It is widely accepted by educationalists and linguists that many children, both primary English speakers and those for whom English is an additional language (EAL), begin formal schooling with a language deficiency.

This deficiency is not restricted to any one social class or culture. Rich children can lack language skills just like those from poorer families. Similarly, an EAL child can excel scholastically in English while someone from a fourth generation, English-speaking family can produce below-average results.

Studies have shown that language deficiency is primarily caused through the lack of supportive home, peer group and community environments as well as formative, language-based opportunities.

In EAL environments, where English is relegated to only something a child learns at school, language deficiencies prevail.

These deficiencies impact not only on their ability to learn but also deprive them of personal empowerment and a capacity to facilitate verbal and non-verbal communication. The development of social relationships can also be negatively affected.

The low importance given in a home situation or influential peer group to reading books and material and to such things as news and current affairs, can have a stifling effect on a learner’s English language development. Likewise, the inability of parents to share through language experiences, whether because of language differences or an English skill deficiency, is a disadvantage.

Not having sufficient opportunity to hear and use language in varying forms, EAL learners can become straight-jacketed into a limited, narrow, restricted language code that sometimes is interpreted wrongly as a lack of intelligence rather than an indication of a low level skill.

In the 1950’s and 60’s, some western governments targeted schools in lower, socio-economic communities that were perceived as culturally, linguistically and socially disadvantaged. Massive financial and physical resources were poured into special education programs. While the intention was commendable, the outcome was often neutral or negative achieving little more than reinforcement in the minds of those targeted of their “disadvantaged” status.

Teachers make the difference

Modern wisdom advocates that classrooms and school communities should become the learner’s missing “supportive” environments and that teachers are best positioned to respond to language/cultural/class differences. Bringing the family into the school community through parent-support programs, adult English language courses and cross-cultural, social activity and informal teacher-parent contact now are accepted teacher-school roles.

While it is accepted that learners may come from unsupportive environments and be disadvantaged, teachers can make the difference and readily reverse the negatives resulting from such environments.

Much depends on the awareness, discernment and response of teachers at the coalface - in the classroom, as well as of those in support-service roles. Moreover, much depends on the ability of a school system to create an alternative, positive supportive environment that addresses the deficiencies brought by the learner into the classroom.

To achieve this “environmental shift”, teachers need to recognize the importance of “language differences”, distinguishing them from “language deficiencies”. The language programs taught must take into account the difficulties inherent in a teacher’s “language of instruction” from the learner’s aspect be it spoken or written, appreciating that learners often misunderstand “teacher” language just as many do not understand “book” language.

A gradual, non-threatening transition from the “simpler” to the “more complex” should be pursued where concepts slowly become more abstract, sentence constructions become more complex, the use of higher descriptive, nominative, active and connective words becomes more comfortable and the construction and exchange of meaning is more explicit.

Outcomes

To achieve these outcomes, learners need to be exposed to a range of language varieties and encouraged to use them. They need opportunities to experiment with different genres and registers in both oral and written codes and be recognized and rewarded accordingly.

Awareness should be imparted of the appropriateness of different types of language for different purposes and context. In turn, inappropriate, discriminatory, sexist and racist terminology must be avoided while acknowledging culturally, oriented alternatives that can be used to enhance understanding.

In implementing the above strategies, teachers acknowledge the effect language may have on their learners especially those who come from different socio-economic and culturally backgrounds.

Moreover, they are recognizing that the language used and the values imparted may at first be strange to those being taught to the point that they may feel isolated and even experience a personal sense of rejection.

Importantly, by pursuing this teaching template, the negative, socio-economic and cultural influences on language- learning, particularly in an EAL environment, can be addressed.

The teaching instruction becomes learner-centered rather than only subject or program-oriented - and finally and significantly- the learner’s ability to achieve is maximized regardless of the curricula involved.

(For a free copy of the 4S Vowel Variation Chart, email: contact @4Sliteracy.com.au)

(The author Keith W. Wright is a former politician, an educator and the director of the Australian International Language Academy).