Nowadays, more and more people regard teachers as a good occupation because of its security compared with other jobs. Because of such a trend, it is inevitable that some failing teachers exit. However, it is also becoming more and more challenging to be a teacher. I think dismissal proceedings will be a good system to inspire teachers to improve themselves. Under such pressure, teachers will work harder and ask themselves to constantly study hard. Consequently, the quality of teaching can be improved, too.

Joy, zhejiang, China

There are plenty of parents and children born and brought up in the UK who can't speak English properly, so picking on recent immigrants doesn't seem completely fair.

David Leslie, Perth, Scotland

I am a mother of a 10 month old boy, whose mother tongue is not English. He will not have any problems mastering English later on, when is 3 years old, by nature children learn quickly. We shouldn't blame the shortcomings of the education system on the issue of the immigrant children.

Genta Mali, London,

I think is native kids and their mothers that should have been the priority of the authorities.
The quality of the foremost communication instrument "language" suffers in Britain..
Not among the disadvantaged groups but specially in the more privileged. And it is degrading for a country.

Andreas, London, uk

Millions over the world are educated in a language different from their mother tongue. It can bring enormous benefits.

If there is a problem in England it is that we start testing in English at seven when most children in most countries haven't started school, then panic at the results.

Geoffrey Walker, Bordeaux, France

I think that integration is probably more important than language some newer migrants aren't fluent English speakers but they are basically benign so to speak.

A bigger problem and not one we wanted to admit was that we allowed non English speaking imams to brain wash kids born in England! Great!

Graham, St. Albans, uk

I've followed the same rule as the Bulgarian couple you mention. Living in Switzerland, we keep 100% English at home, and I've let my daughters be taught French properly at school, rather than picking up my mistakes. Now they are both fully bilingual.

Jacquie Groom, Epalinges, Switzerland

Having lived in Germany now for just over 5 years. My two youngest children are both at the local Realschule and my eldest is due to start an apprenticeship in September. We are all self taught in German, as for my husband he only got a 2 week course by his firm before he started his present job.

Rachel Emmerson, Ebersbach (Fils), Germany

My partner teaches Postgraduate students. They come from
all over the world . Their command of English is very often totally inadequate .II is a canard to suggest that everyone else can manage multiple languages and we cannot. Moving countries is difficult ! It is daft to suggest otherwise.

Andrea , London, UK

My wife is of Polish background - her parent were refugees here after the war. She learnt Polish at home and English at school - for exactly the same reasons as the Bulgarian family quoted.
Result - she went to Cambridge, is fluent in 4 languages etc. etc. Being bilingual is a fantastic benefit.

tim, uxbridge,

Children in the Netherlands do indeed start "school" at 4. This, however, is by no means formal education. They only start learning properly at the age of six. Even than they spend a lot of time on play. They then start secondary school when they are 12 years old

Wilma Prins, Vossemeer, Netherlands

Why aren't these kids being taught English *back home*? Did any of us vote to bring them here? Did any of us agree to work extra hours to pay for their education? I think not.

Roger, Ipswich,

We do know how to teach EFL. We do it all the time. What does not work is piecemeal Mother Tongue teaching, that is translating into Polish or Somali etc in the class. It may be possible for very young children to "just pick it up" but it isn't later on at all.

Sam, Maidstone, UK

Most european countries start formal education at 5, even Spain. Non English parents usually don´t speak english at home because they want their children learn be able to comunicate with their grandmas and family. Seriously,They watch tv and spend more time at school than home, it´s not a home prob

Mary, London, UK

Children will easily learn the language of their country of residence, and that of their parents, it is a natural ability that comes with the age, there is no need for special lessons beside the first few weeks at playgroup or pre school, or even school if they are older. I am one such child!

Jondi , London, ENGLAND

I believe it's the case that children below the age of five can learn two, even three, languages at the same time with little difficulty. If that's so, then that's the time to catch them.

Ken Leyland, Liverpool, U.K.

Attending a university course alongside chinese students, I discovered that the Chenglish they learn back home is quite inadequate. Being a friendly chap I ended up cornered in the library providing basic English instruction to a bevy of cheerful Chinese girls. It was very jolly but a bit annoying.

Boris, Belgravia, London

I totally disagree. In Spain children go to school from the earley age of 3 ( some of them are still 2) for 25 hours a week and it is compulsory... Here it's just a mere 15 h....

Teresa, london,

please dont allow the poorly qualified teachers to teach immigrants english it will end up them having poor language skills like the english kids do. if you remember the finals of spelling competition on bbc a few years back was dominated by immigrant kids.

rajan mathew, BIRMINGHAM, united kingdom

Which language is one's first matters little these days (except to us British). Multi-lingual Switzerland and the Netherlands show the way. Almost every other nation automatically learns English as a second language, often better than our "indigenes". Let's drag ourselves out of the19th Century.

Mike L, Chippenham, Wilts

It is believed that environment is very important for children to learn language. Maybe children will get confused when learning several languages at the same time. But it will be fine if parents could get some proper education. Talk a lot and practise a lot , they will make it.

lynn, zhejiang , china

" make the mothers, often equally isolated by tongue, go too. " Yes , that is what we need - more orders from local government with proper punishment for those who do not obey. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. This kind of nanny fascism demonstrates the idiocy of
modern Britain.

dave, london, uk

Try teaching the so-called native English English. The grasp of English that British graduates - including those that have studied English - have is shaky at the very best. And as for spelling! I left the UK as I couldn't bear to hear the English language mangled every day.

Tina, Dusseldorf, Germany

Some languages are closer to English than others. It's best not to throw apples and oranges in the same barrel because you seldom end up with the pears you want. The quandry here is that there of too many languages and this diversity makes learning the common language of English problematic.

kevin, Lincoln, UK

Cultural imperialism. It's not "mother tongue" especially as far as immigrants are concerned, but English as a second language. Those that should know better, grossly under-estimate the difficulties of acquiring fluency in a second language. Try holding a conversation with another Brit in French.

Andrew Milner, Karuizawa, Japan

It is believed that children are much better off being exposed to the fully formed, sophisticated version of their parents mother tongue at home with advanced vocabularies and grammar than stilted English. They will in fact find it easier to learn to speak English well as a result.

Cameron, Melbourne, Australia

Poppycock. I started school not speaking English, it didn't stop me getting to Cambridge, Harvard and qualifying as a barrister. I'm not worried about English not being my daughter's first language at home - I know from experience it will take her just months to be as fluent as her classmates.

Jonathan, London,