By: Ann Karoline Jessen
In this
assignment, I am going to talk about how teachers can help create a multicultural classroom and then I am going to talk about different varieties of English
in Norway.
Creating a
multicultural classroom
“Multiculturalism advocates policies which seek to accommodate the
different identities, values, and practices of both dominant and non-dominant
cultural groups in culturally diverse society” (Murphy, 2012:6).
Communication
is a key word when creating positive attitudes. Teaching about multiculturalism
is not enough, the pupils have to talk about it, share their experience and
knowledge while discussing the subject. From practice experience the use of
different cultures that occur in a classroom is non-existent in everyday school
life, it is not something that is brought up every day and it is not something
that is continuously talked about in schools.
Another
important aspect of creating a multicultural classroom is that the teacher has
to be open-minded. The teacher has to be open for multiple cultures, have
knowledge about different cultures, help create a classroom where expressing
different cultures and teach pupils to be curious about culture and language.
The teacher is the anchor in the classroom and sets the standards on behavior
and openness.
However, in
creating a multicultural or multilingual classroom you can meet a few
challenges. For instance, we as teachers do not know what parents teach their
children at home and what they talk about around the kitchen table. Because of
this we do not know what attitudes the pupils brings from home. We do not know
everything about the pupils or their parents. Sometimes parents have strong
opinions on what their children learn in school; this can affect the pupils and
their learning. Some parents do not want their children to learn about
different cultures or languages around the world and this creates a difficult
learning environment for the teacher. I think it is important for teachers to
reach the parents as well as the pupils in situations like this, by either
talking to the parents or involving the parents in the cultural education.
I have a
few concrete examples of tasks that can be used in creating a multicultural
class room. The first one is one that we used to do in my primary and secondary
school. Every year we had an international day where all the different nations
represented in our school had to show off their culture, which included food
culture, clothing, and national songs and traditions. We had pupils from
different parts of the world like Brazil, Peru, Italiy, Philippines, and more.
Every nation was represented on different stands where they presented their
food, clothes and culture to everyone walking around. This was a very
educational experience for us where we learned about all the different cultures
represented in our school.
My second
example is similar to the first one; it’s about using the pupils and parents as
resources. Use an hour every month or a half an hour every week to talk about
different cultures, build a classroom and a classroom environment that is open
for cultural expressions. The pupils can use the information they get to do
different tasks like writing a letter to a foreign country, create a roll play
where they portray characters in different cultures, make wallpapers, or create
a collective fictional story where they use the information and facts they have
about a culture or a country as inspiration.
My third
example is creating a character. This will work better if there are more than
one teacher in the classroom. The teachers can create a fictional character
from a different culture or country and build a story about the character. This
task will help the pupils relate to the character and will hopefully create
enthusiasm around learning about different cultures around the world.
Varieties
of English
Jenkins
(2009) writes about four different categories of English, a native language
(ENL), a second language (ESL), a foreign language (EFL), and lingua franca
(ELF). A native language is the main language in a country, the language those
who are born and raised in the country are learned. A second language is a
language that a large number of speakers speak in a country i.e. in Nigeria
that was colonized by Britain English is a second language. A foreign language
is the language that is not needed in a country and doesn’t serve a purpose in the
country i.e. in Norway English is categorized as a foreign language because it
does not serve a purpose to the Norwegian citizens. The last category is lingua
franca, it is described as a bridge language. It is a language that two people
with different native languages share, i.e. a Norwegian student and a French
student that does not speak each other’s native languages could use English as
their lingua franca, their shared language (Jenkins, 2009:15-16).
In Norway,
English is categorized a foreign language in Norway. It is a language that we
are taught in school, a language we are taught to communicate with native
speakers. In theory Norwegian learners of English belongs to the foreign
language category, but in my opinion Norwegian learners does not belong there.
I would
consider English as a lingua franca in Norway. Jenkins (2009) writes that
Scandinavian countries use English more and more for a country internal purpose
rather than a foreign or international language purpose (Jenkins, 2009:16). As
time passes, more immigrants and refugees arrive in Norway and English must be
used as a bridge language. We use English to build bridges country internal and
international. We also use English to communicate with fellow citizens in
everyday situations, i.e. in stores we can meet cashiers that does not speak
Norwegian, so we have to use English to understand each other. We also use
English in the Norwegian academic world by using both online international
sources and international research. In Norway, we do not dub our television
series or movies, which makes English an important language in Norway. We have
a wide choice in books and music from around the world and most of the online
services and social media is based on their users knowing English. All of these
small things are reasons why English is so important for
Norway and Norwegians
to stay connected to the world.
As I stated
previously, English is categorized a foreign language in Norway. I would say
that considering how English is categorized in Norway that it has a lower
status. However, with the way English is
taught in school I don’t think it has a very low status because it classifies
as its own subject. I do not think that the status should affect the way
English is taught in schools because it is a subject that is taught
continuously throughout primary school, secondary school and high school. With
the way, the world is evolving and the Norwegian country is expanding by taking
in more and more refugees, the English language is used more and more in
everyday life as a lingua franca. For this reason, I think that unless the
changes in English language teaching increases the learning of English in
Norwegian schools, there is nothing to change.
However, I do
want to see is that pupils get a better understanding for why they have to
learn English, why it is important that they learn English in school, and that
they see the purpose of English in their everyday life.
Sources:
Jenkins, J. (2009): World Englishes: A resource book for
students. 2nd edition. London: Routledge.
Murphy, M. (2012) In defense of multiculturalism. In
Multiculturalism A critical Introduction. Canada: Routledge Tylor and
Francis Group.
