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| This article first appeared in the December 2003 issue of Literacy
Today (issue no. 37). |
Young children gain from literacy experiences
in more than one language, according to this research. Dr Charmian Kenner
of Goldsmiths College, University of London, reports.
Our research project, Signs of Difference, investigated early biliteracy.
The project showed that young children are quite capable of learning two
different writing systems simultaneously, and this benefits their cognitive
and cultural development. Participants were learning to write in their community
language at Saturday school, and in English at primary school. Their knowledge
and experiences put into question the commonly held opinion, identified
by Christopher Jolly in the March 2003 issue of Literacy Today, that,
"Inner-city schools tend to have children from less literacy-rich environments
and a higher proportion of children with English as a second language. Understandably
this can lead to lower expectations." Jolly challenges this opinion
by pointing to successes achieved by bilingual children. I would also challenge
the simplistic equation often made between "children learning English"
and "a literacy-deprived background".
The problem is that mainstream educators tend to know very little about
what happens in bilingual homes. We noted the variety of literacy events
in which bilingual six-year-olds participate and the parents' commitment
to children's success, both at community language school and primary school.
Siblings, the trailblazers in the English school system, play a key role
as literacy teachers within the family.*
Our participants were typical London six-year-olds who were growing up bilingual.
We observed them in homes, community language schools and primary schools
over a period of one year. Sadhana, whose family came from Ecuador, knew
how to consult a Spanish-English dictionary with her mother to check the
spelling of English words. Brian and his brother Julian enjoyed doing word
puzzles in a BBC magazine, as well as reading children's books in Spanish
brought from Colombia. Selina perfected her Chinese writing every evening
under her mother's tuition; she also made booklets about favourite English
popstars with her older sister. Ming planned a Chinese lesson for his primary
school class and taught for an entire literacy hour; at home he used the
computer proficiently in English. Tala led her Arabic school assembly in
singing, and was a confident presenter for her English class assembly too.
Yazan benefited from regular lessons in both English and Arabic from his
10-year-old sister; their parents had bought her a small whiteboard to aid
her role as teacher.
Peer teaching sessions, in which each child showed primary school classmates
how to write in Chinese, Arabic or Spanish, provided fascinating insights
into children's literacy knowledge. Ming and Selina realised that Chinese
writing was not alphabetic. Ming's name in Chinese was written with three
characters, each representing one of the words 'Lai Sei Ming'. Ming explained
that his Chinese name had "three words", whereas for his English
name, "I got some different ones ... Ming is four" (i.e. four
letters). Selina would point out symbols within Chinese characters that
gave a clue to their meaning: for example, 'fire' appears in associated
characters such as 'lamp'.
Tala and Yazan understood that Arabic writing has a different directionality
from English. Tala put an arrow at the right-hand side of the page to remind
her school friends where to start writing in Arabic. Yazan showed the front
cover of his Arabic school textbook (which would be the back cover in English)
and stated, "Not the end ... this is the first". Tala also explained
how letters from the Arabic alphabet had a different form at the beginning,
in the middle or at the end of a word.
Sadhana and Brian recognised that the alphabet was taught differently in
Spanish, with the first focus being on the vowels (which are phonetically
regular). When Sadhana was given a set of cardboard alphabet letters to
put in order, she asked, "ABCD or a,e,i,o,u?", giving the vowels
their Spanish pronunciation. The children also knew that some letters had
different sounds in each language: for example, 'i' in Spanish sounds like
the letter-name 'E' in English. Brian emphasised this to an English classmate:
"Because it's Spanish - it's different!"
The children paid careful attention to the visual details of each script.
In Chinese, a tiny difference in stroke pattern can change one character
into another with a different meaning. In Arabic, dots above or below letters
differentiate otherwise identical symbols. In Spanish, an accent shows where
the stress falls in a word.
Biliteracy extends children's learning and enables them to share cultural
experiences with their families and communities. Mainstream teachers can
give support by inviting children to demonstrate their bilingual knowledge,
celebrating children's community language school achievements, and offering
resources to community school colleagues. The first step is to change attitudes.
It is time to lay the literacy myth of "deprived bilingual children"
to rest once and for all.
With thanks to the participating families and
schools: Lambeth Chinese Community School, the Arabic Community School in
Hounslow, the Latin American Saturday School, and Berkeley, Duncombe, Eveline
Lowe, Richard Atkins and Wellington Primary Schools.
References
*See also E. Gregory and A. Williams (2000) City Literacies, London:
Routledge.
| This research was funded by the Economic and Social
Research Council. For more information email Charmian Kenner at ck@mariposa.u-net.com.
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