Multilingual families sometimes worry about language mixing. Is it a problem?
Dr. Shana Poplack, founding director of the Sociolinguistics Laboratory at the University of Ottawa, suggests not. In a fascinating article for the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, she shares conclusions from her research that shatter many common myths about this topic. For example, mixing languages isn’t detrimental to linguistic structure!
Dr. Poplack’s conclusions matter because, as she notes, language mixing is often stigmatized — “considered to display laziness and ignorance, when not blamed for the deterioration or even demise of one or all of the languages involved.”
Have you discovered that language mixing can be a 楽しい part of learning and life? If so, mix it up!
The word translanguaging comes from the Welsh trawsiethu and refers to using more than one language for teaching and learning. ISB’s multilingual student body stands to benefit from translanguaging, so educators have been exploring it at several recent professional days.
Faculty study translanguaging at the All Staff Professional Day on November 15, 2019.
How might translanguaging look in an ISB classroom? This video by consultant Eowyn Crisfield offers a glimpse.
Crisfield has also published a journal article about translanguaging in international schools.
Being bilingual or multilingual confers many benefits, from cultural connections to academic opportunities. In addition, research shows that it fortifies the brain, boosting grey-matter volume and white-matter integrity in areas affecting executive function: humans’ ability to control their behavior.
The cognitive benefits of bilingualism are still being studied, fuelling a debate to be featured in the Annual Review of Linguistics January 2019 issue (volume 5). Meanwhile, contributor Mark Antoniou, psycholinguist at the MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, describes what IS known in this interview at Knowable Magazine. Worth a read!
Image: Results from a study measuring gray-matter volumes in bilingual or monolingual undergraduates, discussed by Mark Antoniou at Knowable Magazine, 29 November 2018.
IB World magazine investigates the ways in which IB World Schools have integrated a successful Mother Tongue (MT) programme, and offers tips to help schools set up their own
This link kindly sent to us from our Head of Learning: Graeme Scott
