Majority of primary school teachers have to deal with students who have a foreign language background. In Amsterdam, 63% of children under 15 have a multilingual background.

But you don’t have to be a second language expert to deal with multilingualism in a sensible way in your classroom.

Together with the OBA Oosterdok (Public Library in Amsterdam), the Polish Culture NL Foundation is organizing a meeting on language diversity.

The meeting revolves around the question: how do I, as a teacher deal with multilingualism in my class. The meeting will be on march the 15th from 15:30 to 17:30.

The following key points will be addressed:

1. How do you teach children who do not speak Dutch at home as effectively as possible the Dutch language? Answer: Use their knowledge of their first language. How do you do that?
2. How do you deal with students with different home languages ​​in your class?
3. How do you deal with parents of non-Dutch speaking children?

 

The following speakers will share their knowledge and experience:

• Lidy Peters – author of the book Languages ​​coming into school. From her experience as a former teacher in primary education, she gives practical advice.
• Anna de Graaf – education advisor at ABC Amsterdam and specialist in multilingualism at school. She will discuss general school policy when it comes to language diversity.
• Sharon Unsworth – linguist at the Center for Language Studies at Radboud University. She knows everything about the recent scientific insights regarding language diversity.

 

The short presentations, the panel discussion and comments and questions from the audience are led by Fadoua Alaoui.

Register on OBA School.

Action Plan on Multilingualism

The European Day of Languages ​​in September is the inspiration for the Polish Culture NL Foundation to organize an event to stimulate the use of the mother tongue and to discuss the role of the home language in education.

We want to join the initiative proposal of the Amsterdam City Council “Multilingualism in Education” and help create an Action Plan on Multilingualism in Education by organizing this event.

This event is supported by the municipality of Amsterdam and the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in the Netherlands.