My mom spent her entire career as a preschool teacher. Now, as an early childhood expert, I often find myself quoting some of her wisdom. She began to see that certain early childhood education traditions were not bringing out the best in young children and she worked tirelessly to raise up the importance of child-led, play-based curriculum activities that recent research has come to support.
Interestingly, we see that curriculum models that focus on play and following children's interests are especially helpful for children who are multilingual learners. The freedom to explore, pursue interests, and engage freely in conversations allows MLLs to connect new learning to their prior knowledge. This helps them build content and background knowledge in meaningful ways that help them to progress faster in both their home language and English. (López & Páez, 2021)
What the Research Says
Where do we get inspiration for high-quality preschool for MLLs? In an inspiring interview, world-renowned language and child development expert Kathy Hirsh-Pasek highlights the importance of two-way conversations as the key to young children's learning. She said, "What if these early interactions are setting the stage for the whole cognitive Structure?... of the way we think?... That's mind-blowing!"
Her research has helped to elevate the effectiveness of early childhood programs all over the world. She emphasizes that young children learn best through play and interaction, rather than through passive listening or teacher-led activities.
These practices are supported by the extensive research that led to the development of the top two early childhood classroom quality rating scales. Both the CLASS (Classroom Assessment Scoring System) and the ECERS-3 (Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale) have been revised to address current populations and curriculum models. Both assessments are based on compelling research that shows a higher score on the assessment yields improved outcomes for young children. What are the primary focus areas in both? High quality two-way interactions and open-ended play-based learning opportunities with high quality materials and books. (See more resources on young multilingual learners from CLASS.)
In 2024, a group of top experts who have been working with early childhood teachers for decades, came together to discuss the report New Vision for High Quality Preschool Curriculum. They highlighted key findings of that report that focus on "the importance of a vision that transforms the understanding of early education to include rich content promoting children's joyful engagement and agency, incorporates culturally responsive practices, and focuses on evidence-based outcomes for diverse groups of children."
High-Quality Preschool Practices for Multilingual Learners
What will you see in a high-quality classroom? Here are some key practices, along with a description of what they look like in action.
1. Meaningful language experiences and models
Language experts often remind us that children need to use language to learn it. Think about the words each child needs to express what is important or helpful for them in play, communication, and learning. Those will be words they'll put to good use. Using recitation or songs to memorize colors, shapes, numbers, or other simple vocabulary is much less meaningful and, therefore, does not do much to support lasting learning for MLLs. When they learn words that help them express their thoughts and feelings, all children — especially MLLs — comprehend and retain more.
- List some basics for all the children to learn, as well as a few specific words and phrases each child can relate to.
- Try demonstrating and modeling words like "eat," "bathroom," or "help," along with fun words like "build," "draw," "crawl," or "jump."
- Observe the choices a child makes during free play time and help them use relevant words and phrases. If a child often goes to the kitchen area, that would be a child who can make a lot of progress with phrases like "What are you making?" or "You have a cake" or "Where is the milk?" or "Is this corn or a carrot?"
2. Hands-on play
Three-dimensional play and hands-on exploration give multilingual children new ways to show what they know and can do. 3-D play has been shown to support greater vocabulary development in young children than flat worksheets or paper-based activities. That makes 3-D play and learning especially powerful for MLLs (Hansel, 2016).
- Use blocks, clay, and objects from nature, which all give children additional ways to create, express, and learn.
- Use real items that come from children's homes and neighborhoods to help them make connections between skills and words. You may wish to invite families to bring in a particular type of item related to a lesson.
See related ideas in our classroom strategy about using realia and manipulatives.
3. Engaging activities that connect to children's experiences
When activities relate to the cultures, languages, interests, and needs of each child, rather than a one-size-fits-all lesson, children are more likely to pay attention and actively engage. Building lesson plans that will work for the children in the class will yield more engagement and progress as teachers adjust to what will be relevant to each child. This is critical for young multilingual learners in order to ensure they make connections from their prior knowledge and vocabulary in home language to the new content the teacher wants them to learn.
Lesson plans can also be written so the objective can be unified, but the path to that objective can be varied. And with increased engagement, it's not necessary to make activities more "fun" through the use of rewards and treats.
- Get to know children so that you can make natural connections between their cultures, languages, and interests and the activities you plan. For example, a preschool teacher might want her children to learn to count to 20 in English. Instead of planning one activity for this purpose, she might make a list of the kinds of things each child plays with and plan to introduce counting with each child's favorite things. She might also enlist the help of families to practice counting when shopping or travelling ("How many steps to the library?") in their home languages to make it easier for the child to transfer this knowledge to English.
- If you are struggling to get some children to participate in a certain activity, take a step back and make sure each child has a way to connect with the content. That might mean changing the topic or the type of activity to meet all children's needs. For example, if a child has completed a puzzle, the finished puzzle lets them know they were successful. But, if that child is not really interested in the images or level of this puzzle, they are unlikely to stick with it or have that feeling of success. Encourage the child to choose a different puzzle or activity that looks interesting to them.
4. Opportunities for interaction and conversation
The research is clear: children learn more during active talking and doing than they do from passive listening or watching. Two-way conversations help children retain more information. It is the sign of a strong, effective classroom when the teacher provides a rich, engaging environment that encourages oral language in the form of discussions in any language.
- Look for ways to support MLLs in having these meaningful, multi-turn conversations with peers, teachers, or volunteers through by teaching short phrases they can use and using role play activities.
- Look for ways to increase and support students' oral language by adding more interaction into lessons.
5. A language-rich environment
A language-rich environment should be more than labels on things. It should be filled with activities and words that promote authentic communication and include nouns, verbs, and modifiers. For MLLs, real communication and learning depend on a full vocabulary in the home language that supports a full vocabulary in English.
- Think of labels as "conversation starters" rather than isolated names of objects.
- Use activities like acting out stories, using feltboards, and learning words and chants for outdoor play, which are all examples of the value of rich, comprehensive language activities that bring results.
6. Small group stories
Children respond to read alouds in their own individual way, depending on what they understand, what is familiar, or what strikes their interest. Small groups increase interaction and make it possible for each child to have a chance to ask and answer questions about the story. The added benefit of small groups is that the teacher hears from each child and gains a better idea of what they are gaining from the experience or where they need help. In a large group, only a few children get to have these high-quality two-way conversations with adults and peers about a story, so MLLs may act out or be left out of the learning and there may be more behavior issues to manage.
- Try bringing in multiple copies of the same book so teacher, assistant, and volunteers can read the same story to small groups, ideally in students' home languages.
- Look for ways to make read alouds more interactive by pausing, asking questions
For example, more than half of Ms. Manfra's preschool class spoke Spanish last year. It wasn’t easy to get them all to sit still during whole-group story time. When she met with her assistant teacher, they decided to try reading the day's story in Spanish to some of the children so they could talk it through and support their understanding. Ms. Manfra later explained to her director that she needed more books in the two languages because she saw a big jump in comprehension and conversation about books when children heard them in their home language first.
7. Technology that supports exploring, creating, and interacting in multiple languages
High-quality early childhood education settings avoid over-using screens and digital tools, but there are times when our multilingual learners can benefit from purposeful use of these tools. Here are some appropriate ways to use technology:
- Digital devices that help children comprehend content or communicate their feelings, thoughts, and needs can make a big difference in how they experience their time in the classroom and how their learning progresses.
- Translation software can be helpful, as can videos that illustrate what the teacher is trying to explain.
- Sending photos, messages, and videos home to families can strengthen that home-school connection so they are able to do more at home to support their child's learning in their home language.
Putting It All Together
Using these practices, educators will be better able to identify effective practices and materials children that support play-based learning and language development. The good news is these updated practices result in more effectiveness among diverse children from different experiences, cultures, abilities, and languages (Nemeth, Brillante, & Mullen, 2015).
Many programs and states are recommending a Universal Design approach that works proactively to include developmentally appropriate practices (Brillante & Nemeth, 2022; NAEYC, 2021) and materials like the ones we recommended above. Universal Design uses a flexible approach that makes the environment and the teaching open to a broad diversity of children. This is a way to welcome each child as an individual and help them to thrive. While the Universal Design approach is necessary to support children with different languages and abilities, it has been found to be effective for all children.
When early childhood activities are planned with individual children in mind, the content and structure of activities will most likely be engaging and enjoyable. When children are under stress or not engaged, they are not likely to learn. Meeting the needs of individual children is both rewarding and challenging, but a classroom buzzing with the joy of learning and playing together is a success for teachers and children alike.
Recommended Resources
- What Works for Young Multilingual Learners: 15 Ideas for Addressing Challenging Behaviors
- How to Support Young Children in Immigrant Families
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