PPLI Primary Guidelines REVISED EDITION - Flipbook - Page 45
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Language and Languages in the Primary School Some guidelines for teachers by David Little and Déirdre Kirwan
It is a good idea to have regular discussions about language learning. In stage 4 pupils might be presented with a short
newspaper report in a language they don’t know but on a topic they are already familiar with, e.g. a sporting event.
The teacher reads the report aloud and writes key words and phrases on the whiteboard. Discovering that they can
draw on the languages they know to work out the meaning of these new words and phrases, and thus understand
the general gist of the report, provides a boost to pupils’ confidence in their linguistic ability; it also invites further
discussion of what is involved in learning a new language.
When two HLs are closely related, speakers of those languages can create a role play by way of illustration. Senior pupils
can also carry out a survey of their classmates to discover, for example, whether the adjective comes before or after
the noun in the languages present in the class.
Developing plurilingual literacy
In Fifth and Sixth Class creative writing in multiple languages undergoes further development. The increasing
sophistication of pupils’ language skills is reflected in their interest in writing, the expressive quality and length of the
texts they produce, their choice of language(s) in which to write, the way in which they bring all their linguistic
knowledge to bear on their writing, and the support this knowledge provides for their further language development.
The texts they write are informed by all aspects of the curriculum and by the innovative ways in which, with support
from their teachers, they present those topics. Pupils who have been used to writing parallel texts in English, Irish and
(in the case of EAL pupils) their HL, will be excited to include the MFL in their plurilingual text production (Figure 29).
Here are some more plurilingual activities that have
proved successful:
•
Description of the weather from the four points of
the compass of whatever country is in focus can be
written in all the languages the pupils know – In the
north it is cold can be written in English, Irish, HLs, the
MFL and any other languages the pupils know;
similarly for south, east and west (Figure 30)
•
Descriptions of pupils’ homes or their ideal house
can be written in as many languages as possible
(Figure 31)
•
Pupils can keep a diary of Christmas, Eid and other
celebrations in multiple languages and can design
multilingual greetings cards for their teacher and
peers.
Figure 29: A letter written in English using as many French (MFL) words as
possible (Sixth Class)
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