HoneyPancakes Posted December 9, 2012 Share Posted December 9, 2012 Have to confess that one of my polish mums corrected my linguistic skills last week sit is said sh....i......(i'll let you guess what the last letter is!! When the Polish child I have first came to me his mother warned me that I might hear something untoward. His pronunciation of the Polish words for, 'the room next door', sounded very much like, 'f*** *ff'! H Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lyanne Posted December 9, 2012 Share Posted December 9, 2012 We have many parents (past and present) whose first language is Tagalog (Filipino) and whose English is not very good. These parents have all refused to talk to their child/ren in their 'home' language and insist that their child's first language is English; so they arrive at nursery with no 'home' language, as such. The parents expect us to teach English and they then use what little English they have to back us up. No amount of persuading will change their minds, I have even had an EAL advisor in to talk to a family with no success. What I need is an information sheet (in Tagalog) explaining the reasons why the parents' first language is so important for their child and why English should be an 'additional language'. Our Polish children on the other hand come to nursery with no English, but a good understanding and use of their first language. Any suggestions would be gratefully received! Crumbs, that's tricky! Umm, will they have enough literacy in Tagalog to understand it in that either? But I think your Inclusion Team need to be being more supportive here - the info is available, and they only need to pay once to have it translated for you and the schools the children go onto. We're using Google translate for a lot of stuff at the moment as it's free... But Tagalog isn't a language on there at the moment. It's not brilliant, but we make sure we keep to very plain English in short sentences, and provide the letters etc in both English and the home languages. We're getting good response to the headlice letters! When the Polish child I have first came to me his mother warned me that I might hear something untoward. His pronunciation of the Polish words for, 'the room next door', sounded very much like, 'f*** *ff'! H Apparently the Romanian (or Romanian dialect spoken by several of our children) for 'I want to do it' is f***! So nect time your Romanian child is struggling to get to the glue, he probably isn't swearing! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 (edited) Somerset provide us with a folder containing generic forms eg registration and an initial visit form in different languages and it includes crib sheets of the most popular words we might need. these are on CD so i might be able to attach the relevant files for Tagalog and Polish plus their equivilent in english I have attached the welcome pack in english, tagalog and polish so you can see what it looks like, if you would like more message me and I can send it direct. It unfortunately refers to the old EYFS but still might be better than nothing. there is a section the importance of the home language written in the home language so that might be useful for someone just realised that the translation are only for the first couple of pages of the visit information but I can send the rest to anyone who wants them. I have them in bengali, chinese, mandarin, polish, tagalog, lituanian, portuguese,bulgarian, romanian, cantonese, malayalam and turkish Complete Welcome Pack Part A.doc Complete Welcome Pack Part A.doc Complete Welcome Pack Part A.doc Edited December 10, 2012 by max321 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest SueV Posted December 15, 2012 Share Posted December 15, 2012 Slightly different but we are having a little Russian boy start with us in January. Neither he or his mum speak English but luckily she brought an interpreter with her. I know it will be a learning curve for us. I have already purchased some flashcards in Russian and my idea is to ask the interpreter to write the phonetic pronunciation on the card for us so that we can teach him the English words. I also arranged for help from KCC and I was helped to prepare a small leaflet giving details of our setting in English and Russian through the Mantra Lingua format which was very helpful. He has had a couple of playdays with us and seemed to respond to the other children well. As for Ofsted, well I think if you can prove to them that you are responding to his needs In the way that his parents want - partnership with parents - then they should theoretically agree with you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 15, 2012 Share Posted December 15, 2012 (edited) We have also have Russian only speaking child and parents. Dad and mum came to visit with an interpreter on the other end of their phone! There was great amusement on Friday from mum and other members of staff when I tried to explain to mum what the small bag of 'magic reindeer food' her child was clutching was :blink: i have to add chglds favourite friend only speaks punjabi and the child they like to take into the home corner only speaks gujarati. They play beautifully together with lots of laughter. Sometimes I just stand in awe at their play. Edited December 15, 2012 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 20, 2012 Share Posted December 20, 2012 Good insights Catma. Its is crucial like Catma said to ensure that the child is fluent in the nome language, regardless of what the parents wishes are because if the child is niot fluent in their home language their use of English will not only be impoversihed but their understanding of concepts when they have to use hogher order thiking skills to problem solve. Tghis is such a hot topic with OFSTED because the impact of an impoverished grasp of English will affect children academically right through to their secondary school years. So its not just another demand on us as practitioners to create an environment where the child's first language is supported but to EDUCATE and WORK WITH their parents. I have spent years working with EAL parents in workshops, parents evenings etc and yes they all say 'I want them to learn English, this is why i send them to nursery' . I then say do you want them to struggle acdemically for the next several years at school? This usually gets them thinking, because once they grasp that a child who is fluent in the home language will pick up English in no time and in actual fact research shows that cognitively these children who are fuent in their home language in the early years can be more cognitively advanced (contact me for actual research paper) than their peers who only speak the one language. Staff who try and pronounce these words are only adding to the impoverishment, as one of the posts has said use sign language, pictures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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