Positive School Climate

Creating a Positive School Climate Through Incorporation of Students' Language and Culture. J. Cummins. (1989) A Theoretical Framework for Bilingual Special Education. Exceptional Children, 56, 111-119.

Even in situations where bilingual education may not be possible, schools can promote students' pride in their linguistic background and abilities, and create a climate that is welcoming to language minority parents by:

* providing signs in the main office and elsewhere that welcome people in the different languages reflected in the community;

* encouraging students to use their first language around the school;

* providing opportunities for students from the same language group to communicate with one another in their first language where possible in classroom situations,e.g., cooperative learning groups;

* recruiting people who can tutor students in their first language;

* providing books in various languages in classroom and school libraries;

* incorporating greetings and information in the various languages in newsletters and other communications from the school to parents and community;

* providing bilingual and multilingual signs;

* displaying pictures and objects of the various cultures represented at school;

* creating units of work that incorporate other languages in addition to the school language;

* encouraging students to write contributions in their first language for school newsletters and other publications;

* providing opportunities for students to study their first language in elective subjects and in extracurricular activities;

* inviting second language learners to use their first language during assemblies, prizegivings, and other official functions;

* inviting people from ethnic and language minority communities to act as resource people and to speak to students in both formal and informal settings.