Linguistic Diversity - Frequently Asked Questions
Why is there the need to cater for linguistic diversity?
Because it provides opportunities for children to develop their language potential to the fullest:
- in a language in which they have some background,
- in a language they have acquired as a second language,
- or by acquiring a third or additional language.
In what way?
- Through language sharing: those with less background can hear the language being used in a natural way;
- those with more background can feel good about their language;
- both groups have the opportunities to communicate with each other in the language.
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What types of language backgrounds do we find in classrooms?
A typical language classroom will include students with many different backgrounds in the language. The following table shows the diversity of backgrounds in our study.
| Students in Language classrooms may have ... | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| (a) | a home background + overseas experience of formal education in the LOTE | (b) | a passive home background - the student can comprehend the LOTE but speaking skills are not developed |
| (c) | an active home background (the student can comprehend and speak the language quite well) + some forma instruction in the LOTE | (d) | no home background but formal instruction in the LOTE |
| (e) | an active home background + no formal instruction in the LOTE | (f) | the student may be an L3 learner |
| (g) | an active home background in a 'dialect' of the language + with/without formal instruction in the LOTE | (h) | a passive home background in a 'dialect' of the language + no formal instruction in the LOTE |
| (i) | a weak active home background + no formal instruction in the LOTE | (j) | no home background + no formal instruction in the LOTE |