1. Language Development and Identity

2. Learning Objectives To analyze our own emotional connections with the languages we speak. To connect how personal and social identity is also related to the languages we speak. To analyze where schools may exclude children and families based on language. To explore ways to be make schools more inclusive.

3. Introduction We all speak many languages, even if we consider ourselves monolingual. We speak differently to people depending on their age; their social status; how well we know them; whether they are family, friends or colleagues from work; etc. We may also speak different languages with how we communicate artistically through the visual arts, through music, through dance. We may associate different feelings with how we speak to others and with our identities. For those of us who are bilingual or multilingual in terms of national languages or dialects we speak, we also have different feelings and identities associated with these languages.

4. Where I feel language 1.Think of the different languages you know, which are in anyway important to you. You do not have to speak them fluently; you can just understand them passively. 2.Draw a figure of yourself or use worksheet “My languages”. Assign a different color to the different languages you speak and locate where they reside in the figure of your body. They can be anywhere in your body. 3.Think of the emotions you feel in those different languages in different parts of your body. If you communicate through different means or differently with different people, then also locate where those types of communication reside.

5. Language and identity Our various group memberships, along with the values, beliefs and attitudes associated with them, are significant to the development of our social identities in that they define in part the kinds of communicative activities and the particular linguistic resources for realising them to which we have access. These identities become associated with particular sets of linguistic actions for realising the activities, and with attitudes and beliefs about them (Hall, 2012: 32).

6. Language and identity How do each of the languages you identified in the drawing shape part of your identity? What identities (national, ethnic, youth, professional, parenthood, etc.) do each of these languages represent for you? How did these identities develop? Have they changed over the years? Has the language you use changed? Have any of these languages made you feel excluded from another group that you wanted to be part of?

7. Language and exclusion Some languages have more power associated with them than other languages. In many cases the official language of the country has more power over languages spoken by minority groups. (In other cases, languages used internationally such as English, Russian, or French or German may have more power). School systems reinforce this power when they do not give the same value to minority languages. For children who speak these languages it may have detrimental effects on their social and personal development if hey are denied the right to speak them or if they feel shame for using them.

8. Language and exclusion 4 groups Group 1 – the parents Group 2 – the teacher Group 3 – the director Group 4 – the other children Why did act the way you did? What could you have done differently? Do you have any questions for the other groups?