Valuing the whole community : Children, schools and language

Abstract

What help is given to children in exploring linguistic and cultural diversity in their local communities? Drawing on a comparative study of Place- Based Learning (PBL) in three predominantly rural areas in Scotland, Norway and the USA, the article examines educational and cultural approaches to supporting indigenous and minority community languages. It offers examples of the potential these offer in contributing to children's personal language awareness and development and cultural learning, but finds that language and education policies are fragmented and failing in particular to take advantage of newer migrant languages as a tool for developing linguistic and intercultural skills.