school in Dublin • ‘a form of self-reflective enquiry in social situations in order to improve the rationality and justice of their own practices, their understanding of these practices, and the situations in which the practices are carried out’ (Carr and Kemmis 1986: 162)

9. Stage 1 • February – June 2007 • Migration and Citizenship Research Initiative (University College Dublin) • Characteristics of school • Poland, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, Nigeria, Vietnam, Mongolia, India, the Philippines. • Focus Group Discussion • Support for multilingualism • Tensions

10. One of the difficulties that we have is when a child comes to the school and has no English at all, and the parents don’t have English either. The parents will speak their own language at home rather than practicing English and trying to incorporate it as part of their home language. In the interest of the child, parents should make an effort to speak the language that the children are learning at school. There are a number of cases where the child has no English what so ever – if they don’t have a lot of the language there is a danger that they will become isolated (Language support teacher)

11. Developing Strategies to Promote Multilingual Awareness • Chow and Cummins (2003) • Armand and Dagenais (2006) ÉLODIL (Éveil aux langage et ouverture à la diversité linguistique) www.elodil.com

12. Aims • Enhance status of multilingual children • Provide support for parents • Expand teachers awareness

13. Pilot Study • Participants • Junior Infants (children 4-5 years) • Mainstream and Resource Teacher • Researcher • Language-awareness activities • ‘Language Flowers’ (www.elodil.com)

14. ‘The Life Cycle of the Butterfly’

15. Outcomes • Sensitized teachers & pupils to linguistic diversity • Provided resources for teachers • Created dialogue with parents • Developed multilingual awareness at school level • Towards a school language policy

16. Future Directions • Multilingual signage • Communication through translation • Multilingual storytelling • Skills of migrant population

17. The World in the Classroom • Contact: B.M.A.O’Rourke@hw.ac.uk