The languages we use

Watch Reenaz explain how the curriculum is designed to develop English vocabulary skills and Mandeep, Ana, Yumna and Yusaf share their perspective on how important using their heritage language at school is. They talk about how they sometimes use both English and their heritage language when interacting with friends and family – you’ll explore ‘code-switching’ in more detail later this week.

Stem sentences

Reenaz uses the term ‘stem sentence’, which refers to a sentence starter upon which multilingual learners can build to make a sentence. For example, they might be given ‘I agree with your point of view because….’ Or ‘ Last Thursday I went to…’ Stem sentences are useful because they can be adapted to reflect the content of any lesson or talk-based activity.

The video explores language development both inside and outside of the classroom. Please share further examples of how language development can be encouraged in the Comments area.