The Science
Supporting multilingual children is important for a number of reasons. Teachers and parents struggle with myths about multilingual learners that may create challenges with how to support their learning and development.
Myths that can be most damaging for young learners in the classroom include “Bilingualism will delay language acquisition in children”, “The language spoken in the home will have a negative effect on the acquisition of the school language, when the latter is different” and “Children raised bilingual will always mix their languages” (Grosjean, 2010).
It is important for educators to know this:
While multilingual children may learn language at a different rate than monolingual children, there is no evidence to suggest that they are experiencing a language delay as a result of learning multiple languages (Grasso, 2023). Additionally, children may not always mix their languages but mixing languages is also not an inherently bad thing. Language mixing can be used by children and parents to make those around them feel included in the conversation without speaking just one language (Grasso, 2023). Mixing language is also used as a form of code switching for multilingual children and families.
To support multilingual learners teachers can create classroom environments that are language rich and include the native languages of the students in addition to English. Creating a classroom with visual representation of many languages, where children are not afraid to discuss different languages, can help encourage multilingual learners in their language development (Nnoli, 2024). It is also important to encourage children's use of home language while they engage with activities throughout the school day. Teachers can help support multilingual learners through the creation of art, storytelling and dramatic play (Nnoli, 2024). Supporting multilingual learners to develop their languages within the classroom is both developmentally appropriate and equitable and aids children’s success in other developmental areas as they continue to learn and grow.
