Let's now focus on the competences which teachers need to develop. What are the main aspects that a language teacher for migrants and refugees needs to consider when teaching? The cultural aspects of the language, the importance of adopting a gender sensitive approach in their classes, the role of religion in the classroom, the value of the students prior linguistic knowledge, or the importance of avoiding a deficit perspective of the students knowledge. Aside from former knowledge, such as vocabulary, phonetics or grammar, and teaching methodologies to communicate these formal aspects, teachers also need to consider the social aspects of language. In fact, as pointed by the anthropologist Alessandro Duranti, although learning languages is an ability we are born with, the context in which we learn them, the manner in which we use them, and the extent to which they help or hinder us in achieving our goals is culturally mediated. In short, languages are deeply interwoven with the context where they are used and cannot be treated like independent objects as we showed in one of the previous models. For this reason, for example, when we teach a language for people who have experienced a migration process, we need to consider how to overcome the stereotypes reflected in the talked language or how some gender issues intersect with other social phenomena and language. It is also necessary to take into account the role of previous linguistic knowledge and why some knowledge is socially valued while other knowledge is ignored, adopting a deficit perspective. Finally, since language is so culturally and socially mediated, it makes no sense to teach a language focusing on it as though it were not connected to the speaker and his or her reality, his or her needs and expectations. The focus must always be on the student and not just on teaching the language. Something that sometimes goes unnoticed is how language represents hierarchically different communities in expressions of popular use. Teachers need to be aware of prejudices against other countries and their inhabitants, even if they only occur unconsciously in linguistic usage. Phrases such as, "It's all Greek to me. " "Das kommt mir spanisch vor. " "Eso me suena a chino. " with the same meaning in English, German and Spanish, and words that refer to foreign nationalities, and ascribed stereotypical characteristics can be offensive and should therefore be avoided. Experienced teachers collect, compare, and falsifies stereotypes in order to break them down. Another very relevant aspect to consider when teaching, which usually goes undetected, is how gender discrimination affects language learning. It is shocking how unnoticed gender-specific language barriers are, especially when women constitute nearly half of the international migrants, according to the World Migration Report of 2020. But research has shown that women experience specific gender discrimination in the receiving countries, and this affects their language learning. It is often assumed that receiving countries will provide women with greater levels of gender equality, and teachers can easily adopt a gender blind approach as has been demonstrated by migration studies. But teachers need to consider the intersection between linguistic diversity, integration, and gender, as we underlined when we analyzed Pavines case. Migrant women, especially Muslim women are viewed from a deficit framework. This places them in a more vulnerable position for accessing equal rights, resources, and participation, since their possibilities and aspirations can easily be underestimated. For example, it very often happens that the stereotypes which apply to Muslim woman make them more vulnerable to derogatory attitudes which assume they have hardly any other vessels than their caretaker role. This needs to be examined if we wish to bring light to the structural disadvantages they also face in relation to linguistic integration. If women's aspirations are underestimated, it is very likely that teachers will lower their teaching goals. But very often, the only current gender agendas are those which try to overcome situations which should respond less to their realities than to receiving societies prejudices. Religion is an important issue for some students, therefore, teachers should be aware that religious decisions might occur even if the subject of the lesson has nothing to do with religion. Teachers must be prepared to discuss religious issues in unusual way, therefore, they need to have at least the basic knowledge of the students religions, or they need to know how to avoid discussions if they do not feel prepared for them. In any case, teachers should always underline the shared values of different individuals and communities. Another teaching skill is to acknowledge, value, and use students previous knowledge. Students feel valued when you show interest in their mother tongue, other languages they have learned through their own migratory experiences or previously. This is also a way of encouraging their plurilingual competence, which we analyzed earlier. One possibility is to compare languages by asking students, how do you say that in a language or how do you say that in other languages? Often students even come up with comparisons themselves to their mother tongue if words are similar. These utterances always need to be valued. When these reflections occur apart from indicating the development of their plurilingual competence, they also show the development of metalinguistic awareness, which is also very important skill in learning languages. In terms of literacy pre-knowledge, it is helpful to activate memories and connect them to the new topic. For example, you can ask, "Where have you seen this letter before?" Students need the feeling of success in order to carry on learning and to stay motivated. Teachers should therefore never focus on mistakes or the things that students have not learned yet, but on the progress which they are making and the knowledge that they have already gained. It is very important to focus not on the student's limited proficiency in "x" language, or even on the learner status, but on their strengths, on what they already know. Above all, as pointed by the researcher on multilingualism, Ofelia Garcia, on their ways of making meaning and engaging with the word, has emphasized, before migrants earn an idea position to become strong intercultural citizens if they're learning experience are acknowledged and used in the classroom instead of ignored and undermined. In order to avoid a deficit perspective, it is very important to remember what we explained before about the fallacy of equating the resources of a language with the resources of the speaker, and the importance of claiming partial competence. Maybe they don't master the specific language we are teaching, but they are definitely constantly engaging with the world which surrounds them, and finding different ways to communicate. Providing them with more tools doesn't mean not valuing what they already do. Finally, teachers need to be aware of how hard it is to learn a language in order to notice learning efforts and to praise them. I said before, when we think in our own struggles, learning foreign languages, we stop taking for granted any little step, and we understand how discouraging can be not to feel that one is advancing. For this small rewards can be very motivating. The rewards may either be oral praise or for example, in the form of stamps, or stickers, or letting the students do a task they like most or play a game can also be used as rewards for learning efforts and good performance in class. After a session or sequence, it can be very motivating to hand out a paper containing the contents the students have learned and are now capable of so they can see their success in learning. These lists of contents will also help them with the revision of what they have learned later on. Let's now reflect on what this session has presented through the following questions. First, think of phrases and sayings you often use and check if they might contain subliminal stereotypical or even discriminating meaning. Secondly, find out information on your students cultural backgrounds. Third, can you write down the religions you know, the religions of your students? Fourth, make a list with important religious facts and characteristics for the religions you listed up before. Finally, make a list of ideas for rewarding students learning efforts. You can continue this list every time you find a new technique.
