Last week I wrote about additive bilingualism. The language acquisition theory adopted at Tesla encourages students to continue to develop their native tongue while acquiring English. The theory is focused on the goal of cognitive development, where replacing the native tongue with another language interferes with the natural acquisition of new concepts and skills. Just like any theory, it needs to be effective in practice so today I will address what it looks like in the classroom.

Picture two students working on a problem together for a project in their science class. Their English is still in the development stages, but all material and resources provided by the teacher are in English. As they do research and learning activities to understand the new knowledge and skills they are encouraged to collaborate in English when they can but use Vietnamese when they need to ensure they both clearly understand the concepts. Throughout their project, they transfer between the two languages at their comfort level and ultimately they submit their project in English. Throughout the project, they are building both languages in the context of science.

This form of communication utilized in the classroom is called translanguaging. Translanguaging is a strategy based on modern research that tells that languages are not separate in the mind of a multilingual person. Their minds are a holistic system of linguistic resources that can be utilized as needed for appropriate communication purposes. Therefore, at Tesla, we embrace the idea that all students are developing multiple languages and utilize instructional practices to maximize the prior knowledge and skills of every learner.

Next week I will write about Agency. The core principle in the International Baccalaureate (IB) program focuses on shifting the responsibility for learning to the students.

Thank you,

Tim Vanderpool
Director of Studies