PPLI Primary Guidelines - Flipbook - Page 15
Language and Languages in the Primary School Some guidelines for teachers by David Little and Déirdre Kirwan
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of the classroom immigrant languages and the action knowledge they embody. Again, however, it is important not to
fall into the trap of cultural essentialism. Some 200 languages are spoken in Ireland today, and the adult speakers of
those languages have brought with them great diversity of cultural experience, practice, attitudes and beliefs. But the
extent to which the children of immigrants share in their parents’ cultural heritage varies greatly. Some children
regularly visit their parents’ country of origin, perhaps spending their summer holidays with grandparents and
participating in the life of the extended family and local community; they become pluricultural in the Council of
Europe’s sense. Other children have no more contact with their parents’ culture of origin than the parents themselves
can provide by teaching them traditional songs and stories and sharing reminiscences.
The dialogic and exploratory talk that mediates between school knowledge and pupils’ action knowledge allows pupils
to contribute fragments of their home cultures to the ever-expanding knowledge of the class. Some of those fragments
will be broadly familiar to many pupils, while others are startlingly different; in many cases difference will be linguistic
as well as cultural. But the adoption of the plurilingual approach advocated by the Primary Language Curriculum and
explained in these guidelines should help pupils to accept novelty and difference with interest and respect, welcoming
all forms of diversity for the enrichment they bring.
Delivering
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