PPLI Primary Guidelines REVISED EDITION - Flipbook - Page 35
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Language and Languages in the Primary School Some guidelines for teachers by David Little and Déirdre Kirwan
2.4.3 Stage 3
Using an integrated plurilingual approach to support learning
Continue to make the translation of key words and phrases into Irish and EAL pupils’ HLs a regular feature of classroom
interaction. Write the translations on the whiteboard and have pupils write them in their copybooks. If EAL pupils do
not know how to spell the words and phrases they offer, get them to ask their parents to write them down so that they
can share them with the class the next day. The following activities have been used successfully in various classes:
•
Find the countries on the map where the MFL of the school is spoken, then make a list of the words and phrases
in the MFL that pupils already know. How and where did they learn them? What do they mean? Are there
similarities/differences between these words and words in English, Irish, and the HLs represented in the
classroom?
•
When there are several HLs in a classroom, ask pupils to share phrases commonly found in public places, e.g., pull
and push to open doors, mind the step, keep left/keep right. Make signs for the doors of the classroom, steps in
school, etc. Compare the different language versions to find similarities and differences. Ask pupils who travel
abroad on holidays to make a note of simple notices and share them with the class.
•
Clothes and weather: the teacher elicits from the class a list of the clothes worn in different countries and in
different seasons, using English, Irish and all the languages of the classroom.
•
On any topic the teacher can ask
questions in Irish that pupils
answer in English and/or their HL.
Answers given in HLs are
translated into English for the
benefit of classmates.
•
Discussion of the UN Convention
on the Rights of the Child leads
pupils to consider how they could
make newcomers feel welcome in
their class. This prompts them to
make a multilingual poster
advertising the school’s language
policy and showing newcomers
Figure 16: Millennium goals in English, Chinese, Yoruba, Tagalog, French, and Italian
that all languages are “at home” in
their classroom (Figure 16).
In a lesson on food, pupils discuss the ingredients required to make a particular dish, e.g. pasta, then make the dish
and taste it. Pupils then make a multilingual table listing the ingredients and summarizing the steps in cooking the
dish in English, Irish and all the HLs present in the class (Figure 17).
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