Page 11 - ELG2312 Dec Issue 487

FEATURE

the properties of 2D shapes in one language, translations of key words during reading curriculum understanding that will serve
they do not need to re-learn those relatively activities. This is especially helpful for them well in whatever language becomes their
abstract concepts in the other language, just children with a strong L1. most frequent medium of communication in
the labels – side, angle, apex – that we use to Another promising approach involves later life.
talk about them. encouraging children to compare linguistic Teachers in other school-types should not
Language learning is not merely about conventions between the target language be afraid to bring the L1s of their students
collecting words, but also about developing and the L1. For example, in French the into the classroom. Providing L1 resources
the conceptual understanding of what those noun comes before an adjective, in English such as word lists, and encouraging meta-
words mean. It makes intuitive sense that it comes after. This seems most effective linguistic understanding through language
providing opportunities to do this in both when conventions differ; where the act of comparison exercises is likely to help those
languages (especially if one is stronger than comparison makes these differences more children with strong L1 backgrounds.
the other) opens up more routes to securing salient and thus better remembered. Encouraging children to discuss their learning
that understanding. An approach that seems not to make a in whatever language they are most proficient
This understanding of how the bilingual difference either way is to encourage children in seems likely to reduce cognitive load.
brain handles different languages, and the who share an L1 to discuss their work in that In all cases, a welcoming attitude towards
positive findings from evaluations of bilingual language in preparation for a task where only the L1 can act as a marker that the school
schools, has naturally led teachers and the target language is used. Here the L1 is recognises and values the multilingualism
researchers to consider how this might be thought to support the process of engaging of its students and the role it plays in the
translated into the context of non-bilingual in educational tasks, freeing up cognitive linguistically diverse world that they are
schools. resources to concentrate on the products of growing up in.
Research into how the L1 might be those tasks. Ultimately, the implications of the
brought to bear on the education of emerging evidence on L1 use in target-language-only
multilinguals in such contexts is less clear. schools vary by context. However, we can say Hamish Chalmers is a
Much research has focused on how children with some confidence that it can be helpful lecturer in applied linguistics
feel about using their L1s in target-language and is very rarely detrimental. and second language
schools, rather than on objective measures of It is my personal view that English acquisition at the University
linguistics or curriculum development. medium schools, in which the student body of Oxford. Before that,
The small body of research that does focus is largely or entirely made up of speakers of
on the latter suggests sometimes it can help the same L1, should consider developing he was a primary school
and sometimes it does not make much of fully bilingual programmes. The evidence is teacher and Director of
a difference. For example, one approach clear that children leave these schools with English as an Additional Language at a large
that appears to be helpful is providing L1 well-developed multilingualism and good international school in Bangkok, Thailand.

Melanie’s tips:

How to use L1 in the classroom…

1. Word lists
Rather than giving older students in a multilingual classroom an
already translated word list, you can provide them with a list of
English words they will need in the next lesson, alongside an example
sentence. Ask them to come back to class with an L1 translation of
both the word and of the example sentence.
Why use an example? Because words – especially colloquial rather
than academic or technical ones – often have more than one meaning
and may have more than one translation in another language, or even
none at all.
Take the verb ‘to pack’; its translation is a problem in all Latin
languages but particularly in French, a language which shares up to
56% of its vocabulary with English. For the noun ‘packing’ Google
translate gives you the French word ‘emballage’, or ‘wrapping’.
The French ‘put’ their shoes in a suitcase but ‘wrap’ them into a box.
As for packing a football stadium, they ‘fill it until it cracks’.
By asking students to translate the example sentence alongside the
key word, you can train them to think carefully about what an English
word means in a particular context and not to just grab the first entry
in their bilingual dictionary.

2. Linguistic conventions
Collocation is a seemingly universal convention, but learners often fail to How to get your students to notice these things? When doing a class
notice collocational differences. This even happens with fixed phrases. on collocations – or even when introducing one or two – put each
From the age of six, I knew the English phrase ‘nothing to do with’ key word along with any of its collocations you are teaching on the
became ‘nothing to see with’ in my L2 (French). But it took me 40 years board with an example sentence. Then, get the students to give you
to notice that in my L3 (Spanish) it became ‘nothing that see with’. Nor a literal translation in English for all the sentences. Put all those that
was it till I started writing this tip that I noticed that Nada (nothing)+ are completely different to the English version up for students to see;
que (that)+ verb is a consistent pattern in the Spanish language. a celebration of multilingualism!
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