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The town where schoolchildren speak 150 languages
By Heidi BlakeSchoolchildren in just one town have been found to speak as many as 150 different languages at home, highlighting the pressure placed on teachers by growing numbers with little or no command on English.
Reading in Berkshire, where schoolchildren have been found to speak as many as 150 different languages at home Photo: CORBISThe Government described the number of languages and dialects spoken by pupils in Reading, Berks - uncovered in a survey by the local authority - as “extraordinary” and conceded that it would place extra pressure on schools.
Languages spoken by children in the town include the Ghanaian dialect of Akan, Chichewa, from the south central Africa, the Aztec tongue of Nahatl and the Indian language of Telugu.
Reading Borough Council has been forced to offer cheap English lessons to pupils and their parents to tackle the rising number of children who cannot communicate in class.
But the figure suggests that language barriers are making it increasingly impossible for teachers to communicate effectively with pupils.
It follows the disclosure in 2005 that pupils at Woodside High School school in Tottenham, north London, speak as many as 58 languages, with many arriving at the comprehensive unable to speak any English at all.
Census figures show that children across the whole of Scotland speak 147 languages, while pupils in Lancashire speak 72 mother tongues.
A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said: “If pupils are speaking 150 different languages in one place, that’s quite an extraordinary number.
“We become concerned when schools aren’t coping with these children’s needs, and I can imagine that is no mean feat for a local authority where pupils speak this many languages.” … Continue Reading
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