Teachers use the MT to support the official school language in Grade 6 or the final year of the programme. Grade 6 teachers use the official school language with support from the MT following these steps:
1. Use the official school language carefully to introduce 1-3 new academic terms and tell students to listen for the terms and think about how they are used in the lesson.
2. Introduce the new concept, using language that challenges the students but does not stop them from understanding what they need to learn. Emphasize the new academic terms(# 1, above) and ensure that students understand and can use the terms correctly.
3. Assign team activities and encourage students to use the official language as they talk together about what they have learned and help each other.
4. To conclude the lesson, ask questions in the MT to check for comprehension.
An essential feature of MTB MLE— and one of the reasons why MTB MLE students succeed in school— is that curriculum writers and teachers recognize the difference between concept learning and language learning in early and mid-primary grades. When students are just beginning to learn the official school language, teachers keep these two kinds of learning separate. As students build confidence in using the official school language in middle primary, teachers begin to bring the two processes together. By the end of primary school, students should be prepared to continue building fluency in the official school language as they use it to learn new concepts.
MTB MLE RESOURCE KIT Including the Excluded: Promoting Multilingual Education
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