Understanding how to engage multilingual students is an important aspect of inclusivity in the classroom. Students should be encouraged to express themselves, which includes speech and language. But how can we as teachers encourage and engage multilingual students?

Multilingual students introduce a strong personal and educational asset to a classroom. Multilingual students should be encouraged to research and write in both their own and the school’s language to develop a connection between the languages they engage with. As teachers, we can invite students to share some words from their home languages and explain what the words mean and why they selected those words. Students and teachers can learn new words from different languages and develop simple speech in different languages. Teachers can also organize community language meetings to encourage interactions between different languages and cultures.

Teachers should always promote the school as a safe and comfortable atmosphere for everyone. Students hold their own personal assets and skills. We can encourage students to share their knowledge and develop a connection between students’ lives and their education. By acknowledging the different languages spoken in a community, students are presented with the opportunity to explore and learn beyond the realm of the classroom and engage with different languages and cultures.