Today we saw in action what we had been told about yesterday and on Tuesday,
We visited two primary schools and a secondary school in El Prat and were given the opportunity to speak with teachers and see classrooms. We saw how the Immersion Classrooms operate, where children from different countries who have come to live in Catalonia after pre-school age (3-5).
New students from outwth Catalonia are taken out of class only when the whole class are doing language work in Catalan to work with the immersion teacher, which is similar to EAL provision in Scotland. Active learning and learning in context is used, not only for school vocabulary, but also to develop everyday vocabulary.
One thing which was evident was the cooperation that exists between schools, between sectors and with the community. Teachers from other schools get together regularly to share materials and professional dialogue, and they also come up with inter-school and community projects. Members of the community who have something to contribute and are Catalan speakers are encouraged to come into schools and to run or become involved in projects.
Visual displays were evident but could have been more informative.
Thursday, 5 November 2009
Adult Learners in Catalonia
Alicia Company from the Consortium for Linguistic Normalisation spoke about how non-Catalan speakers who move into Catalonia are supported in order to learn the language and become immersed in the Culture.
They have a mentoring system, where a Catalan speaker is paired with a non-Catalan speaker in order to help the non-Catalan speaker learn the language. There are very strong links between institutions and newcomers in order to make them feel welcome.
The culture of new citizens is to be valued and recognised, and in turn the new citizens will embrace the culture and language of the receiving community and they become part of the community's identity.
They achieve this in a variety of ways. A book has been produced by the centre in El Prat called Simbols recognises the origins of the immigrant people and the diversity of cultures, but also shows the ability of all people of different cultures to come together. It promotes linguistic and cultural diversity and sees it as a positive factor. The book looks at the different symbols of the world and what they mean to individual cultures.
Every year, parents and members of the community come together to put on a theatre production for the children of El Prat. This is performed entirely in Catalan and it shows the collaboration between parents and children and the value they place in the Catalan language and community.
The vast majority of people living in Catalonian have the will to learn and communicate in Catalan. In order to live fully within the community, in terms of work and making friends, it is not just advisable to learn Catalan, but a necessity.
They have a mentoring system, where a Catalan speaker is paired with a non-Catalan speaker in order to help the non-Catalan speaker learn the language. There are very strong links between institutions and newcomers in order to make them feel welcome.
The culture of new citizens is to be valued and recognised, and in turn the new citizens will embrace the culture and language of the receiving community and they become part of the community's identity.
They achieve this in a variety of ways. A book has been produced by the centre in El Prat called Simbols recognises the origins of the immigrant people and the diversity of cultures, but also shows the ability of all people of different cultures to come together. It promotes linguistic and cultural diversity and sees it as a positive factor. The book looks at the different symbols of the world and what they mean to individual cultures.
Every year, parents and members of the community come together to put on a theatre production for the children of El Prat. This is performed entirely in Catalan and it shows the collaboration between parents and children and the value they place in the Catalan language and community.
The vast majority of people living in Catalonian have the will to learn and communicate in Catalan. In order to live fully within the community, in terms of work and making friends, it is not just advisable to learn Catalan, but a necessity.
Wednesday, 4 November 2009
Making Leadership Attractive
On the homepage under the "Interesting News " section there appears to be a pdf article (3rd bullet point) called "Make school leadership an attractive profession". Can someone in the group follow up to ascertain the approach/principles. What might we learn from this? Thoughts below in comments?
Tuesday, 3 November 2009
Catalan Education Portals
http://www.xtec.cat/
An Education Portal for Catalan teachers which provides:
•Resources
•Lesson Plans
•Administration
•News
•Collaborative areas
110,000 teachers access this portal every day!
An Education Portal for Catalan teachers which provides:
•Resources
•Lesson Plans
•Administration
•News
•Collaborative areas
110,000 teachers access this portal every day!
Minority Language?
How do we define a minority language?
Catalan is spoken by 10.8 million in 4 countries and is considered a minority language.
Gaelic is spoken by 60,000 approx. in Scotland.
Though the number of Catalan speakers is so much higher than Scottish Gaelic speakers, it maintains its minority language status because it doesn't have a state.
Are they both minority languages to the same extent?
Catalan is spoken by 10.8 million in 4 countries and is considered a minority language.
Gaelic is spoken by 60,000 approx. in Scotland.
Though the number of Catalan speakers is so much higher than Scottish Gaelic speakers, it maintains its minority language status because it doesn't have a state.
Are they both minority languages to the same extent?
What is Plurilingualism?
Today we learned about the notion of Plurilingualism. This is the belief, from the Catalan point of view, that people should be able to speak at least 3 or 4 languages. The model for this is the mother language and Castillian Spanish plus two other languages.
Could this ideology ever be embraced in Scotland?
How can we change attitudes towards languages in our society?
Could this ideology ever be embraced in Scotland?
How can we change attitudes towards languages in our society?
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