Blog Post #11:
Multilingual is a term used to describe “students from immigrant backgrounds who are in the process of learning the language of instruction at school (Cummins, 2019). For educators to maximize engagement among multilingual students, diverse languages and cultures must be treated as an asset – not a liability. Proper supports and resources, such as EAL staff or translatable materials and assignments, should be brought into the school environment for all learners to access. Additionally, students, families, and community members should be welcome to share meaningful words, images, holidays, or information about their cultures. To further ensure engagement among multilingual students, educators can also do personal research to better their understanding and better integrate cultural information into the classroom environment, content, and materials. As informed integration is a large step towards building a more welcoming, appreciative classroom environment for all students.
An effective way to integrate multilingual instructional strategies into the classroom is through creating and using translatable sources. For example, https://globalstorybooks.net/ is a free resource where individuals can access stories that have been translated in upwards of thirty languages. Using the website, learners, educators, and guardians can read or listen to stories in a more accessible way. To add, classroom letters, updates, and reminders should be sent home in a format that can be easily translated. Doing so better ensures a strong relationship with any multilingual guardians and takes away the expectation of learners being the translator at home. Also, if English-speaking video resources are used, educators can change English subtitles to one of a different language. Overall, multilingualism allows learners “to work across their differences and gain appreciation for different languages and cultures” (Cummins, 2019). Multilingualism is a gift and should be treated as such within the education environment and out into the community.
Source
- Cummins, J. (2019). How Can Teachers Maximize Engagement Among Multilingual Students? EdCan Network.
One Comment
Safa'a Hassan
I like how at the end you mentioned that multilingualism is a gift and should be treated as such, because many tend to forget that it is not a barrier or a problem but it is an amazing ability that should be encouraged. I also like how you but in many examples of how we can integrate different languages within our classroom that are extremely simple, because I think one of the reasons it is not done often is because people tend to overcomplicate it and forget that all the resources that are needed are right in font of them.