Crossing the language barrier

'Polskie produkty' boasts the bustling grocers to advertise its growing selection of food aimed at Hounslow's burgeoning Polish population.

Nearby, the Marwa Super Store promotes tasty halal meat and oriental food in English, Arabic and Panjabi.

With more than 140 languages spoken across Hounslow, it can be sometimes be difficult to get a message across which can be understood by everyone.

But for 30 years, one organisation has done more than any other to break down the language barrier by working in schools across the borough teaching English as a second language to hundreds of children.

The Hounslow Language Service employs dozens of bilingual and multilingual teaching assistants to help ethnic minority pupils, including new arrivals, refugees and those from asylum-seeking families, to improve their English.

The assistants, who speak around 30 languages between them, work in 14 secondary schools and around 50 primaries, making the service one of the largest of its kind in the country.

And they face quite a challenge to get everyone on the same page.

At Green Dragon Primary in Brentford, 26 languages can be heard in the playground, while at Berkeley Primary in Heston, pupils with 24 different mother-tongues have to be catered for.

Rehana Ahmed, one of two acting heads of the HLS, said: "Our priority is to teach the children English... but we do it through using their background culture and their own language."

Manny Vazquez, the other acting head, adds that embracing, rather than suppressing, the language that the pupils are most comfortable with is "the most important starting point for them to then progress within the English education system".

From the youngest primary school pupils through to teenagers in secondary classes, foreign pupils joining schools in Hounslow are put through a simple assessment by HLS assistants to establish their EAL (English as a Alternative Language) level.

Level one means they speak no English at all, while those at level four are fluent.

Using these levels, learning assistants can then work out weekly teaching schedules to help pupils pick up English as quickly as possible.

Techniques such as simple repetition of words and phrases, the use of images and the organisation of reading clubs are employed to speed up learning among those with only basic English skills.

Other pupils can receive targeted help under the Advanced Learners Project, which puts them on a fast-track route to fluency.

HLS workers produce a huge array of educational material including games, CDs, English beginners' boxes and language learn boxes which are available through its website and have proved to be trusted resources for language services across the country, among whom the HLS is held in high esteem.

Mr Vazquez, 51, who speaks Spanish fluently, says: "We have many examples of pupils in secondary who have come in speaking virtually no English at the end of year eight and then end up with seven or eight GCSEs graded A to C.

"They have all the knowledge but it is a case of transferring skills and knowledge into a new language."

Well-known languages spoken by HLS assistants include Arabic, Bengali, Dutch, Farsi, French, German, Mandarin, Polish, Portuguese and Urdu, alongside more obscure dialects like Baluchi, Dari, Hokkien, Kutchi, Lingala, Mirpuri, Sylheti and Tagalog.

The service also has a network of workers who can be brought in if new pupils speak other languages not currently covered in the borough.

Constant fluctuations in the international make-up of Hounslow's residents mean that the HLS has to work hard to keep up.

From the arrival of many Vietnamese boat people in the late 70s and early 80s, through to Bengali, Somali and now Polish influxes, the service has had to regularly change to fit with residents' demands.

Several extra Polish teaching assistants have been signed up since the EU eastern expansion in 2004 saw a wave of workers come to west London. But Mrs Ahmed says: "It's business as usual for us because we are used to the changes."

As the final bell rang in half term for children from Green Dragon Primary School, a gathered gaggle of Brentford parents were full of praise for the help that HLS assistants have given to their kids.

Polish mum Katarzyna Nowak said her children Wiktoria and Olaf "love the school", enjoy learning English and are always "very happy" when they are working with Polish-speaking assistant Danusia Stok.

Karolina Maziarz's son David Dankowski arrived at Green Dragon three years ago speaking only Polish. Now, Karolina says proudly: "David doesn't stop speaking English. He has only English friends."

Somali-born Nimo Hussein was collecting her daughter Muna, 7, and son Abdull, who is in year 3. "They enjoy the fact they can read the language," she said. "The HLS classes are really helping them."

Mrs Hussein thanked Bunny Veglio, Green Dragon's EAL co-ordinator personally. She said: "It's been a pleasure to have someone like Bunny."

Pupil Harpreet Madan, 11, whose family moved to Hounslow from Afghanistan, feels that the teachers' techniques are very useful. "They give you a task to do and if you get difficulties with it, they show you other ways to do it."

It's not just the children who benefit from the work done by the HLS.

Parents groups help to keep whole families involved in the learning process and teachers find that the older generation can pick up many snippets of English from their youngsters.

"We work very closely with the community and we are the link between the community and the school in a lot of places," Mrs Ahmed says.

To further develop the understanding between Hounslow's myriad ethnic groups, HLS assistants have recently launched a language of the month programme in schools.

Each month, one dialect is selected and pupils across the school spectrum get the chance to pick up handy phrases from different countries as well as learning about different cultures and societies through information put up on noticeboards.

All this pioneering work was officially recognised at the end of 2006 when the HLS - whose motto is Equality through Quality' - receiving a glowing report from the Audit Commission.

But Mrs Ahmed, a trained teacher who speaks Urdu, Punjabi and Hindi on top of English, said: "Even though we are quite a large service, we still haven't got enough to meet the needs of all the ethnic minority pupils in the borough.

"So we have to arm mainstream teachers with the right kind of strategies and resources so that when we are not there, they know what to do."

The service is mainly funded by the Government's Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant, but also receives £750,000 each year from Hounslow Council.

In recent weeks, the Council has voted to reduce its donation by £100,000 a year due to ongoing budget cuts.

Three or four posts could be lost at the service as a result, council documents have revealed, and the issue has divided councillors along party lines.

Labour councillor Ruth Cadbury says the HLS is "one of the best and most comprehensive services in London" and that cuts will come "at the expense of the poorest and most vulnerable in Hounslow".

Reacting to the cuts, Mrs Ahmed says the organisation is seeking to "minimise the impact" by looking at "natural wastage".

But Coun Peter Thompson, Tory leader of Hounslow Council, said: "We were told that the HLS had a top-heavy management and that the measure will not affect what the kids will get.

"People are losing their jobs but it's not the teachers."

As the crowds dispersed from Green Dragon, children babbling in English strolled past signs welcoming visitors in six languages - walking, talking examples of the great work that the Hounslow Language Service will hopefully be doing for another 30 years to come.

- To find out more about the language service, call 020 8583 4166 or 020 8583 4167.

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