When the non-English-speaking children of immigrants first started arriving in British schools during the 1960s, the emphasis was wholly on the teaching of English, and the children's mother tongue was felt to have no part to play in this process. More recently, pressure from linguistic minority communities and EEC legislation in this area have forced schools and teachers to consider the question of mother-tongue teaching more thoughtfully. Although it remains a controversial issue, there is broad agreement that the promotion of the mother tongue is an important element in bilingual children's educational development.
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