How to create a welcoming bilingual classroom environment?

As children prepare to go back to school, parents and their children will be found roaming the department stores and buying new clothes and uniforms. Parents will be seen perusing checklists of school items their kids will need.

For the teachers who have no clue about how to work with bilingual students, they may assume that giving these children more attention is the only way of making the bilingual classroom environment comfortable. This might apply in some instances, but when done incorrectly, the move could backfire. When you give a bilingual child an overabundance of special attention, the student may end up feeling awkward and out of place. What your bilingual students will need the most is the opportunity to blend in with the other students without being singled out for special treatment or circumstances.

To help your bilingual students in the best way possible, teachers should not overexert their support when handling the children. Instead, the teachers should focus more on making the bilingual students feel more at ease and welcome in the classroom by applying a more delicate and gentle approach.

Below we shall explore some useful tips that help guide teachers to create a welcoming bilingual classroom environment:

1. Be Sufficiently Prepared

If possible, you need to discover which cultures and languages are represented by each of the students who will be attending your class before school reopens. This presents you with a wonderful opportunity of knowing the backgrounds of the bilingual students before you even walk into your classroom. While developing lesson plans, it is important that you consider the cultural and linguistic backgrounds of every student.

2. Be Positive About Your Students’ Languages And Cultures

As you discuss the exciting, interesting, or positive elements of other foreign languages, countries, and cultures, pick out the specific ones represented by the bilingual students in your classroom. For instance, when talking about sumptuous or tasty cuisine from all over the world, it would be wiser to choose the foods commonly associated with the countries your students come from. Also, when it comes to selecting bilingual books that you intend to share out with the students, it would be more considerate to pick the ones written in the languages spoken by your bilingual students. This way, you shed some positive light with a particular emphasis on the cultures and languages of your students. As a result, your students will feel more welcome and accepted.

3. Maintain Equality

Some students may feel different from others because of their differences in languages or cultures. When dealing with such students, do not highlight their differences by mentioning how special or lucky they are because a vast majority of them grow up learning several languages. While it may sound like a great idea, perfectly happy children may end up feeling separated from their peers. This is the exact scenario you want to avoid at all costs. It is critical that you allow your bilingual students to share with their peers the experiences that make them special or unique.

4. Be Supportive

When dealing with students who for whatever reason feel uncomfortable or embarrassed about their cultures or languages, you should help them understand why difference and variety in languages or cultures is a special thing. You may also take the time to discover what may help your bilingual students feel accepted. Most bilingual students have the desire to talk about the countries they are from. In fact, most of them take pride and joy when other students show interest and ask questions. However, you need to guide these discussions and make sure the students enjoy the bilingual classroom environment. This will make them feel more appreciated thus making them love the classroom environment.

Helping the bilingual students to blossom may require lots of patience from the teacher. Even so, the endeavor is extremely rewarding. It takes an understanding, gentle, and supportive teacher to achieve the desired results. The added bonus for a teacher is the prospect of learning more about other languages and cultures through close interaction with the bilingual students. When a teacher has more bilingual students, then he or she will appreciate and embrace the diversity of cultures first-hand.

When the above recommendations and tips are implemented correctly, then teachers of bilingual students will definitely achieve their goal of creating a welcoming and comfortable bilingual classroom environment.

Derek Tan writes articles relating to education. Please visit Canadian International School for more information.