Prejudice against plurilinguals by monolinguals?

[Bonsoir]

I live in a plurilingual sort of environment and have done for much of my life. Bringing up my DD bilingually, I have become aware of a great deal of prejudice against bilinguals and plurilingualism by monolinguals. Has anyone else encountered this? Do you think it is fueled by fear? Ignorance? Envy?

Oh yes definitely.

Are they also fat and poor?

What sort of predjudice?

It's not something I've ever encountered, as far a I know. Could you be more specific?

Fear?
No, never encountered anything negative at all. Ever.

You are probably just projecting Bonsoir.

I've come across monolingual teachers who actively dislike bilingual children (in a bilingual school) and tell bilingual parents, with a straight face, that bilingualism is very difficult and stressful for the child and that they ought to lower their expectations. I think this is teachers feeling threatened, personally.

Also monolingual parents who are determined that monolingual children should be valued more highly than bilingual children by discounting language marks when making averages.

What ARE you on about?

I've heard of this from French people, my friend was told by child's GP that they were being unreasonable bringing up their children with more than just French (although to be fair they speak 4 languages as a family).

Anywhere else I've never heard of it being anything but a positive.

TBH I see more of it from English people (teachers) than French.

Oh this is gold!

Also monolingual parents who are determined that monolingual children should be valued more highly than bilingual children by discounting language marks when making averages.

How does discounting language marks make monolingual children more highly valued can you explain the context a bit more please?

If you have marks for every subject at school (from tests), monolingual parents want language marks excluded from the average so that their monolingual DC won't have lower averages than plurilingual DC.

It happens in the UK, btw, with A level MFL - quite a lot of universities won't count an A level in an MFL taken by a native speaker, even if there was no other way for that native speaker to maintain his/her language skills than an A-level syllabus.

To be entirely fair, I will admit I know what Bonsoir means. My mate (who's on MN too) has a DS who is disabled, and she's had school (not in the UK) try to convince her some of his difficulties are because she's insisting on using English with him as well as his dad's language.

Which is pretty shit of them, TBH.

I don't know if that's prejudice against using two languages or plain xenophobia, mind.

On the flip side, I can believe that if you're a teacher and you're trying to explain to someone that their child is struggling, you're probably not going to react well to the suggestion you're just jealous of the child's (struggling) linguistic capacity, are you?

But an average is just that, an average of all the subjects you've done.
Do the students school not all do the same number of subjects regardless of wether they do languages or not?

Cross post.

TBH, I don't see why universities should count an A Level from a native speaker very highly, bonsoir? Someone who can't keep up their 'native' language and needs to study it doesn't sound fluent to me. The only person I've heard of doing a A Level in her mother tongue for any reason other than 'might as well since I don't need to study for it' was someone whose parents were divorced and she'd not really spoken that language to anyone much since she was very little. That level of effort should be properly rewarded - taking an exam you don't need to work for should not be rewarded so much, because you won't have needed to pick up the study skills.

No, they don't do the same number of subjects and some count and some don't towards the average. But the ones that count are up for debate.

LRD - I see many DC who are not struggling at all, just bored because they are under stimulated. Parents ask the teachers for more work/a faster pace to make sure one language doesn't move ahead faster than another and get told that they are taking risks and that one language needs to be held back.

Is it ONLY not counted if the student is a native speaker or just never counted?

I bring my children up not to trust plurilinguals.

You cannot maintain your native language(s) unless you practice them, LRD, especially when you are young. I am thinking of someone I know who has done six A-levels, of which two MFL in languages she speaks with her family (grandparents) but not every day, but they don't "count" for anything in the university system. I think that's prejudice.

I also don't get why you would need to do an A'level in your native language just to keep it up, in any case! perhaps they discount it because if you are a native speaker then it's not really a true demonstration of effort and attainment is it?

Bonsoir - that doesn't sound great. I was talking in the context of a child who does struggle, though - not because his mum speaks English to him but because the teachers are using that as an excuse to be shitty.

Bonsori the discrimination you described seems to be coming from the universities but your thread title said 'monolinguists' ,I don't think it's anything to do with mono linguists and everything to do with wanting each student to have a fair chance at admissions,

Sorry Bonsoir

My DC are trilingual and I have not come across this prejudice in their school (French).

Then again, we live in a very international place where bilingual children are the norm and trilinguals are not unusual.