LC Language Adventures 2024 (A5) - Flipbook - Page 5
Language Adventures: Embracing Languages and Cultures in Primary School
Section 1
A whole-school approach
1.1 Reflection
To reflect effectively on your own school context, you might find it useful to
consider the prompts below…
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How would you describe your own ‘linguistic identity’?
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What do you know about the linguistic backgrounds of your pupils?
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Are pupils in your school encouraged to express their cultural identities and
to use different languages?
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Do you notice a sense of pride when pupils express themselves in other
languages?
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Do you experience pupils’ interest and/or curiosity to learn about different
cultures?
1.2 Rationale and supporting pedagogies
Identity is shaped by the environments that people grow up in and their social
interactions. From birth, children learn through gestures, intonations, and
expressions in interaction and also by observing and imitating. Due to the
inextricable connection between language and culture, as Professor David Little
describes, a child’s home language is the “default medium of her self-concept,
her self-awareness, her consciousness, her discursive thinking and her agency.
It is thus the cognitive tool that she cannot help but apply to formal learning,
which includes mastering the language of schooling” (Little, 2014). In today’s
multi-cultural and multi-lingual societies, children hear, see and use multiple
languages, and each of these languages carries the clues and values of a
multitude of cultures. In the Irish context, Irish, English, and in many cases
additional languages are the home languages around which children develop
their identities. We all make different associations with the languages in our lives.
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