Why is he appalled? This says nothing about their ability to speak English
as a second or other language. Does a family not have the right to keep up
their first language in their own home? Research shows that children who are
brought up speaking more than one language have significant advantages in
terms of learning. I think it is more appalling that so many 'white British'
speak no other language than English, and that situation has not been helped
by removing the compulsion to learn another language up to GCSE.
Having said that, I quite agree that access to ESOL, particularly for
parents, is a big issue. I did some research in Lambeth a few years ago
looking at the decreasing opportunities for parents with young children in
the borough to access ESOL ('Won't or Can't Learn English'). Now with the
new funding issues this situation will only be aggravated.
On 02/07/2011 09:34, "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Keighley MP Kris Hopkins, former Bradford Council Leader refered to
> 'appaling figures'relating to the English language abilties of children
> in our district released by the Dept of Education. more than 4 in 10
> children in primary school and 1 in 3 in secondary school do not speak
> English as a first language. The figures showed that a total of 28,000
> children in the district do not speak English as a first language even
> though it is thought that 90 percent of these children were born in the
> UK.The 'blame' for this was put put firmly on the parents who were seen
> as 'failing' their children. Maybe if these parents could access ESOL
> classes things would improve!
>
> ***********************************
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ESOL-Research is a forum for researchers and practitioners with an interest in research into teaching and learning ESOL. ESOL-Research is managed by James Simpson at the Centre for Language Education Research, School of Education, University of Leeds.
To join or leave ESOL-Research, visit
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/ESOL-RESEARCH.html
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