Experiences

Multilingual approach

Klāra Paipala

Latvia

Vocational School

Other

Teaching in class

Direct

The authoress of this questionnaire helps to acquire the subject of economics in Latvian to the students who have non-existent or very limited knowledge of it. The situation is made more difficult because of different level of Latvian. Often non-Latvians make 30-90 % of the group, their mother tongue is Russian , Ukrainian, Belorussian , etc. Their knowledge of Latvian differs from 'very good 'to 'I do not understand what you are saying , teacher ' .In this situation when a student does not understand what the teacher is saying any interest about the subject diminishes. In addition , the authoress of this experience speaks Russian in which non-Latvians communicate fluently. As a result , the authoress of this experience have to teach not only economics , but also economical terms in Latvian . It is done in a following way :
1. As there is no sufficient number of books in economics in PIKC RVT , the authoress of this experience has prepared presentations of all themes .It gives the opportunity to the students to study the terms in literal business Latvian.
2. As there is an Internet access in the classrooms we analyse the materials available in the Internet during the lessons. It also develops students' skills of Latvian.
3. In case some student does not understand the particular term in Latvian , the authoress translates it into Russian. If it takes too much time , the authoress invites him or her to individual lessons where she explains everything both in Latvian and Russian in order to teach economical terms and Latvian at the same time.
4. The authoress puts these presentations in the media Mykoob after the request of the students .
5. It would be useful to prepare a glossary of economical terms in Latvian , Russian and English within the funds of ESF.

After such effort there was no case when a student did not get a positive evaluation.