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Topic outline
- Promoting multilingualism in the family
- Further videos
- Involving families in exploring linguistic repertoiresInvolving families in exploring linguistic repertoiresPages: 2Forum: 1
Observe and reflect
Before proposing you guidelines for enabling experiences, we invite you to observe and reflect.
What can you do?
- Living with more than one languageLiving with more than one languageBooks: 4Pages: 7Interactive Content: 1Forums: 5
Did you know?
Living with more than one language can be rewarding yet challenging. It is important that parents know that they are not alone and that they are helped to find a balance between languages that is beneficial for both themselves and their children.
Selected online resources and literature on topics such as 'bilingual development' and 'living as a multilingual family'.
Observe and Reflect
Children in Italy were asked to draw pictures of themselves and their languages. See some examples.
What can you do?
The following activities focus on promoting multilingualism in a way that gets participants to think about their thoughts and feelings towards both their heritage and host language, giving an insight into lives of multilingual/plurilingual families.
Activities which invite parents to share more about themselves with the group
Explore the interactive map by clicking on the hotspots...
In this forum you can introduce yourself to others in the group.
Other Activities to facilitate reflection
The activities in the folder below are designed to stimulate reflections in the group about parents' languages and emotions connected to those languages. Parents are invited to draw pictures, which represent something about themselves and their languages and to share those with the group during the session.
We invite you to create you own language portrait. Here you can find a picture that can help you.
Can you fill in the picture below? It helps you to show how you use the languages you know in your family.
Can you fill in the picture below? It helps you to show how competent you feel in the languages you use, and how you feel about your child's language skills.
Word Bank
A word bank is where examples of language experiences and skills and knowledge in a language are documented and brought together. Below, we have prepared some activities which stimulate parents to create such collections together with their children.
- Can you name the animals?
Do you know the noises those animals make?
Do you recognise those objects? What are they called in your language?
- The benefits of storytellingThe benefits of storytellingBooks: 3Pages: 3Interactive Content: 4Forums: 2
Did you know?
Storytelling is a complex ability that requires key skills. Storytelling activities in early childhood support the development of these key skills and stimulate personal growth.
Read more...
Observe and Reflect
Most probably we all have experiences with oral traditions. As we grew up, we listened to our parents and other relatives and adults telling stories. Those stories can be very personal. Many of us may remember their parents telling them about little events in their life – things that happened to them as they grew up. Some of us might remember situations where their parents spontaneously made up stories. Many stories are passed down through generations. Click on these examples below to share them with the parents in the group and invite shared reflections.
Most probably we all have experiences with oral traditions. As we grew up, we listened to our parents and other relatives and adults telling stories. Many stories are passed down through generations.
Having shared some of these stories with your group of parents, you can use the questions below to guide some reflections in the group.
What can you do?
The following activities focus on the benefits of storytelling and how activities both at home and during course sessions can facilitate children’s language and literacy development.An activity to increase dialogues/language interactions that facilitate children’s language and literacy development.
An activity to increase dialogues/language interactions that facilitate children’s language and literacy development.
Match each picture to the correct part of the story! Can you complete this traditional tale?
3. Creating your story glove3. Crea il tuo guanto delle storie{mlang it}
Please post your story here!
- Learning in the early years and in school in EnglandLearning in the early years and in school in EnglandPages: 11Books: 2Forums: 3Interactive Content: 4Quiz: 1Glossary: 1
Did you know?
When a child starts school, many changes take place, not just for the child. Maybe the family's daily and annual schedules change; maybe the child needs to learn a new language. Oftentimes, past school experiences of the parents highly differ from what the child is going to experience.
Parents with other cultural and language backgrounds appreciate help in getting more familiar with the education systems their children are experiencing. Learning about the curriculum, and finding out about how learning in the early years is conceptionalised in England can be very helpful and benefit parents with other backgrounds. Importantly, learning about the ways in which young children learn also means reflecting on the roles that adults – including parents – play in supporting child learning.
Observe and reflect!
We all have memories from our childhood of our time at school, and hopefully these are fond memories. By sharing these memories with each other, we can learn about different schooling systems around the world and see how they are different to our children's schooling experience in England.View this video and see how classrooms can look like across many different countries!
Do any of those look like the classroom you remember from your primary school years?
Which of the images best reflects your own experience in primary school?
My experiences
School experiences in one country can differ to those in another country. Our experiences are often linked with certain expectations. Based on what we know about educational institutions (early years settings and schools), we expect the school environment to look a certain way, for teachers to behave and interact in certain ways, etc. Sharing ones own experiences in the group can be a good starting point to raise awareness and learn about a different school system.
Here you can find an example of how a school experience in one country can differ to that in another country. Ask the parents in your group to share their own experiences and how they compare to their children's.
Having shared some of these stories with your group of parents, you can use the questions below to guide some reflections in the group.
What can you do?
The following activities focus on encouraging confidence amongst parents when it comes to understanding their children's preschools and schools. The activities should help parents' understanding of the curriculum and the education system in England.Learning through play
The concept of learning through play can be quite alien to parents with very different school experiences. The activities below invite parents to reflect on what children can learn when engaging in play activities, and to try out some play activities at home with their children.
School subjects and information
Being introduced to the English education system can be a lot to take in for parents, but there is a lot of information out there to help - it's just learning where to look!
Use the matching activity to test your knowledge of the different subject names.
Answer the following questions about the primary education system to test your knowledge of key terms and concepts - don't worry if you get things wrong, you can always try again and it's good practice to help you remember!
Video: National Literacy Trust
Match Book to Description 1
Match Book to Description 2
- Supporting multilingual approach and competencesSupporting multilingual approach and competencesBooks: 2Pages: 4Glossary: 1
My first words in my first languages
Group activity, a class or afternoon club creates the portfolio of pictures of first words, accompanied by the multilingual legend
- Promoting different languages at homePromoting different languages at homeInteractive Content: 7Pages: 5Forums: 2Assignment: 1
Did you know?
Multilingualism and Language Acquisition
Many children grow up with several languages: at home they speak one or even several languages with their family and again they speak German in preschool, with friends in their free-time or at school. Many parents ask themselves how they can support their child in both the family language and the German language. In principle, it can be said that children with a high level in their family language also develop a greater vocabulary in their second language German than children with a low level in their family language. It is therefore very helpful if the child speaks his or her family language often and in a varied way. On the one hand, this can be encouraged by speaking a lot with the child in everyday life, for example while cooking or shopping. On the other hand, parents can also become active by reading a book with their child and asking the child questions about the contents of the book.
Transition to School
When a child starts school, many changes take place, not just for the child. Maybe the family's daily and annual schedules change; maybe the child needs to learn a new language. Oftentimes, past school experiences of the parents highly differ from what the child is going to experience. Therefore, also parents must learn what is normal and appropriate for the child's school environment. In any case, the child gets to know many new children and has to get used to school structures such as homework. In addition, at school, different worlds collide and the child has to deal with. It is important for a good social climate that a child is able to deal with other cultures and life realities in an appreciative way from an early age on. But at the same time it is important that the child is raised with enough self-confidence to stand for what is important to him or herself.
Observe and Reflect
Here you can find little stories and a list of questions to guide reflections about multilingualism at home and at school.
- Here you find some prompts for discussion in the group about multilingualism and transition to school.
What Can you do?
Here you can find two different activities related to multilingualism and transition to school: the Identity Treasure Box and a Memory game.
Activity 1: Identity Treasure Box
This activity raises awareness for and creates visibility of diverse family and heritage cultures. It can be used as preparation for school because it strengthens identity and the appreciation of diverse backgrounds and it helps children to put in words (of different languages) who they are and what they love. Further, the activity can foster interaction and exchange between caregiver and child as well as between families.
Below you find:- requirements for conducting the activity,- a suggested procedure for conducting the activity in a group,- an example of a Treasure Identity Box,- a template for creating a personalized Treasure Identity Box,- a discussion forum about related topics and- a description how to individualize the Identity Treasure Box.Activity 2: Co-Creating a Memory Game
The memory game fosters appreciation and acquisition of diverse languages and facilitates the transition to school in a fun way. This activity stimulates interactions between caregiver and child. It strengthens the home learning environment through conversations e.g. about school relevant topics. The memory game is supposed to foster language competencies in the home and host language and to help preparing families for school.
Below you can find:
- requirements for conducting the activity,
- suggested procedure for conducting the activity in a group ,
- an example of a memory game ,
- a template for creating your own memory game ,
- a discussion forum for exchanging pictures and ideas, and
- instructions on how to create your own memory game.
- This memory game is an inspiration how such a game could look like.
This is my idea for a memory game.
- This is a place for the exchange of ideas, pictures and questions.
Click on Beeba --> Google Translate --> [your language] for specific translations of the slides.
- Feedback and evaluation - DO NOT DELETE
