Answer to Question #243791 in English for Ngoako

Question

Discuss your understanding of the article'Every teacher is a language teacher?developing awareness of multingualism in teacher education'

Answer 1

A multilingual class is a class where the learners speak a variety of first languages. Multilingual classes can be compared to monolingual ones, where all the learners speak the same first language. Language is embedded in the concepts, contexts and big ideas across all subject areas. Helping students recognize these key terms and concepts, understand when they do and do not directly transfer, and how to use them to communicate is what makes every teacher a language teacher. The concept of 'multilingual awareness' can be linked to that of language awareness, which can be understood as 'the development in learners of an enhanced consciousness of and sensitivity to the forms and functions of language' Teaching practices that tap into multilingual ways of reading, writing and speaking allow students to access the cultural resources that enhance the personal significance of their classroom work, as well as expanding access to knowledge through texts in more than one language. The mix of students in a multilingual classroom means you'll have students from cultures where the teacher's role is to lecture and give tests, mixed with students from cultures where students are encouraged to actively participate in class. The findings revealed that to teach in multilingual classroom Teacher Educator should possess skills like content analysis, multilingual reading, writing and speaking, translation skill, multilingual typing skill, multilingual board writing skill, code switching and code mixing skill, skill to motivate learning.