The role of linguistically sensitive education in shaping cultural sensitivity.

THE ROLE OF LINGUISTICALLY SENSITIVE
EDUCATION IN SHAPING CULTURAL SENSITIVITY
DR. KARIN MARTIN
SIETAR EUROPA CONGRESS 2017

INTRODUCTION
INFO@KARINMARTIN-LINGUIST.COM - WWW.KARINMARTIN-LINGUIST.COM - FB: @MULTILINGUAL.GARDEN
▪About me
▪My goal for today
▪About you
2

INFO@KARINMARTIN-LINGUIST.COM -
WWW.KARINMARTIN-LINGUIST.COM -
FB: @MULTILINGUAL.GARDEN
3

INTRODUCTION
▪About me
▪My goal for today
▪About you:
▪Do you consider yourself bilingual / multilingual ?
▪What’s your definition of bilingualism?
4

THE PROBLEM
The GAP between research and school practice / family practice
▪Myths & prejudices
▪Bilinguals = two monolinguals in the same person
▪Children are like sponges
▪Language mixing as a sign of confusion
▪They affect our behaviour / practices / decisions
▪„You should stop speaking your mother tongue!“
▪Long-term consequences
INFO@KARINMARTIN-LINGUIST.COM - WWW.KARINMARTIN-LINGUIST.COM - FB: @MULTILINGUAL.GARDEN 5

„THE MONOLINGUAL VIEW OF BILINGUALISM“
The story of Elisabeth and Ahmad…
Prejudice about bilingualism:
Some languages are not worth
learning
6

ELITE VS. FOLK BILINGUALISM
Bilingual by choice
Living abroad for
business/education
Well-educated
Access to good jobs
Languages of established
power and prestige
Not bilingual by choice
Feel the need to be bilingual (in order
to survive)
Difficult socioeconomic and cultural
environment
«Guest workers» / Refugees / Asylum
seekers
Languages with no prestige or not
officially recognized

LONG-TERM CONSEQUENCES…
▪No connection with members of the family
▪Missed chance / less opportunities
▪A waste of resources

THE SOLUTION
Awareness at all level of society,
not only in the school context!
9

BASIC STATEMENTS…
▪The amount of formal schooling in the first language is a
stronger predictor than the socioeconomic status of how
rapidly students will catch up in the second language
(Collier & Thomas 1997).
▪To reject a child’s language in the school is to reject the
child (Cummins 2001).
▪The maintenance of the first language is strongly
influenced by the linguistic habits and beliefs of the family
(Tannenbaum 2005).

THE SOLUTION: AN EXAMPLE FROM ISC
▪Analysis /Goals
▪To promote Additive Bilingualism instead of Subtractive Bilingualism
▪Professional Development Teacher Training
▪Language acquisition and language support
▪Bilingual language development
▪Second language learning
▪The importance of the mother tongue
▪Literacy and biliteracy
▪Multilingual Development and Third Culture Kids
▪Parents’ events
▪Survey / Results

Bilingual Development
80%
no
20%
yes
new for me
not new
75%
no
25%
yes
no
yes
Relationship between
first and second
language
80%
no
20%
yes
new for me
not new
Mother Tongue
THE SURVEY…
12

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS
▪The school staff (not only teachers!) need to be informed
about the latest research on the topic of multilingual language
development;
▪They need help in creating a multilingual environment and in
fostering students’ mother tongues;
▪They need to implement a curriculum that has a truly
international perspective and a pedagogical approach that
develops an open attitude to other cultures;
▪ISC
▪Mother tongue lessons
▪Language clubs

TO CONCLUDE…
▪Some people move/emigrate by choice – Others because
they have no choice
▪The first barrier is the language
▪Language as a mean
▪Language as a way to express yourself and your culture
▪Language as a resource for the individual and for the
society
▪Common goal: to make this world more tolerant, based on
respect and dialogue among populations  Let‘s start by
celebrating linguistic diversity!

THANK YOU!
“…integration is achieved more effectively when a
person’s own background is valued, since conflicts
and division arise not out of difference, but rather
out of denial of the right and opportunity to be
different (Smolicz, 1981)”.

MAIN REFERENCES
Bialystok, E. (2001). Bilingualism in development: Language, literacy, and cognition. In
Ed. Bialystok E., Bilingualism in development: Language, literacy, and cognition (pp. 1-
300). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Cooper, R. L. (1989). Language planning and social change. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press. Cited in Guillemin D. at al. (2015). Multilingualism and literacy –
attitudes and policies. Routledge.
Daryai-Hansen, P. G. et al. (2015). Pluralistic Approaches to Languages in the
Curriculum: The Case of French-speaking Switzerland, Spain and Austria.
International Journal of Multilingualism, VOL. 12, No. 1, 109-127.
Smolicz, J. J. (1981). Culture, ethnicity and education: Multiculturalism in a plural
society. In: Megarry, J. et al. Eds., World Year Book of Education, 17-36. London:
Kogan Page.

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