ISSA Book Review: Multilingual Learning: Stories from schools and communities in Britain

Edited by Jean Conteh, Peter Martin, and Leena Robertson
Published by Trentham books, Stoke on Trent, UK (2007)
Reviewed by Dawn Tankersley, ISSA Program Consultant

This book demonstrates that learning that occurs outside the formal schooling programs in community based cultural and linguistic maintenance programs for minority ethnic communities in Britain make significant contributions to students’ learning. As would be expected, proficiency in the mother tongue is increased. The additional benefits of the programs include: increased proficiency in the language of instruction (in this case English), increased proficiency in other languages taught in schools, and improved school performance in general. The book suggests that these successes are the result of these programs correcting the subtractive or deficit model of bilingualism in the formal school system (pg. 10) that focuses on “English and second language” support (pg 137) . It presents the results of these maintenance programs through the stories of individual teachers and learners providing information for researchers, teachers, teacher educators, and policy makers.

The book, through the stories, shows the need for greater support of these kinds of programs. Of particular note are the following:

• Even though formal schooling has become “aware of the language repertoire of children, little use is made of their linguistic and literacy knowledge, as well as their metalinguistic skills they have learned (pg. 19)” in these programs.
• Additional ways to strengthen the ties between formal schooling and families and communities.
• The knowledge of how communities respond to the inequities that institutional policies that support the homogenization of society through constructing their own teaching and learning spaces.
• The acknowledgement that different pedagogical approaches that are used in these programs as well teacher expectations ad perspectives on children as learners should be valued.
• Learning from these programs on how to organize instruction for mixed ability of students in terms different levels of language experience and home backgrounds.
• Acknowledging the role of pedagogy in building cultural and learner identity and the positive impact that trained bilingual teachers have on their students.

In summary, the book points out ways to improve policy and practice towards language learning. There is a need to build closer links between formal schooling and these programs not through replacing these community based schools and making them part of the formal schooling system but to open dialogue and to learn from them.