In this episode, I had the privilege of interviewing Professor Johanne Paradis. We talk mostly about immigrant or refugee children learning English-as-a-second language. Johanne provides many tips and advice for teachers, educators and speech-language pathologists as well as parents. We also talk about language disorders in bilingual children.

A big thank you to Colette Leblanc, the mother of a child with a Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), who shares her experience with us. In this episode, Colette tells us about her son who has a diagnosis of DLD as well as global apraxia, dyslexia, and ADD (attention deficit disorder). She tells us about the ups and downs and about all the people who make up their supportive village. The episode is also broadcast in French. Let's celebrate this year's International DLD Awareness Day (Oct 14, 2022à0 by spreading the word about DLD. You can start by sharing this podcast episode with your friends.

Un gros merci à Colette LeBlanc, la mère d'un enfant aux prises avec un Trouble développemental du langage (TDL), qui partage son expérience avec nous. Lors de cet épisode, Colette nous parle de son fils qui a un diagnostic du TDL ainsi qu'une apraxie globale et un TDA (trouble déficitaire de l'attention). Elle nous parle des hauts et des bas et de l'ensemble des personnes qui forment leur village d'appui. L'épisode est également diffusé en anglais.

Cet épisode porte principalement sur le bilinguisme et le multilinguisme en milieu minoritaire à l’âge préscolaire. L’anglais prédomine un peu partout au Canada, alors comment appuyer le développement d'une ou deux langue(s) minoritaire(s) ? Écoutez pour en apprendre davantage. En somme, on veut aider les enfants à développer une identité bilingue et à associer des attitudes positives face au bilinguisme. Après tout, leurs langues sont leurs super-pouvoirs !

In preparation for the school year, I am releasing this exciting episode on biliteracy. Ce tout premier épisode bilingue vous apporte toutes sortes de ressources et d’astuces afin d’aider vos enfants et vos élèves bilingues à devenir de bons lecteurs. Comment pouvons-nous appuyer les enfants à bien maîtriser le français lorsque cette langue n’est pas leur langue maternelle ? Listen to this episode in order to find out more about biliteracy, crosslinguistic pedagogies, supporting the child’s home language and much more with Dr. Caroline Erdos and Laura MacGrath. Qu’est-ce qui est typique chez un apprenant d’une langue seconde lorsqu’on parle de la lecture ? Quand les enseignants devraient-ils s’inquiéter ?

Lors de cet épisode, Dre Phyllis Dalley de l’Université d’Ottawa nous parle de son parcours comme allochtone bilingue, comme enseignante, comme chercheure activiste et comme fondatrice des Chantiers d’actions et de recherches pour des Ffrancophonies inclusives (CARFfI). Nous abordons plusieurs concepts dont la sécurité linguistique, l’insécurité linguistique, la résilience linguistique, la flexibilité linguistique, l’anxiété linguistique, le plurilinguisme et le plurinormatif, entre autres. Dre Dalley fait la distinction entre la variété du français enseignée à l’école et les diverses variétés de la communauté. Du point de vue linguistique, toutes les variétés se valent, mais ce sont des points de vue social et politique qu’il y a une différence.

This episode will leave you thinking about your own linguistic, raciolinguistic and word gap ideologies. A must listen for all speech and language pathologists, educators, linguists and all decision makers surrounding language policies in schools. Dr. Ian Cushing and Dr. Julia Snell share their wealth of knowledge on those topics, more particularly as it pertains to a recent article that was published online by the Cambridge University Press: The (white) ears of Ofsted: A raciolinguistic perspective on the listening practices of the schools inspectorate.

In this episode, which is part of a series on all things bilingual, Dr. Genesee and I talk about dual language learners, language use in schools, and the impact of the majority language on minority language acquisition in both minority language schools (ex. French language schools) and immersion programs. Dr. Genesee gives very useful strategies that can be used by educators who are interested in exploring a bilingual or a crosslinguistic approach in a meaningful way. We talk about how we can support the use of the children’s linguistic resources in order to help them acquire and maintain the minority language. We also talk about the importance of establishing clear goals when using crosslinguistic or translanguaging approaches as well as the parents’ role in their child’s acquisition of a minority language, be it their home language or the school language.

When I started this podcast back in 2019, I wasn’t entirely sure how it would unfold. I am thrilled with the outcome, with over 15 000 downloads, 46 episodes and guests from all over the world. Today I am releasing Season 4 with an episode on one of my favorite topics: bilingualism and multilingualism with Dr. Jasone Cenoz. Dr. Cenoz is a professor of education at the University of the Basque Country. Her research focuses on bilingualism and multilingualism in education and on pedagogical translanguaging. Pedagogical translanguaging is “a theoretical and instructional approach that aims at improving language and content competences in school contexts by using resources from the learner's whole linguistic repertoire. Pedagogical translanguaging is learner-centred and endorses the support and development of all the languages used by learners. It fosters the development of metalinguistic awareness by softening of boundaries between languages when learning languages and content.” (Cenoz and Gorter, 2021).

This episode is all about literacy and the Science of reading in schools with April Hackett and Julie McDermid, Canadian speech-language pathologists. April and Julie talk to us about the Science of reading and a wonderful resource that they have created as well as useful tips, resources and much much more. Be sure to check out the episode show notes at theparlepodcast.com for links to all of the fantastic resources discussed during the episode. If you are a teacher or a speech-language pathologist working with children, you won’t want to miss this episode.