ABSTRACT
Linguistic diversity in the classroom is, of course, an asset. Children who speak languages other than English bring variety and different linguistic experience into the classroom. Britain has, of course, long been a multilingual and multi-dialectal country. The principal linguistic groups emanating from South Asia are Panjabi, Gujerati and Bengali. Italian immigrants who came in the immediate post-war period augmented the Italian populations who had immigrated earlier. Many of these immigrants settled in specific towns in the Midlands and South where their labour was sought. When immigration in the post Second World War period is referred to, this is often a coded way of talking about black or ‘coloured’ immigration. The most that multicultural education can do is to raise awareness about cultural difference, help pupils in the appreciation of cultural diversity, and perhaps remove some of the worst stigmas applied to second language speakers.
