Literacy news
Language all stars
9 Sep 2009
The school then adopts it as its "language of the month" and pupils in all years learn some of the most common words and phrases, and the numbers 1 to 10.
Founder of the scheme and ethnic minority achievement teacher Joe Debono said: It started simply as a common courtesy, but as we went on we found that children who have their language valued are more open then to learning English than if we just let them hide their language away.
Research suggests that when children with English as an additional language are allowed to do some learning in their community language that they actually do better over a range of subjects.
The school has won several awards for its programme and plays host to scores of visitors interested in the project every year. Mr Debono says: "the school has become a collector of languages and has now covered about 50 languages. These range from Arabic and French, to Swahili and Tagalog."
(BBC News, 9 September 2009)
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