FYI: BBC piece on "Bilingual Asian children 'do better'"

[sm167]

With thanks to Ana Roca for the tip -- the original link may be found
at BBC News Online,

        http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/3236188.stm

Bilingual Asian children 'do better'
By Dominic Casciani
BBC News Online community affairs reporter


Children who study the language and culture of their immigrant parents may
achieve more and become more involved citizens, according to research.
A pilot study of 5,000 children attending community classes in Leicester
suggests the ad hoc system strengthens communities and reinforces the
importance of education in the minds of the young.
Complementary schools organised by immigrant communities try to ensure
British-born children retain a sense of their heritage.
But the findings of an initial study by Birmingham and Leicester
universities into Asian, Polish and Irish communities suggested the value to
wider society could be greater than appreciated.

After-school clubs
In the study, the team looked at the experiences of children and adults
attending some 70 community-led classes in Leicester, one of the most
ethnically diverse cities in the UK.
The activities ranged from religious teaching for Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims,
to after-school homework groups emphasising languages such as India's
Gujarati.
The team found that keeping up a language such as Gujarati, predominantly
spoken in the home, could improve a student's performance because it gave
them a greater understanding and more subtle use of language and
communication.
Arvind Bhatt, one of the authors of the report, said they found benefits for
the student and the community which remained invisible to the majority of
society.
"When a student properly learns and uses their mother tongue, they are also
learning how to manage bilingualism," said Mr Bhatt.
"This means being able to manage language in different contexts to their
benefit."

Language and integration
The study's findings contradict last year's controversial comments on
language by the UK Home Secretary, David Blunkett.
He suggested British Asians should speak more English at home to "overcome
the schizophrenia which bedevils generational relationships".
But Mr Bhatt said: "David Blunkett's view was based on the false premise
that children can only learn one language at a time and learning a mother
tongue interferes with English.
"We found bilingualism in children was an asset in the long term, though
there is evidence it can cause some short-term difficulties."
Looking at how class participants saw themselves, the team found students
had a more settled sense of their own identity.
"Today's children want a flexible identity," said Mr Bhatt. "They don't want
to be pinned down as either Asian or British.
"They want to be able to negotiate these identities depending on the context
they find themselves in.
"This works to the benefit of their own position as citizens and the
cohesion of the community."

Generational gap
This settling of identity questions also helped close the generational gap
between now-elderly immigrants and their British-born descendents.
"What we tend to see is that the first generation keep their heads down and
try to survive and the second want to consolidate on what their parents
achieved [in having a stake in society]," said Mr Bhatt.
"We found evidence that the third generation uses complementary learning to
reclaim identity and heritage which brings the age groups together.
"We are now seeing members of the second generation - parents in their 30s -
going to the same complementary schooling as their children because they
want to learn more."