Fostering Multilingual Schools

Connects with outside agencies for support

Public Libraries

Settlement Agencies

Community Centres and Ethnocultural agencies

Leadership fosters Multilingual School Community

Strong/Supported ELL/ELD programs

Provides ALL teachers with opportunities for learning to tap into the multilingual capital of their school community

Provides community and parents opportunities to work together

Welcome environment with visible multilingual signs and welcome team

Affirms linguistic and cultural capital

Building Schools with capacity and opportunity

Diverse learners are now the norm not the exception (50% of students are now non English language speaking

Preparing Canadian students for a global market

language skills and conceptual knowledge are transferable

Multilingualism creates workers that are skilled in language and problem solving skills

Preparing students for new global realities

Opportunities to also learn another language

Knowledge of other cultures

Understanding of the world around them

Participation as Global citizens

Fostering a love of learning

Acculturation process

Some students take longer to adapt even within same families

Migration experience

Planned move vs. Traumatic experience

Level of L1 development

Prior experience with English

Personality

Gaps in prior schooling

Existing learning exceptionality

L1 provides a foundation for L2

Enhances their L2 Learning

Builds Self Confidence

Enables them to draw on their strengths

Facilitates the flow of knowledge

Affirms their sense of self

Preservation of cultural identity

Understanding of their family values

Creating journals in first language

Opportunities to work with same language partners/groups

Assignments that allow students to compare their L1 to L2

Creating dual Language Assignments

Student created labels in their L1 for common classroom areas and materials

Planning and providing instruction on the basis of children's existing competencies.

Using outside agencies as a tool to connect the class to the broader community.

Using L1 to increase parental engagement

Students to use L1 to teach new foreign words to their classmates.

Supportive language and feedback

Opportunities to interact in English

Increase parental involvement with school

Foster relationship between student and family

Increasing parents ability to help their child with their learning

Promoting parental sense of 'control' over their child's learning

Parents to continue to foster their L1 within their homes