Kerry Phipps has some expert education advice for bilingual and multi-lingual families in the UK
It is never too soon to consider your child’s academic future in making decisions about current education. It is important to think about your family’s current language profile and how that might affect the education decisions you are making for your children.
Do your children need to return to your home country in a few years or will you be moving on to another country with another language? Or do you and your partner speak different languages, yet want to preserve both languages at home to maintain relationships with relatives and the option of future education in home countries?
Many types of bi-lingual and multi-lingual families relocate to the UK. Chiefly, there are:
- The monolingual family: non-English-speaking family moving into the UK. The parents and children all speak the same non-English language.
- The bilingual family: the parents speak different languages, but one of them is a mother tongue English speaker.
- The multilingual family: the parents speak different non-English languages and moving to the UK introduces a third language.
All of these may be complicated by having nannies or au pairs who speak yet another language.
In Greater London, many education choices are available for all of these families:
- British national curriculum schools where the family would continue mother tongue literacy and language at home or after school.
- National schools like the French Lycée, German or Japanese schools.
- Specialist international schools which integrate mother tongue language and literacy into a curriculum taught in English.
In assessing the many options, however, families should think about what they would like for their children’s futures.
Considerations include whether the family will be moving back to the home country and need to re-enter that country’s education system or whether the family may be moving to a new posting in a country with yet another language. Additionally, each child within the family has a unique language profile based on the age of the student, home language(s), his/her previous language learning as well as how the child acquired the language (whether sequentially or simultaneously).
Ultimately, the decision depends on where the family will be in the near or distant future. The language required for a university education needs to be considered even at the very early stage of a child’s education.
As research shows that new language acquisition is built on the foundation of the mother tongue, it is important that mother tongue language and literacy should continue as new languages are developed. Ideally, there will be a partnership developed between the parents, child and school.
Whatever decisions are made, there are certain things families can do to support mother tongue languages at home:
- Consistently speak in your own mother tongue to your children. It’s fine to use another language when in the company of others, for instance, when having school friends or house guests, but revert to your mother tongue, once you are alone again with your child.
- Provide an opportunity for your children to read, view films and listen to programmes with you in your language. This helps develop not just the social use of language, but academic language and literacy.
- Arrange opportunities for your children to interact with others speaking the same language through friends, clubs, or Skyping with family.
- Provide opportunities for your children to spend time in the country where your language is spoken. Very quickly language fluency develops as children play with their cousins and interact with grandparents.
When in doubt:
- Keep speaking your language(s) to your child.
- Keep the conversation flowing by not correcting them or insisting they reply in your language.
- Help them love your language(s) and culture(s) by making it fun. Find games which you only play in that language or a special series of books that you explore together as a family.
Muti-lingualism is routine for a very large section of the world’s population and research shows that it will not inhibit your child’s learning, but will actually expand and enhance their learning.
Bilingual Workshops
ISL Surrey holds regular one-off, free community workshops, aimed at parents of bilingual children throughout the year in Woking. To reserve a place please email Susan Stewart on sstewart@islsurrey.org or on 01483-750409.
The International School of London (ISL) Group
The International School of London (ISL) Group has two IB World Schools in the UK, based in Woking, Surrey and also in West London. ISL accepts students from 2-18 and is renowned for integrating language learning (EAL, mother tongue and additional languages) into an exceptional international curriculum. Today, the ISL Schools enrol over 1,600 students from 87 nationalities, speaking 25 languages.
For further details or to arrange a visit, contact Marc Carter at ISL Surrey (mcarter@islsurrey.org) or Yoel Gordon at ISL London (ygordon@isllondon.org). Or visit the website at www.islschools.org
Check out our Kids/Schools section for more great local education stories, like our recent round up of the best Independent Schools in Surrey & SW London
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