Discussion Questions

During the last zoom class my group and I discussed what we thought of language policy. We noticed that English was the superior language with French coming up second. We spoke about how the curriculum in school have been changing more into teaching Cree language rather than French in the public schools. This was an interesting topic on who gets to decide on what language is being taught. Remembering back on my elementary years of the learning of another language did not seem like an important subject. My teachers did not specialize in French, so they did the bare minimum. We created board games and spent most of our time on Duolingo. Now flashforward into the most recent years, Cree language has started coming into effect. Teachers are taking the time to make sure that it is prominent in their teaching. Now when getting your Bachelor of Education it is a requirement to take a language course and highly recommended to take the Cree language class.

In classroom you may have students that their first language is not English. Using tactics to help them out is the best way to get them comfortable in the classroom. Having the ability to pull out resources so they can better understand what is being taught. The introduction of new words should have a picture or motion associated with it. It is something for the students to remember. I know that when I am learning new words I try to link them with something I already know about. As a teacher you have to be able to go through the steps to better the education.

There is definitely a hierarchy in the languages that are spoken in Saskatchewan. I wish that it was not that way in the world but that is how peoples prejudices work. English is seen to be at the top of the triangle with all of the other languages underneath. One of my classmates spoke about a time at her work. There was a man that spoke broken English and the people around did not help him rather they just got mad that he could not speak English "properly". This is something that needs to be brought to the attention of everyone. I believe that it would be helpful to have signs that have multiple languages in public places rather than just English.