Objectives:

The aim of the activity is to give visibility to multilingualism and to increase the active participation of children.

LINKS TO CURRICULUM:

Literacy in the language(s) of instruction.

PROCEDURE:

The activity takes around 30-90 minutes

Pupils get photos of several famous personalities (they have to be multilingual).

There are several options:

a. they can get separate pieces of paper where these persons are described, including languages they speak. Some biographical information have to be there so they can identify this person and match the photo with the description.

b. they can use the internet to find out as much as they can about these famous people, including languages they speak. 

Student can work individually, in couples or in small groups. Pupils will present biographies of these personalities to their classmates. 

They can prepare also a collage (using photos, pictures from magazines, scissors, glue, crayons, etc.). Their pieces can then be part of an exhibition.

They can also be used as a stimulus for a discussion in the class. You can ask:

• Do you have any ideas why these people know these different languages?
  
• Where do you think they use them? Whom do they communicate with?
  
• In what situations do these people need single languages? (Work, family, other)
  
• What famous people you know might be interesting from perspective of multilingualism? Do you know any famous people who speak different or more languages?  (I’m not sure to understand: children have already collected information of famous people being multilingual and here we ask if they know them?)
  
• Do you think it is useful to speak various languages? Why? In what situations?
  
• Would you like to speak different languages? (Or: Do you speak different languages?) Which ones? Why? (Or: how did you learn them?) How and when would you use them? (Or: How and when do you use them?)

Further Development:

Teachers and children can decide to interview the parents to collect information regarding the parents’ linguistic biographies and repertories (see activity: Interview with my parents)

MATERIALS AND DIGITAL TOOLS:

http://sms-project.eurac.edu/IT/Materiali/PublishingImages/Pages/Unterrichtsideen/Visualizzare%20il%20repertorio%20linguistico.pdf