The Parent Association is proud to present an evening talk by Trinity College Lecturer Dr. Francesca La Morgia and Director of Mother Tongues about “Living Languages – Multilingualism in School and at Home”
When: 16th January 2018 at 7.30pm
Where: Lynn Hall at St. Kilian’s German School
Key points will be
– The benefits of growing up bilingual/multilingual (cognitive, social, educational, practical)
– The challenges of growing up bilingual/multilingual (language abilities; language dominance; learning difficulties in bilingual children)
– Learning an additional language (from theory to practice)
– Parental strategies to support harmonious bilingual development (practical advice; real life examples)
In addition to the talk Claudia Kunkel, a German speech and language therapist who has worked at bilingual schools, will set up a small info stand to answer parents’ questions both on language development and on language impairment or learning difficulties.
Agenda of the evening:
Dr. La Morgia will speak for 40 minutes, after which parents can ask questions. Since every family will have their own unique situation, she likes to spend time discussing scenarios and answering people’s concerns individually.
About the lecturers:
Dr.Francesca La Morgia has been supporting families with bilingual children for 10 years.
She has a Ph.D. in childhood bilingualism, and she has taught in UCD, DCU and the University of Reading. She is currently Assistant Professor in Clinical Speech and Language Studies in Trinity College Dublin. Her research focuses on the role of input, interaction and family language policy in bilingual language development.
Claudia Kunkel studied Speech and Language Therapy in Munich. She worked as a speech therapist until she moved to Rome in 2008, where she did therapy with bilingual children at the Deutsche Schule Rom and taught German at the Goethe-Institut. She has been living in Ireland since 2016. She is fascinated by the many different strategies used by adults to learn a second language and by the great capacity of children to learn two or more languages simultaneously.
Mother Tongues – www.mothertongues.ie
Mother Tongues is an organisation that aims to raise awareness of the benefits and challenges associated with bilingualism. They provide advice and support for parents, education professionals, health care professionals, businesses and for anyone working in multilingual environments.
