Bridging the Gap: Providing Oral Language Support in Monolingual Education Systems

• In Event: Supporting language learners in the classroom

Proposal

Developing countries throughout the world have incredibly rich and diverse linguistic traditions. In just seven countries in Asia, there are over 1,600 living languages. India alone has hundreds of languages, with over 20 official languages and 13 different scripts. This linguistic diversity is linked to important cultural traditions and identities and helps preserve the unique characteristics of societies. Yet this linguistic diversity also presents challenges for the delivery of public services, especially education, to meet the needs of the entire population. These challenges, along with the sociopolitical complexities inherent in the development of inclusive language of instruction policies, have led a number of countries to continue to utilize a monolingual approach to education, despite significant linguistic diversity among the population. For example, over 80 languages are spoken in Laos PDR, but education is delivered almost exclusively in the Lao language – which is spoken by less than half the population (UNESCO 2012).

Unfortunately, this approach often leaves a substantial portion of the student population who speak a minority language at a distinct disadvantage in terms of participating in education and learning in school. These minority language students are often from communities that are marginalized in other aspects of both public service delivery and economic engagement. At a societal level, this leads to further political, economic and cultural inequalities, very often consolidating the power and influence of the most prominent language groups - and the ethnicities or geographic regions affiliated with those language groups (Ndhlovu, 2007). At an individual level, there are significant implications for students whose mother tongue is different than the language of instruction and do not have a good command of the language of instruction. These children spend their days in a classroom where they are not able to understand what their teacher is saying, not able to fully engage with other students and are left behind as other children are learning to read (Benson, 2014).

Given its commitment to improved reading outcomes for all children, including those who do not speak the language of instruction, Room to Read has developed an Oral Language Intervention to improve the key oral language skills of Grade 1 students being educated in a language other than their mother-tongue. After describing the design of Room to Read’s Oral Language Intervention, this presentation will focus on Room to Read’s experience implementing its Oral Language Intervention in Laos PDR, in turn sharing: evidence from its first year of implementation; key lessons learned; and suggested recommendations for providing support to early grade students in monolingual education systems.

Author

• Patrick Curry, Room to Read