| From: Diana
De Lorenzi - Cospe (Firenze - Italia) |
| Received: 02.07.2000 |
| |
The
school system should offer to minority ethnic pupils equal opportunities
and to all pupils the ability to grow in a multicultural society and
handle diversity in a positive way. This means that the question is not
just a linguistic one. The whole organisational structure of the school
has to be altered. In other words, the real problem is not the integration
of the new pupil. The real problem is how to change the school that is
going to welcome them and to turn it into a place where young people learn
to “live” diversity as a value. That is a cultural problem.
|
| From: Anja
Rutgers Van Der Loeff - Amsterdam |
| Received: 02.07.2000 |
Tenemos esperienzia con cursi intensivi....
We have experience with intensive courses for 10 years now. Parents and
children are happy and children learn te understand, speak, read and write
Dutch in 10 months. In Amsterdam, we have 34 newcomer classes for children
aged 6-12. They stay in the classes for one year= 10 months. We could tell
more....
|
| From: Mauro
Sbordoni - Cospe (Firenze - Italy) |
| Received: 11.06.2000 |
|
- Welcome classes?
No thanks. I agree of most of what has been said by the others. Anyway
we can’t deny that the integration of these new pupils is often
problematic. There is a problem connected to the way of integration,
the timing and the availability of additional support. Then there are
some variables to take into consideration. Where do the newcomers come
from? At what time of the year? In which school or in which classes
will they be integrated? Are there kids from the same ethnic origin
present in the class and can they play a positive role in the
integration of the newcomer or will this role be negative (like
sometimes happens with Rom). And the mainstream
- classroom
teachers, are they experienced, professionally prepared and motivated
for this task?
- I
believe that new comers should be integrated immediately in their
definitive class, but at the same time I believe that this should
happen gradually. Both for what regards the permanence at school and
within the classroom. The school should thus prepare itself to handle
also other dimensions of work/relationships/observation and develop
new professional skills in this direction.
- Once established
certain principles, the integration process has to be decided for each
singular case. Each immigrant is different, and different are the
problems that will arise. But the school that wants to welcome them
has to be able to find new solutions to different problems. We are
just at the beginning...
|
| From: Lucia
Maddii - Italy |
| Received: 09.04.2000 |
- This issue is
very dear to me. Much has already been said by Maria and Sabrina.
Anyway, I have experience with parallel classes for newcomers. Most
teachers were happy to have the difficult kids out of the class for 4
hours a day in the language lab. Some of them even would have given a
fortune for not having them back at all. The results have been
disastrous. Most of the kids have made friends with their peers from
the same country of origin and are hardly motivated to learn Italian.
Whenever they are in the mainstream class they seem aliens.
- A good solution seems to
me special classes where newcomers stay for a very limited period.
Just the time to make them feel at ease in the new situation, to get
them used to the school life and rhythm. This can be achieved in a
couple of weeks. During the first year additional language support can
be limited to 2 hours a day.
|
| From: Sabrina
Ardizzoni - Italy |
| Received: 02.04.2000 |
- Anyway a child
after two or three months of intensive second language learning won’t
be able to participate to situations of frontal teaching in the
mainstream classroom. In the meantime he/she is isolated from the
classroom, he/she is deprivated of the desire to communicate, he/she
has a delay in coming to know school
life and the group dynamics within the classroom of final destination.
- Most scholars and
teachers agree that the language the child picks up in the first year
of permanence is the language of his classmates. It is good practice
integrating the child smoothly, explaining to him/her the “rules of
the school” and presenting him/her right from the start to the new
classmates. He/she should be given the opportunity to have second
language learning support for at least 8 hours a week, but in the mean
time he/she should participate in those subjects where the language is
less important like music, arts, geography, sciences, gymnastics, etc.
|
| From: Maria
Omodeo - Cospe - Firenze Italy |
| Received: 15.03.2000 |
These
classes have been tried out in many places. From a linguistic point of
view their results might seem satisfying. Yet many new pupils, not having
the possibility to share school life with autochthonous peers, feel
excluded and isolate themselves more and more. New comers seem to learn
the new languages in a more active and vivid way having the possibility to
communicate with their new friends. The solution might be integrating the
children right from their arival in the mainstream classes, but offering
them the opportunity to have at least two times a week a one or two hour
language support session with a specialised remedial teacher.
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