There’s plenty of sayings about the power of a good book, but for many children who come from non-English speaking backgrounds often the transition between speaking and reading English can be tough, but a new resource at Gosford Public School is helping change that.
As part of its Education Week festivities the school has launched its Bilingual Library, a special suite of books to help students bridge the gaps between their known languages and to encourage them to develop their language literacy skills.
The new resource contains a variety of children’s books in 19 different languages including: Russian, Tongan, Nepali, Spanish, Arabic, Urdu, Tamil, Tagalog, Korean, Panjabi, Turkish, Bengali, Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese and English.
With titles such as The Very Hungry Caterpillar, We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, The Rainbow Fish and many more, the Bilingual Library is designed to bring languages to all students.
Andrea Byrne is Gosford PS’s English as an Additional Language Teacher and spearheaded the project.
“We currently have 250 students that are LBOTE (Language Background Other Than English) and, out of that, approximately 160 are bilingual, so the library reflects our diverse school population,” Byrne explained.
“The languages that we have chosen are reflective of the languages spoken at our school and we are very grateful of the support of our wonderful P&C as they have been able to provide funding in order to purchase the bilingual books,” she added.
While still in its early days, Byrne said the new resource has been met with great enthusiasm by students and was hopeful it will become a great boon for the school in the years to come.
“The bilingual library has so many benefits, but mostly it allows all students to embrace one another’s identity, cultural backgrounds, and bring an awareness and love of reading to our school.
“It also allows students and their families to feel a sense of belonging and allows them to remain connected through language and it’s great to see students excited to take home books in their first languages to share with their family, friends and peers,” Byrne said.
The library has also been welcomed by native English speaking students, with many expressing a desire to learn a second language.
“The bilingual library has started a lot of conversations among students and teachers about language learning and one of the great aspects of the books we are providing is that each one contains the English translation as well.
“This allows all students to be able to read and interact with all languages regardless if they are bilingual or not,” Byrne said.
With plans to develop the library further, including more diverse languages and titles, and with the Coast’s population continuing to grow, Byrne believes more schools in the region should consider adding a similar offering in the future.
“I believe that with our multicultural population growing every year, it (language education and resourcing) should be something that schools could implement.
“I would highly recommend the initiative as the benefits are well worth it,” she said.
Dilon Luke