The Power of Babel: Teaching and Learning in Multilingual Classrooms

Multilingual classrooms where two or three - or over ten - languages are spoken are now common throughout the English-speaking world, and most teachers will at some time find themselves working with learners of English as an additional language. Traditionally, the emphasis in schools has been exclusively on English but recently teachers have begun to understand the importance of a solid foundation in the first language for development in a second. They are also recognising that all members of the class - including monolingual English speakers - can benefit from the expertise of bilingual children as part of the language study requirements of the National Curriculum. "The power of Babel" describes initiatives for promoting linguistic and cultural diversity in the classroom. It brings together practical teaching suggestions, case studies of good practice and information resources, which have all been tried and tested by primary teachers attending in service courses on 'meeting the needs of bilingual learners' at the University of Reading. All the ideas developed here have proved effective in enhancing children's learning.