suzmccarth wrote:

> I teach children who have recently arrived in Canada and are now in
> grades 4 - 7. We hope that these children already have a first
> language of literacy. However, for many the language that they have
> learned to read is not the language that they speak in the home.
> For most English is their third language.
>
> I would guess that the Tamazigh children from North Africa have
> learned to read in Arabic.

Don't fail to consider French, which is often the second (or even first!)
language of literacy in North-Western African countries.

> However, their knowledge of Arabic will
> not be complete, although possibly their father speaks to them in
> Arabic. We have many student who come from dual language homes
> (neither of these English) These children can have real difficulties
> going into high school.
>
> It is also very difficult to administer first language literacy
> assessments to children who speak one language and read another.

Couldn't it be the very concept of "first language literacy" that needs to
be reconsidered? In most places of the world (including North Africa and
most of Europe) the literary language taught in school is not the same
language that children have been speak at home.

--
Marco