Teaching Multilingual Children

I read the story teaching multilingual children by Virginia Collier. I really loved what she had to say about teaching kids and how to deal with the difficulties of teaching them English without eliminating their own culture and language. There are three statements that really stood out to me in the list of seven:

• statement 3: Don't teach a second language in any way that challenges or seeks to eliminate the first language.

This stood out to me because I couldn't agree more with it. For kids that come to America or that are here and have parents and family that speak in another language at home have a hard time adjusting and it is also a part of who they are. Children will feel most comfortable with the language they speak at home so I believe that the teacher also has a role in understanding the children's language and structure, as well as how it relates to the language they are being taught.

• statement 5: Do not forbid young students from code-switching in the classroom. Understand the functions that code-switching serve.
  

I believe that when children are in the classroom they shouldn't have to change who they are and what they speak at home completely. If a child doesn't know how to get something out in English I believe they should feel comfortable talking in another language and being able to figure it out. Code-switching shows how sometimes things can be borrowed from English and incorporated into their own language. The example that Collier uses is: Los muchachos estan punchando la troca. In the example a normal person speaking Spanish would have used the words empujar and comionela for push and truck. The words that they would use are borrowed and sound more familiar with the English words.

• statement 7: Provide a balanced and integrated approach to the four language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

It is important for everyone in the classroom feels comfortable with the listening, speaking, reading and writing. The more you listen and speak at language the more comfortable you can get with it. You just need to make sure the students are saying and writing things the right way so that they are not being taught wrong. All of these statements make me think about my classroom at Young's Elementary school. I have a classroom that is ESL which means that English is the second language speaking at home. The teacher that is in my classroom with me allows the children to speak the other languages that they know. When she is teaching, they all talk in English, but when they are at groups on their own they communicate in other languages. In the classroom that I am in, I heard Spanish, Chinese, and French being spoken. Although they all know how to speak another language they do their best to talk in English. Some kids are better then others at it but it really is nice getting to help them get a sentence out.