Tag: home language

09/04/2020

Heritage Language Teach Meet (virtual)

A virtual teach meet of heritage language teachers in Ireland

This teach meet brings together professionals involved in the teaching of complementary schools/Saturday or Sunday Schools, so those who teach heritage languages outside the formal education system in Ireland. The goal of this network is to support each other, share ideas and resources and to get inspired by the practice of others.
During the school closures due to Covid-19 these meetings will happen online and they will focus on delivering heritage language education via online channels.
A link to an online meeting will be sent to those who register for the event.

16/03/2020

It’s time to work on your mother tongue!

Boost your child's language skills during this forced isolation

Due to COVID-19, schools are closed, children are home! Why not spend this time working on boosting your child’s language skills! Mother Tongues founder Dr Francesca La Morgia has prepared a series of daily blog posts with tips, resources and ideas for bilingual children that you can use easily from the comfort of your home!

Sharing stories in your mother tongue

One of the main challenges to successful bilingualism is the lack of opportunities for the child to hear and use the language that is not spoken by the majority or in the school. Normal daily routines can be full of activities, and some parents struggle to find what I call “the special time” to be in conversation with the child, with no distraction, focused on a single activity in the parent’s language.

In some families this special time may be difficult to find if parents speak different languages and the common language is the country’s and the school language. For example, I am the only Italian speaker in my family, and our common language at home is English, so for me to create the special time focusing on a task with my children, with no interference from their dad, is to create a physical space where we focus on a game or a story and we only speak Italian.

Sharing stories has been my favourite tool for bonding with my children through my native language, and this is why I think this is the best topic to start this series of blog posts.

Stories are a strong communication tool

Storytelling and story reading are an incredible tool for promoting language and literacy but also for bonding through your language, and it is something that you can start from very early on.

The language used in books is different from spoken language. Think about the last dinner time conversation you had with your child… and now compare that with the last story you read to them. The words, sentences and themes of books are very different from those of our dinner time conversations, and for a child to truly experience language it is important that both day-to-day language and more complex literacy are acquired. In the case of bilingual children who are developing the parents’ language in a context where there aren’t many opportunities to use it, parents tend to over-simplify the language they use with their child. This is why reading is so important. Children can hear a storybook many times, and learn to patiently listen. Hearing a story several times helps children to learn new sounds and to spontaneously learn the meaning of new words.

Sharing a book can also involve talking to the child about the images, asking questions, doing role-play. This is extremely important for bilingual children, because talking about the story in the parent’s language helps to develop speaking skills. The physical book is an extremely useful object that can be used in very creative ways. You can start by describing what you see in the picture, pointing and asking the child to help you to build the story.

In some cases parents may struggle to find printed books in their mother tongue, and they may resort to tablets or mobile phones. WHO recommends to avoid or limit the time a child under 5 spends using screens, so I think that if you have the time and resources it is better to use images (you can print some from the web, you can use old photos or pick up images from a magazine) to tell your own story in your mother tongue. Sharing a story involves the parent taking an active role… yes, that means “doing voices”, acting sad or surprised… in general reacting and showing your own impression of the story. Children learn much more from personal interaction than from a story they watch for a few minutes on a mobile phone.

For older children this may take a different form. You might be able to co-write a story and read it to younger siblings, and you should ask them what kind of story they might like to hear (More ideas for older children will be in later posts!)

What’s your most embarrassing moment?

Sharing stories also means telling true stories or make up your own. Do you remember the last time you did something embarrassing? Do you have an old story from the town you grew up in? Do you remember a time when your own parents found themselves in a difficult situation and had to get out of trouble? How did they feel?

Depending on the child’s age you will need to adapt your story. My grandparents used to tell me war-time stories, my mother used to tell me stories about when she had a motorbike and she used to also make up stories with characters who were children my age. Years later I still remember most of those stories, and I am very thankful for the time people spent in my home to tell me stories of all kinds.

So, how are you going to achieve this? My view is that if there is a set routine or a set time in the day that you dedicate to storytelling, your child will quickly learn to adapt to this routine.

Parents who live outside of their country of origin may find it hard to source materials that suit the child’s age.

In Ireland you can borrow children’s books in many different languages, and they can be delivered to your local library (please note that libraries are currently closed until the end of March 2020). It is also worth asking your local embassy, cultural institute or library where to source books in your language.

More ideas please!

In contexts where it is hard to find a physical book, you can use one of these techinques:

– Record a story (most smartphones have an audio-recording device) and make your own playlist of stories that your child can listen to (in bed, or while playing).

– Get a family member or friend to record a story or read a short story. This might be a nice idea to give everyone a task during the times of “social isolation”. You and your child will appreciate this wonderful collection for years to come. Everyone has a story to tell, and these days technology allows us to easily send each other audio and video files.

– Llisten to audio-books or collection of stories on CD or MP3.

– Put on the radio in your language. Online radios are now available in hundreds of languages (including minority and endangered tribal languages!). Having the radio in the background is something easy that can create an environment of “immersion”. Some countries also have children’s radios, so browse the internet and you might discover something new and wonderful!

– Make finger puppets to bring your story to life (see video).
You can make finger puppets for yourself and for your child, and take turns in speaking, asking questions etc.
You can adapt this to the child’s age. Older children might be able to saw a full hand puppet.

Finally, a question I regularly get from parents is how to get the child to use the heritage language more. The answer varies from case to case, but to me one of the great secrets is using stories to get the conversation started. Telling a story the parent offers a model, showing the child how the language is spoken. The child learns to understand the language, the meaning of words etc, and needs to be given time to rehearse, make mistakes, try again and use the language as much as possible to become more and more comfortable with the language. This is why I advocate for regular storytelling in the heritage language. Given that this language usually has a smaller and smaller space in the child’s life as time goes on, using stories to discuss experiences, imagine scenario, talk about feelings is a great way to start the language journey together.

In this video you can see a demonstration of interactive storytelling that you can model in your own language.

Buon divertimento!

Dr Francesca La Morgia
Founder of Mother Tongues

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30/11/2019

Great news for heritage language schools in Ireland!

The second conference on heritage language education in Ireland hosted by Mother Tongues took place on 2nd November 2019 in the Teachers’ Club.

It was a very inspiring event, filled with informative talks and presentations of projects as well as hands-on workshops on teaching techniques. We hosted over 60 teachers and representatives of complementary schools based in Ireland. Some of the languages of the attendees included Lithuanian, Polish, Tamil, Dutch, Mandarin Chinese, Croatian, Russian, Portuguese, Italian and French.

This conference, now in its second year, provides the opportunity for teachers to network, share experiences and upskill. Teaching heritage languages requires an incredible amount of dedication and creativity, as it consists of teaching language and literacy skills to children who often already have fluency in the language because they use it at home. It is different from teaching a first language, and it is different from teaching a second language, too! The real challenge that all teachers share lies in the diversity of skills of the students. In addition, children attend these classes outside of normal school hours, and teachers need to keep them motivated and passionate about the “extra work” required to develop strong literacy skills in the heritage language. Most of the teachers working at the weekend to support heritage languages do so because they love teaching and they are keen to children link to their heritage through language. Many of them teach on a voluntary basis and do so out of passion for their language and for children.

The second conference on heritage language education in Ireland hosted by Mother Tongues

At Mother Tongues we know that heritage language teachers need ongoing support, so we have introduced a membership scheme which allows teachers to participate in three professional development sessions throughout the year. By becoming members of the heritage language schools network, teachers and schools join a group of like-minded people who are keen to network, upskill and share ideas and resources for heritage language teaching.
All information about this new initiative you can visit mothertongues.ie/for-heritage-language-schools

Find out more

31/08/2019

Three key tips to keep your mother tongue alive after the Summer holidays

For many families, Summer is the time for giving their home language a boost. Children are out of school and often the Summer is the time to spend with the extended family, in Ireland or abroad. Many parents see a significant improvement in their children’s language skills after they spend time immersed in the heritage language both in Ireland and abroad.
It’s now time to go back to school and to the usual routines. So how can parents continue to support the development of the heritage language with the limited time and resources available?
Here are three key tips I have collected from parents over the years:

Keep speaking your mother tongue to your child as often as possible, even if it seems easier to switch to English.

For many parents it is easy to speak their own mother tongue when they are on holidays in their country of origin and they have many people to talk to, but they may find it more difficult to keep it up if they are in Ireland surrounded by English speakers. Remind yourself that it is important to continue practising oral language skills and even if your child responds in English, being exposed to your language will keep the language active in the child’s mind and alive in your home.
Read books and tell bedtime stories in your mother tongue.

Reading is a fun activity that you can share with your child. To find free books in your language, try to search the library catalogue here. Enter a keyword such as “picture books” and select the language of choice. The book can be ordered online and sent for free to your local library, anywhere in Ireland.
You can try out different techniques to make reading together enjoyable for both of you. For parents who have small amounts of time to spend with their children, reading together and telling each other stories can be a wonderful opportunity to bond. Remove all distractions and get stuck into it!
To make the most of reading to your child in your mother tongue, ask questions and encourage your child to interact with the book. This will help the child’s ability to understand the story and to learn new words. Ask younger children to point and give them easy tasks to interact with the book. Older children (primary school age) also like it when the parents read books or tell stories to them. Audiobooks are great too, but the great advantage of sharing a book is the possibility to ask questions and learn new words together, and this is great for the child’s oral language skills.
Find your tribe

“Home languages” are called so because often their use is confined to the home. But it doesn’t have to be so! It is important for children to use language with a range of people to develop competence but also to see that it is useful and enjoyable. Children also get a great confidence boost when they see that there are many other people in Ireland who speak the same language as their parents. If you want to meet families who can help you on the journey to bilingualism Mother Tongues can help you. Our initiative Talk to me in… has only started in early 2019, but many families have already taken part in these informal meetups in Croatian, Swedish, Italian, German and French. To organise a Talk to me in… just choose a place and a time and send them via our contact form. We advertise the meet up for you, so you can “find your tribe” in your local area.

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