By Artur Victoria
English language practice is provided for preschool children in preschool. This practice must be continued in compulsory school in the form of home language lessons. The main criterion must be the needs of the pupils concerned. Instruction must be arranged for pupils having a minority language as their home language, i.e. both immigrant pupils and pupils belonging to other minorities.
The purpose of home language instruction must be to maintain and develop the child's knowledge of the language which it employs in its everyday surroundings. This will serve to stimulate the child's emotional, linguistic and intellectual development, as well as giving the child an opportunity to blend and identify with the cultural background of its parents or guardians.
Another purpose of this instruction is for the pupils eventually to be able to become bilingual and thus feel at home in two cultures. They must be assisted and encouraged to develop their ability to listen, understand, speak, read and write. The aim is for the pupil to be willing, able and unafraid to use his or her home language in various situations.
Schools do not provide any instruction focusing on particular preoccupations. The fields of knowledge which are to be dealt with must be fundamentally important to everybody, irrespective of their future activities. This means, for example, that schools must familiarize their pupils with questions of belief, with major issues concerning human relations and survival, with international affairs, with science and technology, with resource conservation, with environmental questions, with economic question, with questions concerning working life and labor market, with cultural questions, with family questions, with sexual matters, with immigrant affairs, with law and justice, with questions concerning road traffic, and with the hazards involved by alcohol, drugs and tobacco. All pupils must acquire a knowledge of at least one foreign language. A prominent place must be given to knowledge with an important bearing on everyday life.
Participation in language instruction is voluntary. But for the sake of the children's linguistic development and their identity with familiar cultural traditions, it is essential for them to be given the opportunity of working with their home languages during their school career. It is therefore the duty of schools to try to convey information to all parents and to get in touch with homes by means of outreach activities. Persons with direct experience of this teaching are best qualified to communicate its implications and importance. Liaison work of this kind is included in the duties of home language teachers.
In addition language instruction, pupils are entitled to study assistance in their home languages. The purpose of study assistance is to support the teaching of various subjects and to provide further stimulus for linguistic development.
Senior level pupils can take home language as an optional subject.
Instruction in English as a foreign language must be arranged by schools for pupils not speaking English as their native language. This instruction is compulsory. Rare again the choice of organization rests with the school.
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