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Offers the most comprehensive national study of community and heritage language schools.
Community/heritage language schools exist across the world, and yet little is known of the languages they teach, how they are organised and what students learn. Teachers in mainstream schools are generally unaware of the language and cultural knowledge their students are gaining from these schools. This book provides an overview of this educational sector and crucially how it interacts with mainstream education.
Students of all ages describe what they think of the schools, how language learning impacts on their senses of self and their attitudes to their cultures and languages, and the role of their languages in everyday life. Teachers share their experiences, perceptions and practices. Parents and grandparents report the importance of community/heritage language schools for families, communities and broader society.
The book offers both an in-depth study of this type of education in New South Wales, Australia, and insights that will be of use in language education across the world.
This is a must-read book about community/heritage languages schools and the value that they bring to communities, the language education sector, and broader society. As the authors state, these schools have remained hidden in the language learning landscape but are now becoming visible and valued as a key sector of language education, largely because of publications like this. We need this so badly!
The distinctive feature of this important new work is ‘roundedness’. Cruickshank and Tsung’s volume shows the reader CL schools from the perspective of their development over time, across space, and via critically different linguistic and cultural orientations. This multi-faceted view helps to normalise the language maintenance efforts of immigrant groups, which is so important today as public education systems struggle to meet the demand for intergenerational language support.
Ken Cruickshank is Professor of Education at The University of Sydney, Australia. He is the editor of Community and Heritage Languages Schools Transforming Education (with J. Lo Bianco and M Wahlin, Routledge, 2024).
Linda Tsung is Professor of Applied Linguistics and Multilingual Education at The University of Sydney, Australia. She is the author of Learning Chinese in a Multilingual Space: An Ecological Perspective on Studying Abroad (with P. Tong, Springer, 2022).
Figures and Images
Glossary
Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. Context and Background
Chapter 3. School Organisation
Chapter 4. How Schools Make Communities: Thai Language Schools
Chapter 5. Polish CL Schools: Transnational Language Hubs
Chapter 6. Chinese Community Languages Schools
Chapter 7. Students in Community Schools
Chapter 8. Teachers
Chapter 9. Parents and Community/Heritage Languages Schools
Chapter 10. Principals and School Leaders
Chapter 11. Teaching and Learning
Chapter 12. Online Teaching
Chapter 13. Assessment and Accrediting Student Learning
Chapter 14. Politics: (Re)-Constructing Culture and Language
Chapter 15. Where To Next?
References
Index