Teaching for Linguistic Diversity in Schools
Student Wellbeing and Achievement

This book enables pre-service teachers to confidently teach in linguistically diverse schools and promote student wellbeing and achievement.

Robyn Moloney (Author), Lesley Harbon (Author), Susan Oguro (Author)

9781009374958, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 27 June 2024

242 pages
24.4 x 17 x 1.3 cm, 0.424 kg

'As a primary teacher with 9 years of experience, studying a Master of Education (TESOL), I believe that this book is the beginning of the answer to the education and perception of multilingual students. Crucial to the global movement regarding multilingual worlds is the positive attitude towards individuals' linguistic diversity as an untapped resource for education and for life. Adopting a strength-based approach, this book advocates for language-aware teachers and school communities who actively reject racism in the celebration of the entirety of individual's linguistic repertoires and promote critical thinking in all students. The inclusion of principles and explicit strategies empowers educational stakeholders to embody these for the benefit of students' well-being and achievement. Additionally, through the regular inclusion of self-reflection fostering emotive cognitive self-awareness, readers are motivated to engage with the book's content. Furthermore, this book is backed by research, theories and contextual emic data and provides explicit links to initiatives by educational and health authorities. Through the emphasis on strategies and empathy, this book serves as a key resource that should be a part of every teacher's toolkit.' Cassandra Polden, Primary School Teacher

Teaching for Linguistic Diversity in Schools: Student Wellbeing and Achievement explores the linguistic landscape of Australia, including English, Indigenous languages, community languages and school-taught modern languages, to help teachers recognise the extent of children's language knowledge and to reflect on its implications for the classroom. The book explores the significant links between languages, wellbeing and academic achievement in students and offers readers practical suggestions for how to utilise linguistic diversity as an educational resource. The authors' conversational writing style engages both pre-service and practising teachers, helping them understand concepts they may not have previously encountered, while the case studies and stories from practising educators, students and parents bridge the gap between theory and practice. Each chapter includes reflection questions, creative activities and discussion questions to scaffold learning. The integrated online resources contain links to useful websites, further readings and videos to encourage independent exploration.

Part I. Why Does Linguistic Diversity Matter?: 1. The multilingual world of you and your students
2. Why harnessing linguistic diversity matters to student wellbeing and achievement: Part II. Who Speaks What?: 3. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, families, communities, and languages Susan Poetsch, Denise Angelo and Rhonda Anjilkurri Radley
4. Immigrant community languages and additional languages
5. Supporting English language achievement for all learners
Part III. Teaching in the Linguistically Diverse Classroom: 6. Teaching in the linguistically diverse classroom: Mathematics, The Arts and English
7. Teaching in the linguistically diverse classroom: Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS), Health and Physical Education, Science, Technologies and Languages
Part IV. Beyond the Classroom and into the Future: 8. Building a linguistically diverse school culture
9. The future is linguistically diverse
10. It's just the beginning.

Subject Areas: Teaching of students with English as a second language [TESOL JNSV], Philosophy & theory of education [JNA]