Making Languages CountClare Allison – King Edward VII School

Caroline Norman – Languages Sheffield

Today’s Presentation

Local contextIntroduce the projectBilingualismMainstream School SettingComplementary School SettingPartnership workingPractical stepsAchievements, recognition and challengesNext stepsComments and questions

The Sheffield Context

The Sheffield Context

120 languages are spoken in Sheffield

24 linguistic communities

Arabic, Urdu, Bengali, Cantonese, Mandarin and Somali

Tigrigna and Dari

Languages Spoken in Sheffield SchoolsAfricaans Chichewa Gaelic Kannada Malayalam

Romanian Telegu

Akan Creole German Karen Maltese Russian Thai

Albanian Czech Georgian Katchi Mandang

Samaon Tigre

Amharic Dugbane Greek Kikuyu Mongolian

Serbian Tigrinya

Arabic Danish Guarani Kisi Nahuati Shona Tok Pisin

Armenian Dutch Gujarati Korean Ndebele

Sindhi Tswana

Azeri Ebira Hausa Krio Nepali Sinhala Tumbuka

Balochi Edo bini Hebrew Kurdish Norwegian

Slovak Turkish

Bemba Efik Hindi Lango Nzema Slovenian Umbundu

Bengali Esan Ishan Hindko Latvian Pahari

Somali Urdu Uruba

Berber Ewe Hungarian Lingala Panjabi

Spanish Urhobo

Bulgarian Fang Iban Lithuanian Pashto

Swahili Vietnamese

Burmese Finnish Igbo Luganda Persian

Swazi Visaya

Catalan French Italian Luo Polish

Swedish Welsh

Chaga Fula Japanese Lusoga Portuguese

Tagalog WolofYidish

Chechen Ga Javanese Malay Romani Tamil XhosaZulu

The “Our Languages Project”

www.ourlanguages.org.uk

Multi-agency project

Partnership working between mainstream and complementary schools

Paul Hamlyn Foundation

http://www.phf.org.uk/landing.asp?id=3

Bilingualism

Common MythsBilingualism is a barrier to learning

“Academic language proficiency transfer across language such that students who have developed in L1 will tend to make stronger

progress in acquiring literacy in L2”(Cummins, J 2000)

Forget your Mother Tongue

Bilingualism is socially divisive

“I am proud to speak Chinese but am sometimes bullied for that reason by

racist people in my school”

“Chinese helps me learn German and science”

The Mainstream sector

Why aren’t more mainstream schools accrediting home language?

Lack of AwarenessLimited Capacity

Lack of linguistic expertise

Why should the mainstream care?

The studentThe school

The community

The Complementary Sector

Complementary Schools

Lack of recognition/statusSometimes small and vulnerable

Work in isolationLack of resources/venue

Restricted access to training opportunities

Complementary SchoolsHave huge linguistic and cultural

knowledgeParticipation of families

Run and trusted by the community

“Complementary schools provide a reassuring environment or ‘safe space’ for multilingual practices…a

space that is generally lacking in other domains of contemporary British society”

(Li, Wei 2011)

Complementary Schools

“[Complementary] schools provide children from minority communities with dedicated and hard-working role models

from their own cultural backgrounds”(John Lyons Charity, Supplementary Schools: A new approach)

Collaborative Advantage

Collaborative Advantage

Mainstream Schools Students from many linguistic

communities

Complementary SchoolsStudents from many different mainstream

schools

Collaborative Advantage

HoLA combines the expertise of both sectors

We facilitate partnership working between both sectors

HoLA takes a strategic city-wide approach to provide practical support

Practical steps

Practical Steps

Consultation of stakeholdersBuilding replicable modelsTraining of mother tongue expertsIntensive language courses and mock examsFeedback, predicted grades and adviceCity-wide approach to oral exams

Practical Steps

Consultation of complementary school tutorsBespoke training programmeMentoring programmeTeaching and learning resourcesPaid employmentRecognition of linguistic expertise

Participation

Children’s University Credits, Certificates and Award CeremoniesWorking with languages that have no accreditationAdding to city-wide dataOutcomes Star

The HoLA Project so far…

517 students are having their language learning recognised and rewarded by the Children’s University

113 students last academic year supported by the HoLA Project gained a national accreditation in their home language (Arabic, Chinese (both Cantonese and Mandarin), Bengali, Dutch, Greek, Japanese, Persian, Portuguese, Russian and Urdu

12 Complementary schools are directly involved in HoLA, with many more being indirectly supported through the project

Recognition

Recognition

European Language Label 2012Mary Glasgow Trust Award 2012Association for Language Learning (ALL)Flagship project for PHFRequests for advice and support (regional and national)

Next steps

The HoLA Project – Next StepsContinuing to support accreditation on a larger scaleDevelopment of work with primariesImpact analysisNational disseminationCampaigning and lobbyingSharing what we have learned“My Language too please”

Challenges

Are we reaching the right students?

Lack of literacy

Measuring impact in a meaningful way

Summary

Any questions or comments?

ReferencesCummins, J (2000) Language, Power and Pedagogy. Bilingual Children in the Cross.re. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Li, Wei (2011): Multilinguality, Multimodality, Multicompetence: code and mode switching in minority ethnic children in complementary schoolsThe Modern Language Journal, Vol 95 10/2011 pp. 370-383

Blackledge, A (2001): Literacy, schooling andideology in a multilingual state, Curriculum Journal, 12:3, 291-312

For further informationClare Allison

HoLA Project ManagerKing Edward VII School

callison@kes.sheffield.sch.uk

Caroline NormanComplementary Schools Manager

Languages Sheffieldcaroline@languages-sheffield.org.uk

www.languages-sheffield.org.uk