Abstract

This paper investigates the educational, linguistic and cultural needs of language minority in Merseyside mainstream primary schools (UK), whilst exploring what schools are doing to facilitate success for bilingual pupils in mainstream classrooms. Considering the tremendous increase in cultural and linguistic diversity that continues to impact classrooms across the United Kingdom, educators and policy makers are encountering challenges on how best to meet the diverse needs of bilingual pupils in mainstream classrooms. Data gathered is based on questionnaire surveys, which were carried out in 20 primary schools in Merseyside (North West of England). The focus was on the instructional strategies that schools and policy makers employ in order to provide appropriate support in all areas of curriculum, regardless of their language and cultural background. For some of the schools one or two language groups were represented in their setting while for others the population may be varied linguistically and culturally at various stage of proficiency. The principles of good practice for children learning English were the same examples of good practice for all children. Findings demonstrate that schools need to carefully plan and deliver effective programmes for bilingual children and work closely with local authorities to address the needs of language minority children in their settings. Local authorities also need to ensure that their schools receive sufficient resources, training and accessible information across mainstream curriculum for effective practice.