List out the problems that a child faces in a school if his home language is not the school language please give me the answer between 200 to 300 words
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Your question covers a few different situations, for example:
The school language is also the community language, and the home language is not.
The home language is the community language, the school language is not.
Neither the home language nor the school language are community languages.
Then there are other variables, such as the relative social prestige of each language in the community and internationally, and parents’ standards of fluency and literacy in the home, community and school languages.
I have been the parent of children in situations 1 and 3, and sort of 2 since we also spoke the community language at home (my partner is a native speaker of the community language, I am a native speaker of English, which was neither the school or the community language and is my children’s preferred language.)
In situation 1, which is our current situation, I’ve observed that my seven year old child (started reading at six) has superficial fluency in the school language, but has a smaller vocabulary and poorer comprehension than their peers. This isn’t always obvious even to the teacher, since they read fluently when asked, can answer comprehension question when the text has been read by another person first, but if they read aloud and are immediately asked questions, they struggle to answer since they are unable to simultaneously read and comprehend meaning. They also have a narrower vocabulary since they are very fluent in ‘classroom’ vocabulary but less so in ‘playground’ vocabulary and community social norms. As my child gets older, I suspect that they won’t necessarily understand culturally specific textual references as readily as their peers. An example of this in English would be phrases from the Bible such as a ‘Good Samaritan’ or ‘a Damascene conversion’. I don’t know whether these difficulties are specific to my child or more general, but I suspect that needing more time to process meaning from texts and poorer vocabulary outside familiar contexts is very common.
Outside of school, I am not a confident user of the community language, especially for writing, which inhibits socialising with other parents and students outside of school and establishing networks. It also means that my child does not have as much homework support as other students. On the flip side, they are trilingual and have experience living in three countries, has broad exposure to community language speakers all the time and in a wide variety of contexts.
I can’t cover situation 2 well, since before we moved here the community language was a second home language, not really the primary one. However, the first part of my answer to situation 1 holds true, but it is easier to establish friendships outside of school (providing other parents speak the community language, which isn’t always the case) and access homework support.
Situation 3 can be the hardest one of all, since both parts of situation 1 are true (assuming that other families have a shared home and school language), in addition to there being limited opportunities for exposure to the school language outside the school context and the home language outside the home context. Books especially can be difficult to come by and it is important to build networks of school language and home language speakers for your child to interact with outside the home and school.
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Matthew Van Blaricom, Teacher at Adult Education (2015-present)
Answered Mar 2
There are multiple potential problems.
Not understanding what is being said during instruction.
Some teachers will not allow friends who speak your language to help you.
Cultures have a lot in common with language. People have been shown to begin trying to fit in by changing name pronunciation.
The good news in many school districts is the support structure is better than in tge past.
The school language is also the community language, and the home language is not.
The home language is the community language, the school language is not.
Neither the home language nor the school language are community languages.
Then there are other variables, such as the relative social prestige of each language in the community and internationally, and parents’ standards of fluency and literacy in the home, community and school languages.
I have been the parent of children in situations 1 and 3, and sort of 2 since we also spoke the community language at home (my partner is a native speaker of the community language, I am a native speaker of English, which was neither the school or the community language and is my children’s preferred language.)
In situation 1, which is our current situation, I’ve observed that my seven year old child (started reading at six) has superficial fluency in the school language, but has a smaller vocabulary and poorer comprehension than their peers. This isn’t always obvious even to the teacher, since they read fluently when asked, can answer comprehension question when the text has been read by another person first, but if they read aloud and are immediately asked questions, they struggle to answer since they are unable to simultaneously read and comprehend meaning. They also have a narrower vocabulary since they are very fluent in ‘classroom’ vocabulary but less so in ‘playground’ vocabulary and community social norms. As my child gets older, I suspect that they won’t necessarily understand culturally specific textual references as readily as their peers. An example of this in English would be phrases from the Bible such as a ‘Good Samaritan’ or ‘a Damascene conversion’. I don’t know whether these difficulties are specific to my child or more general, but I suspect that needing more time to process meaning from texts and poorer vocabulary outside familiar contexts is very common.
Outside of school, I am not a confident user of the community language, especially for writing, which inhibits socialising with other parents and students outside of school and establishing networks. It also means that my child does not have as much homework support as other students. On the flip side, they are trilingual and have experience living in three countries, has broad exposure to community language speakers all the time and in a wide variety of contexts.
I can’t cover situation 2 well, since before we moved here the community language was a second home language, not really the primary one. However, the first part of my answer to situation 1 holds true, but it is easier to establish friendships outside of school (providing other parents speak the community language, which isn’t always the case) and access homework support.
Situation 3 can be the hardest one of all, since both parts of situation 1 are true (assuming that other families have a shared home and school language), in addition to there being limited opportunities for exposure to the school language outside the school context and the home language outside the home context. Books especially can be difficult to come by and it is important to build networks of school language and home language speakers for your child to interact with outside the home and school.
1.9k Views · View Upvoters
Upvote· 12
Share
Comment...
Promoted by FutureLearn
How can you help students learn to code?
Improve your coding to help students: go from Scratch to Python, with an online course by Raspberry Pi.
Learn More

Matthew Van Blaricom, Teacher at Adult Education (2015-present)
Answered Mar 2
There are multiple potential problems.
Not understanding what is being said during instruction.
Some teachers will not allow friends who speak your language to help you.
Cultures have a lot in common with language. People have been shown to begin trying to fit in by changing name pronunciation.
The good news in many school districts is the support structure is better than in tge past.
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