Teaching multilingual children

In this article, Virginia Collier admits that teaching ESL to multilingual students is not an easy task. She states on page 222 "Things become even more complicated when we enter increasingly multilingual classrooms. Being a bilingual teacher seems to multiply the complications of teaching." But at the same time, Collier is optimistic about teaching ESL, and offers some guidelines in order, as she puts it, to "better understand how teaching English to second-language learners can become an enriching experience when appreciating students' different languages and life situations." Collier maintains on page 227, that bilingual teachers must not teach a second language in a way that will eliminate the first language, but rather use the first language, in other words, the native dialect, to help acquire the second language which is English. She says on page 227 "Teach the standard form of English and students' home language together with an appreciation of dialect differences to create an environment of language recognition in the classroom." In so doing, immigrant children would not be at a disadventage, in our society. In my opinion, one of the reasons why this nation is so great and powerful in the world, is because of the cultural diversity of its people. I will tell a little story, hoping that it is relevant to today's topic: bilingual education. For those who don't know, there is a very important community of French Canadians in the city of Woonsocket. So chances are, you may hear people speak Canadian french in places like hospitals, schools, restaurants, bars, fitness centers, etc. Thus, one day I went to a restaurant with a friend of mine. As we were eating, I could hear two people, seated at a table not too far from ours, conversing loudly. One of them was speaking English and the other one, French. It was interesting in so much as they seemed to understand each other very well. I started wondering how could two people, speaking two different languages understand one another without translation? My friend who speaks only English, pointed out the fact that one of these people probably spoke both French and English. Otherwise, the conversation wouldn't be possible. I agreed.