Linguistic diversity and parent involvement in multilingual classrooms

¶ … myths that are inherent in involving parents in their children's education (Samway & McKeon, 2007). The chapter begins with the assumption that student achievement is strongly correlated with parent involvement and discusses some of the issues or factors that are assumed to prevent parents from taking a strong role in facilitating learning with their children. These include reasons such as a lack of resources, transportation, time, motivation, English comprehension, and others. From my personal experience, I do feel as if most all parents care about their children's education, to a greater or lesser extent, and many of the issues presented are definitely barriers to their involvement.

Some of the information presented in this chapter seems pretty straight forward and intuitive. For example, if a translator is available for a parent that doesn't speak English, or speak English well, then this is definitely a valuable asset to have for meetings. However, one idea that I had not really considered was the effectiveness of the home visit. Teachers often have hectic schedules and their own personal responsibilities that can make home visits impractical. I also have felt that home visits could be perceived as being pretty intrusive and awkward for many parents. However, the evidence the chapter presents has made me willing to challenge my own assumptions about the home visit.

Chapter 10-11

This chapter focuses on linguistic diversity and the role this can play in diverse classrooms (DeJong, 2011). By making choices about what language that different materials are presented in, this automatically implies the value of different languages through the selection process. For example, if you teach only in English then this could be interpreted as English being the only language of value. However, some innovative teaching strategies have added bilingual or multilingual elements into the classroom which has shown to be a valuable tool in many ways.

For example, the European model has been shown to be effective in language learning by slowly increasing the content delivered in a second or third language. Furthermore, if the context supports it, then there are also other alternatives to choosing a delivery method. For example, in a Multilanguage group, the instruction could be delivered in different languages and then, through a subtractive process, slowly develop to the preferred language. In our case this would be standardized English and the subtracted languages would typically be different local dialects. This chapter helped me to realize the options available for language as well as the value of considering its role in education.

Linguistic Cultural Landscape

1.) One question educators must ask themselves is, whose language or languages are valued in our school? Look at your own school and make an inventory of the "linguistic and cultural landscape" of the school (its an African-American inner city school).

2.) What are some challenges to reaching the goal of language status equalization?

2.) Which are the elements of a successful bilingual intervention program?

It can be difficult for teachers to know the right amounts and the right times to introduce other languages. It can be highly dependent upon the context and the children's starting points. I think one of the most important success factors is to base the intervention program on this context and adapt it as needed, as opposed to a one-size fits all program design.