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Linnaea Funk

July 14, 2016


Activity 5
BIE_DL 5338
Question: How do you promote and use of the minority language in the classroom and
in school?

As a dual language teacher, it is crucial that students learn to speak, read, write,
and comprehend in both the majority and the minority language. Students often have
the opportunity to learn the majority language at home or in the community, but do not
have those same advantages with the minority language. The teacher and the school
must create an environment where students are excited and motivated to learn both
language.
The most important aspect that must be covered starting the first day school is
the classroom and school culture and climate. Students must feel safe and supported in
order to begin to take the necessary risks in order to learn a language. This means that
the teacher must explicitly help students understand appropriate and inappropriate
actions. She also must address kind and unkind ways to interact with one another
(especially in the primary grades). This foundation of respect and kindness will allow
for students to begin to explore learning a second language.
Once the teacher has created a supportive and respectful classroom climate, she
must ensure that her lessons are designed in such a way that students can comprehend
what she is teaching, and also have the vocabulary necessary to respond to the teacher.
The teacher can use sentence stems and frames in order to help students respond to

questions that are posed during discussions. Further, the teacher can use read aloud
and shared reading activities in order to boost students academic vocabulary and
content knowledge. Teachers must also be aware of their students language levels, and
thus allow for different lengths and depths of student responses based on what the
student is currently capable of doing.
Finally, teachers and schools must provide varied opportunities for students to
explore and interact with the content. This can occur through the use of manipulatives,
TPR, songs, and picture walks. The more ways that students are exposed to a topic, the
more likely they are to understand and be able to respond to that topic.
Thus, in order to support students use of the minority language, teachers and
schools must create a supporting and welcoming climate, design lessons that are
comprehensible, and provide many different opportunities for students to interact with
the content. Together, these strategies will help students to learn their second language
and the minority language that students are working to acquire.

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