English Only Vs English Plus

English Only Vs English Plus
There is an increase of those children in state schools who do not come from English speaking back ground. One in seven children at primary school in England and one in ten at secondary school speak a language other than English at home. A research team from Goldsmiths concludes that using two or more languages deepens an understanding of mathematical concepts and results in a better overall performance in school. Bilingual children are able to access key concepts through both languages, giving them an advantage over monolinguals. Children who speak at least two languages actually strengthen their identities as learners and boost their cognitive development. Researchers say this finding is of particular importance for second and third generation immigrant children. It is important to “embed” mother tongues into daily activities through games, songs and incidental use, such as answering the register and giving praise and simple instructions, familiar stories can be told or acted out in their languages.

In the 60s and 70s, the British education system has destroyed the home languages and the new research proved that the policy was wrong and the British education system is guilty of crime against humanity. It is very important that immigrant parents keep talking to their children in their home tongues as this will give children a valuable tool to access lessons, deepen understanding of key ideas, and enhance overall school performance. Children who led bilingual lives could access their lessons through both languages. The children in the project expressed a strong desire to use their community languages in school. Teachers were able to tap into their pupils’ full range of cultural knowledge.

Children who attended mother tongues classes did better in their National Curriculum tests. Research suggests that bilingual pupils do better than those with just one language. The researcher warns that many second and third generation children are in danger of losing their bilingual skills if they do not have the chance to develop their mother tongue through their school work. Multilingual children may be allowed to use their mother tongue in mainstream classes. Rather than thinking in terms of an “English only” culture we should be promoting “English plus”.

Among all the migrant children, Muslim children suffer more than others. Bilingual Muslim children need state funded Muslim schools with bilingual Muslim teachers as role models. They need to be well versed in Standard English to follow the National Curriculum and go for higher studies and research to serve humanity. They need to be well versed in Arabic, Urdu and other community languages to keep in touch with their cultural roots and enjoy the beauty of their literature and poetry.
Iftikhar Ahmad
www.londonschoolofislamics.org.uk

 

parents, not schools...

Why should the government be forced to provide education through languages other than the official one? If anything, all that will do is further increase the gap between locals and immigrants and undermine all other attempts at integration, creating a polar society.
Classes in schools need to be conducted in the same language for all the students; to separate a small number for certain classes will alienate them from their classmates, and the last thing the U.K. needs right now is more alienated youth.
The British government did not commit a "crime against humanity", as you so ridiculously state. Home languages were not "destroyed"; the only way that happens is when people stop using them. Why can't the parents of these children teach them their native languages? Surely in school they should speak the language of the country they live in? If second- and third-generation immigrant children no longer speak the language of their grandparents' homeland, then this is the fault of families for not teaching it to them.
Near the end of the post we get to the real thrust of your post...that Muslim children need special consideration. Nice little twist there, to make out that the problem is one of language, then suggest special treatment for a religious group and not a linguistic one...

That is one of the very last things that Muslim children in the U.K. need. Why do you want them further isolated from the native children (for want of a better word)? Do you really think it's a good idea to have all Muslim kids in Urdu- or Arabic-speaking schools while everybody else goes to a different school? Emphasising the differences between kids is exactly what you shouldn't do, as it creates divisions that carry on into adulthood and are very hard to resolve.

On another point, why do you feel that the British government is obliged to fund this kind of education? Isn't the government of a country obliged to offer education only in its native language? Why can't Muslims teach their children their parents' or grandparents' native language at home? As for second- and third-generation children of immigrants, if you are born in a country, are a citizen of that country and hold a passport from said country, then that is your native country.

I guess what I'm saying here, in a rather long-winded way, is that no government should be obliged to provide special education for a particular special-interest group, unless it is a question of disability or learning difficulty, certainly NOT on the basis of religion, when it is only going to cause further isolation and fracturing of the society.

 

Sounds to me like their trying to make an excuse for muslims who don't want to assimilate.

 

Salaam

Muslim Children have been suffering academically, linguistically, socially, emotionally and spiritually for the last 50 odd years because they have been in a wrong place at a wrong time. The state schools are exam factories producing children with A to C Grades. They do not educate children, as a result, institutional racism, drug, crime, incivility, ant-social behaviour, binge drinking, high rate of abortions and teen age pregnancies are common part of life in state schools. Muslim parents do not want their children to be integrated into such barbarity.

Majority of Muslim children leave schools with low grades because state schools with monolingual teachers are not capable to teach Standard English to bilingual children.

Bilingual Muslim children need state funded Muslim schools with bilingual Muslim teachers as role models. They need to be well versed in Standard English to follow the National Curriculum and go for higher studies and research to serve humanity. They need to be well versed in Arabic, Urdu and other community languages to keep in touch with their cultural roots and enjoy the beauty of their literature and poetry.

A Muslim is a citizen of this tiny global village. He/She does not want to become notoriously monolingual Brits.

 

Exactly, and what's more he wants the state to encourage and enable this practice.

 

Remove the word "Muslim" from that paragraph and you might make some sense. The fact is that incidences of racism, drug use, violent crime and teen pregnancies are proportional to economic factors more than social ones. I will agree with you that most state schools in the U.K. are, as you say, "Exam factories", but why would that affect Muslim kids in particular? Don't all children suffer as a result of this?

And if there is such "barbarity" in the place where you live, why stay there? Are you implying that Muslims are more civilised than Westerners? If that's the case, why not live in a Muslim country? It's precisely this kind of bigoted attitude that reinforces negative stereotypes about Muslims.

I assume you have some statistical evidence to back this up. In your previous post, you said that bilingual children get better grades and learn faster than monolingual children. Which is it? Are Muslim children somehow less intelligent than other children?
Why can't bilingual children learn English from an English-speaking teacher? Isn't the whole idea of bilingualism centred around the fact that the person can speak and understand two languages? What you're really saying here is that Muslim children shouldn't be taught by non-Muslims.

Again with the state-sponsored isolationism. So you want Muslim children to go to a Muslim school to be taught by Arabic-speaking Muslim teachers. In Britain. And the Government pays for this. You do realise that there are many countries in the world that offer exactly this sort of education, don't you? Why not move to one of these?

If you don't want to be British, then don't live in Britain. If the global village is so tiny, why do you want to further decrease its size by dropping out of the society in which you live?

Your bigoted and arrogant attitudes say a lot about what is wrong with Islam today, and why non-Muslims are so suspicious of Muslims. You want the government to not only permit, but to finance schools for Muslims only, run by and for Muslims only, so that Muslim children won't experience the "barbarity" of life in an open Western society. This reinforces the stereotype of the immigrant Muslim who wants all the benefits of living in Europe, but won't make any of the sacrifices necessary to maintain our open society.

By the way, I do take particular exception to your using "barbarity" to describe teenage drinking, anti-social behaviour and incivility, when we have Islam to thank for suicide bombings, beheading of hostages, hands cut off for theft, women stoned to death for adultery (only the woman). It smells like arrogant Islamic supremacism to me, and also quite wrong.

 

I agree with every person attacking the posters comments, he seems intent on having Muslim only schools, despite the fact that he has given a thread starting post about how great it is to speak two languages in a mixed language school.

Are you saying Muslim children and different from every other foreginer when it comes to just turning up to school and learning?

If you want your kids to go to a Muslim school then:

club together with the Muslim Council of Britian, make some and pay for them out of your own money,

then pay for your kids to go there out of your own money,

rather than making non-Muslim people pay for them out of their own taxes,

especially when most people can see the obvious lack of benefits in terms of alienation and that they are not even neccessary in the first place.