Language AwarenessUniversity of Alcalá De Henares Language Awareness By Abdelmoughit Alassfar Professor: Ana Halbach Teaching in Bilingual schools A/Y: 2013/2014 56% of all EU citizens claim to speak one language in addition to their L1. Secondly. enhance creativity and encourage thinking outside the box. Cit. or as Hawkins (1984) coined it. a large number of people are growing up bilingually by birth. and try as much as possible to minimize the cons of this latter. (Elsner. the rapid development of technology and the expansion of new communications media. citizens should be fluent in more than one language beside their mother tongue. In addition. it is home to 700 million people from diverse ethnic. therefore. have undergone major changes. Candelier. formal education can no longer deny meeting the needs of a heterogeneous classroom of multiple languages. (Masats. then teachers and parents. especially the developed ones. European Commission 2008:2). These changes have affected directly the lives of people in general. cultures and social backgrounds. world global economic integration and multiculturalism. the different components of this institution ranging from pupils as the mainly concerned ones. the educational system. There are 40 official languages and about 200 other spoken languages across the continent. there has been a noticeable rise of cultural and linguistic diversity as a result of massive migration. 2011. My intention is to highlight the notion of plurilingualism. as Masats (n. (Elsner 2011. i. The result of a multicultural society is the presence of a vast number of languages and cultures in today’s school. and linguistic backgrounds.Language Awareness University of Alcalá De Henares Language Awareness Introduction Throughout the last three decades the societies. 1998) Consequently. 2011) Since this article’s main focus is on this latter. The presence of more than one . and the educational systems in particular. Firstly. Cit. I would also shed light on some projects held by some schools concerning the implementation of Language awareness in the school. Cit. cultural. So as to break cultural stereotypes. If we take Europe as an example. According to the Eurobarometer Survey. European Commission 2006: 6). schools need to make the most of the advantages such a social context might have. Language awareness. (Elsner.e.d) argues that if we really believe one of the duties of schools is to educate students to become active citizens in a multicultural society. the targeted societal institution will be the school. As we have previously mentioned. Therefore. 2000). The notion of language awareness and its association with language started in the late 1950s. as well as. a linguisticallyaware teacher will always be in a strong and secure position to accomplish various tasks : preparing lessons.d). tolerance and respect. if we apply the meaning of the word “Awareness” as knowledge about language. The notion of Language Awareness According to the oxford dictionary. phonological. it might result impossible for teachers to be aware of all the existing languages. CEFRL. (Wright. and a motivation of teachers to introduce different languages. Awareness in this sense refers to the proficiency level of those languages. Halliday. 1993). n. to culture and to learning. began to support the idea that helping students to learn the target language should not be the solely aim of teachers. and the cultural. understanding and interpreting. and second as a learning objective that must be reflected in the school curriculum. morphological. into their daily teaching routines.2011. evaluating. “Awareness” is knowing that something exists and is important. being interested in it. (Elsner. This plurilingualism in schools is the key to the development of mutual understanding. the rapid changing social context made our schools a melting pot of languages and cultures. . they’d better guide them about how to deal with issues related with language in general. Nonetheless. and writing materials. designing a syllabus or curriculum. Therefore. ranging from what is grammatical.Language Awareness University of Alcalá De Henares language in the school context has become a reality and not an exception.e. testing and assessing learner’s performance. (Masats. Learners should value and develop their language repertoires. i. adapting. for this reason. plurilingualism in schools should be considered first as a precondition. to know of its existence. awareness in the classroom might not be an impossible aim to achieve. et al. as an interest that we show towards this language and as an evaluation of that language after all. The concept of language awareness seen from a teacher-centered perspective implies a thorough knowledge of language by the teachers. meanwhile schools should recognize these languages as legitimate learning resources. ultimately. such as Hawkins. therefore cultures. when many scholars and linguists. . plurilingualism and acceptance of the “other”. in addition to the learning about others. The school considered many reasons why it was important to learn about others languages and cultures.Language Awareness University of Alcalá De Henares Two may not disagree about the importance of acknowledging pupil’s cultures and origins. by choosing every month a different language and make it noticeable. As a result. What follow are examples of school projects that were introduced in some multicultural classrooms. “No child should be expected to cast off the language and culture of the home as he crosses the school threshold. It is of crucial importance that children of different backgrounds feel their existence within a classroom. multiculturalism. Enhance the status of bilingual children Broaden the horizons of monolingual English-speakers.Bullock. The curriculum should reflect many elements of that part of his life. Newbury Park Primary School. learn about it. its aim is to shed light on all the existing languages in the school. many schools felt the urgency of implementing projects that would enhance language awareness. nor to live and act as though school and home represent two totally separate and different cultures which have to be kept firmly apart. which a child lives outside school. therefore. among them are: Give bilingual students the chance to demonstrate their linguistic skills that they bring to schools. and “otherness”. 1975) Researchers and scholars of what is known as the “Language awareness movement” insisted on making this latter as an obligatory element in the school curriculum and not as a passive activity that teachers can do from time to time. Show respect for other languages and cultures Give parents the opportunity to be actively involved in their children’s learning. One of the aims of Language awareness is promoting this feeling of existence.d) cit .” (Debono. and be aware of it. Language of the month This is a project that is held by a primary school in London called. (n. g. when leaving the classroom.Language Awareness University of Alcalá De Henares (Debono. highlighting the existing differences in terms of pronunciation in each language. (see fig. Say goodbye. Teachers might also link the language of the month to special events. Through different activities and games. South Africa 2010 world cup. yes. for instance. n. Athens 2004 Olympic games.d) . inviting parents to the school to speak and tell stories in their languages. showing photos of the country and making it known to the rest of the class. Say thank you. 1 Class displays for the Language of the Month. teachers should try to make use of the expressions in the targeted language of the month. thank you. e. An example of such activities is to use the word good morning. welcome. no and well done. please. “Listening to speakers of the language” is another section that consists of learning words and phrases from other languages taught by the speakers of those languages. good bye and numbers from 1-12. “Who speaks the language?” is the first section that tries to detect the different existing languages in the classroom. when the teacher is collecting the dinner money. and sorry.d) The project is divided into many different sections dealing with multiple activities. (Debono. or when the children are given fruit and milk. Fig. good morning and good afternoon. It also focuses on the situation of the existing countries on a world map.1). when passing the list in the target language. The school has made a set of words and expressions such as. hello. as well as. together with trying to apply them in real situations. come here. n. Portugal Euro 2004. 2010) In the first place the MuVit project is about the development and evaluation of digitalized picture-books in five different languages (English. the exchange of information through the web. together with the funding of the European commission. the massive communication of people. there is a very interactive website (http://www. EichendorffGrundschule Moers). Using a keyboard for these children results far more comfortable than writing in a spiral notebook. Istanbul University. language and literacy development (Goethe-University. the thing that makes this project accessible to everyone interested in learning about other cultures. The Mu-ViT project The MuVit (Multi-literacy Virtual) project is based on the phenomenon of the rapid development of new information technology. The internet makes it possible for other schools. moreover the design of teaching materials for such educational settings by (Oldenbourg Verlag München).uk/) where all children and parents can introduce and teach their home language to others. allowing students to autonomously read and simultaneously listen to a variety of stories on the computer screen. 2) which is a story about a boy who wanted to be a magician and . Latvia). Turkish. University of Koblenz-Landau). an example of these stories is The Magic Maddox (see fig. and teachers that might want to try out this project in their schools.redbridge.sch. are not limited only within the school walls. and Russian [Cyrillic and Latin]) through a software and a web community. not to mention the valuable expertise on the field of innovative and differentiated teaching approaches in multilingual settings (Liobaschule Vechta. German. Goethe University. the possibility of reading each other’s texts being in different places and different languages. Spanish.newburypark. So far the MuVit team has developed six story books that were translated to the five languages. The project team consists of ten partners from five different countries with profound expertise in the fields of new media (TZI Bremen and TILDE. (Comenius report.Language Awareness University of Alcalá De Henares All these activities and many others. (Elsner. It is aimed at the new generation of the so called “GoogleGeneration” who is constantly connected through smart phones and computers with infinite friends from all over the globe. and languages. 2011) this generation according to Gunter (2009) is more motivated to read multimodal texts from a computer screen than pure texts without images from paper in hand. University of Koblenz-Landau. language awareness (University of Pompeu Fabra. Shuya University). prototype designed by Wahju A. in the five existing languages. 2011) The project aims were very clear. The MuVit approach to language awareness and multiculturalism has mainly focused on the new concept of literacy. beside the traditional skills of . literacy in its new form implies the incorporation of multimodal. additionally.Language Awareness University of Alcalá De Henares accidently magics his sister to a cat. A pre-reading phase. explore and compare multilingual books on their smart screens through an authoring tool that is a web based application that allows pupils to upload their own narratives in as many languages as possible. critical. encouraging pupils to actively work with. (Elsner. developing pupil’s language awareness on a linguistic-systematic and social-cultural level. While the traditional denotation of being literate only referred to the ability to read and write in a standardized form. A while reading phase where support is given for the words functions and pronunciation. where key vocabulary is introduced. cross-linguistic comparisons and vocabulary training. raising children’s interest in different languages. acceptance of teachers and pupils. 2 Example page of MuVit book. cultural and media competencies practices. The MuVit software can be used both.Widjajanto (member of MuVit group) The structure of the digitalized story-books resembles the three steps of the traditional storytelling methodology. All this. contributing to plurilingualism. (Elsner. 2011) Fig. Finally a post reading phase that includes interactive online tasks. comprehensions questions. 2011). inside and outside the classroom. (Elsner. 2010). (Comenius Report. together with a web community which is a registration system serving as a forum for pupils and teachers all over the world. Since it is conditioned by the use of computers. tools that might seem evident that everyone can have access to. make the project an inapplicable one. in addition to the publication of flyers. and are growing each time bigger. (Comenius report. in any way. I believe that such a project is a very ambitious and realistic one. products and addresses for researchers and teachers are available. One cannot deny the fact that some social classes still don’t have total and easy access to a daily available computer and a house set connection. according to the needs and the possibilities of each one. 2010). They are also willing to make public the accessibility of the MuVit web community for pupils. al 2010). (Comenius report. and parents alike. and has become an example to follow in many European schools. Their prospects are also ambitious. (Elsner 2011.eu/). 2011) The team is also looking forward to offering teacher training courses and workshops to familiarize them with the aims and the implementation of such projects. considering it as an innovative tool for plurilingualism. this is owing to the accessibility of the project materials. or inaccessible by all sorts of students. since it encourages the autonomous and product-oriented learning. cit UNESCO. tolerance and dialogue. teachers. a fact that the KIM-Study (2010) supports by a survey which showed the 90% of pupils have access to a computer at home and use it in a daily basis. (Elsner. Its application on multicultural schools might result easy and successful if it is accompanied by a serious willingness from the school staff. its aims. language development or linguistic behavior of mono-and plurilingual learners. so as to achieve the aims of linguistic and cultural awareness and raise the solidarity based on mutual understanding. and online connection. where detailed information about the use of the project. this fact wouldn’t. pupils and parents alike. 2010). (Elsner. Meanwhile the MuVit project might seem quite harder to generalize among all the schools. A project like “The language of the month” might be a handy one. hoping that the MuVit might offer a rich field for investigation concerning language awareness. since it hardly requires any sophisticated materials or demanding skills. The forms and the applicability might vary from one school to another. The project received the European Award for languages 2005. . we should point out that projects about language awareness are numerous. due to the augmenting need for such projects in a multicultural context. prestigious. cit Rosenberg et. (Comenius report. writing and speaking. For this reason the project wanted to make use of the new information and communication technologies. 2011) The MuVit team has shown great satisfaction on the project.mu-vit. and the easiness of its application. Nevertheless. 2010) In conclusion.Language Awareness University of Alcalá De Henares reading. 2011. The development of the MuVit website has been a great success for the team (http://www. Applying one project or another is not what really matters if the result is the achievement of a context where acceptance. since teachers are sometimes obliged to cover a set of cognitive skills. and expect students to acquire certain knowledge by the end of the course. Consequently.Language Awareness University of Alcalá De Henares The claim here might be that the time scope in the curriculum doesn’t allow such activities inside the classroom. for such projects to be successful. tolerance. Language awareness may not be sometimes included in that knowledge. . the call for language awareness should be a collective objective that urges the partnership and the collaboration of all the components of educational systems. coexistence with and learning from the other are all values that we can see in our schools. T. 47(4). (2011). D. plurilingual awareness and critical thinking in the primary language classroom with multilingual virtual talkingbooks. Language awareness: A missing link in language teacher education? ELT Journal.d. . The language of the month. D. (n.). & Newbury Park Primary School. 292-304. Masats. & Bolitho..). 100 ideas to promote language awareness. (1993). Language Awareness: An international project.Language Awareness University of Alcalá De Henares Bibliography Debono. Developing multiliteracies. (20). (n.. Barcelona: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Wright. Elsner. R. J.d. 27-38. Encuentro.
Report "Language Awareness ( Langauge of the month, MuVit projects).pdf"