All the children in my classroom are at least bilingual, and most of them multilingual, so that is why I am attracted to this subject. When I started to read the article (attached below) I realized that actually in (almost) every classroom nowadays there is at least one multilingual student. As the article states: “ Twenty- first century classrooms throughout the world have students who speak many different languages, often languages different from those spoken by the classroom teacher. Thus, classrooms teachers most often teach content in languages other than those the children speak at home and in communities. These teachers are not language teachers, and yet, to be successful content teachers they need to have specialized knowledge of language, and especially of the bilingual and multilingual contexts in which the children live, and of the social practices that produce certain discourses.”

So that is why I think this article, or at least the subject of this article is relevant for all teachers, especially now that we also have lost of refugees with different languages and cultural backgrounds entering the classrooms. It would be useful to have this multilingual language awareness (MLA) as a subject in all teacher education programs.

The article divides languages understanding in four levels. Depending on the role you have as teacher (subject teacher or language teacher) you should have a certain amount of knowledge about your language and about the second/third language in your classroom.

1. knowledge of the language (proficiency) -> language user

-awareness of social and pragmatic norms

2. knowledge about language (subject matter) -> analyst

-grammar/phenology/vocabulary

3. pedagogical practise (teacher)

4. social, political and economic struggles

-critical language awareness

When you are a language teacher, the most important thing to know, is the language you teach in. However, it is good to have some understanding of the students’ language, which will interfere with the teaching language. So in my case, I need to have full knowledge of and about the Dutch language, and know how to teach this (pedagogics). However it would be very helpful if I would have some knowledge about the subject matter of the Finnish language, and at least know how it is taught to the children (the methods). In this way I can understand better how the children learn a language, and how I can connect my target language (Dutch) to the students’ language (Finnish).

Further it is important not to see language as an object in itself, but as an instrument used by the child and used by the teacher. The child’s language use should be seen and described within the context of other activities and student characteristics, and not in isolation. A good way to get real inside in the linguistics of a student is to let the student make a “linguistic landscape”. To do so, the student is sent out to document—using e.g. photography and videos—the languages they see in their community: in the newspaper and magazine stands. They listen to conversations and sounds in the street, and make recordings. They interview people in their community, about ways of using languages, and about the socio-political and socio-economic struggles in their community. An important part of this language ethnography is the home of the child itself, and in particular, the knowledge of the parents.

In my classroom for example I have students with very different ‘linguistic landscapes’. One student has a Finnish mother and Dutch/Finnish father (only his grandfather is completely Dutch). He lives in Finland, goes to a Finnish school, speaks Finnish with his friends and at home, and only speaks Dutch when he is in the Netherlands (one a year), or during the Dutch lesson. Three other students in my class have a Dutch father and a Finnish mother who can speak Dutch. Their common language at home is Dutch, but they go to a Finnish school, have mostly Finnish friends. However, they speak Dutch every day, read Dutch books, watch Dutch movies, and have a lot of Dutch visitors. There is a huge difference in how to teach the Dutch language to these students. However if you are not aware of the different linguistic landscapes of your students, you cannot use this in developing your teaching.

To conclude, in today’s classrooms, it is important to know the background of your students in many ways. Especially for language teaching you need to know the ‘linguistic landscape’ of your student, and have some knowledge about the second language your student is using, to be able to use this in teaching the target language.