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Session 1. Language in Learning: Three Languages, One Classroom
Objective. Describe the languages in your own class and name where, in a normal lesson, language rather than knowledge can stop a pupil.
In many classrooms the language of the textbook is not the language a pupil speaks at home, and sometimes not even the language the pupil uses with friends. When nobody notices, a pupil who understands the idea can be marked as weak, quiet or careless. This session helps you see language as part of learning, not as a side issue. You will practise separating what pupils know from how well they can say it in the lesson language, and you will map the languages of your own class.
Key ideas
Language is the tool of learning
- Pupils listen to explanations, read problems, talk with partners and write answers. Every one of these is done through language.
- If the language is only half understood, a pupil may know the mathematics or the science and still be unable to show it.
- UNESCO has argued that pupils learn better when they are taught in a language they understand. This is why the first question is not “Is this pupil weak?” but “Does this pupil understand the words?”
Everyday talk is not academic language
- A pupil can chat easily in the yard and still struggle with “therefore”, “in contrast” or “this means that” in a textbook.
- Jim Cummins described this difference between conversational and academic language. Conversational fluency usually arrives sooner; academic language takes years.
- So a fluent speaker who writes short or unclear answers may need language support, not more warnings.
Your class is already multilingual
- In many Uzbek schools pupils meet Uzbek, Russian and English, and some speak Karakalpak, Tajik, Kazakh or another language at home.
- Each language has a different job: the language of instruction, the language of the street or home, a school subject, or the language of some content.
- Seeing these roles clearly is the first step to using them well.
Languages support each other
- What a pupil already knows in one language, such as what evaporation is, does not disappear in another language. Only the words need to be learned.
- Treat the home language as a resource for understanding. It is not a problem to be removed.
- Later sessions show how to use this on purpose, with a plan and with limits.
Two kinds of language in school
Conversational
Face to face, with help
- Gestures and the situation help
- Short, familiar sentences
- Understood by the classroom and yard
Academic
Textbooks, tests, explanations
- No gestures; words must carry meaning
- Longer sentences and linking words
- Subject words met mostly in school
Why fluent talk can mislead
Talking with friends is helped by gestures, a shared situation and short sentences. A textbook offers none of that. It uses longer sentences, words that appear only in school, and small linking words such as “therefore” that carry the reasoning. A pupil can be at ease in the yard and still be lost in a paragraph about evaporation.
Jim Cummins described this gap as the difference between conversational and academic language. For a teacher the practical lesson is simple: do not assume that a talkative pupil already has the language of the subject. Check reading and writing separately from speaking before you decide what the pupil knows.
Three languages, three jobs
The picture differs from school to school, so describe your own. Which language carries most lessons? Which is taught as a subject? Which do pupils speak at home, and which do they read most easily? In one class the answers may be Uzbek, Russian and English, with a few pupils who speak Tajik, Kazakh or Karakalpak at home.
Writing this down, even as a simple table, has practical results. You can see which pupils meet the language of instruction mostly at school, where partners who share a language are available, and which materials exist in which language. Most of the support in this course starts from this map.
Examples from the classroom
Word problems read aloud
Scene. Malika teaches Grade 4 mathematics in a Russian-medium school in Tashkent. Aziz speaks Uzbek at home and chats in Russian without effort, but he leaves word problems blank. One day she reads five word problems aloud, twice, slowly. Aziz solves four of them correctly. Reading the written problems had been hiding what he can do.
Insight. Reading aloud separated the mathematics from the reading and showed where the block was.
A slip of paper in Bukhara
Scene. Jasur teaches Grade 7 geography in Bukhara. On a slip without names, his 30 pupils write the languages they speak at home and the one they read most easily. He finds that 11 of them meet the language of instruction mainly at school. For group work he places each of them next to a partner who shares a home language and reads well in the lesson language.
Insight. A two-minute survey turned a vague worry into a seating and partner plan.
The word “therefore”
Scene. Dilnoza teaches Grade 6 history in Fergana. The textbook says: “The harvest was poor, therefore prices rose.” Feruza reads every word but cannot say why prices rose. Dilnoza draws two boxes with an arrow between them and writes “therefore” on the arrow. Feruza says in her own words: poor harvest, then prices up. The pair then writes the sentence together.
Insight. Small linking words are language demands too, and a simple drawing can make them visible.
Common pitfalls
- Judging what a pupil knows only from written answers in the second language.
- Assuming that a pupil who chats easily needs no language help in subject lessons.
- Treating a pupil's home language as something to stop at the school gate.
- Making a list of pupils' languages and never using it when planning lessons.
Map the Languages of a Class
- Read the six pupil profiles in your Activity Kit and the short science text. These are samples prepared for this course.
- In pairs (12 min): read the text as pupil 1 and as pupil 5 would. Underline the words you think each would find hard, and mark whether the block is listening, speaking, reading or writing.
- Alone (10 min): fill in the class language map for YOUR own class: how many pupils use which language at home, which language is the language of instruction, and where you have seen language hide knowledge.
- As a group (10 min): share one finding from your map. Agree on one pupil moment that you will watch next week and what you will look for.
Your facilitator will guide you through this activity in the session.
Questions to discuss
- Which words in the text were everyday words, which were subject words, and which were small linking phrases that are easy to miss?
- Did the pupil with the fluent spoken language and the pupil who is new to the language hit the same blocks?
- What did you learn about your own class that you did not see on a register?
Reflect
- Think of a pupil who talks well but writes little. What might language be hiding?
- Which languages do your pupils use at home, and how do you know?
- When did a pupil last surprise you by showing knowledge in a different language or way?
Try it tomorrow
- Use a name-free slip of paper to find out which languages your pupils speak at home, and fill in your class language map.
- For one written task, read the instructions aloud twice and compare the results with last time.
- Circle three small linking words in a textbook paragraph and explain each in one sentence to the class.
Further reading and links
Language is how pupils learn and how they show it. Look for language blocks before you decide a pupil does not know.