Intercultural Education in the Post-Primary School - National Council ...

new language when they want and need tocommunicate, when they are learning withtheir peers, when they are engaged in ageappropriateactivities and when learningnew information and new skills stimulatesthem. In some instances placing a newstudent with his/her peers may not suitthe student’s needs at this time, forexample when his/her peers are in anexamination class.SUPPORTING SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING INTHE MAINSTREAM CLASSROOMIntroducing the newcomer student on entryinto the classIt is important when the student enters theclass for the first time that reference ismade to her or his language ability in apositive way. For example, he/she might beintroduced as Thierry who speaks Frenchfluently, has a little English and is learningIrish, rather than saying this that is Thierryand he doesn’t speak English or Irish.Many students who don’t speak thelanguage of instruction (i.e. Irish orEnglish) may speak a number of languagesfluently, and it is important that the factthat they do not speak the language ofinstruction is not seen as having languagedifficulties. Empathy for the student’ssituation can be developed through makingreference to the fact that most students arelearning either Irish or English as a secondlanguage and that it is not always easy toparticipate in a class that is not conductedthrough our first language. Other studentsshould be encouraged to be supportive oflanguage learners and to allow them timeto develop their second language skills,without making fun of them when theymake mistakes.Students can also be encouraged to activelysupport language learners, by being madeaware that they can help language learnersunderstand the language of the classroom.Students themselves may come up withsome great ideas as to how they cansupport their language-learning classmates,particularly if it is put in the context ofwhat would help them if they had to takepart in a geography class or maths classthrough a second language (for example,either English or Irish, as appropriate).The classroom as a language classroomTeachers are not only teachers ofgeography or maths, but they are alsolanguage teachers and their classrooms arelanguage classrooms.The most important thing the classroomteacher can do for the learner of a secondlanguage is to demonstrate a positiveattitude towards language and linguisticdiversity and communicate this to theother students in their class. Teachers whofind themselves in this situation for thefirst time, may find it very daunting and alittle overwhelming, but there are somesimple steps that the classroom teacher cantake to create a classroom environmentthat is supportive of the second languagelearner.Planned programme of supportStudents learning through a secondlanguage need a planned programme ofsupport on entry into the post-primaryschool. This will involve co-operativeplanning between subject teachers, thelanguage support teacher and the parents.The effectiveness of this language supportcan be maximised by giving priority tolanguage that will allow learners to accessthe curriculum. It is also important to notethat newly-arrived students for whom thelanguage of instruction is not their firstlanguage may go through a silent periodwhile they are adjusting to the newenvironment.108Intercultural Education in the Post-Primary School