Post #11 – Multilingualism in the Classroom

How can teachers maximize engagement among multilingual students? What are some effective ways to integrate multilingual instructional strategies into classrooms?

I have learnt many ways to help integrate multilingualism and maximize engagement in the classroom. First, create a welcoming environment that makes multilingual learners comfortable and allows them to begin sharing their languages with you and the class. Make sure you are learning relevant languages that your students can connect to. For example, if no one in your classroom speaks Spanish or has any connections to Spanish, you should try to pick a different language that someone in your classroom speaks. You can bring in family or community members to help you learn words or phrases in other languages. You can have bilingual or multilingual resources and books in your classroom. You can have labels, pictures, and posters around the room to help all students learn what things are. You can try learning words or phrases in different languages. For example, if you are learning the days of the week in English, you can introduce them in other languages too. And finally, allow multilingual; students opportunities to use and showcase their languages. Whether that means sharing it with the class or doing an assignment using their previous languages. To help maximize engagement among multilingual learners, you can make sure students have all the tools and information necessary for them to complete and understand a lesson before you teach that lesson. Try doing examples and walking through activities together. There are many ways to include multilingualism and encourage participation in the classroom. Still, the most important thing is to make students feel welcome and not make them feel like they are inferior or not as smart as the other students because they do not know the language.