Multilingual Early Language Transmission (MELT) - Mercator ...

6.3 Multilingual Early Language Transmission in smaller state and regional &
minority languages
Depending on the strength and vitality of the language concerned, the political
circumstances and practical possibilities, as well as the ambitions of parents and authorities,
various models of upbringing and teaching are applied. Within the MELT project a range of
models is displayed and discussed. The total immersion method is applied at the day care
centres and pre-school provisions of the Swedish-speaking community in Finland as well as
in Wales. They have the policy and the strong belief that the total immersion approach in
the minority language will foster bilingual or multilingual individuals, and that within these
structures the minority languages will have better chances of maintenance. Note that in
these regions “immersion” also refers to mother-tongue education in minority languages.
The experiences within Finland and Wales show that in those linguistic situations children
from majority language speaking families benefit more from bilingual provisions and
structures than the children from minority speaking families. In other words: through
immersion most of the Swedish-speaking children in Finland become bi- or multilingual,
while the Finnish children tend to stay more unilingual. The same holds for Welsh speaking
children within Wales. Those children are living in the prosperous situation of having a
chance to continue their schooling at primary and secondary education through the medium
of Swedish respectively Welsh.
In Friesland and in Brittany on the contrary, the minority languages are less vital in terms of
language prestige, their position and function in education, and with respect to language use
in public life and in the media. Therefore, in Brittany and in Friesland, it is much harder to
implement structures and provisions which apply total immersion, although experts agree
that also in those regions the immersion approach would be beneficial for the children
involved. In these regions, more often part-time immersion or two-way immersion is
applied: “in one-way immersion, some of the teaching time is in the target language. In twoway
immersion, two language groups learn each other’s language by working for some of
the pre-primary day in one language and for the rest of the day in the other” (Language
Learning at Pre-primary school level 2011, p. 15).
The intention is that children in Friesland become bilingually fluent in Frisian and Dutch, and
preferably trilingual with respect to English. The concept of trilingual schooling has been
developed over the last decade, and has proven to be successful at a growing number of
primary schools. Bilingual education with Frisian as a subject and medium of instruction for
one day or half a day per week and English as a subject only, is widespread throughout
Friesland.
In Brittany the main aim of the introduction of Breton in pre-school provisions is to raise and
increase among parents and grand-parents, peers and practitioners the awareness of the
cultural value of Breton. The MELT project itself contributes greatly to the further
development of tools for the purpose of the promotions of awareness among parents,
practitioners and authorities.
In all four participating regions, and indeed in all European regions with a minority language,
the real challenge is the continuity of learning and teaching in and of the minority language,
starting from pre-primary provisions through primary schooling to secondary education, as
well as in vocational training. It is hard to define different chapters within the curriculum for
majority respectively minority language speakers, including different attainment targets,
time tables and assessment procedures. The ideal situation would be that each individual
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