Linguistic landscapes are the visible language in an environment. In Aotearoa New Zealand our schools are doing great work normalising the use of Te Reo Māori by increasing its visibility. We want to make it easier to do the same for all the languages that are important to the children in a learning environment.
The evidence for the individual, community and societal benefits of bilingualism is compelling. We know that the only way for children to grow up using more than one language is if the languages are used with them by people who care for them. Yet many parents do not feel comfortable speaking their languages with their children in public. We believe that by enhancing linguistic landscapes close to children growing up with more than one language and so visibly valuing the languages spoken by whānau, we can make it natural for these languages to be part of the educational context as well as the home.
The material in these pages is produced by the LATL-lab as part of the A Better Start National Science Challenge. It is intended for educators in Early Childhood Education or early years at primary schools. The intention is to support emergent bilingual children, that is children who are growing up hearing and maybe speaking more than one language. Each page offers a tool or an idea for enhancing linguistic landscapes around a child or a group of children. Parents or carers and groups of educators can get ideas from these resources and share materials that they have created to visibly value the languages spoken by the children they are close to. We call these pages pop-up workshops, as they are intended to help show educators how and why they might use a tool or idea.
Word Clouds
Word cloud is used to visually represent text data. It is typically used to highlight keyword metadata on websites. Different font sizes and colours are used to determine relative prominence of various keywords.
This tutorial will help you understand and generate word clouds.
How to create a QR code
- QR code generator
QR Code is machine readable optical label containing information about a specific product/item. As the name Quick Response Code (QR Code) suggests, it quickly regenerates specific piece of information from a transitory media and displays it on your device.
This tutorial will help you generate QR Codes effectively.
Little Story Creator: Digital storytelling for Apple devices
‘Little Story Creator’, is a digital storytelling tool that can create a bridge between home and an early childhood education centre, especially for children growing up with more than one language around them.
This tutorial and downloadable pdf guide will help you use 'Little Story Creator'.