This message was written by Sarah Sierens and Kristel Detollenaere, language specialists in the teacher training at HOGENT. They found inspiration at Foyer VZW, Freinetschool De Mandala and the Boekenkaravaan of De Schoolbrug during the project Little Children – Great
This message was written by Sarah Sierens and Kristel Detollenaere, language specialists in the teacher training at HOGENT. They found inspiration at Foyer VZW, Freinetschool De Mandala and the Boekenkaravaan of De Schoolbrug during the project Little Children – Great
This blog post was contributed by Helena Taelman (ODISEE). It takes a village to raise a child. This saying is particularly true for young multilingual children growing up in a diverse context: they thrive with the support of their families,
Preschool teachers are at their best during book reading activities, when it comes to posing challenging questions, and taking the discussion outside the here-and-now. We want our young dual-language-learners to share in these experiences and make them even more beneficial. I distilled 7 tips from her inspiring talk by researcher researcher Vibeke Grøver at the Equality & Inclusion conference in Utrecht in November 2019.
Not all children attending early childhood education classrooms speak the same first language. What to do when children express themselves in their mother tongue, and not in the language of instruction? If we invest in the first language (i.e., the mother tongue), can we delay learning the language of instruction or, conversely, can we foster the successful development of the two languages? How to respond to immigrant or ethnic minority parents when they ask what they should do at home to promote language development in general or to promote the learning of the language of instruction?
Every child wants to feel that they are seen and heard; that they belong. This applies to Dutch children and also, perhaps even more, to children from different cultural backgrounds or who speak a different language at home. How do you ensure that all children have the feeling that they belong in the group?
Conversation is crucial for language acquisition, but talking in the home context is quite different from talking in an ECEC setting. I would like to share 5 tips to enrich those conversations. 1 The type of activity matters. “Language-all-day-long” is a beautiful goal to pursue. However, in practice what really matters is what you do (a.o. Cabell et al., 2014). Excellent contexts to produce rich, language stimulating conversations have been shown to be science activities and storytelling moments. Thus, focussing on these is a first great strategy for language development.
