Students begin reading and writing the official school language. When they have learned to read and write their MT and when they are able to understand and use the official school language for“ everyday” communication, students are ready to begin reading and writing in that language. Teachers help students learn the official language alphabet and the sounds associated with each letter. They encourage students to think about the way they learned to read and write their MT and apply that knowledge to reading and writing their new language. Teachers, education officials and especially parents are happy when they see how quickly students gain literacy skills in the official school language when teachers follow this process.
Pwo Karen G2 student’ s story in Thai, the official school language.( Thailand) and Pakari G2 boy writing a story in Sindhi, his second school language( Sindh Province, Pakistan).
© Foundation for Applied Linguistics, Thailand and and © Sindh Literacy and Development Programme, Pakistan
MTB MLE RESOURCE KIT Including the Excluded: Promoting Multilingual Education
Students learn additional languages as required in the curriculum. Students in many MTB MLE programmes learn three or more languages by the end of primary school. The process for learning each new language follows the same basic steps described above for learning the official school language.
Using languages for instruction in MTB MLE programmes
MTB MLE teachers also follow a step-by-step approach to using languages for instruction in primary school.
Teachers use only the students’ MT for instruction in early grades( pre-primary and / or Grade 1, at least to the end of Grade 2). Since they already know their MT, teachers use that as the language of instruction for math, science and social studies. Having learned to read and write their MT in early grades, MTB MLE students have a good foundation for learning to read and write the official school language, once they have developed a basic oral vocabulary in that language.
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