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Promoting a Language Proficient Society: What You Can Do
WHAT CAN PARENTS DO?
*Expose your children to people from varied language and cultural backgrounds.* Participate in events where language and cultural diversity are celebrated.
* If you speak a language other than English, use it with your children.
* Speak positively to your children about the value of learning another language.
* Provide videos, music, and books in other languages.
* Send your children to summer language camps. For older children, consider programs in which they can study languages abroad.
* Explore having an exchange student from another country in your home.
* Investigate opportunities for formal language study for your children, beginning as early as preschool and extending through their high school years.
* Reinforce existing language programs by expressing support for them to local, state, and national representatives.
* If your child is participating in a language program, talk to the teacher about what you can do at home to reinforce the learning that takes place in the classroom.
* Speak with parents and administrators about options for using community resources to promote language and cultural awareness among students.
* Use resources from school and local libraries and from the Internet to enhance foreign language lessons.
* Travel abroad to expand or update your knowledge of the language and culture.
Taken from ERIC Educational Reports by Kathleen M. Marcos, Joy Kneeft Peyton