Linguistically Appropriate Practice: A Guide for Working with Young Immigrant Children

by Roma Chumak-Horbatsch

Overview

This path-breaking book provides a convincing argument for the importance of children's home languages and the benefits of dual- and multi-language learning. A new classroom practice known as Linguistically Appropriate Practice (LAP) offers guidance for those working with young children who arrive in childcare centres and schools with little or no proficiency in the classroom language. Linguistically Appropriate Practice details over fifty classroom activities that can be adapted to match both the developmental level of the children and the classroom curriculum.

Intended for childcare staff, health care providers, settlement workers, speech and language pathologists, kindergarten and primary grade teachers, family resource workers, and literacy specialists, this book is an essential resource for preparing young children for the complex communication and literacy demands of the twenty-first century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442603820
Publisher:	University of Toronto Press
Publication date:	09/01/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	176
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Roma Chumak-Horbatsch is Associate Professor in the School of Early Childhood Studies at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada.

Table of Contents

Foreword, Jim Cummins
Acknowledgements
Introduction: The Road to Linguistically Appropriate Practice

Part I: Laying the Groundwork for LAP

1. Immigrant Children in the Classroom
2. A Language Portrait of Young Immigrant Children
3. Classroom Practices with Young Immigrant Children
4. Linguistically Appropriate Practice: Background

Part II: Setting the Stage for LAP

5. Preparing the Classroom for LAP
6. Adopting LAP in the Classroom

Part III: Implementing LAP Activities

7. LAP Activities

Looking Ahead
References
Index

What People are Saying About This

Paula Markus

... a compelling portrait of the young immigrant child as a budding bilingual who brings immense language strengths to the school setting, but who also faces challenges in maintaining a dual linguistic identity there.

Dolly Fox

I have found the LAP program to be invaluable in promoting home languages in my kindergarten classroom. The book should be a welcome resource for primary teachers and teachers in training, offering a creative source of activities and new ideas that are easy to apply at school and home and that enhance all subject areas.

Kim Watts

This book provides teachers with provocations to reflect on the experiences of young immigrant children. Each carefully composed chapter takes the reader from reflection to application, offering a celebration of languages, and of the child's sense of self, along the way.

Alma Flor Ada

Effective bilingualism can be a powerful asset. Not only does it foster strong communication at home, allowing the transmission of family and values, it also adds considerable academic and professional strength in life. In this excellent book, Chumak-Horbatsch offers language practices based on experience that will enrich the development of all children.

Kelleen Toohey

This imaginative and immensely useful book offers a wealth of practical strategies to support effective bilingual learning in the classroom.... A must read for elementary teachers and for early childhood educators!

Editorial Reviews

This skilfully crafted book is a treasure trove for early childhood administrators and teachers. It is of value to anyone wanting to introduce inclusive pedagogies for children with plurilingual repertoires from diverse cultures. It is highly recommended as a resource and a manual of what is linguistically good practice for 21st-century early childhood programmes.—International School Journal
Chumak-Horbatsch acknowledges the challenges facing teachers to find developmentally and linguistically appropriate drills as well as the need for classroom practices that expand beyond simple support. The exercises in the book dovetail closely with the dynamic bilingualism theory of helping children actively learn to use more than one language successfully. The classroom activities contain brief, well-written practical information. Linguistically Appropriate Practice is a good resource that teachers could use repeatedly.—ITBE Link Quarterly Newsletter
This imaginative and immensely useful book offers a wealth of practical strategies to support effective bilingual learning in the classroom.... A must read for elementary teachers and for early childhood educators!—Kelleen Toohey, Simon Fraser University
This book provides teachers with provocations to reflect on the experiences of young immigrant children. Each carefully composed chapter takes the reader from reflection to application, offering a celebration of languages, and of the child's sense of self, along the way.—Kim Watts, Early Childhood Educator
Effective bilingualism can be a powerful asset. Not only does it foster strong communication at home, allowing the transmission of family and values, it also adds considerable academic and professional strength in life. In this excellent book, Chumak-Horbatsch offers language practices based on experience that will enrich the development of all children.—Alma Flor Ada, Professor Emerita, University of San Francisco
... a compelling portrait of the young immigrant child as a budding bilingual who brings immense language strengths to the school setting, but who also faces challenges in maintaining a dual linguistic identity there.—Paula Markus, Program Co-ordinator, ESL/ELD, Toronto District School Board
I have found the LAP program to be invaluable in promoting home languages in my kindergarten classroom. The book should be a welcome resource for primary teachers and teachers in training, offering a creative source of activities and new ideas that are easy to apply at school and home and that enhance all subject areas.—Dolly Fox, Kindergarten Teacher

From the Publisher

Chumak-Horbatsch acknowledges the challenges facing teachers to find developmentally and linguistically appropriate drills as well as the need for classroom practices that expand beyond simple support. The exercises in the book dovetail closely with the dynamic bilingualism theory of helping children actively learn to use more than one language successfully. The classroom activities contain brief, well-written practical information. Linguistically Appropriate Practice is a good resource that teachers could use repeatedly.

ITBE Link Quarterly Newsletter

This skilfully crafted book is a treasure trove for early childhood administrators and teachers. It is of value to anyone wanting to introduce inclusive pedagogies for children with plurilingual repertoires from diverse cultures. It is highly recommended as a resource and a manual of what is linguistically good practice for 21st-century early childhood programmes.

International School Journal