5/2/2008 6:50:00 AM
Carol Sarler ;The Times 2 May
Immigrant children, and sometimes their mothers, must be taught English in the classroom. Immigrant children, indigenous children and our scarily depleting numbers of teachers: losers all, as new figures show a record 800,000 pupils who do not speak English as a first language. In some boroughs as many as three quarters of primary school children cannot cope with standard learning unless afforded extra help with the rudiments of conversation - miserable for them, frustrating for the native English speakers thus slowed down and exhausting for those charged with the care of both. There is no reason to suppose the ignorance of English is about the fecklessness of migrant parents; from personal experience, quite the reverse. One Bulgarian friend, intent on the best for her four-year-old, has her perfectly dressed, beautifully mannered and bright as a button. Still, she and her husband refuse to use a word of English at home because (and I find this achingly sad) they fear that should the child copy her parents' fluent but accented speech, she will be bullied for it. Better by far, they agree - even though I forcefully don't - that when she learns, she learns “properly”.Times
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