Language Diversity in the Classroom - ymerleksi - home

A Concluding Statement 287name remains as a reminder of distant origins, of another language, ofvalues and customs long forgotten. Is this bad or sad? Well, it is certainlyinevitable has proved inevitable, in fact, for virtually every person onearth, if one takes a long enough view of things. Things change.Instability over time is the only constant in human life. And this, infact, is the essence of the third point about bilingualism, howeverdefined. The difficulties of maintaining a diglossic relationship amonglanguages that continue to be spoken are replicated, if over a longer spanof time, when one or more of them has retreated from the vernacularfield.Little remains to be said about bilingualism brought into the classroom,about formal programs of bilingual education. They can beexpected to reflect, and sometimes contribute to, all the social influencesand pressures that I have just described. The accommodations nowmade for children who come to school with a ‘non-mainstream’language either an immigrant variety or a ‘small’ indigenous one are generally seen as a highly appropriate improvement over earliersink-or-swim approaches. The philosophy of working with whatchildren first bring with them, with the intent of improving educationaloutcomes and, at the same time, of reducing social and psychologicalpressures, seems unexceptionable. But these accommodations, thisphilosophy, are not above criticism and controversy. How manylanguages should a society cater for? How should choices be madeamong them? What impact will educational accommodations have uponthe forging of a common citizenry? Won’t multicultural and multilingualpolicies keep groups isolated, and encourage continuing social divisions?What about e pluribus unum? And, by the way, my ancestors hadto struggle to find their place in the new world no accommodationswere made for them, and look what good citizens they became whyshould newcomers have it any easier?I am certainly not endorsing the impulses behind all of these questions(and many other similar ones); indeed, some reflect quite unpleasantsocial attitudes. But I am suggesting that they are part of the social fabricwithin which all language-and-education initiatives and programs mustexist. Furthermore, I suggest that the pressures inherent in that largerfabric commonly have the effect of dwarfing purely pedagogicaltendencies or desires. There are certainly instances, then, in whicheducational innovations of undeniable value have been shouted down, asit were, by unimaginative or bigoted forces. On the other hand, there arealso examples of scholarly narrow-mindedness, of a tunnel vision thatfoolishly neglects wider issues and concerns, of enquiries that are too