Before learning how to effectively integrate multilingual instructional strategies into classrooms, one must first understand the meaning of multilingual. Cummings (2019) defines the term multilingual as “describ[ing] students from immigrant backgrounds who are in the process of learning the language of instruction at school”. From my perspective, this means that teachers are required to identify where their students come from and how their teaching methods best fits the needs of such diverse students. This is important because educators will have the ability to distinguish each students’ learning style and can also build bridges with them.

Cummings (2019) provides several methods for teachers to effectively  integrate multilingual instructional strategies into classrooms. The first method involves “invit[ing] one or two students to share a word from their home languages with their classmates and explain why they chose that word and what it means”. This strategy is useful because both students and teachers “learn a new collection of words in different languages”. The second method of integrating multilingual instructional strategies into classrooms requires educators to “Students [to] write and publish online dual language or multilingual stories or projects”. This helpful method is important because it enables students to think critically and deeply into their own thoughts. This strategy allows students to improve their critical thinking skills because they are applying their own background information to their written work. The final method provided by Cummings (2019), is the fact that, “Students collaborate with partner classes across the world or across the city to create a variety of projects involving two or more languages”. This final strategy is intriguing because as an aspiring teacher, I also strive for my students to work alongside each other. This is because this method can improve students’ socializing and team player skills. In essence, Cummings’ methods are valuable because they enable both teachers and students to engage in the learning process. 

References: 

Cummins, J. (2019, February 21). How Can Teachers Maximize Engagement among Multilingual Students? EDCanNetwork. Retrieved March 19, 2023, from https://www.edcan.ca/articles/multilingual-students/.