Multilingual students are becoming more common in the classroom. Many students now are becoming able to speak two or more language including English. Questions of how to include both languages and celebrate them have arose. There are many strategies that could be utilized to celebrate all languages spoken in the classroom.
A great way to engage multilingual students is to praise them for what they do know, rather than shame them for what they do not. Learning a new language is incredibly difficult, so by praising them for learning another language they see themselves as capable and become confident. Another way to engage multilingual students is to take an interest in the other language or languages they know. Asking them to teach you a few words, having books that have these languages included, etc help the students to feel more welcome and makes them want to learn from you.
Integrating strategies is effective in creating a welcoming environment and teaching all students new languages. The tools I mentioned earlier such as multilingual books and learning from for students first languages are great. Some other ways are to encouraging students to do research in their first language. Students can collaborate with other classrooms around the world to create a project in two different languages.
Overall, simply incorporating other languages your students speak can be impactful. Students then feel their languages are celebrated and other students will become interested in it as well. It positively affects all students and encourages everyone to find out more about one another. Multilingual students should be celebrated in the classroom, and this is a way to start.
Hi Laina,
I like your point about praising multilingual learners for what they do know instead of what they do not know. I think this builds the confidence of multilingual learners instead of break them down. I think that is a great idea to bring into your classroom. I also like your idea of learning the multilingual learners language.
Hey Laina! Another great blog post, I love your idea for students collaborating to create one project in two different languages. My question for you is if you have any multilingual books that you would include in your classroom? Lastly, I also liked how you framed learning a new language as a step by step process, it is very important that teachers have great amounts of patience with this, and also encourage their students every step of the way.