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Alternative Education - Minority Groups Increasingly schools in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland are becoming multi-national and many of our pupils are beginning school without English being their first language. In N. Ireland the Education and Library Boards all have officers appointed to deal with the needs of those learning English as a Second Language. You should contact them for their help. Cultural awareness It is important to be aware of cultural differences when working with children and parents. e.g. it is suggested that in Chinese culture teachers have very high status and parents are more likely to likely to agree with everything that is suggested to them. In Muslim families it may be more likely to have the father attend meetings with the teachers. Teaching Ideas Pupils who have little or no English will need time but will be absorbing spoken language long before they are ready to attempt any. So try using signs, symbols and some organised sessions with a couple of other pupils e.g. playing simple boardgames, Other games might include"Guess Who" and mirroring the speech pupil needed etc. In the early days work could be based round colours, action words - he is running etc, naming objects in schoolbag, naming places and school objects and of course sport. Find an interest which is prevalent in the pupil's culture. Footballs and bikes are very popular in Thailand. You may find that using Widget software is useful - it automatically prints Wordshark is another useful program with lots of pictures to help with words and pupils can explore for themselves repeating the words which they discover. There are likely to be many occasions when letters are required to be sent home. This could be problematic if the parents also have difficulties with English. There are some useful websites which may be of help with translating the more common type of letters, e.g. Welcome letters. www.dgteaz.org.uk There is also a free translator which is reasonably accurate at www.worldlingo.com/en/products_services/worldlingo_translator.html Clicker has produced a set of electronic stories presented in English and an alternate language (including British sign language and symbols) http://www.cricksoft.com/uk/ideas/teaching_eal/hounslow.htm Some interesting (and free!) resources useful for young children and those for whom English is a second language are available at one stop english website. A site for adults and older learners which offers some very useful ideas is http://Englishclub.com Further Information http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/literacy/publications/inclusion/63381/ http://www.practicalchildcare.com/coursedetails/2-14.pdf (Details of a course in Dublin for teachers of young children) http://www.sip.ie/sip069/Documents/englishsecondlanguage.html Raising Achievement of Bilingual Learners (powerpoint presentation)(must be ordered for downloading)
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