Multilingual learners

Welcoming Multilingual Learners to Your TK Classroom

This summer critical legislation was signed into law to ensure that multilingual TK students are not evaluated with developmentally inappropriate assessments. Assembly Bill (AB) 2268 exempts TK students from taking the English Language Proficiency Assessment of California (ELPAC), which was designed for older students.

A long-term solution for identifying and supporting multilingual TK students is forthcoming from the California Department of Education (CDE). In the meantime, what can teachers do to welcome and support multilingual (ML) students in the TK classroom? The Multilingual Learning Toolkit (MLT) is an online hub of research-based key principles, instructional practices, and resources, and is the result of a collaborative effort between practitioners, experts, and researchers. Resources found on the MLT can help you answer this crucial question!

How to support ML students:

Use welcoming practices to connect with ML students AND families.

Article: How to Create a Welcoming Classroom Environment for ELLs offers tips and strategies on how to engage in warm, inclusive ways, and build relationships with TK students and families from all language backgrounds.
Guide: Gathering and Using Language Information Families Share provides guidance on questions to ask caregivers, and what to do with the information they share.

Set up a classroom environment to support MLs and home language.

Tip Sheet: Creating Environments That Include Children’s Home Languages and Cultures offers guidance on how to set up the physical environment in the TK classroom to reflect and promote children’s home languages.
Strategy Overview: Ensuring the Presence of Each Child’s Language includes a comprehensive list of actions to take to acknowledge, affirm, and support TK student’s multiple languages in the classroom. Learn basic greetings in 10 common home languages!
Guide: Selecting and Using Culturally Appropriate Children’s Books in Languages Other than English provides ideas for using a variety of diverse texts in the classroom.
Video: Affirming Language, Culture & Identity, a 10-minute video full of great ideas!

Be intentional with teacher language and supports for MLs.

Strategy Overview: Teacher as Language Model explains how to model language and extend multilingual TK student’s opportunities to use oral language.
Tips for Teachers: Language Modeling and Conversations provides ideas for making the most out of each child interaction.
Tips for Supporting English Language Development for children who are learning English for the first time.
Video: Key Practices That Support Language Development- Particularly for Young DLLs, a six-minute video that focuses on language-rich supports to build up language learning and practice for TK students.

Learn more about second language acquisition and the needs of MLs in TK

Video: Encourage Use of Home Language at Home and PreK showcases how to incorporate children’s home language into teaching.
Make sure you know the facts from Myths and Research about Bilingual Development.
Video: The Stages of Preschool Second Language Acquisition is a 15 minute video to observe example instructional moves that support language acquisition.
You may also want to visit the CDE Website: Dual Language Learners.

Visit the Multilingual Learning Toolkit to further support and promote the unique linguistic and cultural assets of TK students in classrooms. Read the Starter Guide to learn more about foundational principles of early education with multilingual learners. Peruse the eleven different areas of Instructional Strategies and Resources where you will find Sample Lesson Plans for professional development and Strategies in Action that offer narrative examples of best practices with multilingual learners.