As noted, these are only a few of the many challenges to MTB MLE. The good news is that people involved in MTB MLE programmes have identified strategies to overcome the challenges, even in difficult situations. As you read this booklet and others in this MTB MLE Resource Kit, you will learn about some of the creative ways that policy makers are working with programme implementers and community members to develop and sustain strong and successful MTB MLE programmes.
Q3
How does MTB MLE help minority language children achieve a quality education?
When children begin their formal education, they bring with them the language, knowledge and skills that they have learned from parents and others in their home and community. All of these are essential resources for helping them to achieve success in school.
Students in“ mainstream” schools who use the official school language at home can learn to read and write in that language because they already understand it. MTB MLE students, who do not hear the official language at home, learn to read and write in their MT— the language they know best. As they gain confidence in reading and writing their MT and have achieved a basic level of oral fluency in the official school language, they are ready to begin reading and writing that language. As noted in the introduction to this booklet, there is no longer any argument among researchers regarding the benefits of bilingual and multilingual education. MTB MLE students who achieve fluency in reading and writing their MT are prepared— and have the confidence— to transfer their literacy skills to additional languages.
Language education in well-planned six-to-eight year MTB MLE programmes( ideally one or two years of pre-primary and six years of primary school) follows a step-by-step process. This process is based on the principle that underlies all good education: We learn best when we can use what we already know to help us understand what is new. Because MTB MLE students know their MT when they begin school, it is their foundation for learning other languages. MTB MLE students may take longer than mainstream students to achieve fluency in reading and writing the official school language, but they achieve success because they understand.
The step-by-step diagram below displays the essential features of language education in successful MTB MLE programmes. As noted above, students continue learning and using their MT throughout primary school as they also learn other languages. The diagram( starting at the bottom step) thus includes MT as subject and as language of instruction from the first year( pre-primary or Grade 1) to the last year of primary school.
Booklet for Policy Makers
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