When BILD joined the CCERBAL conference, which was held in the University of Ottawa back in May of this year, we were all very excited. We (BILD members) had organized a workshop on activities that teachers can use to celebrate linguistic pluralism in the classroom and make all students feel that their linguistic repertoires are equally important and relevant. In the workshop, we prompted the audience members to try out the tools we introduced; we felt that the best way to advocate for an educational tool is none other than to offer people the time and place to use it and see for themselves whether it would be a good addition to their toolkit.
linguistic repertoires
Une panoplie de langues à Parc-Extension! (by Roseline G. Paquet)
Notre blogueuse invitée cette semaine, Roseline G. Paquet, a complété un baccalauréat en éducation en enseignement du français langue seconde dans un programme conjoint entre l’Université de Montréal et l’Université McGill. Présentement, elle enseigne le français langue seconde pour la Commission scolaire de Montréal en maternelle à Parc-Extension, quartier de Montréal. Elle a déjà enseigné à d’enfants d’âge préscolaire/primaire, à Montréal et au Sénégal, et aux adultes. Elle vient de terminer une maîtrise en anthropologie linguistique et sociolinguistique critique à l’Université de Montréal. Ses champs de recherche sont les nouveaux locuteurs, la mondialisation, la socialisation langagière, la mobilité linguistique, la reconstruction identitaire, le plurilinguisme/multilinguisme et le français langue seconde.
¡Sí! No! Bien sûr! Raising a multilingual child as a single parent (by Catherine Levasseur)
I grew up as a monolingual French speaker somewhere on Montreal’s south shore. I learned some English at school, but always thought I had no talent for languages. I thought it might even jeopardize my undergraduate studies and future career as an anthropologist. Then, I had to learn Spanish to get a practicum gig in Cuba. I knew very little about Cuba and even less about Spanish. Uno, dos, tres, una cerveza por favor, gracías (esti). Not even sure it was that good. Then… I fell in love. Not only with Spanish, but with languages. That was in 1999. I was 22 years old.
Is there such a thing as too much linguistic pluralism? (by Emmanouela Tisizi)
‘‘It is not my idiosyncrasy to be ironic or sarcastic but my diagnosis would be that politicians are rather cryptoplethorists. Although they emphatically stigmatize numismatic plethora, they energize it through their tactics and practices. Our policies have to be based more on economic and less on political criteria. Our gnomon has to be a metron between political, strategic and philanthropic scopes. Political magic has always been antieconomic (…). I apologize for having tyrannized you with my Hellenic phraseology. In my epilogue, I emphasize my eulogy to the philoxenous autochthons of this cosmopolitan metropolis and my encomium to you, Kyrie, and the stenographers.’’ (Zolotas, 1959).
