MULTICULTURAL SCHOOLS PROJECT

Multicultural classrooms are a growing phenomenon as migrants flows are increasing exponentially. Classrooms now host students from  diverse nationalities and cultures and  teachers have  to acquire new skills, competences and materials to work effectively with culturally diverse students. 

Multicultural Schools project is a valuable bank of resources that will help all of  you who want to foster integration among different cultures and languages within your classrooms. 

The repository will give you free access  different types of ready-to-use materials for students of both Primary and Secondary levels. The materials are available in six different languages corresponding to the partner countries taking part in the project. 

I would like to suggest making students  listen to  and watch Marla Lewis' wonderful song and video "We all laugh in the same language"  as a way to celebrate unity within diversity in our multicultural school contexts:



You can download the lyrics of the song here. 

Please remember that the partners who are taking part in this project need our feedback to keep on working on the project and improving it. Therefore, let me know about your classroom experience after putting some activities into practice with your students.

Finally, but no less importantly, thank you very much for your immeasurable support towards cultural integration in our classrooms. 

European Day of languages: September 26th

September the 26th is the European Day of Languages. The Council of Europe and the European Union (EU) created the day on the 6th of December 2001. Its main aim is to encourage language learning across Europe. All Europeans are encouraged to take up a new language. The founders of this day also hope those responsible for providing access to language learning are encouraged to make it easier for people to learn languages.

 I would personally like to take the opportunity this blog offers me to  encourage all of you who teach different languages to raise awareness among your students about the privilege they share as citizens of a continent that displays such  linguistic and cultural diversity as Europe does. 

You can access a huge number of resources on the net  but I will facilitate your research by listing  some of them:

The European Centre for Modern Languages offers activities in 30 different languages. (The section entitled "Teachers' area" includes plenty of materials to use in class).
The BBC web page 
ESL Holiday Lessons Plans
Ready-to-use materials provided by the Council of Europe 

Last but not least, this video on "The benefits of speaking different languages" by Mia Nacamulli can be very convincing for adults and students too:





Being able to choose among so many resources, I am sure that   we will not miss the opportunity to celebrate this crucial date with our students - not on Saturday 26th though!

THE EUROPEAN DAY OF LANGUAGES ON SEPTEMBER 26th

Welcome to a new school year which will bring all of us new opportunities to deepen into our knowledge  about the teaching-learning  process  of English as a foreign language.

One of the aims of the seminars I will be developing in Getxo will be to increase sensitivity towards language diversity in the classroom and to provide teachers with resources so as to make students actively engaged in this challenging aim.  This is why I have decided to write my first entry on this blog on an event which will sure help all of us to create the proper atmosphere to value language and cultural diversity among our students. I am referring  to the European Day of Languages, which on  the initiative of the Council of Europe, Strasbourg,  has been celebrated every year since 2001 on  September 26^th.

How can teachers and students get involved in some way  in the European Day of Languages?

FOR TEACHERS of languages or, indeed, of other subjects the Day offers multiple possibilities: the opportunity to learn about other cultures, traditions and languages which are not normally presented in the classroom; the opportunity to promote the pupils creative talents by putting on sketches illustrating the languages that they can speak, set up language cafes, highlight all the languages spoken in the school…

Don’t forget to check out the material available for download.

STUDENTS will  learn more about language diversity  by taking  part in these fun online activities

I hope you will participate because the EDL website is now available in 25 languages so you will find everything you need for your linguistically diverse classes. If you want to promote your event, you can tell your local newspaper or join  the Facebook group on this. Please,  don't forget to mention the address of the EDL website

Before meeting all of you in October, let me finish by thanking all of you for the interest you are showing in the seminars  and in the different training events I am organizing around English language teaching.