serving the world
cultural traditions, languages
and the international school library
Ours is a highly interconnected and networked world. Having the right information at the right time is more important than ever and thus becoming information literate &mdash recognizing the need for information and developing the skills "to identify, access, evaluate, synthesise [sic] and apply" (Bundy, 2002) this needed commodity — is a crucial goal in education.
Ours is also a very mobile world. Jobs do not only require us to move within a town or country, no, even working at various times in different countries is not that uncommon anymore. Cultures and languages meet at the work place, cultures and languages meet in the classroom, cultures and languages meet in the school library — all at different levels of competency. In this "multi-ethnic, multi-level, multi-goal" (Crane, 1999) mix a multitude of diverse literacy needs have to be accommodated. This is nowhere more true than at International Schools where many students function in a three-language environment (home language, school language, and environment language) and a multi-cultural setting.
Interest in the effects of multilingualism and multiculturalism on education in general and on information literacy in particular is not a new phenomenon; for at least "the last 100 years" (Agosto, 2001) it has been a topic of research. And although it has mainly dealt with immigrant situations, i.e. people integrating into a new culture and language without losing their first one (see also Levin, 2002, Simsova, 1992; Yilmaz, 2002), much of it is also applicable to the specialized situation at International Schools.
Building on diverse language acquisition theories like Skinner's behaviorism and Chomsky's innatism (Conteh-Morgan, 2002), researchers found that learning takes place better in a non-threatening atmosphere. The school library can play an important role in providing such an environment by showing support of minority languages and cultural heritages (Agosto, 2001; LaDuska, 2003; Marcus, 2003). If, on the other hand, home language books are not available in the school library, inadvertently the message can be conveyed that those languages are of less importance. The same goes for the students' specific cultural heritage. The availability of multicultural resources "affirm[s] the validity of students' native culture" (Agosto, 2001). In this way stress that often accompanies a move to a new cultural and linguistic area can be reduced.
Although second language acquisition seems to work in somewhat different ways than learning one's first language or mother tongue, researchers agree that "the stronger the student's Mother Tongue skills, the better their English language skills will be, as they will have already a sound language base to build upon" (Barter, 1999, p 99). Certain language concepts will already be understood from the mother tongue and can be transferred to the second language learning. "Students with no first-language schooling, either at home or in the host country, are not able to reach grade-level performance in a second language" (Murphy, 2003, p. 31). Again, the library is a primary source for giving support for both language-learning environments by providing resources in the instructional language as well as in the language or languages spoken at home.
When we speak of multilingualism, we have to understand that it is not necessarily a matter of students reaching the same level in more than one language. Perhaps we should look at it rather as placed on a continuum. Instead of knowing or not knowing a number of languages in their entirety, the multilingual student will most likely have a "specialized vocabulary needed to function in each of the three environments, home, school, and host country..." (Barter, 1994, p. 36). He or she might even prefer one language for one area of his or her life and another language for another.
The mission of each individual school, the results of research on how we learn, the desire to provide what is "good" for students in International Schools in order for them to become responsible citizens of the world determines to a large extent what is taught and where the focus lies. This is important — yet is also vital to find out the needs as they are perceived by the students themselves. How do they see their situation as an individual in a multicultural and multilingual environment? For the purpose of finding out the views of the students themselves, a short research project was conducted with the student body at the Upper School of the Zurich International School.
research design
A survey of the general school population was chosen because it is "an efficient method for systematically collecting data from a broad spectrum of individuals and social settings" (Schutt, 1999. p. 231). Of course this particular questionnaire only shows us the picture of one particular International School. However, since the student body comes from all over the world, from different nations, languages, and cultures, a certain generalization of what is like to live and learn in a multicultural and multilingual environment — the situation of all students at International Schools — is possible.
The questionnaire was administered to 242 students covering grades 9 to 12. It consisted of three parts: questions about 1) culture & traditions, 2) schools & languages, and 3) library usage. Being aware that the attention span in young people can be relatively short, i.e. they may lose interest in the questions after a while and not answer them in a way that shows their true feelings but rather hurry through "just get it over with", the survey was kept short and could be taken in about 15 minutes. It was first pre-tested on three students with various English language capabilities in order to detect and eliminate ambiguities and questions that could possibly be misunderstood. Then it was administered to all students at the same time; this way discussions about the questions were prevented that might cloud and change the students' immediate responses. Only 3 returned surveys could not be used in the analysis as it was obvious that those particular students had not honestly answered the questions. The vast majority — 239 — had given answers that were consistent within each set and are analyzed below.
culture & tradition
This first set of questions dealt with the students' culture and national traditions. When asked whether they kept their nationality's traditions, over 80% answered in the positive. This is perhaps a somewhat surprising result considering that we live in a modern seemingly very secular world — especially in the developed countries. These findings, however, would support Simsova's position who claims that customs and cultural traditions become more important to individuals who are far from their home country since these aspects become the "portable substitute for the land" (Simsova, 1992, p. 21).
It stands in some contrast, though, to another finding of the survey: only 25% of the students were interested in reading about their home country's traditions. Why this discrepancy between keeping traditions and wanting more information about them? There can be a number of reasons. This survey was taken by young people between the ages of 13 and 18. They are minors, not adults yet. Thus, as a rule, they do not necessarily make decisions as to cultural values and observations for their family. As minors in their family constellation they might do whatever the whole family does simply as a family tradition and not because they themselves highly desire it. On the other hand, finding value and importance in rituals does not necessarily go hand in hand with an intellectual curiosity about reasons, history and development of these customs. Keeping cultural traditions is an aspect of our humanness that works much more on the emotional and visceral level rather than the intellectual and cognitive level. It is thus possible that keeping national customs may give them enough of a secure feeling of belonging to a cultural unit without the necessity of wanting more intellectual information about them. One also has to consider that reading about something can be to many young people today far less attractive than participating in it without diminishing its importance itself.
Yes-answers to this question clustered to a certain extent around students belonging to countries whose cultural celebrations differed to a larger degree from those kept in Switzerland, again echoing Simsova's position. When the customs kept in the host society are similar to those of the home nation, added support of them through information is not vital. If there are major differences, however, a more active cognitive need seems to be noticeable in people.
This clustering was also true for the follow-up question on their desire to see displays in the library commemorating their cultural traditions at appropriate times throughout the year. Overall 36% answered here with yes. This is a slightly higher positive response than to the previous question; still not even close the students' answers to observance of traditions. Again, it might be that if the host society keeps similar customs, they will be visible all around and no added displays in the school library are needed. In this case, the actual cultural observance becomes a private matter of the family. If the home nation's traditions, however, are not celebrated in the host country, any commemoration of them at school is appreciated as it creates a certain community that the "foreign" student can became part of.
The last set of questions in this part of the survey focused on reading authors of the students' home nations. Nearly 70% wanted to read stories by authors from their country. And of those answering yes, the overwhelming majority — 91% — wanted to read these books in their original language. In all their travels, their years in various countries, most of these young people seem to have a keen awareness of where their "home" is and a desire to connect to it wherever they might live at any given time. This continued connection to the literary culture of one's home country is important in the formation of personal identity. Values, norms, points of view, a way of seeing the world are expressed in those books, and one's "identity is inseparable from those values" (Pearce, 1996, p. 24).
It also seems very important to the students to read these books in their home language. Although one used to think that this would hinder the students from acquiring a good knowledge of the instructional language of the school, this idea has long been discarded since research has shown that "learning literacy in the first language [is] the basis of becoming literate in English" (Asselin, 2003). It is important to have resources available in the home language of the students to keep up their skills in it, thus encouraging — to repeat Barter's advice — "a strong language base on which to build upon" (Barter, 1999, p. 99). Although these students did not necessarily have this outcome in mind when voicing their opinion, it is interesting that their desire is supported by research as to what schools want to achieve in their students' literacy skills.
schools & languages
The surveyed student body consisted of 32 individual nationalities plus 43 different nationality combinations. Thus there is a very interesting mix of schools these students have attended. The majority — 62% — had first gone to a local school in their home country receiving instruction in their home language before coming to the Zurich International School. Perhaps it is astonishing that 11% had also spent some of their school years in local schools in their host countries first. However, these were mainly schools in Switzerland, and the US. Over 2/3 of this group had gone to a Swiss school, receiving instruction in German, the remaining 1/3 to English-speaking schools in the US. The survey did not ask for reasons why certain schools were chosen, thus one can only speculate about them. The wish to integrate the children into their host country, financial consideration or the distance from the family's home to the school location could be a few reasons why local host schools were chosen at least for the first few years of schooling. Some — 3% — had spent their whole school life up to now at this one International School. The young people in these above mentioned groups can be considered as having had a rather stable school life: a local school in their home or host country, and one International School. Still, it required of them to adjust to at least two languages in their everyday life. The rest — 24% — are the world travelers that have come into contact with a number of languages. The home language stays a constant, the school language varies between home and another language, plus any number of environmental languages. Around 12% had traveled to a number of countries and attended school there: local schools in their home country and international schools in various other countries; and another 12% had never gone to a local school in their home country but only to various International Schools.
The question set focusing on home and preferred languages showed many different answer combinations, too many to divide them into percentages. There were, however, a few tendencies that became apparent and are noteworthy. Although no question addressed the length of time the students stayed in various countries, it is possible to deduct some generalizations from these tendencies.
Wherever the home language was English — also the instructional language at the Zurich International School — the preferred language for each category named (speaking, reading school work, news, and for pleasure, plus writing) was without exception also English. The two linguistic environments, home and school, seem to support each other so that any influence of the environmental language remains minimal. A handful placed German in second place as a preferred language especially for speaking and news. One cannot assume an automatic and direct linear relationship between the linguistic environment one lives in and the ability to use that language; other aspects play a role, too: linguistic talent, length of time one has lived in the host country, the desire of the family to integrate into the host environment, etc. Still, at least with a few — in spite of the reciprocal encouragement of home and instructional language being the same — some influence of the environmental language can be noticed.
The second group showed an even more diversified and interesting picture. Here one of the home languages was English, with at least one more being used. Again, because of the double weight of at least one of the home languages and the instructional language being the same, the majority felt the most comfortable with English. About 1/3, however, named one of the other home languages as the preferred language for speaking and/or pleasure reading. This other language usually reflected their nationalities. A sizable minority, however, said the German was one of their home languages, yet this did not seem because of their nationality. One can deduct from that that the environmental language has an influence on the student's linguistic preferences if the whole family desires its integration into their lives. This of course does not mean that those students who claimed only English as a home language cannot speak any German, only that they have not reached a comfort level in it.
The third group of students spoke a different language at home than at school or that was used in the host country. Quite a number of times English was again named the preferred language pointing to the strong influence that the instructional language has on the linguistic preferences of young people. But in this group the different categories of language use was the most varied. Speaking and reading for pleasure was often associated with the home language, writing and reading for school work tended to be in the instructional language: English.
Multilinguism does not seem to be a matter of black and white, of knowing or not knowing a language. There is not necessarily a clear delineation between those languages; they rather move on a continuum. The preferred language can be different for different areas. Each field of communication might require a specialized vocabulary, perhaps even a different language altogether: one for speaking, another one for school work, and maybe yet a third one for another area of life. "In many cases one language may be dominant, although which one is dominant may vary depending on the situation" (Barter, 1994, p.36).
library usage
The last set of questions inquired about the students' use of public libraries and the school library with its availability of the Internet. It is not surprising that public libraries were not visited very often: only about 14% went to them on a regular basis to find resources for their school work; even less — about 8% — for private reading materials. For most students the language of their host country is not their home language and thus these host language resources of the public library would be of little help to them. Many of the larger libraries here also offer sizable English language collections. This probably accounts for the slightly higher percentage of students using public libraries for school work. An interesting picture emerges when one looks at each individual grade. Public library use for school work increases steadily from about 8% for 9th and 10th graders, 16% for 11th graders, and 25% for 12th graders. Partly this could be due to the students feeling more at home in their host country with each year and thus they might more likely also use local resources. Another reason is probably our school's library program. As part of it, the 11th graders are taken to one of the major libraries in town and introduced to its collections in the various languages, which a good portion of them from then on regularly make use of. As this public and university library is set up with a different system — not the Dewey Decimal as the school library — this introduction also helps them become more confident users of another set-up than they are used from school.
However, this increasing usage does not hold true for private reading matters. There the picture is the reverse: around 8% for 9th, 10th and 11th graders, and even less — only 6% — for 12th graders. Perhaps the required reading list for school work grows too large to leave much time for pleasure reading. On top of that, with getting closer to adulthood, other activities than reading might become more important and take up larger portions of the young person's free time.
The use of the school library does not have a linear development but rather shows a see-saw picture. For school work nearly 50% of the 9th graders use the school library's resources, but only 25% of the 10th graders. In the 11th grade it's over 80%, and in the 12th about 65%. For private reading materials the percentages are about 30, 15, 35 and 25% respectively, also an increase and decrease along the same lines, although not as marked. It is not immediately obvious why these percentages should vary in this way. Most instructional units in information literacy are offered in a systematic way to all students in the 9th and 10th grades at our school, with more specialized offers to the various classes — especially IB and AP — in the 11th and 12th grades. Thus one could expect a higher use of the library in the two lower grades; but the picture is different. It would be interesting to find out whether this is just a phenomenon at our school or whether other International Schools experience the same discontinuity.
As was expected the Internet receives the highest usage at the library. Young people seem to be naturally drawn to online resources. Nearly 85% overall use it for school work and still 70% for their private reading interest. There was a general slight increase with each grade: 78%, 80%, 89% and 94% respectively for school work. As the students become more computer savvy with each year, they also tend to use it more in their research.
conclusion
The library as a non-threatening environment can do much to make each student's school years successful stepping stones for his or her further educational life. This is true for any school library, but even more so for libraries at International Schools. Moving from one linguistic and cultural setting to another adds significant stress to a youngster's life. How the school library deals with these challenges that students have to face in what is to them always a new environment can have a deep impact on the scholastic and emotional well-being of the young people it serves.
Our survey showed that cultural traditions are very important to students living far from their home country. Any acknowledgement of such observances, however, needs to be handled with sensitive care. Encouraging support in the library is welcome especially for those whose own culture is vastly different from their host country's, but when this support grows into overpowering enforcement, young people tend to find it oppressive and shy away from it. As librarians we need to know our clientele and learn when cultural displays and programs are helpful and when they can be too much.
Even more important to the students is the cultural aspect offered by their home country's authors. Of course, every school library has to deal with budgetary considerations; there is never enough money to do all the programs, to buy all the books. On top of that the first goal is the support of the curriculum. Yet it is also vital that the library be a place where each student can truly feel at home, where he or she can find — as much as possible — their home country's authors in the original language. Although "the experience of living and studying in different cultures has dramatically altered the student's cultural outlook" (Barter, 1999, p. 104) — third culture kids cannot be put into a drawer culturally but have to be looked at as individuals — there is a strong desire in many of them to keep or even to first establish a connection to the literature of their home country. With resources from many nations, the library can also be the place where the vast world can be explored with its multitude of languages and cultures by all students. Both, supporting curriculum and building multicultural/multilingual collections, can be achieved if there is close collaboration between the library, the faculty and the administration.
Whether one applauds or bemoans the high use of the Internet by students, it is here to stay. It is probably even more important for students at International Schools as it connects them to the many lands they have traveled through and lived in. So it is not any longer a yes or no to the Internet, but rather a how. The school library has to provide programs that will teach students the necessary skills to use the Internet as a tool, to use it effectively, critically and ethically — and to have fun doing so.
The library at an International School is to a certain extent a stand-alone library. It does not necessarily have any automatic connection to public libraries in its locale. But the effort it takes to forge certain links can be well worth it. Many larger libraries have resources in various languages that can be of help to the international students in their school work and also their pleasure reading. However, the young people might have a natural inhibition to visit such public libraries because of language difficulties and not really feeling at home yet in their host country. Where library programs exist to take students to local libraries, these barriers can be broken down to a large extent. This can only be a gain to the students as more resources are now at their disposal. Yet an even more important advantage lies in the fact that the youngster is introduced to another library set-up. Wherever they will continue their further education, the library at the college or university they'll attend will most likely be organized in different ways than they are used to from their high school days: collections in different departments, on various levels, using other classification systems. Getting to know some of these differences already at school and receiving the help to access information successfully in spite of them, can "reduce or eliminate academic library research shock" (Breivick & Gee, 1989, p. 97). After all, it is the ultimate goal of a library's literacy programs at International Schools to develop in their students from all corners of the globe the independence and confidence to find and use information no matter where they will go to live next. The world will be their oyster, but they will not lose themselves in it.
references
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