Multilingualism

A culture of language learning is foundational to our Joe Michell community. Language has the power to bring the learning community closer together and overcome boundaries. It excites and invites communication in many ways, supporting and strengthening relationships and the building of international-mindedness. Language learning is located in both local and global communities. Students are able to flourish in an interconnected, mobile global community using technologies to communicate and sustain relationships. At the same time, they are rooted in local communities through cultural and linguistic knowledge and skills. 

As an IB school, Joe Michell is committed to multilingualism as a means of affirming cultural identity and developing international-mindedness. The term “multilingualism” in the IB refers to linguistic ability in more than one language, and recognizes that each of a student’s languages may be developed to different levels, and within different contexts, depending on their social and academic experiences.

In addition, multilingualism has cognitive benefits relating to:

• attention and focus
• problem-solving thinking skills
• thinking about language

(Kesler, Quinn 1980; Zelasko, Antunez 2000)

Multilingualism is the interplay among languages within a person, with their interactions with others and also with the learning community’s attitudes towards languages. Becoming multilingual is a means through which we deepen our understanding of alternative perspectives and reach out to others. It takes into account the complex reality of our world’s diverse sociocultural contexts. 

Students who are multilingual have an improved capacity to think, talk, and reflect on how languages work, which is why our students learn an additional language from Transitional Kindergarten on. Through learning an additional language, students become cognitively more flexible, creative, and better at problem-solving. Students who see and hear their own languages within the learning environment, and who are encouraged to actively make links to their prior linguistic experiences, connect more quickly to the community and their own learning (Cummins 2000).

All members of the Joe Michell learning community are interested in, engaged with, and inquire about languages; they see themselves as agents in the process.