ABSTRACT
Punjabi in Birmingham becomes a historical accident and a territorial aberration, a temporary occupation of someone else’s space. Remarks about cultural diversity related to stories for 5–2-year-olds, for example, are removed from speaking and listening. Throughout reading there is a new emphasis on ‘texts of central importance to the literary heritage’, although ‘wide reading’ is to be encouraged, including ‘texts in English from other cultures and traditions’. There are now two challenges for the future relating to cultural diversity in the English curriculum. One concerns developing diversity still further within the United Kingdom and the other with extending it to incorporate European or global aspects. To complement an effective policy which exploits linguistic diversity, there needs to be clearly-planned topic management within the school. If languages belong to geographical areas with unbroken continuity of use in those areas, then each has its own proper place within which speakers may have ‘rights’.
