AIMS:

The children are invited to reflect on some structural features of the languages they speak by developing metalinguistic skills. Furthermore, this activity allows children to become aware of the great variety that is found in the languages of the world: some features that are "obvious" for some speakers, can be very exotic (linguistic relativism) for others.

How to:

Phase 1:

Starting from an input in Italian and in English, the children translate one or more phrase(s) to arrive at a general rule. Ex. To make something plural you can translate libro/libri.

- Plural:

*It. LIBRO  (sg)|| LIBRI  (pl) // Arabo KITAB (sg) || KUTUB (pl)

- Articles:

- Formal and informal pronouns:

- Position of the demnstrative adjective

- Adpositions (ie prepositions and postpositions):

- Gender:

- Verb positions:

       o      In my language the verb almost always goes after the subject

       o      In my language the verb almost always goes first (Tagalog, Classical Arabic)

       o      In my language the verb almost always goes at the end…

For each linguistic trait considered, children are actively encouraged to explain the characteristic of their own language to their peers; if there is a possibility, also by discussing concrete linguistic examples. For example, to discuss the position of the verb, a child can present the sentence in his / her language by highlighting where the verbal element is located.

ATTENTION: not all languages (for example, Arabic and Spanish or, to a lesser degree, Italian) have the same characteristics in all countries (or in all regions a country) where they are spoken: these are not errors compared to a single shared norm, but of variation phenomena. Be careful not to censor the differences, but rather let the children refer to the language they practice.

For example, in classical Arabic the verb is at the beginning of a phrase but this is not necessarily true in all varieties of Arabic. Make sure that the children talk about Moroccan Arabic or Argentine Spanish, rather than Arabic or Spanish tout court.

In this vein, different languages (such as Italian and Spanish) may have very similar characteristics, although they are different languages.

Phase 2:

A sort of identity card of each of the languages spoken in the classroom can be created. The result, for example for English, would be something like this:

Each of the languages in the classroom will have its own digital or paper identity card. The important thing is that they are accessible to all children.

Phase 3:

Once the structural features of the class languages have been made visible, it is possible to discuss similarities and differences. Some geographically close languages will have traits in common, while they will be more distant (structurally and geographically) from others. This is not always the case: languages spoken in very distant places, in fact, can share several linguistic characteristics!

Sources to consult:

www.ethnologue.com

www.glottopedia.org