Home Languages in Our Libraries :: Bangkok Patana School

Home Languages in our Libraries
Jane Scott, Primary Home Languages Co-ordinator writes
The Home Languages Programme strives to provide multilingual students with the opportunity to validate and reinforce their existing fluency in their home language by:
•         creating a school environment which values linguistic diversity
•         encouraging the use of the language within the home environment
•         furthering parents’, students’ and staff’s understanding on multilingual matters
•        providing, where possible, curriculum time in which to enhance their learning of independently identified areas
•         providing information on opportunities beyond the scope of the classroom
We, in the library, share this vision and are working on developing and extending our Home Languages collection. The home language collection is prominently displayed near the entrance of the Primary library and new resources are displayed immediately above it. We are working hard to increase the selection of texts available in the Secondary Library and look forward to having more space in our new Secondary Library building in which to display it.
The following website is a fun place for younger children to visit and complete Home Language Based Reading Activities:
http://www.colorincolorado.org/families
Another useful link, if you wish to make your own purchases of Bi-lingual books is the one below:
http://www.multilingual-matters.com/results.asp?sf_01=series&st_01=parents&ob=sort_title,binding%281%29/d&ds=Books+For+Parents&TAG=&CID=
This is a useful website if you would like to read newspapers in foreign languages.
http://libguides.mit.edu/content.php?pid=146063&sid=1247890
As Home Language Speakers parents are of course a great source of help when recommending books so please do pass on your suggestions to Jane Scott at jasc@patana.ac.th or the library team at safl@patana.ac.th
We are very grateful for donations of Home Language Books so if your children have grown out of some of the books they have at home we are very happy to take them off your hands.
If you have any suggestions about how we can further improve the Home Languages Sections of our libraries please do get in touch.
Happy Reading!
Sally