ABSTRACT
The view that teachers should respond positively to the linguistic diversity of the school population is now widely supported in the educational literature of policy documents and research reports as well as HMI investigations, DES statements and committees of inquiry. As a result, linguistic diversity has become a familiar term in professional debate and staffroom discussion. Conflicting versions of what such a positive response entails in terms of classroom practice are representative of the variety of ways in which practitioners interpret the concept of linguistic diversity in the light of their own theories of teaching and learning. The Linguistic Diversity in the Primary School Project (LDIP) has involved groups of primary school teachers in a number of LEAs around the country. Their work has explored a range of themes from developing the use of minority languages in school to raising the status of non-standard varieties of English as well as activities that fall under the general category of Language Awareness.
