Review Week 1 and prepare for Week 2

This Week you’ve explored how multilingualism is defined, the varied contexts that multilingual children grow up in, the ways they are supported in the UK education system and how being multilingual impacts your sense of identity. You’ve shared your experiences and ideas with other practitioners and been challenged to consider how you might take action to support a multilingual child in your care.

Reflect

Two stars and a wish.

• Two stars: Name two things you feel you have learnt in Week 1.
• A wish: What do you want to learn more about?

Take some time to consider these and share your two stars and a wish in the Comments area below.

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Next Week you’ll dive into the detail of how multilingualism shapes the way children learn how to listen and understand, read and communicate. You’ll discover that multilingual children start differentiating between languages in the womb and use their exposure to different languages to help learn new ones. You’ll find that an understanding of the mechanisms of language learning provides considerable insight into how best to support multilingual children.

Homework

Ask a child/children you work with to share a few words in their heritage language (numbers, greetings, how to introduce yourself, for example) and discuss with them the similarities and differences between these words in the languages they know. Are they completely different or are there some similarities? You’ll be asked to share what you found out in Week 2.