1. The Importance of Mother-
Tongue Development in
International Education
Beatrice Morales-Bocksch and Anja Junginger
presented on May the 19th 2010 to visiting teachers

2. Research that led us to reflect on how we
teach
The importance of mother tongue
development in international schools
International-mindedness and the “whole
child” as a foundation for what we do
Our MT Program at ISS

3. International-mindedness
What does international-
mindedness mean to you?
What are you doing in your
classroom to promote
international-mindedness?
What does it “look” or “sound” like?
Do the quadrant brainstorm and discuss in your
groups.

4. Step 1: Becoming Aware
The Research
The research on children‘s language learning is powerful
in its message for us.
Murphy: "What good is the best possible philosophy and
curriculum if they are a closed book to many of our
pupils?...We have a moral commitment to (develop) an
educational program that has little or no harmful side-effects
to our pupils...especially in the early years program where
children are still in the process of learning their mother tongue."
Cummins: "To reject a child's language in the school is to reject
the child. When the message, implicit or explicit,
communicated to children in the school is "Leave your
language and culture at the schoolhouse door", children also
leave a central part of who they are-their identities-at the
schoolhouse door."

5. What if we don‘t pay attention?
Potential consequences of a substractive
program (MT is replaced by English):
✘Loss of their mother-tongue, their „thinking“
language
✘Loss of identity and self-esteem
✘Loss of access to the mainstream curriculum

6. • Thomas/Collier: “When children continue to develop their
abilities in two or more languages…..they gain a deeper
understanding of language and how to use it effectively.
They have more practice in processing language,
especially when they develop literacy in both and they are
able to compare and contrast the ways in which their two
languages organize reality.”
• Baker: “Mother tongue promotion in the school helps
develop not only the mother tongue but also children's
abilities in the majority school language. Spending
instructional time through minority language in the school
does not hurt children's academic development in the
majority school language.”

7. Step 1: Becoming Aware
Our populations
•The population of our students has changed since
our schools were founded. This is a current
phenomenon in international schools as mobility is
increasing and as host country nationals are
increasingly looking for alternatives and
opportunities for bi/multilingualism.
•It is not uncommon for more than 60% of our
students to not speak English as their mother
tongue, but rather to be learning it as a new
language and learning through it.

8. Step 2: Understanding
It is precisely this population of English
Language Learners who make our schools
places full of rich diversity and who are the
majority of our learners. This diversity should
lead to international-mindedness and
benefit all students when fostered in a
particular way.

9. Realizing the Facts!
• We are all EAL teachers because we
all teach students whose mother
tongue is not English.
• How we teach them is strongely
connected to our beliefs, our vision,
our mission, and our awareness of
potential issues concerning how
these students can best learn.

10. • Research shows that what counts is
not just the quantity (total immersion in
English) but the quality of exposure.
Second-language input must be
comprehensible to promote second-
language acquisition (Krashen 1996).
EAL , mainstream and mother tongue
lessons contribute to this kind of input.

11. What does international-mindedness
mean to us for language learning?
• There is an ethos of acceptance, no
matter where we are from. Everyone‘s
language and background is of equal
value.
• That while English may be the common
medium for education, no one language
is seen as being more important than
another and we must make this visible.

12. Step 4: What is expected of us as
a PYP/IB School?
• The school encourages student learning that
strengthens the student’s own cultural identity,
and celebrates and fosters understanding of
different cultures.
• The school actively supports the development
of the mother-tongue language of all students.
IBO Standards and Practices

13. The Whole Child

14. “Pre-existing knowledge for English language
learners is encoded in their home languages.
Consequently, education should explicitly
teach in a way that fosters transfer of
concepts and skills from the student’s home
language to English. Research clearly shows
the potential for this kind of cross-language
transfer in school contexts that support
biliteracy development.”
-Cummins 2001;Reyes 2001
Learning is all about Making
Connections!
Cross Language Transfer
Learning is all about Making
Connections!
Cross Language Transfer

15. Surface structures
CONCEPTS
„The Curriculum“
Mother TongueEnglish
How does supporting the
Mother Tongue help
children to access the
curriculum?

16. ““When students take ownership of theirWhen students take ownership of their
learning-when they invest theirlearning-when they invest their
identities in learning outcomes –identities in learning outcomes –
active learning takesactive learning takes
place….”Knowledge is more thanplace….”Knowledge is more than
just the ability to remember. Deeperjust the ability to remember. Deeper
levels of understanding enablelevels of understanding enable
students to transfer knowledge fromstudents to transfer knowledge from
one context to another…”one context to another…”
(Stone,Warschauer,2004)(Stone,Warschauer,2004)

17. “Interlingual classrooms should become a
common feature of international
education...Interlingual classrooms are
places where international-mindedness is
seen in action. Internationalism is felt and
interlingual children learn who they are in
the context of the classroom and the
broader society.”
-Eithne Gallagher
How can we foster international-
mindedness and include aspects of
the Prism Model ?

18. Our MT Program
„The Three-Program Model“ based on Maurice Carder
ISS
Lower School
Language Model
ISS
Lower School
Language Model
English immersion
with effective,
long-term EAL
support
English immersion
with effective,
long-term EAL
support
Mother Tongue
Support
to make concepts
accessible and com-
prehensible
Mother Tongue
Support
to make concepts
accessible and com-
prehensible
Cultural and
Linguistic
Awareness program
for staff, students and
parents
through intercultural activities
throughout the year
Cultural and
Linguistic
Awareness program
for staff, students and
parents
through intercultural activities
throughout the year

19. Step 6: Focusing our purpose
All students should be able to “Make Connections”:
 Making conceptual connections to our
curriculum through their mother-tongue
 Making connections to our curriculum through
their prior cultural experiences
 Making connections in order to affirm their
identity
 Making connections between the English
language and their mother-tongue in order to
learn English better/quicker
 Making connections to their prior knowledge

20. Step 7: How does our MT program
work?(based on Maurice Carder‘s proposals)
• Our EAL and mother tongue departments are a central
feature of Lower School Leadership
• We are staffed by mother-tongue and EAL teachers who
are qualified , paid and attend some of the planning
meetings.
• EAL, mainstream, and mother tongue teachers work
closely together, sharing information on students and
curriculum.
• All educators are aware that developing the mother
tongue is essential to learning English.
• Mother-tongue lessons are time-tabled as an integral
part of the school day, as they are part of the
mainstream curriculum.
• Mother Tongue support and EAL support are inversely
proportional to best meet the needs of the developing
language learner within a financially feasible framework.

21. Step 8: Making it visible and
integrated
MT displays, both separately and integrated with classroom displays.
Pass on the assessment to MT teachers to have students add to them
in their MT. Translate some of it or help design assessment with MT
teacher/EAL teacher
Motivating and inspiring our community to get to know the various
cultural backgrounds and languages better through intercultural
program.
Allow MT teachers to play an important role when linking with parents
who will be able to approach MT teachers in their own MT with
questions and feedback. (ex. Conferences, reporting)
 MT and mainstream teachers will help to make students feel
comfortable and ‘at home’ in our school and in the ‘cultural
haven’ they will have created for them.

22. Making it visible and integrated
 Create identity/dual language booklets. (Cummins)
 UoI: Have students share what they did in their MT classes.(in
assemblies and in class.)
 Mother-Tongue handbooks inform parents in all languages
 Create a class library made up of books from many different
languages, dual language books and bilingual dictionaries.
Involve the librarian : Unit of Inquiry and fiction /non-fiction books in
all languages

23. In Summary:
Mother Tongue Literacy English Language Support
ENGLISH IMMERSION
Multicultural and multilingual environment

24. Some Resources:
• www.multiliteraies.ca Multiliteracies project web site; examples of dual
language books (identity texts) written by ESL students (e.g., Michael
Cranny [K-8] Elementary School).
• http://http://thornwood.peelschools.org/Dual/thornwood.peelschools.org/Dual/: Thornwood (K-5) school Dual
Language Showcase site.
• Bilingualism in International Schools A Model for Enriching Language
Education, Maurice Carder; Multilingual Matters, 2007.
• Equal Rights to the Curriculum, Eithne Gallagher, 2008.
• Supporting ELLs grades K-2 and 3 -12, Rojas, V.P. (1999), International
Schools.
• Scaffolding Language/Scaffolding Learning: Teaching Second Language
Learners in the Mainstream Classroom, Gibbons, P. (2002).
• Monolingual international schools and the young non-English-speaking
child ,Edna Murphy.http:// sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/2/1/25