Defining Multilingualism

How do schools define multilingualism in their public presentations of work? Emily Marshall In our readings, there are many different terms used to describe English Language Learners. Understanding the terms and labels will help us better understand how school districts word choice might reflect on how they deal with a particular population. Terms Associated With ELLS Reading through Gibbons, think most people would agree that he uses the term â€Å"EL Learners which is English Language Learners.In our community, his would mean anyone who is actively learning the English language. While Gibbons only mentions one term, Offline mentions many. In the introduction, Offline describes the different names that happen to come up when describing English Language Learners. Some of the terms mentioned are ELLS, Lips, bilinguals, culturally and linguistically diverse, children with English language communication barriers, English as a second language, language minority, emergent bilinguals, Eng lish proficient, and LOT E.As was reading, I was amazed at how many terms there actually are ND that's probably not even half of them. ELLS being already described, LEAP means Limited English Proficient and basically means students who have an insufficient level of English to meet the state's English requirements. The term basically implies that nonnative English speakers are deficient. Bilingual means that the person has the ability to communicate successfully in two languages, much like some of our college professors.Culturally and linguistically diverse as well as language minority can also include those who re already bilingual and in our community that would mean someone who speaks a language other than English since English is the majority language. Whenever I think of children with English language communication barriers, think more along the lines of 2nd generation children who are children born on American soil of immigrants. It also makes me think of the children of worker s who move frequently from one school to another as their parents search for jobs.English as a second language is a subject and not people although sometimes it is used to describe those students whose first language is not English. LOTT means language other than English which is commonly used to describe what languages students speak at home or in their community. As think of what some of these labels might mean for our community, I have come to the conclusion that most of the people in this community would probably not even know what half of the labels are and thus be confused and unsure of what to make of the meaning. How do schools define multilingualism?