Page 46 - PSPS: A Training guide

Those that the child already knows are easier to develop in another language, but the
new concepts that the child is not yet familiar with in any language become very
difficult to grasp for a child in a new language. In such a situation, a child tends to
keep quiet, to answer any teacher’s question in as few words as possible, hiding the
fact that (s)he has not understood what has been talked about.

Children and their family’s mother tongue is a different language from the language
of tuition and a child can understand and converse in the language of tuition, but the
family members have no command or understanding of it.
Many immigrant families are acutely aware of the importance of helping their children
learn the official language of the host country, i.e., the language of tuition, and send
their children to kindergartens, preschools and various other places where children
can learn the language as soon as possible, while they try to secure work. A child
manages to learn the official language of the host country and can communicate, but
the parents have difficulties understanding and speaking/reading the official
language. In the interactions with preschool and school, they ask their children to
interpret what the practitioners and teachers say.
In such situations children are put in a position to hear and interpret many things they
are not appropriate for their age or stage of development. Simultaneously, they
sometimes start feeling ashamed of their parents who cannot communicate with
teachers directly and fear that teachers may think less of them because their parents
cannot speak the official language. This feeling can be strengthened when other
children or other children’s parents are around and can witness the situation.

Children and their family’s mother tongue is a different language from the language
of tuition, but neither a child nor their family members can understand or
communicate in the language of tuition
Newly arrived refugees, migrants, and sometimes asylum seekers who come as
families , generally arrive with little to no official host country language skills or
understanding. Ideally their children should start education as soon as possible, but if
it is the beginning of the primary school year, there is little time for them to prepare
the child for a new language, school, and wider environment. Quite often both the
authorities and families themselves think that if they immerse children into the
environment where everyone speaks the language of tuition (I.e., send them to school
immediately) the child will naturally pick up the language fast. This does not happen
quickly or easily.
Both children and parents, usually already in various difficult situations,
feel lost and completely on their own. If they are also experiencing
poverty and substandard living conditions, the child’s acquisition of the
official host language skills, education and integration drop rather low
on the priority list of both parents and child. Frequent absences and
early drop out are often consequences of this situation, and the child
remains excluded from any potentially integrating activities.