Using Linguistically Appropriate Practice - by Roma Chumak-Horbatsch (Paperback)

About the Book

This book provides an accessible guide to multilingual teaching in diverse classrooms world-wide. It is grounded in the latest research and takes a realistic approach to the challenges found in the modern school. The author argues that multilingual teaching is an option for all teachers, and that it has benefits for every child in the classroom.

Book Synopsis

The presence of students for whom the school language is not their first language creates unique challenges and opportunities for teachers. This book provides an accessible guide to multilingual teaching using Linguistically Appropriate Practice (LAP) in diverse classrooms worldwide. It is firmly grounded in the latest research on multilingual learners and takes a realistic approach to teaching in linguistically diverse schools today. The author argues that successful multilingual teaching is an option for all teachers, and that it has benefits for every child in the classroom, as well as the wider school community. The book:

- provides profiles of LAP in action around the world;

- explains the relationship between theory and multilingual practice;

- lays out the characteristics of the LAP teacher and the LAP classroom;

- discusses challenges that have been identified by teachers using LAP in their classrooms;

- provides a step-by-step guide to implementing and enriching LAP;

- includes resources to support multilingual teaching and learning.

This book is an invaluable support and inspiration for practising teachers and trainee teachers. It will help them transform their classrooms into multilingual environments where all children have equal opportunity to participate, learn and grow.

Review Quotes

A fantastic resource [...] It is powerful. I think it's a must-own, must-read for any school principal, any administrator, any teacher anywhere in the world where you have even one newcomer child.

I am left convinced that this book and the LAP approach are key to the wellbeing, healthy self-concept, happiness, sense of identity, and optimal development of newcomer children (emergent bilinguals) across Canada, the United States, and the globe.

LAP pedagogy, where all children have equal opportunity to participate and learn, looks for strengths, skills and abilities in every child. Similarly, Roma Chumak-Horbatsch combines strengths, good practices and creative ideas for multilingual pedagogies from various contexts and many different countries in a way that is easily understood and that brings the value of all children to the center of the pedagogy.

The publication of Roma Chumak-Horbatsch's ground-breaking book Linguistically Appropriate Practice (LAP) in 2012 inspired teachers around the world to explore what inclusive multilingual instructional practice might look like in their unique contexts. This book lucidly synthesizes these instructional initiatives, using the dialogue between research and practice to extend our theoretical understanding of LAP and simultaneously establish the crucial role that teachers play in generating knowledge.

This excellent 'how to' book by Roma Chumak-Horbatsch is a rich and comprehensive resource for teachers. She takes the theory behind multilingualism and demonstrates effectively through both her own passionate narrative and those of expert teachers from across the globe, how to weave linguistically appropriate principles into daily classroom practice. A must-read for anyone working with multilingual children.

About the Author

Roma Chumak-Horbatsch is an Associate Professor in the School of Early Childhood Studies, Ryerson University, Canada. She has written and presented extensively on her development of Linguistically Appropriate Practice as a response to increasingly diverse classrooms, including Linguistically Appropriate Practice: A Guide for Working with Young Immigrant Children (2012, University of Toronto Press).