Pupil “without a first language”?

[J Orme]

Please could I tap your collective expertise on a question raised locally?

A school has a Y2 pupil whose parents have, apparently, placed a low ceiling on her English language acquisition by only speaking English to her at home (they are not proficient English speakers themselves). The child has been exposed to the home language through its use between the parents, but has never been directly required to use or understand it.

The pupil is making slow progress at school and the parents are simultaneously lamenting that their relationship with their daughter is struggling and they feel they don’t understand each other. The child considers herself English and (apparently) does not identify with the home language or culture at all.

In seeking to advise the school/family I would be glad of your own views and similar experiences. My own view is that it is not too late to shift to L1 use at home (it is likely that the pupil understands more than is presumed, even presumed by herself) and that Speech & Language referral/ Talk Boost type interventions may be important in helping her to catch up in English language acquisition.

Look forward to reading your own views, with thanks in advance.

James

[Stuart Scott]

I have to admit that I came across this situation many years ago but sorry to find it appearing again. My advice was and is still that it is never too late to use first language but always more difficult the later you leave it. I imagine the parents still use first language(s) together. The child is likely to have picked up a lot already and as we always argue fluency in language one sustains fluency in language two or three.

Best wishes,

Stuart

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[Griffin, Melanie]

Hi James and Stuart,

 

I agree, it’s not too late to refocus on using the family’s first language as the main language at home. It sounds as if a strong focus on language development in both languages is needed, as you say, James. This should be accompanied by extensive use of suitable scaffolding for access to the curriculum so that the child does not fall further behind in concept development as a result of not having the language to fully grasp the concepts.

Clear messages (through curriculum and ethos) by the school to make a range of cultural heritages part of everyday life and learning would also support the child in feeling that she doesn’t have to choose between being ‘English’ and her heritage culture: she can be both and more.

 

Hope you have a successful outcome for this child and family. As Stuart says, it’s an issue that arises every so often – even now! – and it’s always sad to see.

 

Best wishes,

 

Melanie

 

 

Melanie Griffin BA (Hons), PGCE, PgDip, M.Ed., FCCT

Director, NASSEA

 

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[Diane Leedham]

Although I am in broad agreement with everything Stuart and Melanie have said, in my experience these matters are best explored respectfully with families in relation to their individual contexts and preferences.  

Two examples to illustrate 

1. A young Kashmiri woman whose first language was primarily Hindi, by state imposition, resisted any further use of that language once she was in England. I remember this vividly because I met her as an adult and mentioned how sad substractive bilingualism was. She challenged me and said that for her it was liberation from oppression. She also said that language of her village was spoken by so few people in the world that there were challenges keeping that going in Britain in any way that enacted ‘first language’. 

2. In some relationships, family life is conducted in English as a lingua franca because the parents only have English in common. Of course they can (perhaps should) be encouraged to both speak their own L1 to the children simultaneously. But this can have consequences too. Some parents find it very difficult to cope with communications in the home that they do not understand. I have worked with families in which the father (it does seem to most often be fathers) forbade the mother’s L1 because it made him feel undermined. This doesn’t change the need for L1 advocacy in that scenario but such advocacy wouId be unlikely to be successful without relationship building and support. 

My point is simply that whatever cognitive, cultural  and socio-emotional best practice is deemed to be, there’s still individual agency and the complexity of real lives to navigate. Including being frightened to use a language other than English in the shops and on the bus which is currently a very realistic thing to be afraid of. 

Di 

On 15 Jun 2022, at 11:18, Griffin, Melanie <M.Gr...@bury.gov.uk> wrote:



Hi James and Stuart,

 

I agree, it’s not too late to refocus on using the family’s first language as the main language at home. It sounds as if a strong focus on language development in both languages is needed, as you say, James. This should be accompanied by extensive use of suitable scaffolding for access to the curriculum so that the child does not fall further behind in concept development as a result of not having the language to fully grasp the concepts.

Clear messages (through curriculum and ethos) by the school to make a range of cultural heritages part of everyday life and learning would also support the child in feeling that she doesn’t have to choose between being ‘English’ and her heritage culture: she can be both and more.

 

Hope you have a successful outcome for this child and family. As Stuart says, it’s an issue that arises every so often – even now! – and it’s always sad to see.

 

Best wishes,

 

Melanie

 

 

Melanie Griffin BA (Hons), PGCE, PgDip, M.Ed., FCCT

Director, NASSEA

 

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/eal-bilingual/LO2P265MB5773F1CFF56144529577169EBEAD9%40LO2P265MB5773.GBRP265.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM.