Posted on 10/22/2014 11:54:09 PM PDT by Olog-hai
A different world. I suspect most of the kids at your school spoke English.
In England today, largely because of 'multiculturalism', there are 600 primary schools where more than 70% of the children speak another language other than English. Across the entire country as a whole, one in seven children's first language is not English.
Imagine a classroom of 24 kids where only half the children speak English as their primary language, and there are six other languages represented in the classroom and the issues that poses - and how important it is to get those kids speaking English as fast as possible, if you want effective education of all the children, rather than spending large amounts of time dealing with language issues rather than teaching the children who do speak English. And the ESL kids don't really have the same incentive to learn English that they used to. That type of scenario is all too common in schools now.
I don’t see how that school trip relates to ability. Looks more to me that they were taken along regardless of ability and more along ethnic lines, reinforcing the multiculturalism and utterly defeating assimilation. Therefore, calling the native English children “tools” in this respect is absurd, with all due respect, for indeed they are taken out of the equation.
I don’t like the term; sounds like it was invented by leftists. Reminds me of the Islamic term “Frangistan”.
That is a symptom of multiculturalism and unnatural, just as the act of sequestration described herein is.
Yep - happening right here too but at least we're not 'racist'. Whites just refuse to fight back. Willing to give it all away so as to not be called names.
“You see, the animals at the petting zoo didn’t speak English either, so...”
Yeah sure
Everyone knows zoo animals are the best English teachers...
Not the point. The idea is to build English vocabulary by exposure, so that vocabulary can be used for further development of further English skills.
Everybody thinks they are an expert on education because everybody has been to school. Those of us who are experts because of years of experience and study should just shut up.
A bunch of ignorant English parents bitch because their little darlings had to do schoolwork in class rather than have fun at school, and people leap out to their outrage bandwagon. Read the comments from the parents and that really seems to be what it is about - too many over indulgent parents don’t seem to understand that school is about learning, and any ‘fun’ activities should be to enhance educational purposes.
Isn’t the whole justification for the educationalist apparatus the concept that children need to be in school, attending classes, in order to learn? If parents think being in school attending classes is bad, they should take their children out of school permanently.
That should apply even more so to the kids that went on the school trip on the taxpayers’ shilling.
Perhaps, but that’s up to those children’s parents.
My parents considered anything but a full schedule of academic subjects to be a complete waste of school time.
Stuff paid for by taxpayers is not up to parents, obviously.
No, it’s not, neither in Britain nor here. That’s why all education should be private-pay or private charity.
Those parents should be removing their children from the school and demanding an end to tax-funds for this program (at least)
Um - no - language immersion is by far the best means to promote the development of any language. Having the English speakers accompany would have been a far better opportunity for those attempting to learn - if that was really what they were trying to do.
I speak Japanese & Chinese sufficiently to conduct business because of immersion. I know minimal Spanish because it was only through a classroom environment without immersion.
But you still get faster results if you also build vocab in other ways by exposure.
My wife is considered a top experts in the field of English teaching. By the end of primary school (age 12), her students are, on average 2.4 years ahead of where they are expected to be in English skills. Her ESL students make progress at just under twice the average rate for ESL students. She has been reading the comments in this thread and almost tearing her hair out in frustration at the misunderstandings she's seeing here.
Having the English speaking kids accompanying these classes in the belief that this will be good for the non-English speaking kids is yet another example of simply using the English speaking kids as tools to teach the non-English speakers. The reason to take kids out of the classroom on excursions or incursions should be because it has an educational benefit for them not just to benefit other children. A lesson designed to build vocab in non English speaking children - and that is what this was and what it was designed to be - has no value for English speaking children.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.