In schools across the world, there are large numbers of students who are not native speakers of the language of instruction in their classroom. This leads to challenges for the teachers, students and parents. Translanguaging enables students who are second language leaners to build on previous learning, access the curriculum more effectively, learn with greater depth of understanding, improve their ability to speak and write the academic language of instruction and continue to develop their mother tongue. This book describes the origin and development of translanguaging. It explains the present situation in many secondary schools and the challenges which are faced by teachers, students and their parents. It aligns the power of translanguaging with cognitive psychologists' theories of effective learning. Concrete suggestions are offered to support teaching and learning with real examples from practice given by classroom teachers.

This book makes a case for the mother tongue as the medium of education for the first 12 years of the child's life. It describes Nigeria's 6-Year Primary Project, which taught experimental groups of students in their native Yoruba in varying degrees for their first 6 school years, beginning in 1970. The book shows how the mother-tongue education program was planned, organized, and implemented. Chapter 1 traces the historical background of mother-tongue education, describing educational policy and the primary school system under British rule, and the changes made thereafter. Chapter 2 describes plans for the project including initial goals and funding. Chapters 3 and 4 discuss curriculum development and production, describing how panels developed materials for mathematics, science, social studies, Yoruba, and English instruction. Chapter 5 describes teacher preparation, including workshops and on-the-job training. Chapter 6 describes instructional programs and objectives for each subject. Chapter 7 examines problems encountered during the project. Chapter 8 offers a comprehensive evaluation of the project, including methodology and longitudinal achievement test results (from the five sample groups) that compare several variables, including urban and rural settings. Chapter 9 offers observations and recommendations for other countries, noting literacy-rate improvement and enhancement of the instructional language itself. (TES)